ED SEYKOTA

'Edward A. Seykota' (born August 7, 1946) is a commodities trader, who holds degrees in Electrical Engineering and Industrial Management from MIT, 1969. In 1970 he pioneered Systems trading by using early punch card computers to test ideas on trading the markets. Seykota resides in Incline Village-Crystal Bay, Nevada, on the north shore of Lake Tahoe.

Contents

Career

Trading methods

Influence

Controversial claims concerning physics

Notes

References

Magazines

External links

Further reading

Career

As a young man he attended high school near The Hague, Netherlands and also lived in Voorburg.

Trading methods

Seykota is a trader who in 1970 pioneered a computerized trading system (now known as System trading) for the futures market for the brokerage house he and Michael Marcus were working for. Later, he decided to venture out on his own and manage a few of his client’s accounts.
Much of Seykota’s success was attributed to his development and utilization of computerized trading systems to which he first tested on a mainframe IBM computer. Later on, the brokerage house he had been working for adopted his system for their trades.
His interest in creating a computerized system was spawned after he read a letter by Richard Donchian on utilizing mechanical trend following systems for trading and also Donchian’s 5 and 20 day moving average system. He was also inspired by the book Reminiscences of a Stock Operator. His first trading system was developed based on exponential moving averages.
''Ed Seykota, Market Wizards''
Seykota improved this system over time. This did not mean that he changed the system, but rather he adapted the system to fit his trading style and preferences. With the initial version of the system being rigid, he later introduced more rules into the system in addition to pattern triggers and money management algorithms.
Another aspect of his success was his genuine love for trading and his optimistic demeanour. This factor sustained his efforts to continuously improve on his system.

Influence

Some of Ed's students have included Michael Marcus, David Druz, Jason Dekker of Dekker Capital Management and Jason Russell of Salida Capital Learn from these up and coming traders
He was a featured speaker on "polyamory" for the World Polyamory Association [1] on October 22 - 24, 2004, speaking specificially upon "Resolve Poly Conflicts In A Tribe" [2].

Controversial claims concerning physics

Seykota maintains a website in which, while he does not deny the validity of the Bernoulli principle, what he considers it to be mis-applied, claiming that these mis-applications are bad physics. Seykota refers to his theory as ''the theory of radial momentum''. He writes:
:''The classic theory of airplane lift is all about wing curvature ... and that, according to Bernoulli's Principle, fast-flowing air has lower pressure. In 1997, after pondering this matter for some twenty years, Ed Seykota concludes that lift has nothing at all to with Bernoulli's Principle ... rather, lift is a function of Radial Momentum ... the radial fanning out of a fluid lowers its density ... and therefore, the pressure decreases with the distance from the center of radiation.''
Seykota's account of his "theory" is revolutionary and controversial as a consequence he receives a lot of criticism.

Notes

References

★ Seykota expects "No Excuses" for reading proficiency

★ Can you forecast the market? Eric Troseth

★ Determining Optimal Risk Ed Seykota

★ Featured Speaker

Magazines

★ MACD: sweet anticipation? Ed Seykota

★ Ed Seykota Of Technical Tools Thom Hartle

★ Turtles hatch Daniel P. Collins

External links

★ Seykota's official home page

★ Seykota's Trading Tribe website

★ Seykota's Bernoulli challenge website

★ Listing Seykota's "theory of radial momentum"

★ Brief biography

Further reading

★ Market Wizards: Interviews with Top Traders, , Jack D., Schwager, Collins, , ISBN 0-88730-610-1

★ Trend Following, , Michael W., Covel, Financial Times Prentice Hall, , ISBN 0-13-134550-8