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The following is Brad Cowan's response to my post regarding his books.
Brad's response was posted to the DGL group on Dec 15th by Dave Caldwell
on Brad's behalf. I'm posting his entire response...followed by my
previous post...for your reference.
Good trading!!!
Andre Franklin
WickedTrader, LLC.
http://www.wickedtrader.com
________________________________________________________
I want to thank Dave Caldwell for presenting me with these questions
that
were posted on a discussion group. I do not frequent discussion groups
and
would have been unaware of the questions without him letting me know.
I'll
do my best to openly answer the questions presented. If anyone would
like to respond to me you will have to email me at www.cycle-trader.com
because, as mentioned earlier, I do not read these discussion groups.
Many of the comments Andre Franklin posted are correct. For example,
there
is a lot of time required to study and FULLY MASTER this material.
Notice
that I said "fully". When I decided to write these books I wanted to
put
together something unlike any other books on the market. I had read many
many books and they all could be summarized in about 2 pages. So I put
together a set of books that people could continue to learn from. The
people that are having problems with it are trying to grasp the whole
concept. If you want to do that, I agree it will take years. But what
they should be doing is pick out the easy timing tools first, such as
the planetary cycles, or the ellipse (as presented by George Bayer).
Those tools are very simple to apply. For example, the October 1999
bottom in stocks came in right on schedule as described on Charts
VIII.P, VIII.S, VIII.T from the books. This is a simple cycle that is
very reliable and anyone who missed that bottom did not do their work
because it was exactly 30 degrees from the October 1998 bottom. I had
been telling people all year that October was the date to watch for the
next bottom, that cycle was one reason why. Simple to apply if you can
add 30 degrees to a number. The next one is due early next year. My
point here is that people are overwhelmed by the amount of mateial in
the books and do not stop and think of the simple tools presented that
they can immediately apply. The cycle above is just one example. I have
given many examples of how well this simple cycle works, some are posted
on my web site. Others are published in the books. For example, who do
you know that predicted the 1999 bottom in grains 5 years ago! I did,
throughout Market Science Volume II. Anyway, the point is to pick out
the simple techniques and only work on the broad view later.
It is also true that I do not provide individual market timing. Not only
am I aware of the value of such a service, but I simply do not have the
time to do it or the desire to register with the Feds as an advisor.
Look what the feds did to Frank Taucher because of his Supertraders
almanac. My
personality type is that of a loner. Always have been, always will be.
That's why I became a trader. Most of the other good traders I know also
fit into that category. I really do not need to deal with people. I
made more money since I started writing this letter than I have all year
on my books (oil drilling stocks just broke out).
I did not want to mention this until it was finished, but I AM in the
process of automating the planetary cycle aspect of the work. I will be
a
windows based stand alone program. I did not want to make that knowledge
public because it may take a year to finish. I'm mentioning it here for
the first time to make the point that the techniques CAN be automated.
That's why I make people sign the non-disclosure agreement to not put it
into a program. The program will not be a replacement for the books
because the manual will not get into details already described in the
books. So it will be assumed the user has already read the books.
Reasonably priced, probably $400 or so. If I can do it in a computer
program why can't others do it manually? I know they can because I do it
every day. Another recent example, as Dave Caldwell can attest, is when
I told him I just bought BMG gold stock at 1 3/4, the exact low day and
price. One week later I sold it at 4 1/8.
About the Baumring thing.... When I was in my early 20s I sat through 6
of
the 8 lectures Baumring gave and learned nothing. I was constantly at
odds
with him because I kept telling him he was presenting nothing that I did
not learn in the first 2 years of engineering school. For example,his
first lecture was about adding sin waves. Gads, I learned that in high
school and told him so. I dropped out of his series twice and only
returned because Baumring solicited me on the telephone telling me "this
time it will be different...New material you haven't seen before" and
offered me free attendance. It never was new material. Greg Ruff who has
been presenting himself as "an instructor" at the lectures even
presented me with a list of things in my book that he said came from the
"lectures". I went through the entire list and sent him the copies from
my college engineering text books where I learned it. I sent him a stack
about 1 inch thick proving that there was nothing in my books learned
from Baurming. The vast majority of my mateial can be categorized into 2
areas: (1) Price-Time Vector work and (2) Planetary cycles. Baumring
never mentioned either in the seminars I attended. I even asked Brad
Stewart, who was around him constantly, if he ever heard Baumring
mention my price-time vectors (by any name). After carefully researching
his notes he reluctantly had to agree that he never used that technique.
I'm an engineer and vectors are our tools. I even have a letter from
Ruff written shortly after my books were published congratulating me on
discovering it. I would be more than happy to address any item from my
books that someone thinks I got from Baumring and present them with the
proof otherwise.
As mentioned above I do not subscribe to discussion groups so please
address me directly on any items you wish to discuss. Thanks, Bradley
Cowan
www.cycle-trader.com
>>
>>Dave,
>>
>>I appreciate your efforts to contact Brad on my behalf.
>>
>>I should mention that I have received several comments, some from the
>>DGL forum...and some from the RealTraders forum. The majority of the
>>comments were NOT posted publicly. I have yet to receive even one
>>"glowing" report on Cowan's material...especially from those that wish
>>to make good on the material within a year, or less, of study.
>>
>>Most say that it's anywhere from 3-4 years of study to a lifetime.
>>Certain prerequisite knowledge is assumed for each section...knowledge
>>that is not commonly acquired. Also, I'm told that his teachings cannot
>>be easily implemented...at least not consistently...except possibly
>>after many years of study.
>>
>>His material seems to be a real gold mine for lifetime students of Gann,
>>but for those that are looking for something practical to implement
>>within a reasonable period of time...Cowan does not appear to be the
>>man...or so I'm told.
>>
>>What strikes me as odd is that there were so many glowing testimonials
>>at Cowan's website...I expected as least 10% of the comments I received
>>from the forums to be similar to those at his website. At best...I'd
>>rate the most positive comments as "neutral". Unfortunately, this forum
>>will not allow my description of the most negative comments I received
>>on the usefulness of Cowan's work. Allow me to add that no one claimed
>>to be making money, real - or on paper, with Cowan's material. One
>>suggested that Cowan's strategies are only practical if it can be
>>computerized...assuming that is possible. Another comment was that only
>>one or two issues can be closely tracked per day because the strategy is
>>too intensive to allow additional stocks or commodities to be analyzed.
>>
>>It may well be that Cowan is the only one that understands Cowan. I've
>>yet to find someone of slightly above average intelligence...and a
>>reasonable amount of time to give...that has come forward thanking Cowan
>>for their success. On the contrary...one Cowan student claims to have
>>sought help from Cowan...and was simply told to "keep looking".
>>
>>There were a few direct and indirect comments that Cowan plagiarized Dr.
>>Baumring's work. I'm not particularly interested in who plagiarized
>>what...if at all...but Mr. Cowan may want to consider "clearing the air"
>>on this matter while he has the floor.
>>
>>I sincerely hope that Cowan will step forward and allow us to hear him
>>out. It's not fair to post such a message as this without giving the
>>other party a chance to defend themselves.
>>
>>Brad....tell us it ain't so...
>>
>>Andre Franklin
>>WickedTrader, LLC.
>>http://www.wickedtrader.com
>>
>>P.S. I made my initial request regarding Cowen on both the DGL and
>>RealTraders forums. For this reason, I will be happy to post Mr. Cowen's
>>response into whichever forum does not receive his response.
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