Welcome to…The Trading Den!

Hi I’m Simon Townshend.  18 Months ago in the summer of 2010 I did something completely crazy!  But as of today (19th December 2011) so far…

we have made $92,396 as a result of this crazy thing!

Not a bad start I hope you would agree?

What I did was I started trading a new system with no history in front of a live audience!  Yes I know it sounds crazy, but thankfully it has been a big success!

When I said the strategy had no history, that’s not entirely true.  It had no history in the chosen markets and on the small timeframes involved.  But it is a strategy with a spectacular real time history in many other markets but much larger timeframes.  So I did have good reason to expect it to perform well.  In this respect it may not have been a completely crazy thing to have done!

Nevertheless trading in front of an audience is nerve racking at any time and it takes quite a leap of faith to do that with something that is brand new even if it does have a proven pedigree.

369% return in this first 18 months

Buy the way $92,396 equates to a return of 369% on the $25,000 account that realistically could have been used for this little exercise.  Now that is real money, not peanuts, serious money for serious people!

Who were the audience?  Well they were a number of my existing clients who have all become really close friends over recent years.  They are also professional, dedicated, full time traders in their own right.  So this is not a group of inexperienced newbies who could perhaps have the wool pulled over their eyes.  They watched me live, every day that I was trading and between them saw every single trade I made – successful trades, losing trades, mistakes etc.   The whole lot, good and bad, warts and all!

So why did I do this crazy thing?

For three reasons actually:

Firstly I attach little value to “hypothetical” track records that we all see every day in magazines and on websites.  I am really only interested in true real time performance, in the live markets and with real money.  That to me is a credible track record.

Secondly I wanted witnesses who could vouch for the fact that the trades I say I have taken, I actually have taken! Just because it is a real time track record in itself doesn’t mean anyone else should believe me.  And with the internet awash with scammers and charlatans, nor should you believe anyone who you don’t know without some sort of third party corroboration.  That’s just how life is these days sadly.

Thirdly my clients know and trust both me and my work.   By watching my trade entries and exits live with me in real time, it is just possible that they might have been “putting a bit on” themselves!!!  Imagine that!  In fact some of these sneaky devils were putting on rather more than “a bit” and have made themselves rather a lot of additional money throughout this time.

Did everyone make $92,369?

So did every one of them make themselves the same $92,369 that we officially clocked up?  No.  Some made less and some made more.  That profit is based upon a unit size of 3 contracts which you could be trading with a tiny little $25,000 account.  Even so, some people didn’t want to trade 3 contracts initially on something that was unproven at the start.  Others I know traded with multiple units and made several times that $92k figure.

Also not every trader in my audience traded every day that I traded.  People have other things to do, they take holidays etc.  So some people will have skipped some profitable days and made slightly less.  Some people will have skipped some losing days and therefore made more than that figure. But what matters is not the exact dollar amount.

What matters is that these close friends of mine all made money!!!

That’s what really matters at the end of the day.  As long as it is profitable it can be scaled up or down to suit an individual’s personal circumstances.

Working like a dog all day long?

Perhaps I should also point out at this stage, that we are not all glued to a screen 24 hours a day.  Not at all.  In fact now that we have settled into the routine that suits us and makes the best use of time.  We are only trading 2 or 3 days per week on average, and then really only for 5 or 6 hours per day.

Yes it is intensive work for me during these hours, which is one of the reasons I have no interest in doing this every day of the week and every hour of the day.  It is much less intense for my clients of course who are simply waiting for me to call out my 3 or 4 trades per day.

What’s in it for me?

A perfectly natural question for you to be asking!

Occasionally I am able to invite just one or two new people to join this exclusive club.  If you meet the criteria set out below, it’s just possible that one of those sought after seats in my private Trading Den could soon have your name on it!

Until today, that wasn’t even a possibility. Over the last couple of years I have had numerous requests to come in and milk the markets with me and my group of seasoned professionals.  But the answer has always been “No!” and this has remained a closed group of friends meeting secretly in my Trading Den for 2 to 3 days each week, steadily sucking money out of the markets and into their own accounts!

After much discussion we have decided to squeeze just a few more serious traders into the Den.  But don’t think the doors will be open for long.  If you qualify to join us you will need to get your skates on.

You see I trade for a living and have done for many years.  I am not like “other people” who are in the subscription selling business.  I am not interested in filling my private Trading Den with hundreds of no hopers!  This is small, exclusive and…

only for serious people, people who “fit” with the great group of friends in the club today.

You can ask any member of the group just how many newcomers have been admitted previously.  You’ll be surprised!

My question to you…

Would you be a good fit with the group?

OK well let’s consider what you would need to qualify for one of these exclusive seats in my Den:

• Firstly you need to have experience at trading. You may not have been the most successful trader in the world. You may not even have been a profitable trader previously. But you do need to understand our terminology, know how to place orders and how to watch price charts, etc.

• You need to have the commitment and discipline to follow the system, to take the trades in a methodical, unemotional and business-like manner. I will give you a trading plan to follow, showing you how to maximise your experience and earnings, but only YOU can commit to following it and that is what you must do if you want to succeed with us.

• You will need a stable broadband connection for our Trading Den software which runs in several standard browsers (Chrome, Firefox and Safari work great, but NOT Internet Explorer).

• You will need to be available to trade on the days that we are trading, at least enough of them to make this a viable enterprise for you. We trade between a minimum of 8 and a maximum of 12 days each month. Usually these are Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays and there is a calendar on the next page showing the days I plan to be trading several months ahead.

• You need a brokerage account suitable for trading the futures contracts that we use and a fast reliable execution platform. You can use an existing account and platform or might like to consider copying us.  I am certainly not in the business of recommending brokerage services or software. But I have tried many over the years and can tell you who and what I prefer to use and why many of the group also find this to be the optimal setup. Our brokers have even offered a special group package, exclusively for Trading Den members.

• You need to fund your brokerage account with sufficient money to get started. If you want to trade our standard unit of 3 contracts this should not be less than a $25,000 account. But you could start trading a single contract on as little as a $10,000 account if you really wanted to. Although I don’t recommend using an account this small if you really want to have every chance of success. However I do suggest newcomers all start trading just 1 contract initially irrespective of account size and then quickly build up to trading 3 lots once you are fully familiar with how we work and have accumulated some early profits.

• You need to be able to pay the modest subscription fee which is £299 per month, which is less than £10 per trade, (less than 1 tick per trade!).

• You need to be resident outside of the United Kingdom. Regrettably legal restrictions prevent us accepting UK residents at this time. However we are working to lift this restriction as soon as possible. If you are UK based and are interested in joining when we are able to accept you, please drop me a line via the Contact Us page and I will endeavour to reserve you a place in the future.

• You need to be an independent trader trading your own funds and not involved in managing money, trading for a fund or in any sort of brokerage or advisory business.

• Finally and most importantly of all you need to be a sensible, professional and serious person whose personality and conduct will fit in with our existing group who are made up of dedicated career traders. The elder statesman of the group have the authority to regulate conduct to ensure that no one causes any offence to the rest of the group.
  

If you can put a tick in each of those boxes then please read the rest of the information on the pages of this website.  Then when you are certain that The Trading Den is the place for you, you can apply for membership.  As long as I have a seat available, you will get immediate access to the members’ area and can get ready to start trading on our next scheduled trading day.

If however the membership is already full I will have to place you on a waiting list until such time as I may be able to make a place available for you some time in the future.

I hope you find this service as exciting as the existing members of this exclusive group have been enjoying for the last 18 months and you can read all about their views and experiences on another page.  If you are serious about your trading and would like to add this profitable new dimension to your existing trading activities, then I look forward to welcoming you to the club!