I have been looking at Diff Code Global from Thames Publishing. The cost is £297 for six months then an optional £75 for each subsequent 6-month period which enables you to log in to a website to get the day’s signals.
One caveat, either on this product, or the sister product Diff Code Transatlantic, it was noticed that signals changed very close to 07:00 a couple of times. If you do use the website, then I suggest that you leave it as late as possible to get the signal.
Anyway, you get the day’s signal, log in to your broker and place the trade. It is fire-and-forget, so that’s it. Your stop-loss and take-profit levels are clearly displayed
The average stop loss is £200, so a starting bank of around £2,500 is needed. The largest stop was 863 points.
I used an existing demo account with the recommended broker: Core Spreads; using a £2,500 bank, risking 5% and I (nearly) always ratchet (never reduce stakes) I ended the trial at £3,132.
The service was trundling along really nicely, then last week wiped out most of the profit! I was £1,600 in profit at the end of January!
The trial has ended £600 up, which does cover the cost and little else. Therefore, I cannot now go with approved, as I have to look at the full 13-week performance.
The usual £10 per pip we use here at cash master is not applicable here as your bank would need to around £25,000 to stake at this level.
The service is currently closed to new subscribers but you can join the waiting list here.
Quick note:
I have chosen to use monetary profit instead of points total, because the points total does not provide an accurate view of this system’s performance. For example:
Three winning trade, where 5% of bank is £100 risked. Stoploss is 200 points and take-profit is 100 points. As stake is 50p (£100 risk / 200 points) each bet would win £50 and 100 points.
At this stake I have £150 profit and am up 300 points.
The fourth trade is a 400 point stop and loses; for this illustration 5% of bank is still £100, so this trade loses £100 and 400 points.
Now I am up £50 but down 100 points. Therefore, I used the £50 profit to describe the system as this is a more accurate summary of performance.
I’m surprised you’ve given this a neutral rating, I would have failed it on account of no winning month since November.
In fact since November, it’s been a complete disaster and things have steadily got worse.
The test of a good system is one that works well in all market conditions, not just when markets are rising. This one clearly doesn’t.
Anyone want to swap my copy for a Toblerone (large size)?
I would dispute “complete disaster”. However, I agree that the last three weeks were not good, but excellent start and middling middle, but I expected that around New Year. Surely this, 1 good period, 1 middle period and 1 bad period, is a neutral overall performance. As I said in the review, I have to look at the full 13-weeks and as I ended in profit, for me, this removes a failed rating every time.
Either way, those folks who bought the system have, I hope, been paper-trading and can return for a refund if they are unhappy.
I would still class this as a complete disaster though and it’s been a bit longer than a three-week losing streak –
started mid October and that started off pretty good
November was excellent
December a loss and not too good,
January an even bigger loss and a disaster (7 winners 6 losers).
February even worse (1 winner, 5 losers by the time I called a halt to it).
Three consecutive losing months and losses getting bigger each time.
I’ve given up with this now, maybe when markets are rising it might strike a good patch, but for me it’s a let down.
I feel sorry for those that have only recently signed up to this service. The proof of the pudding is always in the eating.
You can’t judge a strategy like this over three months. If you bust your bank over this period then you were not staking properly, and if you quit before you bust your bank then you weren’t using a true bank anyway and therefore staking higher than you should have been.
The long term figures tell the full story.
A neutral rating is the only sensible response to Art’s test. I for one will be interested to see how it continues to perform (or doesn’t) over the next nine months. We will adjust the rating accordingly.
I’m not judging it on 3 months, more like 5 months and I certainly haven’t bust my bank.
I’ve staked exactly as per the manual with the profits from November and partly October subsidising the poor performance in the following months.
Three consecutive months of increasing losses is a flawed system in my eyes, so I’m quitting while I’m still ahead.
I’ve seen it with other systems, everything is rosy in the garden when markets are moving upwards, but when it hits a downturn and volatility increases, the losses arrive.
In December they wanted me to write a testimony on the product for an impending marketing campaign, but I said it was too soon and I could only do that after a 6 month test.
Three consecutive monthly losses is enough for me. Maybe the system will rally again, once the markets settle down, but in my eyes there will always be the doubt that when a correction happens, will this fail once more?
The only system I’ve seen to date which can handle swings like this is PIE.
Our job here at CashMaster is to be as objective as possible whereas you’re coming from an entirely subjective position. PIE is indeed superb and has given you the experience of always making a profit so I can understand why you now have no patience with strategies that do experience lengthy drawdowns, as most do.
By your own admission you came out up after five months, so you’ve made a profit, but would still fail it because you had losing months.
When you consider many pension fund managers make a loss over a period of a year or two plenty of times, they may find such a short term mindset baffling.
We can only judge it on how it performs over the long term really as that’s how it’s designed to work, so happy to recategorise this if it does end up ‘failing’. But a three month drawdown is still that, a drawdown, so if it makes a profit over a year, hopefully a double digit return, then I would still consider that a worthwhile strategy. Just not for you. Or me. Or probably most PIE users.
OK, we’ll agree to differ. Folks can read your comments and make their own mind up. I am staying with neutral though for the reasons explained above. Further, anybody who recently purchased can get the cost of purchase back.