Cybernetic Trading Strategies: Developing a Profitable Trading System with State-of-the-Art Technologies

Foreword

As we approach the end of one millennium and the beginning of another, computers have changed the way we think and act. In the field of financial market analysis, the changes have been nothing short of revolutionary. Some of us remember when analysts charted the performance of markets without the aid of computers. Believe me, it was slow and no fun at all. We spent hours constructing the charts before even getting to the fun part—analyzing them. The idea of experimenting with indicators and optimizing them was still decades away.

The computer has removed the drudgery of market analysis. Any investor can buy a computer and some inexpensive software and, in no time at all, have as much data at his or her fingertips as most professional money managers. Any and all markets can be charted, manipulated, overlaid on one another, measured against one another, and so on. In other words, we can do pretty much anything we want to with a few keystrokes. The popularity of computers has also fostered a growing interest in technical market analysis. This visual form of analysis lends itself beautifully to the computer revolution, which thrives on graphics.

Up to now, however, the computer has been used primarily as a datagathering and charting machine. It enables us to collect large amounts of market information for display in easily understood chart pictures. The fact is, however, most ...