Trade Like an O'Neil Disciple: How We Made 18,000% in the Stock Market

7.3. STEALING THE MODEL'S SECRETS

Even if some were able to reverse-engineer the model and utilize it on a wide-scale basis, it should not affect the predictive nature of the model. Even if a large number of people were to buy or sell on the basis of the model's signals, there should be no effect given the massive number of highly liquid ETFs in existence, and this model is but a tiny grain of sand in a sea of ideas. The model is not a black box, thus a programmer would have a difficult if not impossible time programming the model into a computer. The rules used are subject to the quality of prior price/volume formation of the NASDAQ Composite and S&P 500. Thus, even though the rules are hard and fast for the systematic model, they still depend on this quality characteristic. Being able to size up "quality" is based on 20+ years of experience in analyzing charts in detail since 1989.

This nature of "quality" is perhaps best explained by way of analogy. In the years I worked with William O'Neil, his uncanny ability to interpret the innate quality of a base is nearly unmatched. I equate this to his decades of experience analyzing charts. For example, the difference between a great base, a good base, a marginal base, and all the degrees in between, is contextual, and programming a computer to "see" the subtle differences would be quite the challenge if not impossible. Of course, a computer could be programmed to isolate specific charts that fit general characteristics, then those ...