Arise Sir Elgo

I've been reading about the death of John Bogle. He was a real hero for the retail investor and a major disruptor of his times. Not only did he create the first index fund, he founded the Vanguard Group and differentiated it by adopting an unusual corporate and operating structure, which meant lower fees and a focus on stakeholders. This resulted in the retail investor keeping more of his “winnings”. He changed the whole industry!

Of course, the industry keeps changing, especially as technology advances at a rapid pace. We seek to harness these advances to work towards our goal as traders - to create wealth – as easily as possible. This is why algorithms are becoming widespread.

It's been estimated that about 80% of the volume generated in the markets is now the result of automated algorithmic trading. Because algos are making money, large institutions have replaced traders sitting at trading desks with quants designing automated trading system that are not just responsible for the high frequency trading but trading decisions and execution in general.

While the day of the discretionary trader is not over, choosing to trade with algos greatly reduces the time it normally takes a person to go from zero to CP.

Up until a couple of years ago I wrongly believed that algorithmic trading had one drawback that meant it would never take off: it had a limit of what it could earn on the capital available. A competent discretionary trader could take $10,000 and turn it into $100,000 in a year. I wrongly believed that the cap on algo earnings was 140% a year. I have since put in more than the required 10,000 hours into investigating algos and now know that I can do many times that amount with the technology and techniques now available.

The last two years have been busy. My youngest daughter, Kiki, has been working with me to create a way to evolve our own trading and we have created ELgorithmics™. She is an IT technologist who has worked with some of the biggest institutions and the reason for this blog. While ELgorithmics™ (ELgos™ for short) was designed as a way to evolve our own trading, ElectronicLocal have decided to think big and be a disruptor.

Introducing ELgorithmic™ trading! 

We have decided to make what we develop available to people and, like John Bogle, we’re going to adopt an unusual corporate structure. Because we know we’ve got an amazing product, we’ve decided that you will never pay unless it has been profitable. And because EL has always tried to help other traders, we’re going to offer a free trial, no strings attached, no credit card required.

In the next days, we'll be writing more about the pros and cons of algo trading and what you can expect from our ELgos™.

EL & Kiki