Constance Brown's Composite Index

Is it worth paying $ 895 to purchase Connie Brown's Composite Index indicator ?

  • Yes

    Votes: 4 7.4%
  • No

    Votes: 32 59.3%
  • Don't know

    Votes: 11 20.4%
  • Have never heard of Constance Brown

    Votes: 7 13.0%

  • Total voters
    54

clayidus

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I am asking a question which has previously been asked on these Forums by Jesse Livermore II who had written:

" Here goes ! Anyone familiar with this author, her indicator and book 'Technical Analysis for the Tading Professional.'
Awful website....
http://www.aeroinvest.com/support/newcover.html

If so any ideas about her Composite Index that she so tantalisingly keeps a secret ? I found a Metastock formula for it on an Australian website, and it appears incorrect.
(Incidentally this is a great site if you're learning Metastock code.)
www.stockcentral.com.au/forum/machi...TML/000341.html "

END OF JESSE LIVEMORE II'S MESSAGE

I tried to access the Australian website in order to try to see what the formula was,but the website no longer exists.

Again,I am asking the same question,as to whether anyone has the formula for the Composite Index either in Tradestation or Metastock format, which the author of the book is willing to sell for $895, albeit saying concurrently that anyone who reads her book should be able to figure out the formula,by themselves.

Also,I would like to know anybody's opinion of her Professional trading career.I know that she was a champion Olympic athlete,but is she as sucessful in trading,as she claims to be?
citing having worked prepared Eliott Wave International's short term report,as giving her an extremely Professional aura and an expert in short term trading.

But I would like to know from anybody whether her expertise in short term trading is as great as she claims it to be.

Has anyone subscribed to her Daily Market Report ? I read one traders derogatory description of her newletter's performance- I have forgotten where I read that

Also,is anybody using her techniques to trade,and if so,how has your experience been?

I would also like to request Jesse Livemore II if he could provide me with the Metastock formula from the Australian website,even though it may not be correct,as you pointed out.
 
I've read her book ,quite heavy for me, had to read it 3 times.
I can see where her Compindex gives the different signals compared to rsi.
However what I found interesting in the book was the predicting of price from rsi by Cardwell. Does anybody have any further writings by him.
He started writing a book but cancelled it due to a fallout with publishers I think.

Regards

Richard
 
First, I haven't read "Technical Analysis for the Trading Professional" by Constance Brown. In fact, I just ordered the book last night after seeing the set-ups and signals on the cover, which are quite familiar to me.

The set-ups look very much like something I discovered back in the 1990s. I believe it may be what she calls her Composite Index, but I won't know for certain until I get her book, chart the same securities for the same time periods and compare the charts. In fact, I had five variations of the Composite Index (if that's what it is), and by charting each of them against RSI, developed it into a system that was almost always "in the market" for an index or an actively traded stock, with trades (on a daily chart) lasting two days to two weeks or so.

Mine is very simple, very reliable and gives frequent signals. Either way, I'm not going to divulge it here, since it will be included in a book that I am (slowly) writing as time permits.

However, I also discovered an alternative way to get some of the same signals, although the alternative produces fewer signals and is somewhat less reliable. That is to chart a security against RSI in three time frames -- 9-period (or 7-period), 14-period and 21-period, for example. When there is a divergence between the security and RSI (in any of the three time frames), or between RSI itself in two or three of the time frames, it produces a signal. Divergences covering a 3-5 periods tend to be the most reliable.

Regarding Andrew Cardwell, Andy and I became acquainted in 1992 or 1993, when I was co-host of America Online's Technical Analysis Forum. This was back when AOL charged something like 35 cents a minute for access and had numerous forums that were discontinued after AOL went to a flat monthly rate with unlimited access.

I posted a report on something else I had discovered, which I had called RSI reverse bearish divergences and reverse bullish divergences. Andy wrote to me that he had discovered the same thing but referred to them as negative reversals and positive reversals.

Before that, in the 1970s or 1980s, Andy had published a technical-based bond trading advisory service in newsletter format. The name had the word Philadelphia in it -- something like The Philadelphia Trader or The Philadelphia Bond Trader.

Andy is generally recognized as THE expert on RSI, and he has published volumes more about RSI than J. Welles Wilder (who created RSI) ever did.

We corresponded and compared notes by email and had several lengthy telephone conversations over the next several years, although it has been about least ten years since we last talked. Andy had published and sold three RSI courses in 1992 -- basic, intermediate and advanced. I believe they were priced at $350, $650 and $1,500. He gave me a big price break on them so we could be on the same page, so to speak, when we talked.

I don't know where the basic course is, but I have kept the other two in my trading library since then. The intermediate course fills a bulging 2-inch binder, while the advanced course is in an equally full 4-inch binder.

At one point Andy broached the subject of my living in his family's guest room and ghost writing the book for him, but my situation wasn't conducive to moving to Atlanta for a couple of years. He did hire someone to write the book for him, in exchange for teaching him everything he had learned about RSI. At some point Andy found that his ghost writer had talked to a publisher about publishing the book under his own name, rather than Andy's, so Andy kicked him out.

In 1994 or 1995, Amazon showed the book (complete with cover and publisher's synopsis) with an expected publication date in August 1995. The title is still shown there. Although the book was never published (at least not before the end of the 1990s) Amazon shows it as published in 1995 and "out of print -- limited availability."

Andy does have a web site now, where he offers RSI courses. I don't know whether they are the same courses that he marketed in the 1990s or not.

http://www.CardwellRSIedge.com/
 
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I haven't read "Technical Analysis for the Trading Professional" by Constance Brown either but the name rings a bell and I found that I had a copy of her book "all about technical analysis" on my shelf. The book refers to her "composite index" but only quotes that she uses it in conjunction with other indicators.

In this context she makes a valid point (and no doubt very familiar to experienced traders) that so many people use multi-indicators all of which are looking at the same thing and in the main produce similar results. Her point is that one should use indicators that give non-correlated signals - her recommendation is to use three. For instance, one of her signals is made up of two indicators - (1) RSI and (2) her composite index.

She interestingly quotes a list of 85 indicators that "study market amounts, breadth, and sentiment" - it fills 2 pages! Is it any wonder (if her proposition is true - and it would appear to be so judging from many discussions) that so many traders get hooked up on indicators searching for the holy Grail and just end up confused?

It took me a while to realise that when using indicators you need to look at different aspects of your potential trade instrument and the results need to be confirmatory if you are to keep the balance of probabilities in your favour.

I think Constance Brown's book "all about technical analysis" is a very worthwhile read (even if only to get somebody else's point of view) and for £11 or so from Amazon you can't go wrong.
 
After making my previous post, I nosed around in Google and found what purports to be Constance Brown's Composite Index on Forex Factory and some other sites (coded for use in MetaStock):

CI = rsi(14) - ref(rsi(14),-9) + mov(rsi(3),3,s);
plot1 = mov(a,13,s);
plot2 = mov(a,33,s);

a;plot1;plot2

another site called Ninja Trader has the same MetaStock formula and a much longer one for MetaTrader 4.

I don't know whether either is right or not.

As plotted on the cover of "Technical Analysis for the Trading Professional," the Composite Index is plotted without moving averages. However, on Constance Brown's web site, it is shown with moving averages. Looks a lot like something from Cardwell's 1992 intermediate and advanced RSI courses, where he uses RSI with moving averages extensively.
 
The reason, The Composite Index looks a lot like my work is because it is my work. All Ms. Brown did was change the name of my "CFG" Oscillator. My work was copyrighted and reistered with the US Copyright Office back in 1990. And as for my Cardwell Positive and Negative Reversals Patterns in RSI I have been working with them since 1978 and have taught them in my seminars and courses since 1989. I still make my courses available (RSI Basic and The RSI EDGE) and you will find information on my website -- cardwellrsiedge. The RSI EDGE Course was first offered in March 2002 and has my CFG ( what Ms. Brown calls her Composite Index) and is included as part of the course. I also have other indicators which I have developed over the years. Any of my other work and research that I have developed since The EDGE I forward to my course students as part of their course. Each student has my cell number as well as my direct email address. I stay in touch with my students and many send me charts of current markets with examples of what they first learned in my courses. I guess that's why over 70% of my students have been referred by previous students and we have students and clients in now 28 countries around the world. I am here and available to speak to anyone who would want to get in touch. Check out the site and send me an email.

i look forward to stopping in here every so often and hope to share some insights and my thoughts.
For now be careful in the stock market. I think we will be testing the lows again. This rally since March is just a correction in still a long term downtrend.

Thank you and all the best always to everyone.
Andrew Cardwell
 
Obviously I haven't received Brown's book yet, since I ordered it last night.

Although the charts shown on the book jacket look similar to mine, her "Composite Index" (which is actually Andy Cardwell's CFG Oscillator with a different name) is nothing like mine.

Her "Composite Index" (Cardwell's CFG Oscillator) is based on RSI. Mine is not. Mine is based solely on price data -- but it is not derived by using the RSI formula in any fashion. It is only *analyzed using* RSI, just as the raw price data itself would be analyzed using RSI.

By the way, although the concept of using *divergences between* RSI for different time periods is original to me (as far as I know), the basic concept of using periods other than the standard 14-day RSI *for analytical purposes* came from Cardwell's courses. I've learned a lot from him.

The alternative method I mentioned (divergences between RSI for different time frames) is neither as accurate as Cardwell's CFG Oscillator or the other (non-RSI) study that I'm using.
 
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Will try to give you a call after noon today. What is a good time for you? I am in Atlanta and on EST.



Obviously I haven't received Brown's book yet, since I ordered it last night.

Although the charts shown on the book jacket look similar to mine, her "Composite Index" (which is actually Andy Cardwell's CFG Oscillator with a different name) is nothing like mine.

Her "Composite Index" (Cardwell's CFG Oscillator) is based on RSI. Mine is not. Mine is based solely on price data -- but it is not derived by using the RSI formula in any fashion. It is only *analyzed using* RSI, just as the raw price data itself would be analyzed using RSI.

By the way, although the concept of using *divergences between* RSI for different time periods is original to me (as far as I know), the basic concept of using periods other than the standard 14-day RSI *for analytical purposes* came from Cardwell's courses. I've learned a lot from him.

The alternative method I mentioned (divergences between RSI for different time frames) is neither as accurate as Cardwell's CFG Oscillator or the other (non-RSI) study that I'm using.
 
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