Website : Mark Austin Trading
Publisher : Mark Austin
Cost : £57 per month - 1st month £28.50
Review Date : January - February 2011

WHAT IT SAYS ON THE WEBSITE

This service is dedicated to just the FTSE and the website promises "Regular Market analysis", "SMS Trade alerts", "Regular trade set-ups / Opportunities!" and "Follow up emails for all SMS Trade alerts".

Mark has been "successfully trading the FTSE for over 8 years" building up "a wealth of knowledge on how to trade this market successfully". The "objective of the service is to provide a unique insight into how a professional trader goes about his business" including "all degrees of risk management, market analysis and money management" and "techniques to provide you with an edge on the market".

The service aims for 2-3 high probability FTSE trade per week and comes recommended by John Piper. It is based on Mark issuing a signal by SMS and email "every time I open or close a trade" with "Entry/Exit/Risk all professionally managed for you".

The website contains a link to some testimonials, John Pipers Binary Trading book, Mark's blog and seminars.

The seminars, at a cost of £595 - £895, are based "on the lifestyle trader concept", this means the techniques and systems that Mark uses every day to enable him "to create consistent income whilst not being glued to the screens all day". The focus is "on leading indicators" and how to use "these effectively to extract consistent money from the market". Money management and Risk strategies are also covered in the one day seminar.

The last link on the website is to a POM Seminar hosted by John Piper and Mark, the cost of which is £2,475 (in 3 monthly instalments of £825) for the POM system, seminar and consultancy.

Neither Mark's seminar or the POM seminar are covered in this review.

THE SERVICE

We had access to this service in the latter part of 2010 and traded a few signals but didn't quite commit to regularly trading and monitoring it until 2011. We are quite glad we were delayed because the service has changed slightly this year. Mark made the move, at the beginning of the year, to provide subscribers with 3 free Trading strategies; Tunnel, Magnet and 5 Minute Break-out. This move has added value to this service.

A FTSE morning report usually arrives around 7:45 UK time. This includes Marks market commentary identifying areas of Support and Resistance, potential price action largely based on Elliot wave theory and trading ideas. The latter usually reference one or more of the 3 free strategies. Sometimes an actual signal is included otherwise they are merely trading ideas.

Actual signals, if not included in the morning report are usually received between 7:45 and 9:00. They are clear and easily translated into trades. What is annoying though are the Binary (Tunnel/FTSE Finish) trades, it's typical that we do not get the price quoted in the signal. This means waiting sometimes (can be hours) to get the quoted price. Last year we recall part profits being taken and we were still waiting to get filled on the entry. This didn't happen all the time but, often enough for us to point it out. It is worth identifying this for two reasons, sometimes we were hanging around for ages trying to get the right price, never to get in at all. Sometimes we got the price but hours later, typically because of this lateness the trade would lose. So, we never missed a loser but we did miss winners. Mark has attempted to address this issue by distriuting his strategies and including trading ideas based on them in his morning report. This may help those that are more active but for those relying on a non-discretionary signal service we fear the issue will remain.

The other signals, (non Binary) FTSE trades, were much better, most of the time we managed similar fills to those identified in the signals. Exit signals and some take half profit signals can come at any time after the initial entry signal but are typically before mid-day. It pays to make sure you have easy access to your (IG Index) account most of the day, not so difficult with IG's mobile trading app.

We could have taken other trades based on the trading ideas in the morning report and the free strategies and we probably would have done reasonably well. Our purpose here however is to review the core signal service so we stuck to it.

CAN IT WORK

In 2011 to date (11-Feb) we have had the following results trading Marks' signals only:

January

10-Jan-11 7:41 MAGNET Long 0.64%
12-Jan-11 8:28 MAGNET Short 0.32%
24-Jan-11 7:50 MAGNET Short 0.48%
24-Jan-11 8:23 TUNNEL 60/60 0.73%
25-Jan-11 9:10 NORMAL Short 0.19%
25-Jan-11 11:05 TUNNEL 75/75 -2.00%

That's a net profit of +0.35% based on 2% risk per trade unless instructed otherwise.

February (to 11th)

2-Feb-11 8:21 NORMAL Short 0.32%
3-Feb-11 8:46 FTSE FINISH UP -2.00%
11-Feb-11 8:38 NORMAL Long -1.00%

That's a net loss of -2.68% based on 2% risk per trade unless instructed otherwise.

It is fair to say that Mark is offering a little more than a signal service. It's more of an education/learning tool, in particular for those looking to actively trade the FTSE. With the inclusion of the trading ideas in the morning updates the signals could be seen as a back-up/validation source to applying the free strategies oneself. As a stand-alone non-discretionary signal service though, results need to improve from here.

We will report back with complete results at the end of February and again at the end of March.

SUPPORT

Within 24 hours and often much quicker.

CONCLUSION

PRO's
• Useful free strategies and morning reports.
• A potential learning tool in effect for those looking to actively trade the FTSE.
CON's
• Getting entries (Tunnel trades in particular) as per signals can be frustrating.
• Need to have access (to IG Index) most of the day to re-act to updates.
• Quite a poor start to 2011.

Do remember, your comments are important, if you decide to purchase this service, please support us by using our link and by reporting back your findings, both are valuable to us and the service.

Do you think you would have the same result as mark if you would be able to get that price, that is to say do you think his performance is honest ?

Yes, in relation to getting in and out on the Binary trades, there have been three, this year we have not experienced the issue we mentioned. However, as per the review, we fear it will occur due to the nature of the process, if following the signals verbatim.

Today we had a binary trade which we can use as an example of the issue identified in the review. It means our fears that the issue remains are valid.

A signal was issued today - Sell a binary bet at 88 - We got in straight away and only got 80 as the price had dropped off significantly (as we observed on the 1 minute chart). It was over an hour before we saw the 88 price again. If we did not take the trade at 80, we may have missed a winning trade (if it doesn't retrace). If it does retrace then it is likely the trade will lose as the initial momentum causing the move subsides, as occurred today. So, it's best to get in at 80, in our opinion.

However, here's the main reason why this makes such a difference.

At 88 let's say you risk 2% (£100) on the trade, that's about £8 a point - If you win you make a profit of £700. At 80 you risk £5 a point and if you win you only make a profit of £400. Still not bad however the 88 trade makes a 14% return negating 7 losing trades at 2% risk per trade whereas the entry at 80 returns just 8% negating just 4 losing trades. This is significant applying this kind of strategy.

Note: This is the first time this has happened this year and Mark did provide a "heads up" in his morning commentary. As per the review, those more vigilant in applying the free strategies may have fared quite well. Those following the signals verbatim would have experienced the above scenario. We just wanted to point out a real example of the issue should we see it again this year so we could try and explain it better.

We do believe Mark has done his best to work round this issue which we have been in contact with him about (giving away the strategy and mentioning the potential in the morning report) - It's just difficult to see how much else can be done to remove it completely for those following the signals only.

Our results remain the same as the official results based on this approach as we risked and lost 2% of our account on this trade.

I think maybe it is better to just stick with the ftse 100 signals acording to this review and also looking at marks result given by him. The binary trades are not half as impreshes as his ftse100 trades. What in point would a typically stoploss be so i can see how many points that 2 procent risk is ? I shall try his signals and i hope that he is honest that all then i am verry happy with just getting the ftse100 signals right

best regards

Average Stop (this year) on all normal FTSE trades, including the Magnet trades is 45 PIPs.

Look forward to comparing results should you proceed with Mark's service.

ReviewTeam - I've just had an ad/recommendation from Jack Whiteman at MoreMoneyReview for this system by email today, and I'm wondering if you're trading the same system? He says he's been impressed with it for the past few months so what's the reason for the big difference of opinion? I'm wondering if it's the trade suggestions part of the service maybe.

According to Mark Austin's own results at http://www.markaustintrading.com/pdf/ftsepipstodate.pdf (forgive the link!) it looks like profits peaked in October last year and the markets have been reclaiming their own since then.

I've got to say I'm a bit annoyed as I held MoreMoneyReview and SFT in similar esteem - but it looks like you're either slagging off Mark Austin's service a bit harshly, or else Jack Whiteman is just trying to generate affiliate % which isn't very cool. Help me decide.

Z

Hi Z,

First off, we never recommend any system or service to anyone, we are not qualified not authorised to do so. We know not what an individuals personal circumstances are in terms of capital, attitude to risk, time commitment, etc. nor do we wish to know - Further reason why we are in no place to recommend any system or service to anyone.

Our results are based on this statement in the review "We could have taken other trades based on the trading ideas in the morning report and the free strategies and we probably would have done reasonably well. Our purpose here however is to review the core signal service so we stuck to it." - This means we traded every signal as we received it and did no additional discretionary trading based on trading ideas in Marks morning reports, perhaps MoreMoneyReview are being more active, we cannot comment on that.

Here are our results:

10-Jan-11 MAGNET Long 0.64%
12-Jan-11 MAGNET Short 0.32%
24-Jan-11 MAGNET Short 0.48%
24-Jan-11 TUNNEL 60/60 0.73%
25-Jan-11 NORMAL Short 0.19%
25-Jan-11 TUNNEL 75/75 -2.00%

TOTAL 0.35%

2-Feb-11 NORMAL Short 0.32%
3-Feb-11 FTSE FINISH UP -2.00%
11-Feb-11 NORMAL Long -1.00%

TOTAL -2.68%

(Remember to add in the -2% loss made on Monday too - we just haven't updated our spreadsheet yet)

We cannot really provide accurate details on last years results because, as per the review, we were only able to commit to periodic trading.

In regard "slagging off" we do not feel this is our right and we do not believe we have done this in any of our reviews. In the case of this review it is we believe it to be fair and honest based on our limited exposure. Again, we stress this is the basis of all our reviews, not just this one.

We will report back full results for February and March, based on trading just the signals.

Hope that helps.

Thanks ReviewTeam, that helps a lot. MMR have come back and said basically 'look at the bigger picture'. I firmly believe that in a signal service there really is no bigger picture as one deliberately renounces knowledge of a system or strategy in exchange for trust in a more experienced individual, who will more often than not keep the intricacies of their technique close to their chest. Therefore a visible prolonged collapse of results can only indicate a shift in conditions which that individual or service-giver cannot handle.

Sorry for saying 'slagging off' before - I didn't intend to imply that you do, but that someone was being either overly harsh or overly rose-tinted in their perspective.

Z

No problems at all - As mentioned we will be reporting performance through at least February and March, hopefully longer. Perhaps a better judgement can be made, apologies once again we cannot provide more data from last year but we just did not trade every single signal so it would be unfair to report just on those we did.