Peter P sent me an email with one question. How do I make an adjustment?
I showed him how to speed up one indicator from two perspectives. That was it. One tweak. One variable change.
He turned that adjustment into $435,000 extra profit in one month. He has now made millions off of it.
I taught three hours at Loyola Thursday night. Got home late. Barely slept five and a half hours. Next week I have six graduate presentations in applied portfolio management.
My students build hedge fund prospectuses. Some work at Goldman. One secured a job at Drexel House Capital Management. Another is now a portfolio manager at Key Bank.
The lesson I drill into all of them is the same one I spent this entire week teaching. The devil is in the details. One variable can transform your results.
The Genesis Cog Scanner identifies setups.
But customizing the signals to match your DNA is what separates survival from destruction.
The Week I Spent on Variables
I devoted four straight days to one topic. Trigger Happy. How to fine-tune oscillators and moving averages to match your trading style.
Most traders use default settings. They never touch the length. Never adjust the smoothing factor. Never consider whether simple, weighted, or exponential fits their strategy.
That laziness costs them money every single day.
Here is what I showed members this week using Meta as the example.
With a simple moving average, you get into Meta on December 10th. With a weighted moving average, you get in on December 3rd.
One week earlier. Same stock. Same indicator. Different variable.
That one week differential can mean the difference between catching a move and chasing it. Between profit and pain.
Why This Matters More Than You Think
The bottoms were only a day apart between the two settings. But the confirmed triggers were a full week apart.
Here is why that matters:
- Options traders lose theta every day they wait for confirmation
- Stock traders miss the meat of moves while indicators lag
- Position traders get stopped out because entries come too late
The weighted moving average shifts more weight to recent prices. It triggers faster. The simple moving average weights everything equally. It triggers slower.
Neither is right or wrong. One fits scalpers. One fits swing traders. You have to know which one matches how you trade.
The Adjustment That Changed Everything
Peter P traded the same markets as everyone else. He used the same indicators. He watched the same charts.
The only difference was he asked one question. How do I make an adjustment?
I told him to speed up the oscillator on low beta stocks. Slow it down on high beta stocks. Match the indicator speed to the underlying's movement.
He listened. He implemented. He made $435,000 in one month.
I made the same adjustment to my own trading on low beta positions. It added 20% to my performance over the last two years.
I was moving too fast on slow movers. I slowed it down. On faster movers, I sped it up.
It sounds simple. It is simple. But nobody does it.
What My Students Still Struggle With
I keep telling my graduate students at Loyola the same thing. Wall Street is not theory. It is reality. You have to blend them.
They memorize formulas. They calculate beta coefficients. They build beautiful prospectuses.
But when I ask them what moving average type they would use for a defensive utility stock versus a momentum tech name, they stare at me like I am speaking another language.
That is the gap between academic finance and actual trading. The textbooks do not teach customization. They teach defaults.
This Weekend, Ask Yourself One Question
Are you using default settings because they work? Or because you never bothered to change them?
The Genesis COG System tracks momentum and trend together. It identifies the exact points where risk is lowest and return is highest.
But the real edge comes from optimization. From matching indicator speed to your strategy. From understanding that one variable change can transform your results.
Peter P proved it. I proved it. Now it is your turn.
Have a good weekend. Monday comes fast. Be ready.
Professor Jeffrey Bierman
Creator of the Genesis COG System