Smarter Trading: Improving Performance In Changing Markets

Unlock the true edge in today’s dynamic financial markets with Smarter Trading, Perry Kaufman’s groundbreaking guide to navigating market evolution, volatility, and risk. Unlike traditional trading books that offer rigid rules, Kaufman presents a robust, flexible framework for building resilient trading strategies that thrive in both stable and turbulent conditions.

This book goes far beyond entry and exit rules. Kaufman explores the shifting structures of global markets, introduces adaptive trend-following techniques, explains the misuse of stop-loss orders, and teaches how to design robust systems that accommodate the constant changes in technology and trader behavior.

From understanding risk-adjusted performance to managing portfolio diversification with real-world statistical tools, Smarter Trading is the ultimate blueprint for traders who aim to stay profitable in an environment of constant change.

Whether you’re a technical analyst, quant, or discretionary trader, this guide gives you the reasoning, tools, and models to approach markets with both precision and adaptability.

What You’ll Learn:

• How changing market structures affect the validity of trading systems
• Why technical tools need to adapt to volatility and liquidity shifts
• When profit-taking outperforms rigid trend-following
• The right and wrong ways to use stop-losses
• How to develop adaptive moving averages and test robustness
• Realistic expectations for risk and return using statistical methods

Key Benefits:

• Build systems that survive evolving markets and avoid obsolescence
• Improve your edge by incorporating smarter risk controls
• Understand when to exit trades and why it matters more than entry
• Gain confidence with real test results and practical strategy comparisons
• Equip yourself with tools to evaluate performance like a professional fund manager

Who This Book Is For:

• Intermediate to advanced traders
• System developers and quant strategists
• Risk-conscious investors
• Traders seeking sustainable, long-term performance
• Technical analysts looking to go beyond indicators

Table of Contents:

1. The Impact of Change on Markets and Trading
2. Assessing Market Reality
3. Reasonable Expectations Give Achievable Results
4. Risk and Return
5. Profit-Taking
6. The Mixed Role of Stops for Controlling Risk
7. Understanding Price Shocks
8. Smarter Trend-Following
9. Computer Learning, Neural Networks, and New Technology
10. Testing for Robustness
11. Improving the Performance of Existing Systems
    Appendix: Notation and Terminology
    Index