Walter,
who is credited with bringing cycles into the futures markets, became
interested in cycles in the late 1960s. He studied everything available
at the time, including volumes of information published by the Foundation
for the Study of Cycles, and Jim Hurst's classic book on cycles, "The
Profit Magic of Stock Transaction Timing". He also attended several
of Jim's workshops. Walter was a trader, and in applying the concepts
from Hurst's book and workshops, and the Foundation, he realized that
something was missing. There was plenty of theory on how to use cycles,
but no quantification, or structure, that would allow him to trade the
markets cyclically with confidence.
He researched
the historical performance of the markets, focusing on quantifying the
cycles and combining cycles with price performance, including Fibonnaci
relationships of time and price. He studied the works of Edwards and
Magee, W.D. Gann, Gartley and R.N. Elliott, blending the timing of cycles
with the best of the works of others who had studied the market in-depth.
It was at this time Walter began using a combination of oscillators
and Timing Bands, which compensates for the tendency of cycles to contract
and extend. The result of his extensive research was the Bressert Method
of Cycle Analysis. Much of the terminology used by cycle analysts today
originates with the terminology Walter used to describe cyclic activity
for specific cycles that he isolated over 25 years ago. This method,
greatly improved by the addition of Oscillator/Cycle Combinations, is
still traded today by many who learned it in the 70s and 80s.
In 1974,
he began publishing the HAL Commodity Cycles newsletter to make this
information available to other traders. Focusing on the futures markets,
HAL quickly grew to become one of the largest and most popular newsletters
in the business. As Futures magazine stated - "He gets the readership
he deserves because he is right so often".
In 1976,
at the request of his subscribers, he began teaching workshops on trading
cycles using the Bressert Method. Over the years he has taught thousands
of commodity traders, brokers and money managers in the U.S., Europe
and Asia how to use cycles to improve their timing.
Walter
had been working with oscillators for many years before he joined with
Tim Slater in 1979 to build CompuTrac, the first computerized market
analysis program available to the public.
After publishing
HAL Commodity Cycles for 12 years, of which 10 of the 12 years were
profitable, he retired in 1985. In 1990, he saw the need for a book
on combining oscillators and cycles, and published "The Power of
Oscillator/Cycle Combinations" in 1991. (This book is now outdated
with the advent of computerized analysis.)
From 1991
through 1995, he published the CycleWatch newsletter, which forecast
time and price moves weeks and months into the future in the S&P
Index, Bonds, Precious Metals, Currencies and the Agricultural markets.
CycleWatch was available as a daily fax-on-demand, and via DBC Signal,
FutureLink and DTN. Walter's trading recommendations were also featured
on the Futures magazine AllStar Advisor's Hotline.
In 1994,
Walter developed award-winning software that over the years has evolved
into his current software ProfitTrader. Based on his timing methodology,
ProfitTrader identifies trend and trend reversals, plus generates mechanical
BUY/SELL signals. Today, as editor and publisher of the WB Intraday
Review & Forecaster and WB Trades OnLine, he provides daily commentary
and trade recommendations on the S&P 500. His recommendations and
forecasts are instructional so traders can learn the "how and why"
to make their own trading decisions.
The Timing
Bands he built for the markets in the early 70s are still valid and
much improved. The addition of oscillators and his techniques to enhance
oscillator performance greatly improve the ability of anyone - beginner
or expert - to trade tops and bottoms of cycles as they are occurring
. The real key to trading with cycles is to first identify trend direction,
then buy bottoms if the trend is up, and sell tops if the trend is down.
The interaction of cycles within cycles shows specific patterns that
help identify trend reversals as they are occurring, and in iday trading
it is these trend reversals that are often followed by the big intraday
moves.
Walter
was a director and president of the non-profit Foundation for the Study
of Cycles. He has lectured internationally for more than twenty years
and written articles for the Wall Street Journal, Barron's, Futures
magazine and the "Commodity Research Bureau Yearbook". He
was a contributing editor to the Financial News Network and has appeared
on CNBC from time-to-time as a guest speaker.