It?s been a tough-fought battle. I have had to fight tooth and nail for every penny.

For the first time since September 2nd, I have been able to boost the six-year track record of Global Trading Dispatch to a new all time high.

It seems these days, you have to work twice as hard to earn half the money with more volatility.

We had an outrageous August, taking in a lip-smacking 7.52% profit.
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I began this month with the assumption that financial markets would remain trapped in narrow ranges.

September was problematic, with my Trade Alerts essentially breaking even, up only 0.27%.

So I narrowed my focus to the short-term trading of the violent day-to-day swings we are seeing in the market.

It worked like a charm.

After a long dormancy, the Volatility Index (VIX) climbed out of the basement, seeing single day moves up to 40%. That enabled me to reel in two quick winners with the iPath S&P 500 VIX Short Term Futures ETN (VXX).

My brother in arms, Mad Options Trader ?Whiz?, has done even better on the volatility front.

Since then, I have been trading like a Mad man, fading moves in the S&P 500 (SPY) and the United State Treasury Bond Fund (TLT), and then taking profits in days.

This week, I cast my net over a broader range of asset classes, buying the SPDR Gold Shares ETF (GLD) and selling short the United States Oil Fund (USO) on top of the latest OPEC-induced spike.

Both positions turned immediately profitable.

Keeping a death grip on every dollar I take in, I am now running very tight stop losses. This has lead to an irritating jump in small losses, but has enhanced my profitability over all.

Keep in mind that this is an environment where almost no one is making any money at all.

I tell my financial advisor and long term investor friends to just turn off the TV, as there has been very little net movement in asset classes over all.

Things will be better in a year.

It is impossible for them to catch these short-term moves, let alone explain them to clients.

I expect this state of affairs to continue until the November 8th presidential election.

What we are getting is not a ?price correction,? but a ?time correction?, whereby prices grind sideways before breaking out to the upside.

This brings my 2016 year-to-date performance up to an enviable 16.81%, compared with 4.65% for the S&P 500. The trailing 12-month return is 18.25%

My six-year return now reaches an eye popping 208.49%, delivering an average annualized return of 35.75%.

These are numbers that any financial advisor, hedge fund manager, or retiree trading their retirement accounts from home would kill for. Most are losing money this year, net of fees and expenses.

Those who have made the effort to wake up early every morning, read my witty and incisive prose and actively trade my proprietary alerts have an impressive row of notches on their bedpost to show for their endeavors.
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My groundbreaking trade mentoring service was first launched in 2010. Thousands of subscribers now earn a full-time living solely from my Trade Alerts, a development of which I am immensely proud.

Some 50% of my clients are over 50 and managing their own retirement funds, fleeing the shoddy, but expensive services provided by Wall Street. The balance are institutional investors, hedge funds, and professional financial advisors.

The Mad Hedge Fund Trader seeks to level the playing field for the individual retail investor. Looking at the testimonials that come in every day, I?d say we?re accomplishing that goal. To read the plaudits, please go to Testimonials.

Our business is booming, so I am plowing profits back in to enhance our added value for you.

To subscribe, please go to Global Trading Dispatch.

And now, for the rest of the year.

I can?t wait!

John Thomas, CEO
Mad Hedge Fund Trader

This is How You Do It
18.25% Trailing 12 Month Return

35.75% Average Annualized Return Over 6 Years

Reeling in the Big Ones

I have been covering the energy industry for some 50 years.

As a teenager, I worked summers as a roustabout in Chevron?s Elk Hills Reserve in Southern California.

Then I spent a decade covering the Middle East, prospecting for Morgan Stanley. I got to know the Arabs when they were poor and barefoot, not wearing Gucci shoes as they do today.

I loved riding the long caravans into the desert, but never got used to eating those sheep's eyes. I am still picking fine sand out of every orifice from those days.

Investing in the new fracking technology in West Texas as a wildcatter in the late 1990s was a natural career progression for me. Since then, I have been trading various oil-related derivatives on a nearly daily basis.

So, it is safe to say I know which end of an oil well is up.

One of the best long-term predictions I have made during the nine year life of The Diary of a Mad Hedge Fund Trader occurred in 2013 when I predicted that an Iranian Peace deal with the US would lead to an immediate 50% drop in the price of oil (read more about that here Why You Should Care About the Iranian Rial Collapse).

I lied.

Crude fell by a staggering 83% from the 2011 top. We all got a monster windfall tax cut.

Intensive research and analysis enabled me and my subscribers to duck this collapse.

However, I believe that oil?s long tortuous nightmare is about to end.

But not for the reasons you might think.

The price of oil (USO) should maintain the current level or higher going into the end of 2016. I?m betting that it could reach $60 by the end of 2017 and $70 by the end of 2018.

The recovery will not be driven by the capping of production, as promised by the OPEC Vienna Meeting on November 30th.? Instead, it will be demand driven, primarily from China (FXI) and other emerging markets (EEM).

The Chinese economy is still growing at a 6% annual rate, and is now the largest creator of new GDP in the world. It is just emerging from a growth recession.

The Middle Kingdom has no real oil resources of its own. It did use the price collapse to fill its Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

So growth at current rates will demand that China start buying oil at current prices, primarily from the Persian Gulf.

Has fear of closure of the Straights of Hormuz kept you awake for the last 50 years, as it has for the Joint Chiefs of Staff and me?

You don?t need to worry anymore. It is now China?s headache, as they now buy 80% of the Gulf?s total output.

You know the ?War of the Dots? that is taking place in the South China Sea over those worthless coral atolls?

China?s sole interest is to extend their protection of the sea lanes to the Persian Gulf by just one day.

The great thing about this bold asset allocation call is that we are absolutely spoiled for choice of blue- chip energy investments which have been decimated by the crude collapse.

The oil majors are trading at a 25-year valuation low. The crude crash triggered a ferocious round of cost cutting at every firm, multiplying upside earnings leverage.

Dividend yields in the 4%-5% range are to die for.

If you want to go the "Seven Sisters" route, you won?t go wrong with Royal Dutch Shell plc (RDS-B), BP Amoco (BP) (6.71% dividend yield), or Chevron (CVX) (4.15%).

You can buy Exxon Mobil (XOM) (3.42%) if you want to take the lawsuit risk.

My favorite is California-based Occidental Petroleum (OXY) (4.13%), with which I have had a long-term relationship. They have no offshore risk. I knew Dr. Armand Hammer, but more on that another day.

I don?t think we?ll ever reach $100 a barrel in oil prices again.

For a start, American frackers are poised to unleash 1 million barrels a day or more in new production any time prices warrant it.

Electric cars and conventional cars with far higher mileage per gallon are finally starting to permanently erode US gasoline demand.

So what we may get is a new oil market that stabilizes around a $50-$70 range over the next three years.

That is a price that will keep consumers, producers, and investors all happy.

Finally, The Nightmare is Over