rewrite this title From Michelin Star Recipes to Trading Systems: The Secret Behind Our 104% Return

In the restaurant world, few honors are as prestigious as a Michelin star.

These stars are given to restaurants with exceptional food. Out of over 15 million restaurants worldwide, fewer than 16,000 have earned a Michelin star — just 0.10%.

Michelin-star chefs like Alain Ducasse, Gordon Ramsay and Massimo Bottura are not just cooks. They are global celebrities who have transformed fine dining.

What fascinates me is how these chefs take simple, everyday ingredients and turn them into masterpieces. Even if you had their recipes, recreating the same dishes would be extremely difficult.

Why?

Because great chefs don’t just follow recipes — they adapt as they cook.

They tweak flavors, adjust techniques and make decisions based on years of experience. Many of these steps come naturally to professionals but are unknown to most home cooks.

The same idea applies to system trading.

Build Systems That Adapt

When I started building rules-based trading systems in the early 1980s, I was lucky to meet Bruce Kovner (net worth $7.7 billion), a hedge fund manager.

Kovner founded Caxton Associates in 1983 and grew to manage over $14 billion at its peak. Since 1992, the firm has been closed to new investors.

I met him through his brother Richard, who I worked with. When Richard introduced us, I had no idea who Bruce was. He seemed like a college professor — calm and unassuming.

But after just a few minutes of talking, I realized he was a market wizard.

I asked him if he had any advice for a young man in his 20s who was trying to build trading systems.

He smiled and said, “A great system is one that constantly adapts.”

At the time, I didn’t fully understand what he meant, but I never forgot it.

Over the years, his advice proved to be brilliant. Financial markets are always changing and trading systems must evolve to keep up.

Beating the Market

When I built my newest system, Profit Accelerator, I tested its rules on 20 years of historical data.

It performed incredibly well in the lab, but the real challenge was determining how it would perform in real-world conditions.

Now, it’s approaching its one-year anniversary. And the system is outperforming expectations. It’s up more than 104%, beating the S&P 500 by 3.5X.

Profit Accelerator was built using publicly available research.

The idea that momentum outperforms in markets is well-known, as is the fact that smoother momentum (rather than jumpy momentum) tends to be more predictive.

These concepts are backed by Nobel Prize-winning research and are available to anyone willing to dig into them.

But just as a home cook can’t perfectly replicate a Michelin-star chef’s recipe, the same is true for building and executing trading systems.

The difference lies in the small details and expert tweaks that only come with years of experience.

It’s not just about following the rules — it’s about knowing when to adjust them to maximize performance. Those fine-tuned decisions make all the difference.

If you want a chance to look over my shoulder while you try out my newest trading system, go here and I’ll show you how to get started.  

Regards,

Charles MizrahiFounder, Alpha Investor