BAN – Best Asset Now
BAN – Trade the Strongest Sector ETFs. Follow a Defined Plan. Stop Letting One Emotional Decision Erase Weeks of Good Work.
The Best Asset Now (BAN) is a performance-driven sector and index ETF research membership for self-directed traders. BAN ranks market leadership, publishes model entries, profit targets, position updates, and protective exits, and gives you daily pre-market context before pressure reaches the order ticket.
Chris Vermeulen
“We follow price.
We don’t pretend to predict it.”
611.76%
Cumulative model return since 2008
11.09%
Annualized model return
-21.11%
Maximum historical model decline
25–35
Approx. model trades per year
August 2026 BAN factsheet. Historical model results are not a guarantee of future performance. Returns exclude dividends, brokerage costs, the subscription fee, and taxes. Subscriber results will differ.
You Know How to Find a Trade. Can You Follow the Plan When It Stops Feeling Easy?
You can read a chart. You can spot a sector with momentum. You have probably taken trades that made you feel completely in control.
Then the position starts moving.
The breakout runs without you, so you chase. The pullback feels worse than expected, so you sell for relief. The planned exit gets close, so you give the trade “a little more room.” A quiet market offers nothing clean, so activity starts feeling more responsible than patience.
The hardest part of trading is rarely finding opportunities. The harder part is protecting a good decision after fear, FOMO, regret, pride, and the need to be right become attached to the outcome.
Do any of these sound familiar?
I entered late because I could not stand missing the move.
I sold the winner too early, then gave the loser more room.
I skipped a valid setup because the last trade still hurt.
I told myself, “I just need one good trade to get it back.”
I know cash is a position, but being flat still feels like falling behind.
I keep adding indicators and opinions because the decision still does not feel settled.
None of that means you are careless. It means the market has found the exact places where intelligence, ambition, fear, and responsibility turn into pressure. BAN does not ask you to become emotionless. It gives emotion fewer decisions to invent.
The question is not whether you are capable of trading. The question is whether your serious money should continue to do the same emotional job as your speculative money.
The Market Does Not Need Another Opinion From You. It Needs a Standard.
A published plan cannot remove uncertainty. It can stop uncertainty from rewriting every part of the trade at once.
See What a More Disciplined Trading Process Looks Like
Rank the leaders. Define the trade. Manage the exit. Revest when conditions change. Annual membership. Educational, impersonal research for self-directed traders. Risk of loss remains.Eight Trading Beliefs That Quietly Give Back Gains
Each belief contains enough truth to feel responsible. The cost appears when it becomes an automatic rule that overrides current evidence.
The trader is not the enemy. The automatic belief is. A useful idea becomes expensive when it receives more authority than the evidence in front of you.
“If I am not trading, I am missing money.”
More trades create more openings for boredom, FOMO, friction, and weak setups.
“If I follow enough news, I will get ahead of the move.”
Headlines create urgency faster than they create a trade plan.
“This stock, sector, or ETF always comes back.”
Familiarity gives an old favorite permission a new position would never receive.
“Owning more ETFs means I am protected.”
In a broad selloff, many holdings can behave like one oversized trade.
“The dividend pays me to wait.”
A small payment does not protect the capital behind it from a large decline.
“Staying fully invested proves discipline.”
Patience becomes expensive when it gives weakness unlimited time and capital.
“A good average return will repair bad timing.”
The wrong loss at the wrong time can change withdrawals, confidence, and years of recovery.
“My only choices are buy-and-hold or trading every wiggle.”
One path can demand too much surrender. The other can demand too much attention.
The Goal Is Not More Trades.
It Is More Good Decisions Kept.
Action feels productive because it gives uncertainty somewhere to go. Buy something. Sell something. Check again. Do whatever it takes to make the discomfort stop.
That relief can feel like control. It is not always control.
BAN stands for Best Asset Now. Not Best Story. Not Favorite Asset. Not the ETF everyone notices after the easy part of the move has already happened.
The process compares trend, momentum, relative strength, market stage, and sentiment across the sector and index ETF universe. When a setup qualifies, BAN publishes the model trade plan. The current factsheet describes approximately 25–35 model trades per year and no more than five open model positions, depending on conditions.
1 · Rank the Leaders
Find the strength
Compare sector and index ETFs to identify where trend, demand, momentum, and relative strength are concentrated.
2 · Define the Trade
Set the plan first
Publish the model entry, profit targets, protective exit, and the reason the setup qualifies before the trade becomes emotional.
3 · Manage & Revest
Respond to evidence
Update the position as evidence changes, take action according to the model, then move to the next qualified leader — or wait in cash.
Performance Gets Your Attention. The Path Tells You Whether the Strategy Deserves It.
Active traders do not pay $2,999 for philosophy alone. They expect a process with a real historical model record. Performance belongs on this page because proof matters — but return without the path, the losses, and the limitations is incomplete proof.
| Strategy / comparison | Cumulative since 2008 | Maximum historical decline |
|---|---|---|
| BAN model (Not traded by Chris V./CEO) | 611.76% | -21.11% |
| ACS model (Chris V./CEO trades ACS) | 945.44% | -5.96% |
| SPDR S&P 500 ETF comparison | 426.00% | -56.47% |
| Buy-and-hold 60/40 illustration | 167.88% | -38.52% |
The August 2026 BAN factsheet also reports an 11.09% annualized model return, a 52.53% best year, and a -12.50% worst year. The historical path included losing trades, whipsaws, missed moves, periods of cash, and stretches when other approaches performed better.
Illustration only. Source: The Technical Traders BAN model portfolio factsheet, August 2026. Returns are compounded and exclude dividends, brokerage commissions and costs, the subscription fee, and taxes. The comparisons have different holdings, objectives, risks, and assumptions. Past performance is not indicative of future results.
Which Would You Rather Recover From?
The number most investors ignore is not the best year. It is the largest historical decline. A large loss does more than reduce the account. It changes the return needed to recover, the decisions you make under pressure, and how much of your life has to wait for the math to work itself out.
|
Factsheet comparison |
Maximum historical decline |
Dollar decline on $500K |
Balance after decline |
|---|---|---|---|
|
BAN Model Portfolio |
−21.11% |
−$105,550 |
$394,450 |
|
Buy & Hold 60/40 benchmark |
−38.52% |
−$192,600 |
$307,400 |
|
SPDR S&P 500 ETF benchmark |
−53.42% |
−$267,100 |
$232,900 |
Illustration only. Source: July 2026 BAN factsheet. The comparison lines reached their maximum declines at different times. The BAN historical maximum decline is not a future loss limit; future losses can be larger.
A Crash Is Only an Opportunity If You Arrive With Capital, Patience, and a Plan.
The market may provide another opportunity. It cannot return the years spent recovering from damage that became larger than it needed to be.
You Should Not Have to Rebuild the Trade Plan Every Time the Market Moves.
BAN does the daily ranking, technical research, and model trade planning. You decide whether and how to act in your own brokerage account. The alert is only the visible part. The context, position management, training, and mentoring around the alert are what make the process usable through a full year of market conditions.
You Are Not Buying One Alert.
You are buying the decision system around it: what qualifies, what the model is watching, what changes after entry, and how the process responds when the market stops behaving as expected.
A signal alone does not stop hesitation, chasing, moved exits, or the urge to make back the last loss. Mentoring gives members a place to understand the standard behind the model and to hear questions before they become improvised trades. It is education and expectation management, not psychological treatment or personalized investment advice.
Core
BAN core model alerts
Published model entries, profit targets, protective exits, and updates for qualified sector and index ETF opportunities.
Daily
Daily pre-market video
A focused review of major indexes, bonds, precious metals, open BAN positions, developing setups, and the price action that matters now.
Ongoing
Position management
Updates as targets approach, evidence changes, protective levels adjust, or a model position closes.
Access
Member site, email, and app
Updates as targets approach, evidence changes, protective levels adjust, or a model position closes.
Bonus
BAN Trend Traders Pro
An additional higher-octane ETF model signal with its own risks and no guarantee of improving results.
Bonus
Trader Hotlist
A regularly updated list of technically interesting ETFs and setups to study. It is research, not a signal to trade every idea.
Bonus
BAN Trader Course
Step-by-step education on market stages, trend logic, trade-plan structure, risk concepts, and how to read BAN research.
Bonus
Live monthly mentoring
A live group session with Chris and the team for market context, process questions, execution education, and the mental patterns that appear under pressure. Recordings included.
Get the Full BAN Trading Environment for the Next 12 Months
Core model research, daily context, position updates, BAN Pro, Trader Hotlist, BAN Trader Course, and live monthly mentoring.
The Market Rewarded Me Before It Educated Me.
Early wins made the risk look smaller than it was. A trade would work, confidence would rise, and the result would make the decision look smarter than it had been. The market rewarded me often enough to make weak risk management feel intelligent.
Then conditions changed. I blew up trading accounts. I lived through bankruptcy. I watched good ideas become bad positions because I stayed loyal after the evidence changed. The market did not teach me that opportunity was unimportant. It taught me that opportunity without protection eventually demands tuition.
The principle that survived was simple: price gets the final vote. Not my forecast. Not the headline. Not the asset I like. Not the trade I need to recover. If strength is present, the model can participate. If weakness takes control, responsibility means responding.
The Market Taught Me. Then I Changed My Definition of Responsibility.
Being right later is not the same as being protected now. Responsibility is giving capital a job, defining the conditions for that job, and refusing to improvise the standard when pressure rises.
| Guide signal | What it means |
|---|---|
| Market experience | More than 25 years of studying, trading, and publishing market research. |
| Investor education | More than 25,000 investors and traders helped since 2001. |
| TTT’s role | Independent publisher of impersonal research, model signals, and education — not a personalized adviser or account manager. |
What Changes When the Plan Exists Before the Pressure
Members remain the heroes of these stories. BAN supplies the published model, context, and language. The member still decides, executes, and lives with the result.
One Trading Membership. Every Part of the Process Around the Decision.
The BAN annual membership is $2,999 USD. It includes the core BAN research and model alerts, daily pre-market videos, position updates, member-site/email/app access, BAN Trend Traders Pro, the Trader Hotlist, the BAN Trader Course, live monthly mentoring, and recordings.
$2,999
Annual membership
$249.92
Monthly equivalent
$8.22
Daily equivalent
BAN is billed annually. Monthly, weekly, and daily figures are arithmetic equivalents, not alternate payment plans.
The useful comparison is not only a coffee and a snack. It is the scale of the decisions being made. On a $300,000 account, a 1% move is $3,000. On a $1,000,000 account, it is $10,000. BAN does not promise to prevent either loss or pay for itself. It gives serious decisions a published process before emotion becomes expensive.
BAN Is Built for Active Traders. It Will Frustrate People Who Need Constant Action or Guaranteed Winners.
Need a slower, broader path? ACS is TTT’s flagship Asset Revesting research membership for investors who want fewer, broader model changes across multiple asset classes. BAN is intentionally more active and equity-focused. The right question is which job you need the research to perform.
BAN is a stronger fit when you…
Want a more active, equity-focused service.
Prefer sector and index ETFs to researching dozens of companies.
Can execute published model alerts in your own brokerage account.
Want defined entries, targets, and exits instead of open-ended opinions.
Accept that waiting, cash, losing trades, and false starts are part of trading.
Value daily context, training, mentoring, and a repeatable process.
BAN is the wrong fit when you…
Want personalized advice or someone to manage your account.
Need guaranteed profits, guaranteed protection, or a future loss limit.
Expect a winning trade every week or constant action.
Plan to ignore exits whenever your opinion changes.
Cannot tolerate gaps, slippage, losing streaks, or periods of underperformance.
Want a passive portfolio that requires no review or execution.
BAN Is a Commitment, Not a Trial.
BAN annual memberships are non-refundable. This also applies to renewals once they have been processed.
Reason #1: One trade tells you almost nothing.
BAN is a trading process, not a prediction service. There will be winning trades, losing trades, quiet periods, and times when protecting capital means doing less.
Judging the strategy by the next trade—or even the next few trades—misses the point.
Reason #2: We want members who are prepared to follow the process.
If you need a short trial, a guaranteed winner, or the ability to leave the moment a trade does not work, BAN is probably not the right fit.
That is perfectly okay. We would rather you recognize that before joining.
Reason #3: Trading gets hardest when your emotions want to change the plan.
A missed move creates FOMO. A losing trade creates hesitation. A winning streak creates confidence. A quiet market creates the urge to force something. BAN is designed to give you a published trade plan, research, and process to follow through all of those conditions—not just when trading feels easy.
Reason #4: Membership delivers immediate value and access.
Once you join, you receive BAN research, model trade alerts, daily market videos, member archives, trading education, mentoring sessions, proprietary tools, and the complete member experience.
That information and access cannot be returned after it has been delivered.
You Can Cancel Your Renewal Anytime.
Canceling stops your next renewal. It does not refund your current membership term. We send a renewal reminder to the email address listed in your TTT account approximately 45 days before your renewal date. You can manage your renewal through your account or contact Support@TheTechnicalTraders.com for help. If BAN stops being valuable to you, cancel the renewal. You will continue to have access through the end of the membership term you already purchased. I do not want you joining because you are chasing the next trade. I want you joining because you want a clearer process for finding opportunity, managing risk, and making fewer emotional decisions when real money is on the line. If that sounds like you, you are ready.Straight Answers About BAN Membership Before You Decide
The decision
Before the Next Breakout, Decide Whether You Want Another Opinion — or a Published Trade Plan.
The market will keep moving.
Your process should not be invented while the candle is running.
- One missed move can make the next entry feel urgent.
- One loss can make a valid setup feel dangerous.
- One rebound can teach you to ignore an exit.
- One winning streak can make risk feel smaller than it is.
- One quiet week can make a mediocre trade look necessary.
BAN will not make the market predictable. It will not remove every loss. It will not make every decision correct.
It gives you a published process before pressure arrives: identify strength, wait for evidence, define the trade, manage the position, and revest when conditions change.
You remain in control of your account. You remain responsible for execution. You will still face uncertainty and moments when your opinion disagrees with the model. But you no longer have to build the entire decision from scratch when the market demands an answer.
Trade the Market You Have — Not the Trade You Missed, the Loss You Want Back, or the Forecast You Need to Be Right.
Own strength. Step aside from weakness. Wait with purpose.
Educational, impersonal research. No guarantee of profits, protection, or future loss levels. Trading involves substantial risk of loss.
P.S. — The Next Opportunity Is Not the Last Opportunity.
A defined process is what lets you wait without feeling left behind, act without chasing, and accept a valid loss without making the next trade repay it. The next move matters. The standard you bring to it matters more.
