Home Page Once-Frustrated Trader Discovers Major Breakthrough
I was a lousy student in college. My main focus was on drinking beer and enjoying the social life the UCLA campus had to offer. And oh boy, there were lots. My major was engineering only because I had no clue as to what I wanted to become. They told me I could easily get a job if I had a technical degree. So I said what the heck and took up mechanical engineering. But I hated it with a passion. I almost dropped out… twice. And my grades? Don’t ask. After five gut-wrenching years, I finally graduated, but just barely. I was more confused and lost than ever. The period was Reagan second term in office. He was gung-ho at spending massively on defense. Aerospace companies were hiring anyone they could grab off the streets. I landed a job at Rockwell International as a process engineer. If school was miserable, engineering work was down-right painful. After slaving there for three long years, I simply quit. Fed up with building missiles. Had enough with the pressure to brown nose bosses. I desperately needed to know what career would really get my juices going. My parents suggested I become a business opportunities broker to explore first hand from “the inside” to see what business would be suitable for me. So I got my license and sold “biz-ops” for a couple of years. Again, nothing was turning me on. Until I read a book called Market Wizards by Jack Schwager. The stories in that book floored me. I discovered the fascinating world of trading. And I was in awe of the incredible success stories of these trading “wizards”. Right away I knew I found my thing. A few days later, I bought my first computer to kick start my trading. There was no internet back then (early 1990’s). I had to use an antenna and a modem to feed end-of-day data to my 386 IBM clone. I opened a small account and started to trade. Of course, I got my ass kicked…big time. Ouch! And the worse part, I had no idea why. What I needed was a mentor, I thought. Larry traded out of an office in his house on the beach. He was a world-class trader. Very intuitive. I paid him handsomely to teach me in person one-on-one. I literally looked over his shoulder as he traded. He introduced me to the concept of using Fibonacci ratios to trade commodities. Deep in my gut, I just knew this approach made a lot of sense. My trading results were now better. Not fantastic like Larry’s… but above break-even. I was making money grinding it out. For a few years in the mid 1990’s I looked into all the popular computerized trading systems. They promised the lazy way to trading profits. No thinking involved. Just trade when you see the signals. How great is that? So I bought just about every trading system out there. Sadly, when I actually traded their signals, I got sent back to the poorhouse. I was hopping mad. Then I decided to combine the signals produced by these automated systems with the Fibonacci ratios Larry taught me. I thought the idea was brilliant… to have one trading style back-up another. But I was dead wrong. It turned out to be a disaster… complete confusion and information overload. My results actually got worse. I was pulling my hair out. I stopped trading and went back to the ole’ drawing board. This time I only focused on studying the approaches of great professional traders, and not on the signals from these software trading systems. I started poring over tons of books on the trading styles of legendary traders of years past. What I discovered was this… mainly, they traded by reading charts, just like Larry. They didn’t have computers back then (the early 1900’s). This got me thinking of the basics these traders used. What I needed to understand was the basic structure of the market. I needed a solid foundation…a foundation that never changes. I needed to know how to read a price chart. That was light bulb #1 turning on in my head. Only then should Fibonacci ratios be applied to a particular pattern. (Most people apply these ratios willy-nilly to a random segment of the market… and then claim Fibs don’t work). Using this approach, my trading results improved immediately. But I still had some losses. And I wasn’t comfortable not knowing why losing trades happen. My logical (engineering) brain needed to know why. So I set out to find a solution. I locked myself inside my house and spent every waking moment testing different concepts. Still I had no idea what this missing piece to the puzzle ought to be. But I kept searching anyway. After about 6 years of researching and testing like a mad scientist, it finally came to me. Here is how it happened… It was August of 2005. I was tracking November soybeans. The market unfolded into my buy area perfectly. I executed the entry flawlessly… or so I thought. But the trade still failed. I got stopped out for a small loss… again. It wasn't the money, but emotionally it was devastating. It was the last straw. I desperately needed a miracle. That night as I lay in bed I asked for help from the powers to be. What I needed was some sort of filter that’s radical and new, but simple to use. That night, it came to me in a dream. It was divine intervention. The answer to my prayers. It was beautiful and elegant. It was a time filter. This was light bulb #2. And what an awesome light bulb it turned out to be. (I’d tried studying the only other trader who addressed time in any serious way. And that was W.D. Gann. But his methods were so strange. So hard to understand… that I gave up a several years back. I did not bother any further with the time element. Big mistake.) I wrote it all down as soon as I woke up. I could hardly catch my breadth. For once, I realized something “out of the box”. It was such a huge breakthrough… a major discovery. I screamed out loud with excitement. The neighbors almost called the cops. I felt the weight coming off my shoulders. I named it the TimeRange™. This was the missing piece I’ve been looking for all my life. This became the cleanest way to filter out questionable trade setups. Since then I developed it further. And I started applying it to my trading. My winning percentage soared. This tool is truly revolutionary. Without a doubt, the TimeRange™ is the simplest way to address the time element. I then developed a complete approach to trade any market in any time frame. I had the foundation and price structure already in place. And now I had the last piece of the puzzle. The time structure… the TimeRange™. (Along the way, I also had minor breakthroughs as well. A new way to apply gaps. A better way to use Fibonacci ratios. A more accurate way to use double tops and bottoms. And the proper way to do alignment. These discoveries also came from the divine source, I believe. Thank you, up there!) Over the last year or so, I perfected the rules to align price and time and came up with a step-by-step methodology. Basically, this is how it flows: Foundation --> structure (price & time) --> SuperStructure The entire trading picture became crystal clear. Trading has finally become not only consistently profitable but relaxing as well. The clouds have lifted from my life. For over 17 painstaking years, I read, searched, tested and tried everything to make trading work. Nothing else mattered. I had been totally obsessed with trading. My family thought I lost my mind. In the process, my personal life went down the tubes. My whole life had revolved around figuring out the market… but it cost me personally. Big time. However, it was through this obsession that I discovered the TimeRange™. I finally accomplished something worthwhile. It changed my life for good. I am so grateful (and relieved) for this awesome breakthrough. Since I started trading this methodology, I’m suddenly left with too much time on my hands. The hard work is now behind me. These days I trade a few hours in the morning and I’m done. I never had any hobbies (except for trading), and I don’t watch TV (too much negative stuff). That’s why I decided to put all my trading concepts into video format to share with anyone who wants to learn. Sure, I’ve mentored students one-on-one. But this video course I just produced is way more complete. In fact, it’s my crowning achievement. My masterpiece. These days I enjoy a kick-back lifestyle. Now I celebrate every day…I’m totally at peace. I take time to travel on weekends and be with nature. To smell the roses. Even tried playing golf (I still can’t putt for beans). And I’m finally buying lots of “toys”. That’s what SuperStructureTrading™ has done for me. As one of the market wizards said in the book, “there is more to life than trading.” You know, he was absolutely right on. Finally, I know I can afford my lifestyle… in spades.
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