Forword by Michael Hoffman: Before you begin reading Pit Trading: Do You Have the Right Stuff? we would like to briefly share with you the history of how Gerry and I began our careers in trading and why we have written this book.

I started my career in trading at the age of thirty-seven. Prior to becoming a trader, I was a teacher, head coach, and vice principle of a high school in a suburb of Chicago. Gerry began his career at the age of thirty. Gerry was an English teacher at an elementary school in a suburb of Chicago. Like myself, Gerry was dedicated to the profession of teaching, but...

For many years I had expended a great deal of energy to prepare myself for a career that I believed would satisfy my inner needs. I loved being in Education, where I could actually see the benefits of my contribution to young people, but I began to realize that the time spent in helping other people's children and the dollars earned for my own family were not commensurate. What worried me was the pervasive question; how was I going to afford my children's education? My wife and I would have to borrow heavily to send our children to college.

In 1981, fate played her hand in my life by reuniting me with two boyhood friends. Both were traders at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. After many conversations concerning their respective successes, a six month stint as a yellow coated nonworking clerk on the Exchange floor, and the willingness of these two friends to assist in launching my trading career, I made my decision to become a commodity futures trader. Enticed by the dollars and the freedom, I was hooked. Without training, and completely unprepared, I began trading. This was not a greate move, since I was giving up an assured income, a relatively stable future, and a life of tranquility. I started my new career along with one hundred other novice traders. Ten years later, I believe I was the only one of the original one hundres who remained in the business.

Gerry had not really considered changing careers until he met an old friend who was trading options at the Chicago Board of Options Exchange (CBOE). Seduced by the possibility of earning a better living for himself, he spent an entire summer watching his friend trade and learning the business on the floor of the CBOE, Agonizing over the question of whether or not to leave the career he believed he was born to pursue, this eternal optimist casehd in his teacher retirement fund to subsidize his trading career. His decision would lead to a whirlwind ride that would last no less than two decades.

When I began my trading career, I discovered, after making the commitment to become a trader, that there was no formal organized educational track. Unfortunately for me, my friends at the Exchange were too busy, too immersed in their own lives to help me learn what trading was all about. Similar to my Doctoral dissertation work, I was again to depend solely on my own initiative to succeed or fail. After realizing the difficulty of the undertaking. I made two commitments: first, to do what was humanly possible to learn to trade by trading, reading, thinking, and asking questions; second, to eventually develop an educational program for all those who would be interested in learning about a career in trading.

In 1990, I began developing my educational program by teaching two courses at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Be a Professional Pit Trader and Speed Scalping. In 1991, I developed a Saturday seminar entitled Pit Trading 101 for all those interested in pursuing a career in trading. Today, I continue to conduct Saturday seminars every other month. Also, in 1991, I developed a school for training traders called the University of Trading. Today, the program has grown to include three levels of learning to trade, BASIC, INTERMEDIATE, AND ADVANCED, taught by twenty-eight instructors. The concept of educating new traders has inspired the development of a software program entitled The Trader Improvement Series, to assist traders in reviewing their trading performance after each trading day, and the trading book you are about to read: Pit Trading: Do You Have the Right Stuff?

Gerry and I hope that our book will give you additional insight into what we believe has been a somewhat mysterious an difficult to understand endeavor. As of late, there have been many books written about trading. Unlike many of these, we believe ours will afford you an opportunity to learn and comprehend the actions of a pit trader as he executes his system of trading.

Contents:

SECTION I: On Your Mark

SECTION II: Is a Career in Trading For Me?
1. The Allure of Trading
2. The Positive Aspects of Trading
3. The Negative Aspects of Trading

SECTION III: The Anatomy of a Market
1. Market Basics: The Elevator Analogy
2. Science, Art or Just Plain Gambling?
3. The Roller Coaster and What Makes it Move
4. How Does it All Work

SECTION IV: The Anatomy of a Trader
1. You, Your Competition, and the Floor
2. 20 Traits of a Successful Trader
3. What Does it Take to be a Successful Trader?

SECTION V: So You Want To Be a Trader
1. Three Important Decisions
2. Five Trading Problems that You Cannot Anticipate
3. The Six Secrets of Trading
4. The Four Enemies of a Trader
5. The Ten Rules of Trading

SECTION VI: A Typical Trading Experience
1. A Day in the Life of a Seasoned Trader
2: Winding Down: What is the Answer?

SECTION VII: Some Final Thoughts About the Future
1. The Rise of Trading to a New Position of Importance
2. The Future Form of Trading
3. An Open Invitation to Future Traders