Certified Instructor

Course Overview

Scott is an ex-floor trader who won't teach you some magic formula for how to trade, but he will teach you how to use math, common sense, and basic understating of the markets to develop your own trading plan. This 12-week course includes phone and web conferencing hours for individuals as well as a weekly two-hour formal presentation of the topics outlined below. This course, according to Scott himself "Should progress someone from a basic understanding to, at the very least, being able to tell the fortunate from the fortune tellers and the wheat from the chafe…

Course Outline

The program runs 12 weeks and covers the following topics.

Week 1: Basics of the Market Place

• Bid/Ask and How the Floors Operate
• Carrying Charges
• Choosing a Broker
• Choosing Your Markets
  • Margins
  • Min/Max Moves, Standard Deviations, Etc. (Risk/Reward Profiles)

Week 2: Basics of Probabilities

• Chi-Square
• Z Score and Looking at Risk vs. Reward
• Gamblers Ruin & Applying Basic Probabilities and the Random Walk

Week 3: Counting to Develop a Trading Plan

• Pulling Data from TNT to Count
• Using the Data to Test
• Using TNT to “visually” test
  • Final Test After “Counting”

Week 4: Answers are the Easy Part, Questions Raise the Doubt

• Testing Ideas
  • Momentum
  • Indicators
  • Easy Patterns
• b. Applying Statistics to Tests
  • Avg Profit/Loss
  • Rallies (Draw Up)
  • Breaks (Draw Down)
  • Trip
  • X2 and Z Scores
• Using Statistics To Figure Out if Ideas are Random or Tradable
  • The Theory of Ever-Changing Cycles
  • Trade a Pattern/cycle Until it Stops Working and Always Look for New Ones

Week 5: Basics of Money Management

• Risk of Ruin
• Gambler's Fallacy
• A Degree of Discipline

Week 6: Building a Basic Trading Plan

• Entry Signal
• Tests and Data
• Examining the Results
• Money Management
• Incorporating It with Seasonality

Week 7: Options

• Basics (Put, Call, Long, Short)
  • Time (Theta)
  • Movement/Sensitivity (Delta/Gamma)
  • Volatility (Vega)
• Basic Strategies
  • How to Read a P&L Chart
  • How They Are Built
  • Using TNT Option Simulations

Week 8: Credit vs. Debit Spreads

• a. Debit Spreads
  • i. Big Reward vs. Risk (usually)
  • ii. Higher Probability of Loss
  • iii. Guess Where the Market Goes
• b. Debit Spreads
  • i. Small Reward vs. Risk (usually)
  • ii. Higher Probability of Profit
  • iii. Guess Where the Market Doesn’t Go

Week 9: Using Options, Spreads and Futures to Fit Your Account

• a. Incorporating Patterns and Tests on the Vehicle Traded
• b. Learning to Think for Yourself
• c. Measure Thrice and Trade Once

Week 10: From Left Field... and Beyond!

• a. Contrarians Indicators
  • i. Options Ratios, Magazine Covers, etc.
• b. Relational Indicators
  • i. Super Bowls and Beyond….Correlation Tricks and Traps
• c. From the Moon and Beyond
  • i. Count First and Avoid Basic Traps of Testing
• d. Data Concerns
  • i. Data Availability
  • ii. Data Revisions
  • iii. Applicability Still

Week 11: Keys To Survival in the Market

• a. Independent, Logical and Rational Thought
  • i. Following Others is Like Chasing Tail… Fun, but Dizzying
• b. Risk Management
  • i. One Must Survive to Prosper
• c. Adaptability
• i. Cycles/Patterns are Ever-Changing. Always Remember That!

Week 12: Summing it All Up

• Course Review.