Miller - Chronicles of a million dollar trader: my road, valleys, and peaks to final trading victory

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Copyright 2013 by Don Miller. All rights reserved.

All charts created using TradeStation. TradeStation Technologies, Inc. 20012013. All rights reserved. No investment or trading advice, recommendation or opinions are being given or intended.

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.

Published simultaneously in Canada.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Miller, Don, 1961

Chronicles of a million dollar trader : my road, valleys, and peaks to final trading victory / Don Miller.

pages cm

Includes index.

ISBN 978-1-118-62789-1 (cloth); ISBN 978-1-118-62773-0 (ebk);

ISBN 978-1-118-62779-2 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-62778-5 (ebk)

1. Stocks. 2. Investments. I. Title.

HG4661.M55 2013

332.6092dc23

[B]

2013005316

Preface

For years, I said no to numerous requests to write a book on trading for many reasons. First, I believed that my online trading journal at donmillerblog.com was a better way to get my thoughts across to the trading community on a current basis, initially as a detailed trading diary and then in a manner that shifted focus away from me and more toward intensive trader education, motivation, and industry activism. A book, on the other hand, unless properly crafted, runs the substantial risk of becoming dated the minute the ink dries. So, the first hurdle to be overcome by any bona fide author is to create lasting content that will forever stand the test of time.

Second, even though the title of this book, Chronicles of a Million Dollar Trader , accurately depicts my 2008 through 2009 journey in which I earned more than $2 million in 18 months by trading equity index futures intradaylargely as the result of a self-imposed one-year $1 million challengeI didn't want to write a book that was a story primarily about success, nor did I want to put something forth that might encourage prospective readers to leave behind their current pursuits and talents to follow in my footprints. This is because as you'll read in the coming chapters, the virtual feet that created such prints have been bloodied, battered, and bruised as I stumbled and tripped my way through my own humanity toward a goal that seemed ever-elusive. And although I did ultimately reach my objective and beyond, the journey didn't come without a certain degree of personal and family sacrifice and hardship.

Third, there is substantial risk when writing what is largely an autobiography that despite best intentions, personal ego and pride will slip in. Yet, as any successful trader will tell you, both character flaws are among the leading causes of failure in the trading world, just as they are in life. Plus, any success I've been granted over the years has been largely rooted in the foundation of failure. Read that last line again and you may have unlocked several secrets to life itself! So, another challenge I'd have to overcome as an author would be to put forth content that would focus as muchif not moreon my failures than my successes.

Fourth, from a pure business perspective, a good trader can make far more profit from directing his or her energies toward trading than by writing. Any author of a trading book will tell you that the royalties are minimal at best and that the resulting distraction usually isn't worth the financial loss.

Finally, in terms of intended educational benefits, it's impossible to teach anyone to trade solely via a book. As is the case in any performance-based field, successful trading requires intensive education, years of experience, and the ability to hone and maintain the skills necessary to navigate the ever-changing seas of the financial markets. As such, for these reasons and more, for years I've turned down requests to write such a book.

Then came a call from Laura at John Wiley & Sonsa leading publisher in the financial world with a reputation for quality and high standardswho encouraged me to formally document and supplement my existing journal in permanent book format. As publishing ideas and discussions began, though, I was reluctant, as I made it clear from the outset that if we did something, it would have to be done in such a way to hold true to the values I've tried to maintain since beginning trader educational and advocacy efforts in the late 1990s.

Then the parallels began. Here was an opportunity to write a nonfiction version of my entire trading journey along the lines of the classic Reminiscences of a Stock Operator (Lefevre [1923] 1994), another Wiley book long regarded as one of the top trading books ever published. Much had changed since then, including the increased abundance of shorter-term trading opportunities, improved technologies, market access advances, and evolving regulation. Then, there was the opportunity to tell that rare story of someone who quietly but ardently prepared for years, reaped a substantial reward, and didn't subsequently give it back . Too often, we hear of investors, celebrities, professional athletes, and lottery winners who let it all slip away, sometimes as quickly as they earned it. There are also the modern-day real-life versions of Gordon Gekko (the lead character in the movie Wall Street ) who have added new wrinkles to the long-running objective of ensuring that the market doesn't take your money, as now we have the game of ensuring that your broker doesn't abscond with your hard-earned money.