John F. Carter - Mastering the Trade, Second Edition: Proven Techniques for Profiting from Intraday and Swing Trading Setups

Copyright 2012 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the United States Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

ISBN: 978-0-07-178826-7
MHID: 0-07-178826-3

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To everyone out there who is giving trading for a living a shot.
And heres to courage. Have the courage to take a loss
so that you will have a chance at keeping some of your profits.

PART 1 :
TRADERS BOOT CAMP:
How Do the Markets Work and What Are the Best Ways to Get
Mentally Prepared for Successful Trading and Investing?

PART 2
WHAT ARE THE BEST INTRADAY AND SWING-TRADING SETUPS FOR FUTURES,
STOCKS, OPTIONS, AND FOREX?

PART 3
HEADING BACK INTO THE
REAL WORLD OF TRADING

Writing and trading have a lot in common in that they are essentially solitary professions that are made much more enjoyable by having people who are willing to lend a helping hand. With regard to this project, I would like to first thank Hubert Senters and Priyanka Rajpal for holding down the fort while I was working on the nightmare. Also thanks for your contributions to this project, which helped to keep me sane toward the end when things were getting crazy. Although the book deadline was firm, July soybeans were moving, and I couldnt just ignore them.

Thanks to Kira McCaffrey Brecht, Gail Osten, and everyone at SFO Magazine for helping me to realize that writing about trading could be a worthwhile thing to do. Larry Connors and Eddie Kwong at Trading Markets for advice along the way and for keeping me on track with this original project, making sure I didnt spend a lot of wasted time reinventing the wheel. Kelli Christiansen at McGraw-Hill for initially contacting me about this project and turning it from idea into reality, and to Executive Editor Stephen Isaacs at McGraw-Hill for helping to keep the first edition of this project on track.

I thought I could rest easy once I had completed the first draft, but little did I know that the real work was about to begin. Thanks to Bill Shugg, Tim Sambrano, Pamela Snelling, and Don Allen for reading early drafts and providing feedback. Also thanks to the staff at McGraw-Hill, who performed the herculean task of bringing this bookboth the first edition and the second editionto life: Scott Kurtz, editing supervisor; Maureen Harper, production supervisor; Alice Manning, copy editor; and Eric Lowenkron, proofreader. Thanks also to Mark Douglas for insightful feedback in the later stages of the project.

For help with my trading and trading related projects along the way, Id like to thank Marcia Wieder, goddess of Maui, for kicking things off with regard to my leaving corporate America and trading full time. Scott Sether, who was truly in this from the beginning, for helping to redefine the term market research. Tracy Alderman, Rosa Hernandez, and Michael Duwe, for helping to get things kicked off. Page Rossiter, for keeping me on track during the transition. Skip Klohn, as an early mentor in the process. Eric Corkhill where do I start? Thanks for acting as a consultant on a multitude of topics, and thanks for giving me enough red wine so that I remembered only the good stuff the next morning.

Thanks to Barbara Schmidt-Bailey and Jeff Campbell at the Chicago Board of Trade, and Marty Doyle at One Chicago for good ideas and great feedback along the way. John Conolly, for a multitude of solid insights into the business. To the gang at Mirus, for continued support. To the gang at Newport, for clarifying what not to do and how not to do it. Cooper Bates, for keeping me on track on the meaning of it all. Steve Patrow and Becky Herman, for keeping things entertaining while I was in the beginning stages of this journey.