Q: David, you've been teaching people to trade for quite
some time now. What motivates you to teach people what
you know?
A: I've always liked
to help people learn. Prior to trading, I was
involved with sales and sales training for several
companies. I'd written training manuals for most of
them. I found that I really enjoyed doing that. It's
a great feeling to be able to put something together
that people can learn from. The Internet is going to
be the worlds best "school". It gives someone like
me a classroom that stretches around the world. This
would just not have been possible before the
Internet was available. It's an exciting time we
live in. (Since this interview in 2000, we now have thousands
of students on every Continent, including
Antarctica, and in over 67 countries).
Q: I
understand you only teach technical analysis, so that
means that you don't listen to the news right?
A: I feel the news is reflected in the
charts before it's even seen or heard in the news.
99.9% of us are on the low end of the food chain
when it comes to news. By the time you hear it, it's
already "old news". You just can't trade based on
it. You need to be aware of it, but to trade based
on it is crazy. I don't watch the news on TV and I
don't read about it in the paper either. I just
watch the charts. To try and keep up with all the
news, weather forecast around the world, etc. that
could effect commodity prices would be impossible
for the average person. The average person can learn
to read and analyze charts though.
Q:
How easy is all this to learn? I've picked up some books
at my local bookstore and I have to tell you, I was
lost. It seems kind of intimidating. Can anybody do
this?
A: I think that anyone with a little
common sense and self discipline can learn to trade.
I found that when I first started learning how to
trade, I got lost. Information overload so to speak.
There are so many "systems" out there telling you to
do this or do that, it can be very confusing. It's
not just one way to trade. It's very individualized.
Each person trades a little differently than the
next.
The first thing that people
need to do is to learn the basics. After that, you
can start to develop your own method of trading, or
system if you will. You can't do that unless you
first learn the basics. I wrote my course to teach
people the basics. It's a good place to start.
Q:
From what I see on the news and read in the papers
trading is becoming very popular. I mean, there's no
boss, no hectic commute to the office, no product
overhead, and it seems that a lot of people are making a
ton of money doing this. How can I do it? I don't have
any fancy degrees or even a college education.
A: I didn't even finish college and
struggled through high school because I was bored
with what they were teaching. It held no interest
for me. When I first got interested in trading back
in 1996, I became an avid student. I read everything
I could lay my hands on. I went back to school, so
to speak. At first, it was confusing because of the
conflicting information that I was getting. One
person said to do it this way and someone else said
to do it that way. That's when I decided to go back
to the basics.On of the greatest football
coaches in the world, Vince Lombardy, always started
the season by telling his players, "This gentleman
is a football". He had the right idea. Start with
the basics. I try to do the same thing with my
students. I start out with something like "This is a
chart".For me, this is a great
business. I have never liked to work for someone
else. I've always liked to work for myself in one
way or the other. I don't have an office that I have
to get up and go to every day. My office is in my
home so I have a 10 second commute. I work when I
want to, take off when I want to, I don't have
employees, and my overhead each month is minimal.
I like the freedom that it
offers. You know that I love to ride touring
motorcycles. I like long rides and long trips. This
week I'm going to ride from Denver down to Deming,
NM which is only about 50 miles from the Mexican
border, about 800 miles or so from Denver. There is
a big BMW motorcycle event there on Saturday. I've
got a lot of friends that I ride with and I'm trying
to get a few of them to take off three or four days
and ride down there this weekend with me. Most of
them find it very hard to get off work or to leave
their business and just go. I don't have that
problem. If I want to go somewhere, I just go. I
don't have to worry about taking off work or leaving
the office to go. It's a great feeling to have that
kind of freedom.
Q:
OK. So I know this is a great business...but what can
your course do for me?
A: My course can teach you the basics
and then some. I decided to write it because there
was nothing out there that I thought was very good
for a new trader. Don't take that wrong, there is a
lot of good material out there. The problem I found
with most of it is that it's either too basic or to
advanced. Take Ken Roberts TWMPMM as an example.
It's a very good basic course but it just doesn't go
far enough in my opinion. I was one of the many
people who bought that course thinking it was all
that I needed to know. I learned the hard way that
there is a lot more to trading than is contained in
that course. Then look at Larry Williams. He is a
great trader and his material is very good but he
doesn't teach the basics. It's very advanced and the
average person could get lost if that is all they
study. There are also some great books by authors
like John Murphy who I like a lot. But then again,
it's somewhat dry and not easy for a new trader to
understand.My course was written to
take someone from the basics up to some of the
advanced techniques that that are being taught. It's
the only course I know of to do that. (Since this interview, Common Sense Commodities was
rated the #1 Course on the market!)
Q:
What about the risk? Everyone tells me I could lose my
shirt doing this. How can you teach me to control risk?
A: Of course there is risk in trading. You can lose your shirt
if you don't know what to do. On the other hand
there is risk in anything you do. Is there any
business that does not have risk? I've never found
it. Ask a farmer if he has risk in his business, or
a doctor, or a truck driver, or a salesman.
Now that I've said that, let
me say that you can learn to control some of the
risk in trading. I teach that to my students and in
my course and we will teach that on this forum. One
must learn to control his risk or else he won't be
around long enough to keep trading. You can learn to
control the risk and that's what's important.
Q: I
hear people talk about paper trading. What is this?
A: Paper trading is simply practicing
what you learn on paper before putting real money in
the market. I don't know of any other business that
you can do that. Could you imagine trying to "paper
trade" a McDonald's franchise for a few months? I
stress the point to all my students to learn to
paper trade first. Never put real money in the
market unless you have paper-traded for a long time
and are consistently making money on paper first. If
you aren't making money paper trading, you certainly
aren't going to make money trading real money.
Q:
How about when I am done reading and practicing what
you've taught me? Can I still reach you then? Can you
help me continue my education?
A: Of course you can still reach me. I'm
not hard to find. I'm here almost everyday on the
forum and all the students have my home telephone
number. I only have one course that someone can buy.
I know that there are people out there that "bait"
you with an inexpensive course and then try and sell
you $5,000 worth of additional "course materials".
I've got integrity than that. I just won't do it.
You mean I don't have to buy anything else?
I don't have anything else
to sell you. I am going to be doing seminars around
the country next year and that is something that the
students can attend if they want to. (Since
this interview I have held dozens of seminars in the
USA, Canada, Europe, South America)
Q:
What about Options? Do you cover them in the course?
A: I talk about options in the course.
It is not a course on trading options, as it is
geared towards trading futures. Options can be a
great place for a new trader to start since there is
100% risk control in certain option strategies. But
a new trader must understand futures -- the
underlying instrument of options -- first. Options
can also be used in conjunction with futures to give
a trader even more control of their money. We will
be talking a lot about options here on the forum
over the next few months too. And before I forget to
mention...there is a Common Sense Options course in
the works for later this year. ( I will
soon have a new course on trading options entitle
"Common Sense Options; A Common Sense Approach To
Trading Options". The scheduled release date in June
2006)
David, I
think I am beginning to understand how valuable this is.
Thanks for your time.
