Introduction
In December 2007, at the age of 46 and after numerous starts, failures, restarts, and distractions, I decided to take a drastically different approach to my on-again off-again passion of trading equity index futures. Although successful by most standards, I believed that my results were simply not reflective of a far deeper potential, similar to an iceberg that has a significant proportion of its mass below the water's surface. Further, because I was only a few years away from the half-century mark with a retirement nest egg that in my view was less than optimal due primarily to a splintered focus over the years, I had a growing need to maximize opportunity in such a way that would provide longer-term financial security for my family.
In addition, as a multitasking trader, columnist, and trading educator with a deep personal conviction that people should develop self-sufficient financial management skills to the extent time and circumstance permit, I believed that I was becoming the proverbial jack of all these trades as it related to the financial markets yet master of none. Add a growing irritation with naysayers who didn't understand the true business of trading and suggested that trading was irresponsible gambling or that any degree of market success was either impossible to attain or due solely to dumb luck, and I felt a growing desire to “walk the talk.”
The “Race”
My solution? Dedicate myself for an extended period of time—in this case, one year—in such an ...
