Part IV
Birth of the Jellyfish
The Genesis
As 2009 evolved, on the heels of having exhausted much of my immediate passion, I initially turned down many requests to reenter the world of formal trader education for several reasons not unlike those for initially shunning opportunities to author a book. After all, I'd been highly critical of the lack of quality trader training programs in the industry, and the last thing I wanted to do was to be perceived as wanting to “cash in” on my most recent successes, even though I had previously been a profitable equity trader and trading instructor in prior years. In fact, I had actually halted an earlier educational offering a few years earlier due to what I believed was excessive marketing over which I had little control.
Yet as we reviewed in Part I, one problem with this perspective is that the records show that my early on-the-job-training years of trading futures between 2001 and 2003, although resulting in gains prior to commissions, actually resulted in a six-figure net loss due largely to an inappropriate retail cost structure that few understood how to correct. Plus, there were all the other mistakes that, although they can never be completely eliminated, could have at least been reduced. As has often been said, “If I only knew then what I know now.” As such, I thought that perhaps a unique program, if properly designed and done right—and it would have to be done right—could make a small difference in the world of trader education ...
