Blog

As many of you know, I used to blog and tweet fairly actively. All that changed a few months ago when I started work on “the book”, which grew into a project that would consume my life beyond what I ever imagined. I originally pitched a book to three publishers (and had it accepted by all three, which was a bit of a shock) that was intended to bridge the gap between an academic research-oriented perspective and practical trading. It was also to be a book that would take a trader from beginner to successful trader, all in the space of 400-odd pages. As with many creative projects, my early vision underwent significant revision as the project matured.

I will talk about the process of writing and revising a work like this in a future blog (if there is interest), but a few points are most relevant. It became apparent early on that, as much as I wanted to connect to beginning traders, a book could not be adequately addressed to beginners and cover the topics in sufficient depth. So, in some ways, I abandoned the efforts to teach beginning traders the basics, though I intend to bridge that gap in other ways. There still remained the issue of the two audiences I address, but I solved that problem by creating an entire part of the book specifically targeted to the issues and struggles the developing self-directed trader is likely to face. The rest of the book, I believe, is equally relevant to both institutional managers and individual traders. Lastly, but perhaps most importantly, I had the structure and order of the book all wrong. Linda Raschke read an early draft, in which I had very clearly laid out a beautifully constructed argument from academia to practice with a fairly deep look at modern finance theory, and she pointed out that the book was essentially backwards. After a complete rewrite and restructuring (not fun with 250,000 words), the book now begins with practical ideas and lessons that many traders can immediately apply. The substantial statistical research and theoretical support now brings up the rear.

The manuscript has moved on to production, and so much of the work is crystallized in its final form. We are now estimating approximately 900 pages (though I have been told they may increase the dimensions to reduce page count), with over 400 charts and 50 tables in the text. I’m very excited about what I have accomplished here. There is much information that I’ve never seen in print, and I think that many traders across a wide range of instruments, styles, and timeframes will find ideas that can enhance their trading significantly. I will talk more about the contents and approach in the near future, but, for now, let me leave you with a table of contents:

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