Ken Roberts is known for being a direct marketing master. When I found his ad in the back of a Popular Mechanics magazine and sent away for more information, I had no idea what type of business he was even pitching. When the information arrived, I remember being taken in by it and immediately wanting more.
The business he was peddling was futures trading. This can be a very intimidating subject for people to comprehend, but his pitch was in layman’s terms and allowed me to believe I could successfully grasp these concepts too. I ordered his course titled The World’s Most Powerful Money Manual, and while I never employed any of his rather simplistic techniques to make an actual trade, I give him credit for introducing me to a love of following the markets ever since.
He made futures trading extremely easy to understand, but his method for achieving massive profits on a trending market were top heavy. Even as a neophyte trader, I recognized the instability of the upside down pyramid he was building. Sure, you can double your position with profit from the previous position and so on, and as long as the market is rising, you’re making money. However, there’s incredible leverage and risk trading on margin, and one limit down day in this type of scenario could wipe out all your gains and more.
This course was not cheap if I remember correctly, but I have absolutely zero qualms about this purchase. Even though I didn’t exactly follow it, this course material was responsible for influencing my many other course and book purchases on technical analysis, open interest and volume, options, etc.
I laugh when I think back during this time. I was young and still working a retail stock type job, but I was bringing the Wall Street Journal to work each morning (mid 90’s before everything was so readily available on the internet) so I could check commodity prices at lunch. I probably came off as pretentious, but that wasn’t my intent. I was just hungry for more market related information.
Over the years I have traded both futures and stocks with no real talent for it. I would say I have always been a break even trader, so despite all I’ve learned, I’m unable to translate any of it into substantial profits. I still loosely follow the markets though, even if I don’t have an active account open to trade.
I believe this is one of those areas where fortunes can be made with a conservative approach while following stringent money management rules. You might be asking, then why haven’t I made millions trading? Well, haven’t you been paying attention? I have the attention span of a fly when it comes to following through. 🙂
Hey, if Michelle Williams (yes, this Michelle Williams) father can teach her to turn 10K into 100K in a year and win the 1997 World Cup Championship of Futures Trading at the tender age of 17, it’s a skill capable of being taught.
But more on Larry Williams later…