September 8, 2010 in Contributors, Updates by John Forman

Contributor: Mike Reed

Trader, Educator
www.tradestalker.com

In 1979 Mike Reed was attending a BIG TEN college on a full ride baseball scholarship, and was being scouted by a number of Major League Baseball teams. However in the summer of ’79, while water skiing with some friends, he had a diving accident that abruptly ended his chances for a career in professional baseball. One day his father brought him the Wall Street Journal, pointed out the Options page saying, “You can make a lot of money from a little if you know what to do with those.” Mike’s interest was piqued, so he got a book on options and how to read a ticker tape. Watching the ticker tape, he began charting on paper, on 15 minute intervals, plotting prices and getting a feel for the price action. Thus began his obsession with the market.

In the mid ’80s Reed happened across a mentor – an experienced trader who helped him on his way. After a few years of following him on his morning market comment, Mike bought his first PC and some options pricing software, and developed a batch of his own indicators and patterns that give low risk/ high profit potential opportunities.

Mike continued to trade OEX Options for the next 4-5 years, and by the late ’80s/early ‘90s, started day trading the big SP Futures and the NYFE (tracked NYSE Composite), which at the time was known as the “poor man’s futures contract. Throughout the 1990s he participated in a number of investment and trading forums. The advent of the internet, and the thirst for knowledge of fellow traders spurred him to put his market observations into print. Through perseverance, drive, and hard work, in 1996 Reed started writing his daily short term trader update that has since grown to a wide readership.