Todd Rampe,Creator of the Pro9Trader suite of indicators and trading method

Title-> Todd Rampe, creator of the Pro9Trader suite of indicators and trading method This excerpt is taken from a recent article with Todd Rampe, creator of the Pro9Trader suite of indicators and trading method, based in Ls Vegas, NV. It is a perfect example of a step by step, simple approach to day trading the futures markets. This method can easily be learned, in just a few days, by people with no trading experience, whatsoever.

This was taken from a recent article with Todd Rampe, creator of the Pro9Trader suite of indicators and trading method, based in Ls Vegas, NV. Question: Todd Rampe, you are the founder of Academy Day Trading. Can you explain the gradual evolution of your business? What were you doing before?

Sure, prior to developing Pro9Trader, beginning in 1998, I've been a full time trader... early on it was the OEX options and Stocks, however, my main focus turned to day trading the emini S&P 500 and emini Russell markets at the end of 2000, and since then, I’ve added several other markets, like Crude Oil, S&P Mid Cap 400, and of course the Dow and Nasdaq futures.

After a few years and a few ups and downs, I learned how to be consistently profitable.

Funny thing... the expectations I had in the beginning, were almost impossible to achieve... how long I thought it would take me to learn, as well as the amount of money I thought I'd be making, was way off the mark.

In the beginning, I was fortunate to have some great months... as a matter of fact, while I was studying the OEX options, I figured out a way to trade the Stock Analysts' Daily Upgrades and profit an average of two percent every day. I'd put my trades on in the morning and shut the computer off and only pay attention when I turned it back on 15 minutes prior to the close to sell everything.

Looking back, I was trading like a cowboy.

I quickly discovered margin, doubling my daily buying power, which, overnight increased my average monthly profit to almost six figures... not bad for someone that just started.

I compounded my profits every day, with the goal of making a million dollars in six months.

This was 2000, and the combination of Regulation Fair Disclosure and more importantly the Dot Com bubble wiped me out. I was trading without stops and subsequently paid a hefty six figure price. Within a week I lost over $400K. That was a very hard lesson, let me tell you.

It took me some time to regain my confidence, and this time, I vowed to never enter another trade without a stop loss. Something I'm proud to say I've done with every trade since.

When I started trading again, I was looking for the leverage I enjoyed with a margined stock account, because I was now trading a much smaller account, but I still wanted to see that daily percentage increase, knowing I could turn it into a small fortune.

So many people underestimate the power of compounding and simple math... something I like to call Ben Franklin thinking.

Now fast forwarding a little...

To hear the rest of this story, click the link below and discover how you can implement a highly dependable trading method developed by Todd Rampe. www.academydaytrading.com In 2004, I started eminiWealth as a day trading chat room, where I would call emini S&P 500 trades live, in real time. That was a real eye opener, as far as the behavior of most day traders. I learned early on, that most traders, regardless of experience or account value were making poor trading decisions, and rarely following a trading plan, if they even had one. The 80/20 rule applies to just about everything, and it was my experience in the trading room, that only twenty percent of the members were taking the trades... the rest seemed to be in this constant state of "gearing up, or "getting ready" to pull the trigger, regardless of how many trades they watched me take, or how much money I made in the room. There was this fear that plagued most traders, and it didn't just affect the same people, it was almost as if they took turns suffering from this paralysis from time to time.

I'd ask why pay for the service, if they're not going to take advantage of it... I would call the trades, live, with plenty of time to for everyone to place their orders, and still only twenty percent would take them... I'd tell them, “I can't reach through your monitor and click the mouse for you... you've got to do this yourself.�

In the trading room, I was projecting my charts so everyone could see my indicators, and after a few months, it dawned on me, that, even though the indicators were visible and I was reading them and deciding when to place a trade, they still almost became mesmerized by them, and suffered the old analysis paralysis.

That's when I started interviewing traders, trying to understand their behaviors and habits, trying to get to the root of this major problem. My research uncovered a similar trait... most traders have an incredibly difficult time deciphering and believing the indicators they use... for good reason.

The indicators that we all get for free with our trading platforms do not hold up.

If they did, they wouldn't be free.

You've heard of putting blinders on a horse... think about that... the horse doesn't get scared and he behaves better when he can't see the things that distract him, right?

Well, I discovered when a trader can't see the indicators that have always hindered his performance, and can only see the signal or hear the trade being called, his results sky rocket.

That is the premise behind my Top9Trader automated software... it doesn't have any visible indicators, it just shows the three key things we traders want to see...

The Entry Price The Profit Target The Stop Price Along with trading, I have been investing in real estate since 2004, and in 2006, my wife and I decided to move to Mexico. One night over dinner, I said "listen, I can trade from anywhere in the world, so why don't we move to a place that we'd like to vacation, so when I'm not trading, we're in this fantastic place?"

Doesn't that sound like a great idea?

Within a week we were in San Carlos, Mexico, on the Sea of Cortez... and, within 6 weeks, we were living there.

I got to work on the software, and figured it would take a good 6 months to complete.

I hired a senior programmer/manager, who in turn managed a group of programmers, and once a month I'd make the 7 hour drive to sit with them in the US. The 6 months turned into 4 1/2 years of R&D to get the system to perform to our high standards, and from the start we agreed that we should witness 1000 trades before we made it available to the public.

Top9Trader signaled it's 1000th trade in mid 2010, so I knew it was time to move back to the US, knowing I'd have to be here to successfully market the software.

We decided to move to Las Vegas, for a couple of reasons, a huge reason was you could buy houses for 35% of what they cost to build.

We've been here 2 1/2 years now and love it.

2. How do you determine what clients to take on? What specifically do you look for?

There aren't any factors that determine which clients we work with... we offer the software to anyone interested in trading the markets... both experienced traders as well

as first time traders. As a matter of fact, I'd say that 35% of our customers have never traded before. I find them to succeed right out of the gate, because they have no bad habits to unlearn, and typically don't have the fear that a lot of experienced traders have developed.

Don't get me wrong, the experienced traders do just fine, on average, they just take a little longer to come around. After wasting enough time comparing the Top9Trader signals with their indicators, they finally give up once they realize their indicators never worked in the first place.

3. This new marketplace is dominated by tech savvy programs and highly profitable trading programs. What kind of analysis package and features do you offer? And, is the user interface easy to use for the average investor?

Yes, there certainly are several programs out there... the high end tech savvy variety are usually in the hands of investment banks and hedge fund managers, and priced well beyond what a non-professional trader can afford, if they're even available. Most of the other programs typically rely on a new way to trade the same old indicators, we've all had access to for years.

At eminiWealth, we offer just one software program, Top9Trader.

Our software automatically plots the trades for both the emini S&P 500 and the emini Russell markets.

We take pride in the fact that we offer a professional level software program to the average investor, trading his or her personal account, and feel it's the perfect combination of sophisticated analytics using our proprietary algorithm along with ease of use... I like to say, if you can send an email, you can use our Top9Trader software. It requires no experience, since it literally plots the trades right on your screen, without any indicators confusing trading decisions.

The ease of use question reminds me of a conversation I recently had with a customer... he was complaining about how complicated his new smart phone is... he said, remember the old phones that you just made calls with... that's what I love about Top9Trader, it just tells me what I need to know... what price to enter my trade, and what profit and stop should I place... simple.

You know, there's an old line in marketing and sales... "a confused mind always says no." I learned that most traders are rarely confident in the indicators they're using, get overwhelmed by their charts and just sit on the side lines doing nothing... the last thing they want are more bells and whistles.

4a. How long does your software take to produce a profit? Does the software give investors the ability to hedge certain trades?

Since Top9Trader is plug and play, meaning you can literally turn on your charts from day one and start trading the signals, the profitability depends on the trades of the day or week, and whether or not the trader takes every signal. We've had customers that buy the software, start trading the next day and just happen to start at a time where the software is on fire... they call us a couple weeks later wondering why we're selling it. On the other hand, unfortunately, we've had the opposite happen. You just never know what the market will give us, but statistics prove that taking every trade will produce fantastic results.

4b.Does the software give investors the ability to hedge certain trades?

The software was designed to directionally trade the markets on an intra-day basis, so if you have trades that are opposite the S&P 500, on an intra-day time frame, I'm sure you could, but I've never used it that way, so I can't offer any advice.

5. Does the software initiate trades with the goal of collecting rebates from the exchanges and/or detecting institutional order flow? Or can the software be used more on the retail side of trading?

No, not at all. It is strictly for the retail trader.

6. Some programs are designed to automatically front run investors. How do you avoid such pitfalls?

We don't put any of our focus there, simply because our typical customer is trading their personal account with a relatively small number of contracts, and don't attract the attention from those types of programs. The software was designed to give the small trader an edge, and prevent them from over trading and relying on indicators.

7. What do you say to the argument that high-speed traders provide liquidity to markets and narrow spreads? And, what are some advantages to trading E-mini contracts?

Theoretically, it makes sense, but there are some serious pitfalls as well. I was just reading about this yesterday in the New York Times, and I'm paraphrasing here... this new study by the chief economist Kirilenko, at the CFTC, reported that high frequency traders make an average profit of as much as $5.00 each time they go up against small traders, and that they are taking some cream off the top.

They went on to say that the average aggressive high speed traders made an average Daily profit of over $45K in a month in 2010... with 20 trading days in a month, they're making almost a million dollars. Is it wrong... I don't know, but common sense tells me the little guy pays for it, and doesn't have a chance in competing.

The man that taught me how to trade about 14 years ago summed up our strategy with the following statement... he said "Todd, we are the pilot fish on the whales back"... meaning we should jump on for quick ride and get off in one piece.

That's why I am technically a scalper. I've been very good at picking the very short term direction, but whenever I ventured into trend following, I didn't fare so well.

Some advantages to the emini contracts are liquidity, electronic execution, tight spreads and patterns that are repetitive. It may be an electronic market, but it's the habits of the traders that are predictable... at least for that very short term I just mentioned.

8. What has been your greatest success and greatest failure?

Wow, initially that's a hard one, because I instantly think of a dollar figure for both answers, but when I take another second to think about it... that's not it at all.

One event is responsible for both...

My greatest failure was trading without stops and ignoring the basics...and trading way too much money, way too soon.

That event gave me my greatest success... being able to bounce back from a catastrophic loss in the beginning... one that put me in the poor house.

I went from a new Range Rover, a new boat, new Harley's, and First Class trips all over the world... at a moment's notice... to macaroni and cheese... practically overnight.

9 What are your goals for 2013?

To market our Top9Trader software effectively, so thousands of people have the opportunity to trade successfully using something my team and I created.

I've also been working on organizing a private trading facility