Acknowledgments

I began investing in stocks when I was a Computer Engineering student in India. Though my capital was limited, I was a successful, and happy, investor. Then after finishing my MBA from the University of California, Riverside, USA, I went back to India and officially entered into the investment profession. I founded an investment services company that later obtained membership (seat) in India’s largest online stock exchange- National Stock Exchange of India Ltd (NSE). This was the period when I came in close contact with active traders and had a very close encounter with price fluctuations. And before I could realize it, I was infected with stock trading! I had turned myself into a trader from an investor and, like any novice trader, I was full of confidence about my success in trading. It seemed so easy to make my millions by tapping into this stream of fluctuating stock prices. In the beginning, I tried to play the game of trading with rules that I had learnt as an investor. Naturally it didn’t work. Then I tried whatever I read, heard or came across. Nothing seemed to work for me. Nothing seemed to work for any trader I knew. I was frustrated with my losses; I was frustrated with the way stock prices kept moving against my positions.

In those days, when any new client asked me about what advice I had for him for success in trading, I would tell him to find an inverter machine which could convert his buy orders into sell and sell orders into buy! The only way I knew for guaranteed success in trading for anyone was to sell the stock when he was thinking of buying it, and to buy it when he was thinking of selling it! The market most of the time seemed to act against an individual trader. I was no exception. I had learnt and used a lot of technical indicators but none seemed to work consistently. I was desperately looking for something that could help me improve my trading odds. Then in 1998, I attended a seminar in which my stock-broker friend talked about how to read prices. That day proved to be a turning point for my stock trading. So my first thanks goes to Mr. Jitendrabhai Mistry, Chartered Accountant and CEO of a stock-brokerage firm in Ahmedabad, India, who showed me for the first time that Prices were enough for trading stocks. In the seminar, he talked about methods developed by the Late Kantilal Parekh, a multi-skilled individual who had worked closely with Mahatma Gandhi during India’s fight for freedom. I was, and am still, impressed by the trading acumen of Mr. Parekh. I take this opportunity to convey a big thanks to Mr. Parekh whose trading methods transformed me into a successful trader. In 2003, I decided to write my experiments with prices in spare time and the result is what you are reading right now- the Profit from Prices book.

I am also thankful to Roberta Seaver who did a remarkable job in correcting mistakes in this book and making it more readable. She came to help me when my one-man mission to write this book was lacking something important. I am a numbers guy and English is not my native language either; writing is not my strength. So I needed someone to correct my grammar, help me organize my thoughts and give this book a formal shape so my thoughts and ideas could flow to the reader in a smooth manner.

When I started working on this book, I did not have any plans or ideas. All I wanted to do was to document my trading philosophy and timing strategies. I started creating a Word document on the computer at work. Being a computer literate proved advantageous as I could do most of the things myself- word-processing, image editing and creating a website (http://www.profitfromprices.com). Whenever I had some spare time, I would work on this project. Initially I cared about just one thing: content- getting my thoughts and ideas in a Word document. I never read back what I was writing. I knew anyone trying to read this half-finished book at that stage would easily get frustrated. Still, I kept sending it out when someone showed even a bit of interest. Around this same time, Roberta sent me an email probably after she had looked at some of my signals on the trading pages on my personal website (http://www.geocities.com/patel_jr) on the Internet. After sensing that she was interested in my trading strategy, I emailed her my book-in-the-making. I was looking for some voluntary feedback from someone. I did not know Roberta at all, and I guess I don’t know her much as of this moment either, but when she responded back with comments, I was really happy to receive my first official feedback! Not only that, she sensed where I was struggling. She offered to help me fix mistakes. Then with excellent editing and proof reading skills, she did a wonderful favor for me. Not only this, she fixed some of the fundamental mistakes I had made and this proved to me how intelligent and talented a person she is. I am really thankful to her for her valuable feedback and time in making this book readable and organized.

I will also take this opportunity to thank www.stockcharts.com and www.stockfetcher.com for letting me use their stock price charts for illustrations in this book. Last but not least, I am thankful to individuals like you who have shown great interest in reading prices and in this Profit From Price eBook. I am also thankful to the pioneers who invented the Internet and have made it possible for me to reach to like-minded individuals like you who may be thousands of miles away.

Best Stock Trading Book

Acknowledgments