|  DEC 1995

Four Decades with Joe Ross by Thom Hartle

Interview: Four Decades With Joe Ross by Thom Hartle Planning ahead, being mentally tough, being physically fit and knowing why you're doing what you do is very important. Don't just throw yourself at the market. You go in when it's the right time to go in. You look for an opportunity and even if you're wrong in your timing by a little, you don't give up. You go back and try it again. -- Joe Ross There's nothing like a little perspective to give insight - especially when that perspective comes in the form of trading for nearly four decades. Trader Joe Ross is one of a rare breed of trader, one who has seen the world change in front of him and been able to adapt to its changes. Further, Ross had a mentor to teach him the ropes of trading long before that word came in vogue. STOCKS & COMMODITIES Editor Thom Hartle spoke with Joe Ross via a telephone interview on September 20, 1995, and spoke to him on a variety of topics, among them how to get mentally prepared to make larger trades, why discipline is important, why seasonality is important, how he started day trading, how fundamental analysis works into all this and the true way to make money trading - by not going for the big score, just taking from the markets on a day-to-day basis. Q: Tell me how you got started as a trader. A: I started trading more than 38 years ago. When I left the service, I went to work for my greatuncle, who was a commodities trader, and I worked with him for a little over a year. He taught me the basics of the business. Q: What were some of the key things that he taught you? A: He taught me what the business of trading is really all about. He prepared me mentally for trading by forcing me to develop the needed discipline. He taught me how to operate as a businessman. He wasn’t too worried about technique as much as making sure I prepared mentally for the inevitable things that would happen, for losses that would occur, for getting beat up in the market. His lessons were the things that got me through the early days.

by Thom Hartle