Interview  |  JUN 2006

Interview: Chuck Dukas Of TRENDadvisor.com by Jayanthi Gopalakrishnan

Stocks & Commodities V. 24:6 (62-66): Interview: Chuck Dukas Of TRENDadvisor.com by Jayanthi Gopalakrishnan Chuck Dukas is principal in a hedge fund and president of TRENDadvisor.com, a website that provides trading recommendations and educational and training services to better equip the trader to understand the markets and prepare traders to trade independently. He is the author of The TRENDadvisor Guide To Breakthrough Profits: A Proven System For Building Wealth In The Financial Markets, which is a comprehensive guide to trend analysis and how it relates to trading and investing plans, published by John Wiley & Sons. This interview combined phone and email questions and answers, starting on April 10, 2006, conducted by STOCKS & COMMODITIES Editor Jayanthi Gopalakrishnan. Q: Chuck, how did you get interested in trading? A: From the time I pursued graduate work in finance in the early 1980s, I spent every moment could working on technical analysis. I spent endless hours and years developing and testing algorithms. I was looking for the holy grail of trading. I know now it exists, but not as a trading system. It lies within us. The holy grail really is the discipline to follow a plan or methodology. From that I developed the diamond analysis, which was a result of my desire to develop a system with repeatable success for any skill level. Soon I realized I had to record the methodology, which is why I wrote the book. Q: What, in your opinion, are the most important decisions any trader has make before placing a trade? A: There are some questions you have answer before you place any trade. The questions are: 1. Do you have a plan for that trade? 2. Will the trade be a long-term trade or swing trade? 3. Will your stop be a hard stop or a mental one? 4. What would the trade look like if it fails? 5. If you’re going long, do you have a first objective where you will harvest a portion of the profit? 6. Think of a trader as being a builder of a home. Would that builder construct that home without a set of plans? Success comes with a blueprint, and the more times you duplicate that design, the more dependable the outcome.

by Jayanthi Gopalakrishnan