Frequently Asked Questions


Bill’s Futures Trading Secrets online course is for Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced Level traders and those who aspire to trade and make money trading. If you are just starting, we recommend you purchase and study Trading For A Living by Dr. Alexander Elder, and Trading In The Zone by Mark Douglas first. Also, you can see what Bill’s students say about his Futures Trading Secrets course before making your purchase.

Q: Will these rules work in all markets and all time frames?

The markets are basically fractal in nature. This means that the patterns repeat on all time frames as do the indicator signals. While some markets are more volatile and others are sleepy and trending, you can use our signals for day trading as well as for swing trading. We do not trade stocks any more due to our desire for better tax breaks and more leverage, not to mention the up tick rule. We do have students using our approach on index futures, stocks, options, ETFs, QQQs and spyders.

Q: What is special about your course?

Three things that are not found in other courses:

1. Mental Tips on “How to Pull the Trigger”, overcome negative action patterns and how to anchor proper trading behaviors before you trade with real money.

2. Money Management Rules on how to maximize profits and minimize risks on each and every trade. You know the potential risks and rewards before you trade.

3. Twenty market time hours of complete annotated videos of real markets as they develop. Trade signals are clearly called out with ALL the indicators we use.

Q: How many trades per day will the approach yield?

You should expect an average of two to four trades a day. There is always at least one great trade setup a day. There are many profitable trading opportunities a day in the S&P market, as many as forty points per day available if you wish to trade everything. Only a few days (day long trends) will be difficult and we tell you how to spot them and avoid them. See our track record. We did a study of how long normal trends last (5.5 points) in today’s (2016 volatile market) we are seeing many 71 – 11 point runs.

Q: What type of market works best with your methodology?

The trading strategies are designed for both trending markets and non-trending markets. You can trade in all market conditions. We tell you how to identify and trade trending markets, how to identify the end of a trend and how to trade a trading range market. You will use the same indicators but look for different patterns in those indicators. We have students who trade the DAX, all eMini markets, FOREX and the Chinese Hang Seng Index.

Q: Do you provide a Guarantee?

Yes and No!

Yes: We guarantee that you will have all the tools necessary to become a successful trader and that you can contact us at any time for clarification or assistance with any part of the course. We provide periodic new trading videos, webinars and online counseling as well.

No: We provide no refunds without proof you actually used all the resources provided and practiced on a SimBroker at the very least. So we will just be honest with YOU. This is a risky business and you need to understand there are no guarantees and that success is up to YOU. Trading is part science and part art. See our full guarantee policy.

Q: I am considering other courses. How do I choose the right one for me?

Yes. The goal of the FTS course is simplify your trading into a few specific rules that give you high probability trading opportunities. Most who study get rolling in just a few short weeks.

The FTS course gives you a complete trading plan including entry and exit criteria. It also includes a complete set of money management rules and psychological guidelines for trading successfully.

Q: I’m not ready to start trading just yet, should I go ahead and purchase your course if I’m not quite ready to start trading?

Of course, it’s never too early to start studying and preparing yourself for that one day you are finally ready to start trading. You can never study and prepare enough – the more you study and prepare – the better you will do when you actually start trading. Even if YOU’re not ready to start trading now.

I would not suggest SimBroker trading real-time while you thoroughly study and learn my course. Ask youtself this question: Does a surgeon operate first or study and learn the procedures first? Of course the answer is they study and prepare long before they start operating. Why should trading be any different? My course will not only prepare you to start trading, but it will teach you the procedures to trade profitably.

Q: Where can I learn about futures or commodity trading?

YOU should look at both the links to Future Trading Risks and review the NFA file on our site. For an excellent summary of technical analysis you may want to purchase “Trading for a Living” and the companion workbook. This is where we started many years ago and it is still appropriate to review today. Because there are so many books on trading you can really get lost. Review our learning experience to see our path. None of these books will give you the signals or trading methods we use, however.

Q: I have Trade Station, Ninja, or another charting program. Will your system work on my program?

Yes, and No. We no longer support Trade Station. We cannot support Ninja because its charting program will not support our indicators. We use and recommend Ensign because of its very robust SimBroker feature. You can get a two week free trial to test the feature.

Q: Is this theory or practical knowledge?

This course is based on repetitive patterns that occur in all markets. We explain the theory but show you how the theory can be profitably executed from our personal trading experience. We trade this systematic approach ourselves. Nothing is held back.

Q: If this trading method is so good, why are you selling it and giving away your secrets?

The course was developed when we needed to put our trading principles into a personal Trading Plan. Everything necessary to set up a complete trading business is included. We make it available at a reasonable cost for those who want to save time and money to develop a potentially profitable trading business with a minimum investment of time and money. We also try to put to rest all the “oobliah” hawked on the Internet about making big bucks trading with no effort. This takes work!

Q: What charting program and data feed do you use?

It makes a difference which data and charting program you use. We use tick charts rather than time charts so it is very important that the data be correct. We’ve tried many data feeds over the years and settled on DTN IQ feed because their data comes directly from the market; not so with many others. DTN IQ has been voted best data by traders for over 12 years. You may also use Trader Bytes.

We also recommend Ensign Software as an add-on to Trader Bytes. Many reasons again: here are few:

Ensign was designed by guys who have been trading for over 40 years.

YOU get free updates at least twice a month so you get all the latest stuff

It does tick charts better than anybody including eSignal.

It has a Demo feature that allows you to download actual market data from the past three months, then replay it at 2-10x speed to practice trading.

We give you our templates and workspaces so you can traded exactly the way we do.

It also has a built in SimBroker that dings you 1/4 point on market orders, allows bracket trading and you can use against both the Demo data and the actual market.

It has one special indicator that we use called Pesavento Patterns that is a great early warning signal for exits and market turns. It is a combo Fib, Pivot Points, and Support and Resistance all rolled into one that is dynamite.

Because we recommend you practice until you get to 70% hit rate with at least a 2/1 win loss ratio, this has help all of our students do much better in the market.

One thing, Ensign allows you to use several data feeds, so you do have a choice if you need to use a satellite. My choice is always for the best tools if you are going to trade with your money at 100 to 1 leverage.

Q: How long does it take to learn?

That depends on YOU. We give you all the settings and signals, even our templates for Ensign. We suggest you practice trading with a SimBroker until you reach at least a 60 – 70% confidence level. That can take a few weeks to a month. Refer to our examples on the Money Management page.

Q: How many monitors do I need?

The system is designed to be used even on a laptop. Optimal use is with two (2) monitors; one for charting and one for order execution and news.

Q: Will I be able to trade using the FTS course?

Yes. The goal of the FTS course is simplify your trading into a few specific rules that give you high probability trading opportunities. In fifteen years most who study get rolling in just a few short weeks [ep[;e

The FTS course gives you a complete trading plan including entry and exit criteria. It also includes a complete set of money management rules and psychological guidelines for trading successfully.

Q: How much technical analysis is used in your course?

We explain everything is simple English. While technical analysis is the basis of our trading signals, the rules are simple, and for those who want explanations, we provide them. The best analogy is that you do not need to know how to build or fix your car in order to drive it. Our teaching method is one of learning to recognize the signals on the videos and how to apply them in trading. There are over Twenty (20) hours of market time training in the FTS course. You can play them as often as you like.

Q: Can a Beginner use this course?

Yes. We provide all the necessary tools to trade successfully. We also provide references and tools for those who want to do additional study. We offer help to those who have already been trading, but not too successfully. Bad habits and trying to trade every single bar are the greatest reasons for failure. Our approach is one of discipline and patience. Instead of literally hundreds of setups, we focus on only two chart formations that have an 80% probability of success.

Q: What size trading account do I need?

We learned a great deal from a few traders and not much from a lot of others. We did figure this out ourselves and currently trade several accounts both small ($5K) and larger ($100K+ ) that proves it will work for all trading account sizes. We set our stops at 2.0 -1.5 points and our goal is 3.5 – 5 points per trade. With even a 40% correct rate, you can make money with this approach if you trade it consistently.