Joe Ross is a trading legend, having made a living from the markets for – hold onto your hats – 58 years. He has been trading and investing since his first trade at the age of 14. Currently, he is a well-known and respected master trader and investor. He has survived all the ups and downs of the markets because of his adaptable trading style, using a low-risk approach that produces consistent profits. Joe is the creator of the famous Ross Hook setup, and has set new standards for low-risk trading. He has written twelve major books and countless articles and essays about trading. All his books have become classics, and have been translated into many different languages. In addition, he runs the website Tradingeducators, teaching his trading methods and providing resources for traders. Today, we have the great opportunity of speaking with Joe Ross about his approach to the markets, insights he has gained from trading, and his vast experience from trading for more years than almost anybody else on the planet.
TRADERS´: Joe, we can only guess at the wealth of experience you gained throughout the years. But first of all, let us begin with how it all started. When did you first hear about the markets and trading, and how did you get – in a positive sense – “addicted” to it?
Ross: When I was 14 years old, it was common for mothers to stay at home and fathers to go off to work at a job or business. However, my best friend’s father was usually at home during the working day. I assumed he had some sort of medical problem – that he was a person unable to work. My friend and his family lived quite well in an upper class neighbourhood, and they owned a new car.
I remember asking, “Is your father disabled? Why is he always home?”
The answer was, “No. He is fine. He does his work in that room, the one with the glass doors.”
“Well, what does he do in there?”
“I do not know. Why do you not ask him?”
So I tapped on the glass door, and asked “What is it that you do in here?”
The answer was, “Well, if you really want to know, come in and I will show you.”
My friend’s father walked over to a closet to pull out a roll of paper, which he then unrolled onto a drafting table.
He said, “I work with this chart, and others just like it.”
All I could see were a lot of things that looked like sticks, and so I asked, “Your job is drawing sticks?”
“No, those represent stocks, not sticks.”
“What is a stock? Does a stock look like a stick?”
He began to describe what stocks were, and to tell me that the sticks represented the prices of a company’s shares of stock. I was fascinated that he could make money from what turned out to be a simple bar chart.
At that time, both of my parents worked. My parents had to suffer through the daily rush-hour traffic, which was quite heavy. However, my friend’s father was leading a much more leisurely life, and I decided right then that I would learn how to trade stocks…
Reproduced with permission of TRADERS’ magazine, October/November 2015, pages 104 – 105
TRADERS´: Joe, we can only guess at the wealth of experience you gained throughout the years. But first of all, let us begin with how it all started. When did you first hear about the markets and trading, and how did you get – in a positive sense – “addicted” to it?
Ross: When I was 14 years old, it was common for mothers to stay at home and fathers to go off to work at a job or business. However, my best friend’s father was usually at home during the working day. I assumed he had some sort of medical problem – that he was a person unable to work. My friend and his family lived quite well in an upper class neighbourhood, and they owned a new car.
I remember asking, “Is your father disabled? Why is he always home?”
The answer was, “No. He is fine. He does his work in that room, the one with the glass doors.”
“Well, what does he do in there?”
“I do not know. Why do you not ask him?”
So I tapped on the glass door, and asked “What is it that you do in here?”
The answer was, “Well, if you really want to know, come in and I will show you.”
My friend’s father walked over to a closet to pull out a roll of paper, which he then unrolled onto a drafting table.
He said, “I work with this chart, and others just like it.”
All I could see were a lot of things that looked like sticks, and so I asked, “Your job is drawing sticks?”
“No, those represent stocks, not sticks.”
“What is a stock? Does a stock look like a stick?”
He began to describe what stocks were, and to tell me that the sticks represented the prices of a company’s shares of stock. I was fascinated that he could make money from what turned out to be a simple bar chart.
At that time, both of my parents worked. My parents had to suffer through the daily rush-hour traffic, which was quite heavy. However, my friend’s father was leading a much more leisurely life, and I decided right then that I would learn how to trade stocks…
Reproduced with permission of TRADERS’ magazine, October/November 2015, pages 104 – 105