Ever since I was a sophomore in high school, I always wanted to be involved, in one way or another, with the financial markets. I was completely fascinated with trading after taking part in a mock trading contest. I thought it was the greatest thing anybody could do in the entire world and I made it my life’s ambition to do it. When I was twenty-one years old, I finally got my chance as a clerk for a local trader in the S&P 500 futures pit at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. Shortly thereafter, I set out to trade the commodities market at the age of twenty-two. Looking back on it now, the story is really quite amusing. I had no idea what I was doing, but took a small lump of saved money and starting executing commodities futures trades based on seasonal analysis. To make a long story short, I got extremely lucky, and never looked back. A year later, I decided to take an opportunity that was presented to me, and tackled the rough arena of scalping NASDAQ equities. As a proprietary trader for Hold Brothers On-Line Investment Services LLC during the 90’s bubble and the crash which soon followed, I was one of the most successful firm traders in both the Manhattan & Chicago branches. When I look back on that experience now, I realize how fortunate I was. Back then, electronic day trading was the Wild West in the financial business, and those of us that were able to take advantage of it, did very well. When the bubble was done bursting and the volatility dropped to almost nothing, I took a much-needed break and got away from the markets for almost two years. When I returned, the markets I had made my name in had changed dramatically. Stocks had lost most of their value and volatility was disgustingly low. Equity prices were now quoted in decimals instead of fractions, which put a serious damper on the potential profitability at the time. So, I decided to move over to index futures, where I felt the potential to make money was better. I had to totally re-invent my trading, and I tried many different methods. It was Auction Market Theory and Market Profile, however, where I had my breakthrough. I was very active in the online community at the time, and was sharing my findings in chat rooms and forums, but the inquiries and responses became too much for me to handle. I decided to start Balancetrader.com in 2006 in order to deliver my method to the masses. When e-books were the norm, I set out to create a video library of content, embracing the technological advances in online media delivery. I take pride in that because nobody was doing that at the time. Now, my time is spent doing occasional speaking events and delivering new content via my BT Outlook blog. My main focus, however, will always be keeping a hands-on relationship with the index futures market, and being there to help all the dedicated followers and supporters of Balancetrader. There is nothing more gratifying and fullfilling than having someone tell me that I have helped them mature as a trader. Well, maybe I am lying a bit. Grabbing twenty handles on the ES might trump that. 
Thanks for visiting. I hope my site can help you in your progression.
Frank Butera
