The Day Trader's Course: Low-Risk, High-Profit Strategies for Trading Stocks and Futures
Book Details
- Author: Lewis Borsellino with Patricia Crisafulli
- Categories: Day Trading, Risk Management, Futures & Commodities
Quick Summary
Veteran S&P futures pit trader Lewis Borsellino distills decades of floor trading experience into a structured day trading curriculum, teaching low-risk entry and exit strategies, real-time pattern recognition, and the mental discipline required for consistent intraday profitability.
Detailed Summary
"The Day Trader's Course" by Lewis Borsellino with Patricia Crisafulli, published by John Wiley & Sons in 2001, draws on Borsellino's extensive career as one of the most successful S&P 500 futures pit traders at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. The book is structured as a practical course rather than a theoretical treatise, reflecting Borsellino's belief that day trading is a skill that can be systematically taught.
The text covers the fundamental mechanics of day trading across both stocks and futures markets, with particular emphasis on the S&P futures that formed the core of Borsellino's trading career. He details the infrastructure required for electronic day trading, including platform selection, data feed requirements, and order routing considerations that were critical during the early 2000s transition from floor to screen-based trading.
Borsellino's approach emphasizes low-risk entries -- identifying price levels where the risk/reward ratio strongly favors the trade -- rather than attempting to predict market direction with certainty. His methodology integrates multiple technical approaches including support and resistance analysis, moving averages, and intraday chart patterns, synthesized through the lens of order flow understanding developed during years of floor trading.
The risk management framework is central to the book's philosophy. Borsellino stresses the importance of predefined stop-loss levels, position sizing relative to account equity, and the discipline to take losses quickly when a trade premise is invalidated. The course structure builds progressively from basic concepts through intermediate strategies to advanced techniques, allowing readers to develop competence incrementally. The psychological dimensions of day trading receive substantial attention, with Borsellino drawing on his own experiences with both spectacular wins and devastating losses to illustrate the mental challenges of intraday speculation.
