Acknowledgments Chapter 1 How to Lose Nearly Half a Million Dollars in Ten Seconds Chapter 2 An Early Start to My Gambling Ways Chapter 3 Growing Up in a Small Town Chapter 4 More Mischeif Chapter 5 Girls, Girls, Girls Chapter 6 Tough Lessons Chapter 7 Learning the Hard Way Chapter 8 From Bad to Worse Chapter 9 When You Hit Rock Bottom… Chapter 10 The Slide Continues Chapter 11 A Shiver Down My Spine Chapter 12 The Bottom, For Real Chapter 13 A Still, Small Voice Chapter 14 Something Finally Goes my Way Chapter 15 Yet Another Mistake Chapter 16 A Turn in My Favor Chapter 17 Fresh Start Chapter 18 Hope Springs Eternal Chapter 19 So Close Chapter 20 The End of My World Chapter 21 Double Whammy Chapter 22 Hope Springs Eternal Chapter 23 Curveballs and Fastballs Chapter 24 A New Girl Chapter 25 A More Enjoyable Path Chapter 26 Up, Down—Again Chapter 27 Losing My Hero Chapter 28 The Aftermath Chapter 29 Fixing Another Mess Chapter 30 A Loving Father Chapter 31 Glory be to God About the authors

Do you know what it feels like to lose $480,000 in one day? Better yet, in just ten seconds? Maybe only a gambler or another trader can understand that feeling, that complete sense of loss. A sudden loss. Not being able to feel your limbs is very real, like your extremities are no longer attached to your body. Putting together a string of words for a coherent thought becomes nearly impossible. The earth beneath your feet falls way until reality sets in and you slam back into terra firma with a thud. That thud can drive a man to his knees. To either pray or suffer. I agonized in silence. I couldn’t tell my Kathryn, my wife of eleven years at the time. The day before I found out, I’d packed everything Kathryn, our six-year-old son Luke, and I needed into our Cadillac Escalade for a short trip to Atlanta. She needed dental surgery and after months of research settled on a doctor located there. Under the clear blue skies people love in the Sunshine State, we left early from our home in southwest Florida. We weren’t super rich like many in the area, but weren’t lining up for food stamps either. I drove the first few hours of the nine-hour drive. Somewhere between Sarasota and Tampa, I asked her to take over so I could check on the market. It’d have been easy for me to stay home and manage my accounts from there. This surgery was a big deal to her so I wanted to go for support and help take care of our son. She climbed into the driver’s seat and took off. I settled in the passenger seat. Between Tampa and the Georgia line, Interstate 75 has long stretches of wide open spaces dotted with thousands of billboards. The sometimes monotonous hum of the tires on the road can easily lull a passenger to sleep. With my satellite card and adapter from Radio Shack, I plugged in my computer. Ten, fifteen years ago, I wouldn’t have been able to accompany her on the trip. I would’ve stayed home,tied to my desk tracking the market on multiple monitors. But, like many occupations nowadays, modern technology has unchained me from my desk and allowed me to roam free. I roamed right into my market program while my wife barreled toward Atlanta. I let the computer boot up and everything seemed fine. Until I clicked on my actual trade system. A bright red light flashed repeatedly on the screen. My computer made a strange noise like it might lift off from my lap and fly about the automobile. I’d heard stories from friends who watched flames erupt from the vents in their laptops as the hard drive burned up. Worried that I might suffer the same fate, I snatched the adapter from the socket and powered down. I shoved my laptop back into its case and, thinking the problem was the adapter, figured I’d check on my account the next day. We got to the hotel around dinner time and settled in for the evening. I didn’t think about the computer or the market for the rest of the night. I should have.