The History of Traders Press, Inc.

Traders Press was founded in 1975 by Edward Dobson, current CEO and President, who has been an active trader in stocks for over 40 years, and in options and futures for over 35 years.

Ed's interest in stocks began at the early age of 12, when his dad suggested that he invest part of his savings in stocks. Jacksonville, Florida was the focus of his first trades (a whopping 10 shares each!), in Jackson Minute Markets and Ross Builders Supplies, in 1957. Both transactions made money, an omen and an auspicious beginning. His appetite for trading whetted, he began active trading of stocks throughout high school, and later at Davidson College, where he graduated with a BA in Business. By his senior year, he had graduated to futures trading. The first six months in futures proved disastrous, and resulted in a total loss of trading capital ($8,000). This was the first of many tuition payments to the "School of Hard Knocks", where Ed pursued and eventually obtained a PhD in "Trading The Hard Way". On a smaller scale, he replicated the experience of Jesse Livermore, i.e. making it (by saving), then losing it back to the markets.

After college, Ed served with the US Army (23rd Artillery Group) in Vietnam. Upon his safe return in 1970, he pursued his long held ambition of being a futures broker. His first job was with Kipnis Commodities in New York City, where he worked with Gerald Gold, author of one of the few texts on futures trading at the time, and with a number of former colleagues of Richard Donchian. He developed an avid interest in spread trading in futures. There were no historical charts of spread relationships available, and virtually no literature on spread trading. Ed spent weekends in the New York Public Library, where he painstakingly researched the historical data of hundreds of spread relationships in the Wall Street Journal microfilm archives there. He hand charted this research, going back for many years (at the time, there were no personal computers, nor electronic data).

In 1973, Ed moved back to his home state of South Carolina, and joined Harris Upham (which later merged with Smith Barney). There, he specialized in futures trading, with an emphasis on spread trading. He later obtained his Certified Financial Planner degree, and branched into a diversified array of financial products. In 1975, he self-published his first book, "Commodity Spreads: A Historical Chart Perspective", and Traders Press was born. A sequel "CS: Volume 2" followed, and in 1979, he published "The Trading Rule That Can Make You Rich*", which is still in print and one of Traders Press's best sellers to this day. In 1980, Ed joined Paine Webber, where he continued his brokerage career until 1992, when he left the financial services industry to spend full time with his blossoming publishing venture, which developed into one of the world's first and largest publishers and distributors of trading literature. Traders Press, Inc. initially published books authored by Dobson, but later expanded into reprint old out-of-print classics, and then into publishing books on trading from manuscript. Currently, Traders Press has over 70 trading books and courses in print, with several more currently in production.

Throughout this period, Ed pursued his interest in trading, which expanded to include an avid interest in options. Gradually, he "hit the big time" and became profitable…after years of diligent effort and study. At present, he continues to enjoy his involvement in his publishing business, helping other traders to choose the best materials to pursue their interest in trading, and is trading near full time in futures, stocks, and options.