We believe good mentoring is crucial to learning and developing the skills and discipline necessary to become a successful, consistently profitable trader. We are committed to creating that mentoring relationship with every ATW client, every day, in our training courses, and live trade rooms. We have vast experience trading a myriad of trading techniques and styles, but have fine tuned and further developed them into a few powerful, reliable, trading methods that are simple to trade. Our lead mentors have a combined full-time trading experience of over thirty years.

Mentors

Jerry Simmons

I began designing, programming and trading systems in 1975 and traded part-time for the next ten years while working as a systems programmer and in data communications sales. In 1985, I realized a career goal by becoming a full-time professional trader so I could devote all of my time, effort and energy to trading.

Over the years, I have been involved with numerous projects and opportunities that included the design and development of neural networks, genetic algorithms, heuristic programming, artificial intelligence and applications incorporating fuzzy logic and chaos theory. While each of these disciplines offers specific benefits for trading, it's been my experience that the ‘old school’ approach of technical analysis provides a greater edge for achieving long-term, consistent success.

I began mentoring traders in 1995, initially working with close associates in the trading community. Over time, the circle of contacts began to grow and evolved into the Advanced Trading Workshop (ATW). In 1999, Andy Carlsen was one of a group of traders I taught in a weekend workshop. From the beginning, it was obvious Andy had a driving commitment and passion to be a successful trader. He quickly went through not only the basic training, but also each of the advanced level courses. After going our separate ways for a few years, we got back together in 2005 to form a partnership and take advantage of many obvious synergistic benefits.

Andy and I are dedicated to providing the absolute best training and support in the industry. Our goal is to help each trader become successful and ultimately exceed his or her highest expectations.

Andy Carlsen

I have loved the markets for as long as I can remember. When I was 6 or 7, I asked my dad what a ‘stock’ was, and he explained it to me in terms of the lemonade stand I was thinking about setting up in the front yard. I was hooked! Early in high school I was picking stocks from the Wall Street Journal and following them. By the time I was 17, I opened up an IRA account and bought some mutual funds with money I earned mowing lawns. I graduated from college with honors in Business. I have been a full-time trader for nine years.

I am a part-time youth pastor at a local church (I have always had a heart for high school kids—and still do!). I am married to my beautiful wife, Jennifer, and we have two amazing children.

I believe trading is the BEST business option available today—because of incredibly low overhead, no employees, time freedom (you trade when you want to trade)—and all this with unlimited earning potential! I jumped in with both feet, but honestly, I went about it ALL WRONG. I wanted to learn RIGHT NOW and making a living at it NEXT WEEK!

I started trading with too little capital and pretty much no experience. Believe me, I was VERY fortunate to have found my mentor (and now my good friend and business partner) very early in this experience. I would not be a trader NOW if I did not find Jerry Simmons so early in my learning process. What I paid Jerry to be trained seemed expensive at the time, but it was worth every penny! It cost me over half of my starting capital to go to Jerry’s house and receive my crash course training, but now here I am. I am not a multi-millionaire YET, but I support my family doing what I LOVE.

Having a mentor is the KEY to trading success. As much as you may think you can learn from books and seminars and by the seat-of-your-pants, the odds of being successful in this business increase dramatically when you have a mentor. Nine out of ten successful traders will tell you they had a mentor. Knowing this, why would you try to learn any other way?

About 6 years ago, I began to mentor and train other traders. I really had no credentials at the time, but I believed there were traders who would be interested in learning from an average guy who passionately loves trading and truly cares about helping others achieve their goals. I pride myself on my honesty and hard work and I hoped that both of those characteristics would shine through.

In 2004, I was contacted by a new trading software company named TradeGuider, whose CEO had been a client of mine a few years earlier. He asked me to run their internet trading room, which I did for about 9 months. Afterwards, I ran my own trading room and mentorship service until the end of 2005 when Jerry Simmons and I decided it was time for us to join forces. I believe Jerry Simmons is the best kept secret in the trading community and I am excited to be partnered with him. Our intention is to help as many traders as possible achieve their goals and be consistently profitable traders.

Jerry and I have been working together two and a half years, and I can honestly say things could not be better. The ATW is flourishing. We have had over 100 traders join our Mentorship Program and many more are involved in our Trade Room 101A. The greatest reward is all the positive feedback we receive from so many of our clients. To see them finally achieving their goals after working so hard is the real payoff for both Jerry and me!

Come join and join us on this adventure-of-a-lifetime. It is a glorious ride!

Best wishes, and I look forward to working with you,

Andy Carlsen

Support Team

Brian Coit - Brian is the ATW's Operations/Support and Sales Manager. He manages the ATW's daily operations and keeps everything running smoothly. If you have a problem with something, Brian is the person who will have the answer. Brian's e-mail is atwmentors@yahoo.com.

Mel Hardman - Mel helps the ATW with video recording and editing. The ATW would not be the same today without Mel.

Alex Fast Alex has two main roles at the ATW. First, he is an important contributor in ATW Mentorship Room, adding comments about ATW concepts, systems and tools. The feedback we have received since Alex took on this role in the Spring of 2009 has been overwhelmingly positive! Second, Alex creates and programs additional trading tools, indicators, and strategies for the ATW.