During the past 35 years, many people have helped explain a technique, showed me the right way to solve a problem, cleared up a confusing bit of thinking, introduced me to new methods, or have been exceptionally supportive.

David Krell, President of the International Securities Exchange, continues to give his time generously to help educate and move the financial industry forward. John Deuss of Transworld Oil provided the leadership and organization to foster system development on a level that was unprecedented during the 1980s and early 1990s. Robert Krausz, a great gentleman and trader, shared his work with me during the past 20 years.

A special thanks to those extraordinary technicians, programmers, and mathematicians, who have patiently explained many of the complex methods and processes that I couldn't get right the first time: Bill Brower, of The Inside Edge, for answering those questions about TradeStation programming that I couldn't figure out; John Ehlers, the developer of MESA, who makes mathematics seem easy, and who kept explaining the same solution in different ways until it was clear; Carsten Lund, Klaus Walczak, Rudolf Naujack, and Lutz Borgiel, the team at ARIAD, GmbH, in Hamburg, Germany (www.ariad.de), for their help checking the formulas and technique in value-at-risk and the genetic algorithm application to portfolio allocation; and Jerse Halliday and Ian Nield in Wellington, New Zealand, who worked with me on mean-reverting techniques, genetic algorithms, and Monte Carlo simulation.