Dan Sheridan

This is the third interview for the Chicago Board of Options Exchange special event: 3 Gurus Plus. This online webinar features The Three Gurus — Larry McMillan, Fari Hamzei, and Price Headley — plus a panel of their peers including Fast Money contributor Jon Najarian, CBOE Faculty member Jim Bittman, and former CBOE Specialist Dan Sheridan.

You can learn more about this educational event or register at www.cboe.com/3gurus.

Dan Sheridan is a true veteran. He has over 20 years experience running trades at the Chicago Board of Options Exchange. During that time, Dan trained other professional traders his craft. Now, Dan runs one of the few trading mentorship programs in the world: Sheridan Options Mentoring. I had the honor of catching up with Dan to hear some of his secrets to success:

Background

Dan Sheridan: I traded full-time for 22 years as a specialist at the Chicago Board of Options Exchange. As a finance major coming out of college, I liked the action and early hours. It’s a very family friendly lifestyle.

Damien Hoffman: Dan, how did you transition to your current business of training traders?

Dan: I always had a love for teaching and training. I trained 90% of our traders while I was a specialist. So, during my last 20 years of trading I also taught for the CBOE Options Institute.

I was convinced there was only one way to learn trading options: doing it over a long period of time and working on the craft. It’s no different than being good at any skill. At the time, most educational firms weren’t offering such courses. So, I jumped into the niche and started offering mentorships for retail traders.

Advice

Damien: What is your philosophy for mentorships?

Dan: Becoming ‘great’ takes time. If you can’t trade $6,000 well, you won’t be able to trade $50,000 either. So, when traders work with me we start where they are and grow from there.

We make real trades — none of this Disneyland hypothetical stuff. We teach our traders how to plan for this month’s trades and make 4-5 high probability trades. We do this month after month. We focus on monthly income. That’s a huge key to long term success in this business.

Speaking of business, that’s the key word. Traders need to learn how to run a business. They must set up a plan, execute, and get their income. All that matters at the end of the month is, “Did you make money or not?” I don’t care how smart people are, how many degrees they have, or how much they know about indicators. All we care about is running a profitable business.
Damien: What are three mistakes traders should avoid to create a profitable business?
Dan: People don’t have a plan to get from A to C.

People don’t practice the craft of trading. They spend tons of time on Fibonacci and Elliot Wave, but they don’t refine the craft of trading.

People don’t use similar vehicles and methodology month after month. This is the key to improving and creating stable monthly income.

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