In the early 1980s, as the editor-in-chief of Commodities magazine, I was privy to a number of different trading ideas and techniques— so many, in fact, it was difficult to determine which was best or sometimes which had merit. This was during the heyday of innovations in the futures markets with the introduction of the cashsettlement concept in eurodollar futures, futures on broad-based stock indexes, crude oil futures, the pilot program for options on futures, and a number of other new contracts in areas where futures and options did not exist before. It also was the period when the personal computer was introduced and trading software was a new.
