Recently, we’ve welcomed several new members into the Hawkeye Traders community.

I’m thrilled each day to see the growth and engagement in our Inner Circle, where traders of all styles and experience levels come together to talk shop and share strategies.

Now, anyone who knows me knows I’m not one to talk about myself too much.

But because we’ve had so many new members come aboard over the past several weeks, today I thought I’d do something a little different…

And tell you a little bit about my backstory and trading journey.

You see, I wasn’t always a professional trader.

In fact, my first career was as a research engineer.

For 14 years I worked with the U.S. Air Force, putting my dual Electrical/Electronic Engineering degree to use on many exciting projects.

(I suppose you could say it was “rocket science”… =))

I ended up going back to school to earn my master’s degree in Electro-Optic Engineering…

And as part of my master’s thesis, I developed a recurrent neural network that we used to solve many of the problems the USAF was facing at the time.

But what I didn’t know then was that same neural network would later help me understand… and even predict… the movement of the stock market.

Anyway, I’d gotten my first taste of trading in the late ‘80s when I dabbled in stocks…

But it wasn’t until the ‘90s when I was working full-time as an engineer that I really began immersing myself in the markets.

I spent every night and weekend studying trade positions in stocks, options and commodities…

And after a while, I got to be pretty decent at it… or so I thought.

Now, if you were around and trading in the mid to late ‘90s, you probably did pretty well.

Most of us did.

… That is, until the crash of 2000 came along and wiped out half of my account in the blink of an eye.

I quickly realized that I hadn’t been properly prepared for such an event…

So I began learning different ways to diversify my trading.

That’s when I entered the world of forex for the first time.

Now, here’s where my story really begins to mirror that of so many other traders…

You see, I spent a solid 2 to 3 years trying to figure out forex trading on my own…

And ended up blowing through 2 separate trade accounts in the process.

At that point, I decided I should follow a “guru” to learn the ins and outs of the market…

But after putting my faith in a few different so-called experts who got me no further than I’d been on my own, I went back to what I knew best:

Trading stocks and options and holding those positions for longer time frames.

Now, at this point I was still working full-time as an engineer.

After my work with the Air Force, I continued to do research and engineering for various government defense contractors…

But that itch to really master trading just never went away.

I kept my head down, kept working hard and trading as I had been…

And in 2005, I stumbled across the Hawkeye Traders website.

After analyzing the tools and educational resources on the site, I decided to give it a shot…

And I actually ended up attending a Hawkeye live seminar.

Well, needless to say I was impressed with what I saw.

For some reason, the Hawkeye system just clicked with me.

I bought the entire suite of indicators right then and there…

And spent the next few years developing my trade plan and learning to make consistent profits using the Hawkeye tools.

As my confidence grew, I decided to branch out and try my hand at the index futures market…

And from there, I began experimenting with all different markets and timeframes.

What I found was that by using the Hawkeye tools and the strategies I’d developed around them, I could be consistently profitable trading any instrument, in any timeframe.

It was at that point that I was able to quit my six-figure engineering career to take up trading full time.

Now, eventually, Nigel Hawkes — founder of Hawkeye Traders — noticed my success and asked if I’d like to come aboard.

Clearly, I said yes… and, well the rest is history.

Now, I’m not telling you all this to set myself up as some kind of “guru.”

I don’t run a stock selection service, and I don’t get paid to tell you where… or when… or how to trade.

No, I’m telling you my story for two reasons…

One, to show you that I wasn’t always the professional trader I am today.

Like so many other successful traders, I had to stumble my way to where I am now…

And I experienced plenty of failures and setbacks along the way.

But the second… and most important… reason I’m telling you this story is this:

So that you can see that it’s possible to become YOUR OWN trading guru.

That’s what’s so beautiful about the Hawkeye system.

With Hawkeye, you don’t need to rely on someone else to tell you what to trade… or when to trade… or how to trade.

Rather, Hawkeye enables you to become the best possible trader YOU can be, no matter what instrument, timeframe, style or strategy you prefer to use.

Of course, I can and will help you learn how to use the Hawkeye tools to their maximum potential…

But at the end of the day, it’s YOU who will put those tools to work…

And with time and persistence, you can become the master of YOUR trading.

That’s my goal for every single Hawkeye Trader.

Now if you’re not yet a member and would like to get a look at the Hawkeye tools in action…

Then click right here to attend a no-cost course and see exactly what they can do for your trading.

To your success,

Randy Lindsey

One of our members posted a great question this week inside the Hawkeye Traders Inner Circle.

Let me just say, I love interacting with our members there day to day…

But I also love seeing our members interacting with and helping each other.

The camaraderie is really something special…

And with so many traders of all different experience levels in the group, it’s an incredible resource for newer traders to learn and develop their skills.

OK, enough with the warm and fuzzies… back to the question.

Gregory asked, “What does tick speed tell you?”

This really is an important question, because tick speed is one of the most critical elements you need to understand as a trader.

See, tick speed is a measure of the actual number of trades taken per price bar.

Many traders don’t realize it, but tick speed is the most accurate way of measuring market momentum because it represents each change in price, irrespective of the time taken.

When you know the tick speed at which the markets are operating, it allows you to set your chart speeds in harmony with the changes in the markets.

That, of course, can lead to more accurate… and profitable… trading.

Now, that’s all great in theory…

But how do you actually measure and select the right tick speed in your day-to-day trading?

That’s where the Hawkeye GearBox and GearChanger come into play.

Here, let me show you an example from an E-mini futures chart:

On this chart, you can see 4 tick speeds that Hawkeye GearBox calculated on this particular day.

The three speeds annotated by the top three arrows show the optimal speeds you’d use to trade the E-mini in this situation.

Now, at the bottom of the chart you’ll see the Hawkeye GearChanger.

The GearChanger shows you the correct market speed at any given point during the day (where the bottom red arrow is pointing).

Because the tick speeds are color coded, you can quickly glance at the GearChanger to know exactly which tick speed you should be trading at.

So, when the GearChanger changes color — say, to orange — you know to trade off the appropriate orange tick speed, indicated by the GearBox value for orange (6,160 ticks in this case).

And there you have it…

A quick and dirty breakdown of tick speed, and how Hawkeye helps you trade at the optimal tick speed at all times.

Of course, the GearBox and GearChanger are included as part of the Hawkeye Professional Package…

But you can also get them as a stand-alone module to add to your Hawkeye Starter or Standard setup.

Just click here to learn more and grab your copy of the GearCombo Module at a special members-only rate!