Juan was born in 1956 and educated in Caracas, Venezuela, but moved to Brazil to get a degree in Veterinary Medicine. In 1980, he moved to Canada for his MSc and PhD in Veterinary Pathology. After post-doctoral studies in the U.S., he worked as a pathologist at a pharmaceutical company in New Jersey. This is when Juan started to explore investment opportunities in the stock market (early 1990's).
After reading “Beating The Street” by Peter Lynch (1991), he began to invest in individual stocks based on fundamental analysis. He recognized that fundamentals could change quickly, and that there were patterns and logic to the apparent chaos of stock charts, as described in Robert Precter's “At The Crest Of The Tidal Wave." But it was only after reading “Elliott Wave Explained” by Robert C. Beckman that he began to implement Elliott theory to trading individual stocks. In 1995 he moved to Southern California and started his private Pathology consulting business, which left significant amount of time to trade in the stock market.
Prechter theorized that the bull market would come to a sudden end by 1995. Ironically, this did not materialize for five more years, so Juan was a happy participant in the “internet bubble” of the late 1990’s. Realizing the predictability of the markets, thanks to the channeling method, Juan began to trade call options almost exclusively in 1995-1996. Using the Elliott wave theory, he identified important lows in momentum (mostly technology) stocks to enter short-term option calls, then exiting when the impulse waves were completed. Juan found comfort in identifying reversal candlestick patterns at bottoms as well as tops, as described in “Candlestick Charting Explained” by Gregory L. Morris.
On September 29, 2000, an event occurred that would shake Juan’s life as a trader for years. One of his main stock holdings, Apple Computer Inc. (AAPL), declined overnight from $52 to $28 per share, marking the beginning of the bear market. Soon Juan found how much more difficult it is to trade options to the downside than to the upside by Elliott theory. He ceased trading until October 2003, when he attended his first Optionetics option trading course, to be followed by the advanced course in January 2003. Although Optionetics offered little new information, it stimulated Juan into thinking about options in a creative way, as a method to limit risk and to maximize reward, and never to place a penny in individual stocks to avoid a debacle like the AAPL stock.
It took over three years until Juan regained his confidence after extensive back-testing of various option strategies and exploration of different Elliott wave software programs (AdvancedGet, Refined Elliott Trader). In May 2005, Juan started his blog to communicate with like-minded traders. During this period, he continued to evaluate more option strategies while searching for a relatively safe way to trade without having to be at the computer day-in-day-out in order to profit from an unpredictable market.
After almost five years of blogging and publishing over 400 articles about options and Elliott wave theory, Juan has created this website (OptionsVet.com) to share his insights with both beginners and advanced option traders, and to establish a forum, in which to exchange ideas and to teach others how to increase the potential and consistency of their profits.
