Alexander Elder

Alexander Elder was born in the Soviet Union, grew up in Estonia, and escaped to the United States by jumping ship in Colombia in 1974. He worked as a psychiatrist in New York before becoming interested in financial markets and developing a second career as a trader and author. His 1993 book "Trading for a Living: Psychology, Trading Tactics, Money Management" became one of the best-selling books in the history of trading education, combining three critical elements that most trading books address separately: the psychological challenges of trading (managing fear, greed, and loss), technical analysis tools for identifying trading opportunities (MACD, Force Index, Elder-ray), and money management principles for portfolio survival. The book has been translated into dozens of languages and has sold millions of copies globally, making Elder one of the most widely read trading educators in history. He also developed the Triple Screen trading system, which combines trend-following analysis across multiple timeframes with an oscillator for entry timing. His follow-up books "Come Into My Trading Room" (2002) and "The New Trading for a Living" (2014) updated and expanded his framework. Elder continues to run trading education seminars and "SpikeTrade" competitions globally, and maintains an active presence in the trading community.