Larry R. Williams is an American Investor, author, and politician from the state of Montana. He has been actively involved in trading the commodities, futures, and stock market for over 53 years and is the only futures trader to trade $1 million of his money at live events worldwide. He has made several trading indicators that are widely used, and also covered on this website.
He’s the author of the best-selling book “How to Prosper on the Coming Good Years,” which was published in 1982. The book accurately predicted the surge in economic growth and the most extensive bullish market in American history.
In this article, we look at Larry Williams’ early life and career, his trading indicators, and finally list some of his most famous quotes.
Larry Williams’ early life and career
Larry was born on October 6, 1942, in Miles, Montana. He attended Billings High school, Billings, Montana, and graduated in 1960. He was an athlete in school, and played for the all-state football team and sports editions of the school’s paper.
He began his trading career in 1962, and by 1965, Larry actively traded the market and began writing newsletters. It didn’t take long before he made significant innovative market research. His famous timing tool, The Williams %R, was developed in 1966. He published his first book on investment, “The secret of Selecting Stocks”, in 1970. Afterward, he wrote a second book, the first-ever on seasonality in the stock and futures market: “How Seasonal Factors Influence Commodity Prices, Sure Thing Commodity Trading.” Larry Williams still makes seasonal trades.
Larry studied at the University of Oregon: School of Journalism in Eugene and graduated in 1964. He was a member and national president of the Alpha Delta Sigma (an honorary professional fraternity). Also, Larry was a member of Sigma Chi at the University of Oregon, where he received the highest national award of “Significant Sig,” together with Brad Pitt, Andy Rooney, and other notable members.
He was one of the co-founders of “Rock N’ Roll Marathons,” which raised over $320 million for charities throughout the globe.
He has created many market indicators, including the popular Williams %R, cycle forecasts, COT indices, Ultimate Oscillator, accumulation/distribution indicators, market sentiment, and value measurements for commodity prices. He was the winner of the World Cup Championship of Futures Trading in 1987 which was organized by the Robbins Trading Company. He made a return of 11,300% (over $1,100,000 profit) from $10 000 in twelve months with real money.
However, Larry Williams trading record is still a bit of a mystery and so is Larry Williams net worth.
Larry is a benefactor of the University of Oregon, where he funds a six-figure scholarship in honor of his college professor, Max Wakes, but it’s eligible for Journalism and Communication students who have a demonstrated creative talent but have a low GPA.
As a politician, Larry was twice the nominee of the Republican Party for the US Senate in Montana. He defeated Bill Osborne and Clancy Rich in the 1978 Republican primary election with 35,479, a majority of 61.66% but unfortunately lost the general election to the Democratic United States Representative Max Baucus by 160,353 (55.69%) votes to 120,589 (44.31%). And then defeated attorney Willie Morris in the 1982 primaries by 49,615 votes to 6,696 but lost the general election to the incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator John Melcher by 174,861 votes to 133,789.
In 2018, he made a guest appearance on the NPR economics podcast, Planet money discussing his tax protest, extradition, and trial.
Larry Williams is also known as a tax rebellion. In the 1990s, he didn’t file the tax return because of a clause in the law, and later he was charged with tax evasion. The charges were settled a decade later and Larry Williams admitted he had been very naive.
Larry Williams trading indicators and trading strategies
As mentioned above, Larry Williams has constructed many trading indicators. We have covered the following indicators in separate articles and made them into Larry Williams trading strategies:
If you click on the links you’ll see how the indicators performed. As a matter of fact, we consider Williams %R as the best indicator for swing trading!
Just like we do on this website, Larry Williams does seasonal trading, but they use, of course, no indicators.
Other famous traders and their trading strategies
- Top motivational trading quotes
- How Jim Simons’ trading strategies Made 66% A Year (The Medallion Fund)
- Ray Dalio – life, investment strategies, and philosophy
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Ed Seykota – Trading Strategy and Quotes (Trend Follower Wizard)
- Jesse Livermore – The World’s Most Legendary Trader? (Trading strategy quotes)
- Richard Dennis – The Turtle Trader (trend follower)
- William Eckhardt – The mathematical trader (An early Nassim Taleb)
- Stanley Druckenmiller – George Soros’ left hand
- Paul Tudor Jones – Maverick Trader (quotes and strategies)
- Micheal Steinhardt – To Make Money Is Should Be A Little Painful
- David Einhorn – investment strategy and philosophy
- Bill Ackman – investment strategy and philosophy
- Steve Cohen – Stock Market Wizard
- Mark Douglas – All About The Correct Trading Strategy Mindset
- Steve Clark – hedge fund strategy market wizard
- Larry Williams – Indicator Innovator, Strategy Trader, And Tax Rebellion
- Jim Rogers – The Adventurist Macro Trader
- Larry Hite – All About Trading Strategy Risk
- Randy McKay – Market Wizard currency trader
- Michael Marcus – The First Market Wizard
- Charles Faulkner – trader and programmer
- Richard Driehaus – Turtle Trader
- Dana Galante – the Market Wizard short seller
- Linda Raschke – Reading The Music Of The Markets
- Nicolas Darvas – How I made $2,000,000 In The Stock Market
- David Shaw – the king of quant – trading strategies
- Van K. Tharp – The psychology of trading
- Larry Connors – Mean Reversion Trader
- Rob Hanna – Quantifiable Edges
- Ahmet Okumus – From Istanbul to Wall Street
- Steve Watson – Small cap investor
- Gil Blake – The master of consistency
- Blair Hull – All about the trading edge
- Howard Seidler – an original Turtle Trader (The Turtle Experiment)
- Steve Lescarbeau – mutual fund trader
- Tom Basso – Mr. Serenity
- Bruce Kovner – Trade Small And Manage Risk
- Michael Carr – Trader, Motivator, And Speaker
- Bill Lipschutz – FOREX trader
- Brett Steenbarger – All About Trading Psychology
- Joe Ritchie – an early quant in the option markets
- Micheal Masters – Stock Market Wizard
- Monroe Trout – one of the first Market Wizards
- Alexander Elder – Trading Author And Indicator Innovator
- Mark Ritchie – Master Option Trader (God In The Pits)
- Alphonse Fletcher Jr. – Triple Digit Returns
- Mark Minervini – stock market wizard trader
- Mark D. Cook – market wizard trader and investor (Net worth and strategy)
- Jeffrey Yass – the founder of Susquehanna
- Claudio Guazzoni – Multillingual trader
- Micheal Lauer – Stock Market Wizard?
Larry Williams trading strategy quotes
We end the article by listing a few of Larry Williams’ trading quotes:
The most common bad habit I have seen in traders – good and bad ones – is the inability to react correctly to market action.
The three traits speculators must learn to manage within themselves are confidence, fear, and aggressiveness.
People who make their living looking into crystal balls are destined to eat a lot of broken glass.
Randomness, the great muse of all market players, is one tough cookie to deal with.
FAQ:
– What are some key details about Larry Williams’ early life and career?
Larry Williams was born on October 6, 1942, in Miles, Montana. He started his trading career in 1962 and quickly gained recognition for innovative market research. He developed the famous timing tool, The Williams %R, in 1966. Williams authored the first-ever book on seasonality in the stock and futures markets, titled “How Seasonal Factors Influence Commodity Prices, Sure Thing Commodity Trading.”
– What is the significance of the Williams %R indicator, and how does it perform in trading?
The Williams %R is a popular indicator for swing trading. On this website, the performance of Williams %R and other indicators created by Larry Williams is covered in separate articles, showcasing their effectiveness in trading strategies.
– What challenges did Larry Williams face related to tax rebellion?
In the 1990s, Larry Williams didn’t file a tax return due to a clause in the law. Subsequently, he faced charges of tax evasion, which were settled a decade later. Larry Williams admitted he had been very naive.
