Charles "Chuck” LeBeau began trading his first commodity system in 1963 and has been an active systematic trader in stocks and futures for more than forty years. Because he was actively involved in the research of trading systems many years before the existence of the personal computer his pioneering research was conducted using huge main-frame computers. He is the co-author of Computer Analysis of the Futures Market (McGraw-Hill, 1991) which is considered to be a classic work in technical analysis that is now published worldwide in seven languages.

After graduating from college in 1963 and being drafted Chuck served as a Captain in the US Army during the Viet-Nam era where he was granted security clearances five levels above Top Secret. After his military service was completed Chuck began his financial career at E.F. Hutton and Company where he served as vice president and Regional Futures Director. At E.F. Hutton he held numerous basic and advanced industry licenses in securities, futures, options, insurance products and his supervisory duties required him to be trained and registered as an office manager, corporate officer and principal of the firm. After E. F. Hutton went out of business in 1987 Chuck privately continued his extensive research on trading with technical indicators and founded a successful business as a Commodity Trading Advisor. He also went on to help start a small hedge fund where he was the primary trader who executed and monitored all the trading for millions of shares.

Chuck is a recognized expert in technical analysis and has lectured extensively to thousands of investors at numerous investment conferences throughout the world. He was hired as a paid consultant by the Bank of China, Citigroup and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority where he trained their currency traders in technical analysis and using computers to monitor and analyze the direction of the currency markets.

Chuck has been an active and respected figure in the futures and securities industries for many years. When the National Futures Association (NFA) was founded Chuck was appointed to the original Business Conduct Committee and served on that important committee for fifteen years. He has served as an arbitrator for the NFA and the NASD. He has also served as an expert witness for the US Attorney and was the expert witness for the prosecution in the famous “Billionaire Boys Club” murder trials.

In addition to his bestselling book Chuck has also authored many magazine articles about trading and is considered a foremost authority on technical indicators, particularly the Average Directional Index (ADX), Average True Range (ATR) and various exit strategies. He is well known as a pioneer in the research of exit timing and is the creator of the popular “Chandelier Exit” that has become part of many trading platforms such as TradeStation and MetaStock.

Several years ago Chuck retired to his home near Sedona, Arizona where he planned to spend most of his time playing golf and completing his new book about exit strategies. However due to his recognition that millions of investors needed a better method to exit their stock investments Chuck was persuaded to gave up his well earned retirement to help develop the SmartStops methodology and to serve as the director of analytics for the startup company.