Times change! Part 1 of this series explains why the old 1-Day Goodman workflow gave way to a short-term, cut-to-the-chase approach, the FireStarter, for today’s 24-hour markets.
How Charlie and I Traded in the Early 1970s
When Charlie and I traded commodities at Peavey in the early 1970s, the 1-Day charts were the short-term charts. We typically found Setups on the 1-Week charts and Overlays on the 1-Month continuation charts. For entry, to find the Dagger, Charlie and I both kept Cohen 3-line Point & Figure charts.
In another Substack post I talked about the Goodman Smoothie: how far down do you go before you pull the trigger on a trade? Charlie believed in drinking all the Smoothie all the way down! But that was then and this is now.
In those days the commodity markets opened (Mountain time) 6:30–8:30am and were pau by 1:00 PM. The CBOT grain markets were open less than four hours. We had plenty of time to analyze the markets for the next day, especially using 1-Day charts. After a typical morning of trading, we’d drive downtown and visit Charlie’s pal Jerry Peters at Bache & Company. We’d read the market letters, and Charlie would hold court as brokers brought him charts to read. Then perhaps we’d grab a bite to eat in the Bache lunchroom and listen to the latest rumors. Next, we’d head to Charlie’s Denver house and spend the afternoon studying the charts.
Charlie, especially, spent a lot of time with the 3-C Principle of Goodman Wave Theory, often going one or two levels forward with Secondary counts hoping for a cancel, doing “counts” on the individual swings and throwing in some abductive Laydowns along the way.
Why That Doesn’t Work in 2026
Alas, that is just not possible for the FOREX or even the futures trader circa 2026, with markets open 24 x 5 and 15-minute or even 5-minute price charts being standard.
In the old Goodman Trading Room, which typically ran from 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM, we often held extended sessions into the wee hours “Trading the 5’s,” meaning the 5-minute charts. From this we developed a cut-to-the-chase Goodman technique christened the FireStarter.
Who the FireStarter Is For
Danger, Will Robinson! This technique works only for the most liquid and widely traded currency pairs. The trader is looking to pick up a very small Under, basically to cover the risk on that trade, and go directly to Trading the Line (“Going TTL”). You just can’t make it work if the pair has a spread of more than four or five pips. A few Goodman students actually watch the 2-minute bars, but 5-minute bars move fast enough for this old man!
If you are “home alone” trading the FireStarter, you will still have plenty of time to do some productive Ghost Trading, listen to music or an audio book, or, as I do, catch up on some interesting topic on YouTube. If you are online with a group, you can still do collective Ghost Trading, talk story or tell off-color jokes, assuming no female trader is in attendance!
What’s Next
In Part 2 I will outline the basics of the FireStarter, and in Part 3 offer some examples of same.
This post is educational commentary on chart structure using Goodman Wave Theory. It is not investment advice. Trading futures and FX involves substantial risk of loss.
Good Trading!
Michael Duane Archer
Related Reading
- Second Chance Entry in Goodman Wave Theory (Don’t Panic)
- Golly, Toto! Discretionary Trading vs Bots and AI
Keep Learning the Goodman Way
If this article was useful, these are the next steps:
- The Method: propagation, intersection and the 3-C Principle, drawn plate by plate.
- The Goodman Library: the books, from Goodman for Grasshoppers to The Goodman 6 & 6.
- The Trader’s Playbook: the Molokai setup in one printed, numbered volume.
- Mentoring: work one-on-one with the authors.