NeuroShell Trader user Bob Swihart, his wife Sue and their family spent the Christmas holidays on a beach in Florida. Every day at 3 pm they downloaded market data using a cell phone linked to a laptop, ran their models, and called in their trades. Swihart said it took about 10 minutes to download the data, "just like rain comes down the window." Just like all those ads you see on TV where people are shown working with their feet propped up on the beach. It was surreal."

It took him a while to get there. He's been trading since the late 80's, mostly watching his pension fund before he retired. The fund allowed him to move money from stocks to bonds and mutual funds. He started out with legal pads, then switched to spreadsheets and created simple indicators such as moving averages and trendlines. When the market tanked in 2000 he decided he had to get serious if he wanted to retire in two to three years. "I wasn't getting any younger. I looked at many packages and the NeuroShell Trader was the best."

"I really started to make progress when I got John Ehlers' Cybernetic Analysis add-on for NeuroShell. I developed a template with all of his indicators and applied them to all of the indexes such as the Dow Jones, S&P 500, the Russell 2000 and 30 year bonds. I had one template with 18 indicators and four other templates with single indicators. It was like panning for gold. It just took time to sift. Some models had very good results, while others were dismal. You have to be motivated to get the best. I had a real incentive because I wanted to retire with enough financial means to live on. I was very happy with what I was able to dig up. It was fantastic - you never knew what you were going to get." Bob finally wound up using a strategy that goes in the direction that two out of three of his Cybernetic Analysis indicators suggest.

Swihart said he went live with his trades within a few weeks of getting the Cybernetic Analysis add-on. Since October 20, 2004 to early January 2006, his Russell 200 fund is up 283 points and his S&P fund is up 351 points over the same period. Both funds had 11 trades with only two losing trades.

Swihart said the NeuroShell Trader has opened new doors besides just watching his pension fund. He has been retired for three years. He runs every morning, something he's been doing since age 15. Then he watches the markets and does some research for about an hour every day, something he's come to enjoy. He looks at a pool of stocks and selects the ones to trade.

"I'm in a second career now and it's just great. I don't have to travel to the university, prepare lectures, deal with the politics or deadline pressure. I can work when I want. I wish I had learned to trade years ago, it's a great career."

He also thinks it's a great career for women. "My wife Sue is an artist. She has a T-shirt print shop and does embroidery. She was reluctant to get involved with my trading at first, but she's been working on it for 2 years. Now she's better than I am. She really gets excited. Now we're doing it together."

The couple has an interest in mountain biking and usually takes a ride every Wednesday, but that doesn't stop them from trading. They have a small notebook computer that only weighs one and a half pounds that Bob straps to the back of his bike. At 3 p.m. they use their cell phone to get the data they need and plug it into their NeuroShell Trader models, then call in their trades. If they're biking in an unfamiliar area away from home, they check out the cell phone range the night before so they don't have to rush back to the hotel to make their calls.

Swihart thinks the type of trading he does with the NeuroShell Trader is great for women who are left with a lot of assets and have to rely on a broker to make trading decisions. "This is a great opportunity for women to manage their money. Women have a lot of talent. They can lay out their trading systems just like I did and get hooked like I did."

Update - January 2007: "I made more last year using NeuroShell Trader than I ever did as a professor. I'm exclusively using NeuroShell Trader now. It's working so well. I'm so happy. I work 20% of the time I did as a professor and make more money."