Contents

Cover

Series

Title Page

Copyright

Epigraph

Preface

This Is the Way of the Trade

Acknowledgments

Chapter 1: The Mutation

The Phantom Menace

Typical HFT Sheep Skinning Cycle in 2009 to 2012

Enter the Thunder and Tumbleweeds Market Trading Landscape

Defining Market Landscapes, Climates, and Terrains

The Five Laws of the Marketplace

The Profit By-Product

The Model of Excellence: Shokunin

The Excellent State of Excellence

Earnings Seasons: The Super Bowl of Momentum

Global Influences: Europe, China, and the World

Chapter 2: The Hybrid Market Predator

The Hybrid Market Predator

Relevant Traits of the Three Skillsets

Kurt Warner: Adversity Conditioning Model

Pockets, Pockets, Pockets

Properly Aligning Your Personal Perspective

Manifesting By-Product into a Product

The Eight-Step Process to Turn Idea into Profit

Chapter 3: The Morning Ritual

Hunting for Prey: Headliners and Corganic

The Gapper/Dumper Three-Reaction Sequence

Ritual Religion

Wasted Effort

The Real Work, Don't Skimp!

Law of Reciprocity Revisited

Fast and Simply Thorough (FAST) Chart Analysis

Step-by-Step Ritual Routine by Time

Evaluate the Climate

Chapter 4: The UndergroundTrader Trading System: The Katana

Recommended Online Direct Access Broker: Cobratrading.com

Configuring the Rifle Charts

The Role of the Bumpers: Moving Average Breakouts, Breakdowns, and Trends

The Four Parts of Trends: Consolidation → Break → Peak → Exhaustion

The Role of the Bumpers: Bollinger Bands

The Slope Effect

The Weekly and Monthly Moving Averages and Bollinger Bands

The Role of the Stochastics

Spotting and Trading Fades

The Two Most Important Price Patterns: Pups and Mini Pups

Stinky 2.50 and Five-Level de Facto Price Bumpers

The (Only) Three Candlesticks I Use

Massive Volume Spikes

Mischievous Mistick Manipulation

The Essence of Stops

Less Is More Applies More Than Ever

Early and Mid-Stage Perfect Storms

Three Levels of Stop Mindset

What to Do after a Disaster

The Three Steps for Proper Re-Setting

Purposely Add More Stocks to Watch List and Minders

Step-by-Step Healing and Recovery

The Unconditional Three STOP Rule

DSS: Defensive Sprawl Scaling

Chapter 5: The Perfect Storm Pattern Trade

What Is a Perfect Storm?

Perfect Storm Profile

Spotting Perfect Storm Opportunities with the Anchor Time Frame

How to Trade the Three Types of Perfect Storms

How to Play Trending Perfect Storms

Trading the Sympathy/Laggard Perfect Storm

The Tightening

Tightening Reversals

How to Play Tightening Perfect Storms

The Consolidation Break

How to Play Consolidation Break Perfect Storms

Repeating Nature of Perfect Storms

Double-Hedged Sword Sequence Trade

How to Execute DHSS Trades

Chapter 6: Optimized Four-Level Research Process

Level 1 Research Process: Spot Technical Analysis and Headline Search

Level 2 Research Process: Digging Deeper into Fundamentals

Level 3 Research Process: Mining Perspectives

Level 4 Research Process: The Juicer, Full Immersion

The Afterglow Effect

Chapter 7: How to Prey for Playable Stocks to Trade

Stocks Are Battlegrounds and Participants Prey

Playability: Internal and External Factors

The Two Types of Playable Stocks: Headliners and Corganic

Where to Find Playable Stocks: Sources for Ideas

Chapter 8: Stalking Prey

Aging: Waiting for the Pattern to Form

Stalking: Setting an Alerts Minder on Your Trading Platform

Chapter 9: The Encounter from Start to Finish

Anxiety: Bad versus Good

React, Don't Panic

Distinguishing Trade Entry Stages: Early, Impact, Late

The Complete Trade Sequence

Pretrade Process: Information Gathering and Analysis

Trade Execution Process: Entering the Position

Trade Management Process: Monitoring and Exiting the Position

Identifying Maladies in Your Trading

Post-Trade Sequence Analysis

Reconstruct the Trade and Conditions Accurately

Summary

Chapter 10: Portfolio Trading: The Skillset of the Evolved Hybrid Market Predator

Market-Calibrated Portfolio Creation and Management

General Capital Allocation

Activity Allocation = General Capital Allocation

Risk Averse Nature of Intraday Trading

Her Majesty, Queen Leverage

Application of Well-Managed Allocation Management

truTV: “Not Reality. Actuality”

Constructing the Portfolio

General Macro Market Analysis and Allocation Assessment

Qualifying the Three Types of Trade Considerations

Intraday Trade Profiles

Position Trade Profiles

Active Portfolio Management

Options Strategies

Delta Neutral Hedging

Covered Calls: Creating Your Own Dividend

Bullish Call Debit Spreads

Bearish Call Debit Spreads

Portfolio Trading Schedule of Activity

Harnessing Your Hybrid Evolution

Chapter 11: Conclusion: Cultivating Your Personal Evolution

Acknowledging the Spirit

Elements That Affect One's Spirit

Broken Spirits' Blowout

Nourish Your Spirit

Continuing Your Progress

Appendix

Why Pattern Trading?

Intraday Futures Trading Plan

Trade 1: November 20, 2012

Trade 2: November 12, 2012

About the Video

About the Author

Index

Access code

Since 1996, Bloomberg Press has published books for financial professionals on investing, economics, and policy affecting investors. Titles are written by leading practitioners and authorities, and have been translated into more than 20 languages.

The Bloomberg Financial Series provides both core reference knowledge and actionable information for financial professionals. The books are written by experts familiar with the work flows, challenges, and demands of investment professionals who trade the markets, manage money, and analyze investments in their capacity of growing and protecting wealth, hedging risk, and generating revenue.

For a list of available titles, please visit our website at www.wiley.com/go/bloombergpress.

Cover images: katana © iStockphoto.com/Rick Sargeant; dramatic sunset © iStockphoto.com/Godmode; charts courtesy of Jea Yu
Cover design: C. Wallace

Copyright © 2013 by Jea Yu. All rights reserved.

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.
Published simultaneously in Canada.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600, or on the Web at www.copyright.com. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.

Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives or written sales materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with a professional where appropriate. Neither the publisher nor author shall be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages.

Charts created using Cobra IQ v. 7.0, © CobraTrading Inc. All rights reserved.
Appendix charts created using TradeStation. ©TradeStation Technologies, Inc. 2001–2013. All rights reserved. No investment or trading advice, recommendation or opinions are being given or intended.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

Yu, Jea.
 Way of the trade : tactical applications of underground trading methods for traders and investors / Jea Yu.
  pages cm.—(Bloomberg financial series)
 Includes index.
 ISBN 978-1-118-59068-3 (cloth); ISBN 978-1-118-66279-3 (ebk);
 ISBN 978-1-118-66273-1 (ebk)
 1. Electronic trading of securities. I. Title.
 HG4515.95Y938 2013
 332.64'202854678–dc23

2013007473

Discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody has thought.

—Albert von Szent-Gyorgyi

Preface

Way of the Trade covers the hands-on tactical applications of the UndergroundTrader trading methods in the new computerized algorithm-driven market place with an optimized market-tested hybrid approach for intraday, swing, and portfolio traders. The book addresses market realities in all their facets, not just concepts, through a first-hand point of view perspective complete with illustrations, analysis, lessons, case studies, insights, and stories. The delivery is multilayered and lateral to purposely challenge the conventional (shortchanged) mindset to stimulate, entertain, and ultimately enlighten the reader in the ways of the trade. The Way implies truth. Simplicity is an end goal that appeals to the masses. In the markets, the outcome of any trade will be green or red, profit or loss, simplicity in only two possible outcomes, but that's linear hindsight mentality.

Pure simplicity is a product of the relentless effort to meticulously improve efficiency while concurrently streamlining the process, often derived from a need to fill a void or fend off counterparties/competition. Technology embraces this same essence with faster, smaller, and cheaper. Moore's Law has been consistent for over 50 years, as it observes that chips will double the number of transistors and performance every two years as size, cost, and density decrease. The nature of efficient trading seeks to capitalize on the highest quality of price movement to maximize probability and profits while minimizing risk. The markets do provide these pockets of high quality price movements shuffled between mind-numbing headfakes, wiggles, and chop.

Reality reveals that the deck is very much stacked against the retail trader tangled in the false notion that markets are an even playing field. These same thunder and tumbleweeds markets are ruled by the algorithms and high-frequency programs that kidnap liquidity and extort it for ransom at the highest costs to participants. They conjure thunderous volume-backed movement in specific 15- to 30-minute cycles that suck in retail traders, only to rug-pull it out at the point of max pain, leaving nothing more than tumbleweeds afterward. Textbook breakout patterns rise just enough to trigger “confirmations” to suck in the most participants on the wrong side of the trade to twist the knife until panic ensues, forcing retail traders to bail out, only to bounce afterward.

Welcome to the “new” market landscape in the same minus sum game of trading. One that has “evolved” with the speed of technology-driven computer algorithms, high-frequency trading programs that can front run/hijack/kidnap liquidity in milliseconds, stuffing 20,000 bid/ask quotes at such blazing speeds that the rest of the market stands still as they pull their orders faster than the blink of an eye. These robots have access to the “invisible” liquidity occupying over 34 different dark pools that splice spreads into four-decimal-place increments untouchable and invisible to the retail trader. The only thing even about this playing field is that the algorithm (algo) and high-frequency trading (HFT) programs don't discriminate; every participant is prey, man or machine. Therein lies the clue to gaming the algos. The cliché “my enemy's enemy is my friend” comes to mind.

Add to that the rapid race with the media outlets to instantly produce the most market-jarring news/ rumors (same thing) from unnamed sources highlighting game-changing events or the rise of worldwide central banks with their artificial interventions topped off with back-tracked readjusted economic reports. Never have traders/investors been so overwhelmed, misled, and abandoned to fend for themselves. The landscape has unequivocally changed . . . whispering a very familiar quote, “‘Necessity is the mother of invention.” Thus Way of the Trade was written out of the necessity to address the application of the trading methods to the new algorithm-dominated thunder and tumbleweeds landscape.

Active evolution is not just growth, maturity, or experience—all of which occur passively with little or no effort (as long as you are still breathing). Active evolution often requires catastrophic trauma to shed the dead skin and stimulate a rebirth. Active enduring effort must perpetually be applied efficiently to nurture improvement beyond the prior thresholds to surpass prior limitations to develop a more refined template. Rinse and repeat. This is the essence of active evolution.

Not everyone can or is willing to go through that process (most may not even realize there is a process). Fortunately, that process is not required of all participants. The journey is one that most participants will identify with and hopefully learn from. Ultimate simplicity leads to purity. To attain simplicity comes from constant refinement of the process. This has been my journey.

Figure I.1 illustrates a wiggle-free trend move that can be tracked and played as you get acclimated to the application of the Katana.

FIGURE I.1 Wiggle-free trend move.

The purpose of this book is to clearly define the landscapes, the proper application, and the management of the methods while introducing new skillsets to further evolve readers in their journey to efficiently generate the desired outcome: to achieve consistent and compounding profits in all market landscapes or at least optimize the ones they are best accustomed to. Less is more. This is efficiency's manifesto. The high-quality price movements occur less than 20 percent of the time while noise takes up the other 80 percent. Most traders have to shuffle, trade, and struggle through the 80 percent in order to capture part of the 20 percent. With my refined methods, I go into very specific details on making that 20 percent portion your playing field while avoiding the 80 percent junk. This is efficiency. Constantly venturing through the 80 percent of the market noise is not only damaging to your capital, but erosive mentally, physically, and spiritually.

While the prior UndergroundTrader book series addressed a niche market catering exclusively to active traders, this book, with the distribution muscle of John Wiley & Sons and Bloomberg Press, will be inclusive to ALL retail market participants aka humanoids, including current/former (unemployed) daytraders, part-time/casual traders, swing traders, and investors. I address my own evolution of expanding services at UndergroundTrader.com with UndergroundSwingTrades.com and Benzinga Morning Profit Maker, out of necessity. I detail the collaborative evolution of styles that created the hybrid method that merges skill sets of the daytrader and investor.

The top daytraders of yesteryear have mostly disappeared, but the ones who are thriving now have evolved. They haven't learned to trade faster or more often; the computers would eat them alive. Conventional rebate, opening orders, pairs, and spread trading have lost their edges. Traders that manually practiced these strategies have tombstones that read DEATH BY ALGO. The evolution comes in the form of hybrid trading. While algorithms evolve in their speed, execution, and optimized coding, humanoids need to take a hybrid approach with the inclusion of portfolio trading.

The fertile active trading periods exist in spurt cycles and diminish quickly. A decade ago, I would shake my head at holding a position more than a few minutes or watching beyond the 3- and 1-minute charts. Now, I hold portfolio positions that fade the market for weeks to months at a time. This isn't the traditional form of buy and hold investing, but a market-calibrated portfolio management system that combines the precision execution, technical analysis, risk averseness, and timing of a daytrader merged with the voracious fundamental teardown scrutiny and analytics of an activist investor.

Over 70 percent of the trading volume on the U.S. exchanges is generated by computer program trades, which last on average 11 seconds. Over 70 percent of total volume is now done off-exchanges on over 34 dark pool exchanges. The liquidity can dry up so quickly that what appears to be a simple price wiggle can turn into a collapsing breakdown in a matter of seconds. What does this mean? It means the algos have the big guns and unlimited ammo.

They say you can't bring a knife to a gunfight. Considering the retail trader is only equipped with the equivalent of a knife, that conventional line of thinking is pretty depressing. Here's a lateral approach.

You CAN bring a knife to a gunfight . . . as long as there are other participants in the free for all. The more targets/participants there are, the more your odds of survival increase. Elements such as landscape, terrain, and climate will have a direct impact on the outcome. In fact, the elements alone can determine the outcome regardless of weapons. What good is a gun if you are butt-naked in subzero temperatures lost in the mountains? Would you rather be butt-naked and armed with a gun or fully clothed in insulated mountain apparel and a dull knife? With the latter, you could just let the elements play their role as the naked dude freezes nearly to death armed with his gun, while you stay warm, out of the line of fire until the coast is clear to score the kill. People fall victim to the elements in the markets just as they do in life. Speaking of knives, who needs a knife when you can wield a masterfully crafted Katana?

This Is the Way of the Trade

The applications, principles, methods, strategies, and philosophies in this book have been painstakingly manifested, handcrafted, and meticulously developed to flow as naturally and seamlessly as possible.

How Do You Take 1 from 19 and Get 20?

This book seeks to cover all the nuances within the trading system as if they were efficiently applied to the new market landscapes, climates, and terrain. I will also go into the most comprehensive details on every variation; stage, type, outcome, and game play on the proprietary perfect storm price pattern with tons of color examples. The overlooked, missing, and misunderstood components are fully addressed, for instance: how to use the algorithm and high-frequency programs to magnify your own profits. The hybrid portfolio trading skillset is covered in full detail. All the nuances of the application of the refined methods will be covered exhaustively and in depth.

In a nutshell, the flow starts with a descriptive narrative of how the markets have changed, mutated, to get to this point. The view from the turret is laid out. The evolution of the participants and the skillsets that have survived with each style are addressed in detail because they are the components of the new cross-bred player. Exhaustive attention is placed on the core trading system and methods. Most importantly, the application of the system is thoroughly detailed with real examples. The research process is categorized and labeled with step-by-step routines as never before, covered in depth. Stock selection is half the battle, which is the reason for covering all aspects, from finding candidates to trade, to how much time to allocate on the layers of research contingent on the type of trade, to determining targets and risk ahead of time. No matter how seasoned you are, that first trade of the day is like diving into cold water. The encounter covers all aspects of execution from entry to exit. The most significant by-product is the formation of a new style, portfolio trading, which is addressed meticulously: seamlessly shift gears to adapt to the market landscape, conditions, and terrain with deadly precision and skill.

The content is meticulously laid out to flow logically and seamlessly transition to further depths. Take your time and let it sink in. Trading Full Circle filled the gaps. Way of the Trade applies the skillsets, focusing on manifesting that by-product called consistent profits through the masterful application of the Katana seamlessly adapted to each market terrain.

Simplicity leads to purity. Purity is the truth, the essence of the WAY. In order to achieve this, three questions must always be answered: when, where, and how? To elaborate, this means when (to engage), where (to trade; stock selection in context of macro market conditions), and how (to execute and manage the trading system for optimum efficiency). At the outset, it appears simple. Underneath is where the complexity abounds, as factors come into play that render parts of the system ineffective at times. It is this below-the-surface complexity that frustrates, confuses, and ultimately extinguishes the fires for most people. I've witnessed this firsthand in real time through my services. The heartbreak of the decline of daytraders on my membership at UndergroundTrader.com ultimately led to the realization that not all people want to sit in front of the computer nine hours a day taking pieces out of the market (or getting taken by the market), nor do they have the ability to perform consistently through long periods. Some people were excellent executioners in the mornings only to be chopped away paper-cut-style all day long. Some people were just too busy and didn't have the time to participate in the momentum periods and foolishly pushed during tumbleweed periods to compensate only to dig deeper into the hole. Some people simply had a higher tolerance for pullbacks and wanted to focus on longer-term management ineffectively during downturns. The different templates go on and on. This forced me to adjust my mindset to accept and adapt to other styles beyond the intraday scalping methodology and art. I'll go over the timeline of landscape changes from an insider's perspective. The naked eye of the average retail trader would notice the effect maybe six months down the road, and the media perhaps 10 months, and the regulatory agencies at least 12 to15 months. In mid-2009, a very good friend of mine who led a team of proprietary traders was in shock. His guys, who were the most talented group of naturally gifted intuitive traders on the street, were getting massacred. These guys were heavy liquidity traders taking upwards of 50 to 100k positions playing market maker at times without the advantage of order flow. They were normally pulling 5 to 15k daily gains with drawdowns around 50 percent of that amount. Each one of these guys was generating 5 to 10 million shares in monthly volume. To me, they were the survivors of the daytrading era; despite decimalization and bull and bear markets, they had captured a niche magnificently. Yet things had changed drastically in a matter of months. His guys were getting picked off at every liquidity inflection point. Mind you, these guys thrived during the whole 2008 market meltdown each having been through the SOES bandit era, Internet bubble, recession, and housing boom, evolving from momentum to technical to a hybridized infusion of godly sensitivity meshed with inhumanly gifted intuitive reflexes. These were the highest caliber of natural intraday grinders I had ever known. In moments of capitulation where the masses panicked, they would covertly buy in, knowing intimately the slingshot reversal would kick in as it had done thousands of times and vice versa on spikes. However, instead of getting filled, the liquidity was being absorbed in thousands of pennies ahead of them on scale-ins and scale-outs, essentially trapping them and then savagely reversing the momentum and twisting the knife by magnifying the reversal of the reversal three to five to seven deviations to stop them out before reversion back to the mean—unreal and unprecedented. If it were a few instances or a few days, it could be written off as fluke. Instead, this happened routinely every single trading day getting worse and more extreme. This element left nothing on the table as it ravaged insatiably all the liquidity while spoofing bid/asks to manipulate the very essence of perception. The more tolerance they built up, the more the extremes would get stretched. Eventually, they were obliterated in a matter of months. A tree falls in the woods and no one hears it, right? To the naked eye of a retail investor, they had absolutely no clue. The first transparent evidence of the damage and residual effects of these new participants would be loudly illustrated by the Flash Crash of 2010.

A new phenomenon had injected itself into the very mechanics of the markets right at the point of execution. This element was methodically swiping liquidity, squeezing margins, and magnifying the extremes as outlier movements became the norm. Welcome to the rise of the HFTs, high-frequency trading programs. These programs were bid stuffing 20,000 quotes in milliseconds only to knee-jerk reactions under the guise of liquidity and demand. A simple 1,000 share order would evaporate many levels of bids the second it was put into the queue. All of a sudden, the playing field wasn't even the real playing field. Dark pools grew with access only to the institutional members. The penny spreads were split into thousandths of a penny. Spikes and drops came out of nowhere only to knee-jerk buyers to pay the highest price and panic out at the lowest price, rinse and repeat. This was the dawn of a new mutation not visible to the public until the Flash Crash of 2010. The HFT programs didn't cause the Flash Crash by shorting the markets. They were accomplices by pumping up the markets and then pulling out when the need for liquidity was abandoned. The public is pacified and kept at ease with rising equity markets. However, when the rise is artificially manipulated by leapfrogging HFT programs that create a hollow core, the inevitable collapse is magnified to extremes as illustrated by the 1,000-point Flash Crash on May 6, 2010.

I use these methods every single trading day with my services and trades. This is my baby that has grown painstakingly through the years as paradigms shift and landscapes alter. I've learned that there is always an invisible factor that requires more lateral thinking beyond the conventional ways. The markets will never be an even playing field. This is a foregone conclusion. The retail traders and investors will always be at the short end of the stick—misled, misinformed, and ultimately led to accept the belief that the market is always right. The markets are a man-made computerized monstrosity that feeds itself by cannibalizing its weakest participants. They say you can shear a sheep many times but only skin him once. The flagrant arrogance of the HFT infestation crossed that line by skinning the retail investor one too many times, causing a mass exodus and outflow of funds while ironically zombie markets continue to climb higher. Our own Fed, led by Ben Bernanke, has punished the savers into pushing toward risk instruments by implementing a zero interest rate policy (ZIRP) to very little avail. Compounding the effects of the Internet bubble, real estate bubble, decimalization, and the influx of HFT programs have done the most damage to investor confidence.

Before we set course, I have a simple riddle that personifies the essence of linear versus lateral. I like to call it layered thinking and the necessary mindset. Riddle me this: How do you take 1 from 19 and get 20?

If you know the answer, likely it's because you've already heard the riddle and the answer. It's not cheating. It's familiarity. The goal of the riddle is to stump those who have not heard it before as they strive to linearly curve fit a correct answer. The difference between knowing the answer and not is obvious. It's the haves and have-nots based solely on familiarity. That exemplifies my purpose: to provide familiarity through my eyes and my tactical daily application of the methods on a multilevel playing field through all landscapes and skillsets, so that you are familiar with what's in front of you. The wherewithal to react is in your hands. This is THE WAY OF THE TRADE.

Oh by the way, regarding the riddle, convert to Roman numerals. Figure it out from there!

Once figured out, the reaction may be that it's not fair and it's a trick question and so forth. This pretty much parallels the outcries of the retail trader/investor in these markets. All linear reactions are fostered through conventional (non)wisdom. The purpose is not to interpret, but to game the layered reactions of the other participants based on their interpretations.

Acknowledgments

I dedicate this manifesto to my fascinating daughter, Katana, whose unconditional love is only matched by her beauty, wit, determination, curiosity, warm daily hugs, and macro awesomeness; and my wonderful loving wife, Benita, for smacking me when no one else could and embracing me when no one else would, for being my inspiration and childhood soulmate. Special thanks to John Boyer for being my sentinel and extraordinary friend all these years, whose inspiration, brilliance, and foresight can only be matched by his unflinching loyalty, integrity, sincerity, and humility. Thanks to Bill and Linda Hughes, Murphy, and Trapper for awakening me to the nurturing effect that family can have on one's spirit and the nourishing effect the crockpot has on one's appetite. To Joe and Benita Villari Sr. and Dad for always looking out from beyond the clouds. To my momma, Duck Yu, for giving birth to me, instilling the template of determination, and proving yourself always right in the end, even when you think you're wrong. To Juliay Tippett-Yu, who married a marvelous and talented soulmate in Dr. Jesse, for giving birth to two amazing kids, Kiera and Broden, while still being my baby sister. To Frank Villari, for being an amazing brother-in-law, who is the embodiment of old-school suave, class, and swag wrapped in humility and respect, and favorite uncle to my daughter. To Phil Meade for over a decade of protection, guidance, and unconditional support even after the luster wore off, who has been by my side through the whole rollercoaster ride, who picked me up, brushed me off and inspired me to believe in myself to continue grinding forward. To Steve Schmidt for your faith and support. To my brother in arms, Danny Nourdin, thank you for always looking out for my best interests and guarding my family, for being a true Sentinel. To Wilson Chang, my closest friend, for two decades of unconditional friendship and brotherhood. To Kyle and Kenny for being the embodiments of relentless perseverance and innovation. Thanks to Suri Duddella for his appendix contribution to the manifesto. And to karma for a breathtaking roller coaster ride from the depths of the gutter to heaven . . . and back to the gutter and heaven (on a daily basis), rinse and repeat.

CHAPTER 1

The Mutation

The term underground suggests something hidden from the masses, be it a tangible product, information, a service, a movement, or a philosophy. It implies something special due to its rarity. As anything gets surfaced, becomes widespread, conventional, and mainstream, the urge for replenishing the depth transpires. That urge becomes a necessity.

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!