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HARRIMAN HOUSE LTD
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GREAT BRITAIN
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Website: www.harriman-house.com
First published in Great Britain in 2014
Copyright © Harriman House 2014
The right of Lee Sandford to be identified as Author has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Design and Patents Act 1988.
ISBN: 9780857193568
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A CIP catalogue record for this book can be obtained from the British Library.
All rights reserved; 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, or otherwise without the prior written permission of the Publisher.
This book may not be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise disposed of by way of trade in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published without the prior written consent of the Publisher.
No responsibility for loss occasioned to any person or corporate body acting or refraining
to act as a result of reading material in this book can be accepted by the Publisher or by the Author.
To my mum, dad and brother, for their love and support and my three daughters Chloe, Isabelle and Olivia who bring me so much happiness every day
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About the author
DURING A 17-YEAR career in professional football, Lee Sandford played for Portsmouth, Stoke City, Reading, Sheffield United and England’s youth team. He played at Wembley, with his whole family watching, and describes this as one of the proudest moments of his life.
Lee enjoyed taking on the responsibility of being a Trade Union representative. He is still involved with football today, playing in the odd charity match and supporting the new charity XPro – which helps ex-footballers of all divisions in life after football.
Following his football career, Lee committed himself to mastering the markets. Like many beginners, the early years saw him attending a few courses, but this generated little more than frustration. So he read avidly and looked further afield. After an enlightening visit to the grains trading pits at the Chicago Board of Trade, he returned to the UK with new vigour.
Lee has now traded for approximately 20 years and for 11 years has earned his living as a trader. In 2009 Lee decided to bring a new style of trading education to the market and started Trading College Ltd. He has personally taught thousands of people to trade the markets for themselves and is delighted by so many success stories from past and present customers.
His ‘Trading with Colours’ programme has earned him acclaim, resulting in guest appearances at Bloomberg, The London Business School and conferences across Europe. Lee believes in keeping it simple. His best trading strategies are easy to follow but can provide some fantastic trading profits.
Lee has run the London Marathon (in 2009 for Cancer Research) and is the proud father of three daughters.
Introduction
It takes a great deal of boldness and a great deal of caution to make a great fortune, and when you have got it, it requires ten times as much wit to keep it.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
If I can do it…
IF YOU’D ASKED me 20 years ago what I thought I’d be doing with my life in two-decades’ time, the very last thing I would have said is, “writing a book.” Not because I didn’t want to, but because it would never have occurred to me that I could. I was singularly focused on my career in football for most of my life and latterly became a full-time trader. Writing a book was never on my radar until I realised I had something to say and a good story to tell.
I always knew I wanted to play football and from an early age I believed I had talent. I had never taken my academic education that seriously and my school days had been about sport, sport and more sport. I never looked beyond football. Many people with a clear vision of their future start out with this kind of determined single focus. But life is a long and winding road and when it was time to hang up my boots I had to embrace a new pursuit to keep a roof over my head and provide for my family.
Trading in stocks and shares was something I had done on and off for years. Over the years I had some fantastic windfalls and I had some spectacular losses. Through trial and error I learnt some valuable tricks of the trade. Thus, when I began to think about what I’d like to do with my life when I retired from professional sport, I came to the conclusion that trading was the discipline that, after football, I was most experienced in and passionate about.
I threw myself into learning more and more about finance and trading the markets, and within a few years I had not only become a successful trader, but I also began teaching others how to trade the markets too. When I began to think about finding a platform from which to spread the word about my life and work further afield, writing a book seemed to be the perfect answer, which is how I came to write Goals to Gold.
It’s not just the content of the book I want to share with you, but the act of writing a book too. This is because it directly relates to my overall message, which is:
If I can do it, anyone can.
Seriously... if a boy from an ordinary South London family, who left school at 16 to become a footballer, can make a great living from trading the markets and go on to write a book about it, then anyone can.
My biggest goal, these days, is to inspire others, which is what I hope to achieve by writing this book.
Humble beginnings
I grew up in a stable, loving family, something I assumed was fairly normal until I got out into the world and started meeting people who came from broken homes. I soon began to realise how fortunate I was. We may not have had a lot of money, but I always had love and stability as well as a great deal of support and encouragement. My parents never pushed me academically, but when I decided it was my dream to become a professional footballer they were behind me every step of the way. This helped instil the right attitude in me from an early age. I worked hard, I was disciplined, and I always appreciated what I had.
This stood me in great stead later in life. When I embarked upon my second career, as a professional trader, I found I was able to draw on the confidence and discipline I’d developed in my early life and in my time as a footballer.
I believe it was the foundations my parents laid for me that gave me the best chance of success in both my careers. When I see people struggling, when I see some of the baggage they carry that holds them back, I wish I could give them the support I had. I see the way their deep-rooted insecurities and lack of true self-confidence create obstacles and I wish I could take those barriers away. Now I have a