Originally trained as an electrical engineer, Floyd Upperman became a successful commodity trading advisor (CTA) by applying his quantitative skills to the futures market.

Upperman began working at computer chip maker Intel in the late 80s just as U.S. manufacturers were trying to close the gap between Japans high–quality cars and electronics and their inferior products.

"Intel gave me some stock [as part of my compensation], and it did very well," he says. "I actually made more with that stock than I did in salary, which got me interested."

In January, John Wiley and Sons published his book Commitments of Traders: Strategies for Tracking the Market and Trading Profitability, which describes his COT–based approach to the futures markets.

Upperman, 39, describes his trading experiences and the insights he gleans from the COT report. A fundamental part of Uppermans analysis is measuring the standard deviation of open interest over a five–year period and looking for values that are roughly three standard deviations from the mean.