In the spring of 1983, a quiet man from Peoria, Illinois sat in front of his screens watching a Treasury bond position move against him for eleven straight days. His colleagues were nervous. His broker called twice. Gary Bielfeldt did nothing. He had done his analysis, the setup was valid, and he simply waited. The position eventually turned, and the trade became one of his most profitable of the year.
That stillness was not natural talent. It was hard-won. Bielfeldt started trading in the early 1960s with roughly a thousand dollars — grain futures out of a small Illinois office, far from the prestige floors of Chicago. He lost steadily at first, not because his ideas were wrong, but because he kept abandoning them. He would enter a trade, feel the heat of a few down days, and exit before the move he had correctly anticipated ever arrived.
The pattern repeated itself until Bielfeldt did something most traders never do: he studied his own exits more carefully than his entries. He noticed he was consistently right about direction and consistently wrong about timing — not the market's timing, but his own emotional timing. He was leaving money on the table every single time he let discomfort override analysis.
When Jack Schwager interviewed Bielfeldt for Market Wizards, the trader's advice was almost confrontingly simple: find the big trades, and then have the courage to stay in them. He was particularly known for his work in Treasury bond futures, a market where macro patience routinely separates serious participants from noise traders. His approach aligns closely with what researchers describe as trend following — the discipline of letting a confirmed move run rather than harvesting small gains from it. Understanding how position sizing supports this patience is equally central to how Bielfeldt managed risk without needing to exit prematurely.
Bielfeldt was not glamorous, not well-known outside professional circles, and entirely fine with both. He figured out one thing and executed it without flinching.
The trade most retail traders never make is the one they were already right about — but left too soon.
This content is for educational purposes only and does not constitute financial product advice. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Profit Logic Ltd (ACN 688 669 936) accepts no responsibility for errors or omissions in this content or anywhere on this website. Always seek advice from a licensed financial adviser before making investment decisions.