Back in 1996, when he was a heavy equipment salesman, BetterTrades coach Doug Sutton would come home at night after a 12-hour workday, sit down at his desk, and look for answers.

Doug was then king of his company's mountain; he was the No. 1 salesman in three western states. As a reward for his hard work, the company cut his commission by 20 percent one year and another 10 percent the next. He was working harder and bringing home less money.

Each evening he would sort through stock charts. This was the pre-Internet days and Doug had to rely on a charting service that provided 9,000 stocks to examine. He would go through the list of candidates, one stock at a time, by hitting the space bar over and over to refresh the screen.

Doug eventually realized that stocks with similar products or services were grouped into sectors, and the members of those sectors usually behave in the same manner.

Doug threw himself into sector analysis. His quest was to find out how sectors moved and whether it was possible to trade them to generate income. He still sat up late and studied, but now his efforts could be focused in a specific direction.

Now, as one of the BetterTrades coaches, he continues his career as an educator of stock market strategies. He's been a trading coach for more than 10 years and is eager to pass along his knowledge of including sector analysis into a potentially successful trading plan.