He has been dead for many years ? centuries, in fact ? but we feel his influence as mightily today as ever. Born in 1170 in the Italian town that is today famous for its leaning tower, he was the son of a customs officer from the Northern African town of Bugia. He was educated by the Moors, and traveled extensively around the Mediterranean coast.



He was the first to introduce the Hindu-Arabic number system into Europe. He literally wrote the book on adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing numbers, introducing the same system taught in today's elementary schools. Before he influenced Europe to adopt this change, people were still using the Roman number system, which was awkward and cumbersome for arithmetic.

Settling from his travels in the year 1200, this man took up residence in a town in Italy most commonly associated with his name. There he re-introduced the ?modern? world to the ancient mathematical skills. He also made other significant contributions, writing several books. Since he pre-dated the printing press, all of his books were hand-written. The only way to get a copy of one of them was to handwrite a copy.

His Impact on Today's Traders

His work became especially important to merchants. He wrote about the price of goods, how to calculate profit on transactions, and ? most important to today's traders on the (Forex) Market ? how to convert between currencies.

The following sequence of numbers is named for him.

1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55?

This sequence, in which each number is the sum of the two preceding numbers appears in many areas of mathematics and science to this very day.

Entry and Exit Trade Strategies

Perhaps his influence is most felt today on the Foreign Exchange Market, where many traders use a methodology based on his ratios to determine when to enter and exit a trade.

Do you know this man? Can you name him? Has he influenced the way you trade on the

?