About the System

Biography of Dr. R. B. ("Ben") Buckner
Author of Using Mutual Fund Trading Indexes
Creator of the Fund Trading Index System

Dr. Buckner was the creator of the Fund Trading Index System. He officially retired as president of Fund Trading Indexes on October 1st, 2004.

Dr. Buckner held B.S. and M.S. degrees in Civil Engineering, an M.S. in Urban and Regional Planning, and a PhD. in Civil Engineering. Dr. Buckner was the lead professor in developing the surveying program at Ohio State University, started in 1973. He went to East Tennessee State University in 1985 and initiated development of a fully professional level program in surveying and mapping science at that institution. After this program became accredited in 1994, he retired from academic life and formed his own continuing education business called Surveyors' Educational Seminars. He has also written several courses for on-line instruction in surveying. These can be viewed and ordered at www.redvector.com.

Dr. Buckner has presented surveying seminars in over 40 states, both as invited speaker and through his own business, and has written books and professional papers on several topics, including statistical analysis of measurements, observational astronomy, geodetic coordinate systems, surveying computations, legal principles of land boundary location, residential subdivision design, surveying history, and related topics. His surveying books can be ordered through Land Surveyors Publications at www.landsurveys.com or 800/533-4387.

In May 2003, Dr. Buckner completed a B.S Degree in Speech with a major in Theatre. He has been a cast member in several plays and appeared in several dramas at his church.

Current FTI Staff Biographies

The current FTI staff is dedicated to carrying out Dr. Ben Buckner's vision. The following are biographies of each staff member.

Mark Buckner - President

Mark Buckner has a B.S. in Computer Science and Accounting from the University of Oregon, and a M.S. in Software Engineering from Oregon Graduate Institute. He has 8 years of experience as a software developer of a product data and process management system.

Mark's role with FTI prior to October, 2004 was that of a web developer, lead programmer, and technical advisor. In addition to these roles, he is now involved in the development of the weekly FTI list and report. He is also FTI Treasurer and Accountant.

Chuck Coutellier - Business Manager

Chuck has a B.A. in Business and General Studies from Ohio Dominican College.

Chuck is a Professional Land Surveyor. He is retired from 20 years with American Electric Power (AEP), where he served as Chief Surveyor for the Fuel Supply Division (read that as managing the mining surveying program) and Assistant Manager of the Civil Engineering Laboratory, with responsibility for surveying, photogrammetry and mapping for various divisions of AEP.

Early in Chuck’s professional career he served as Executive Director for the Professional Land Surveyors of Ohio. He and Ben (Dr. Buckner) worked on several projects together and became friends. When Ben moved from The Ohio State University to East Tennessee State we kept in touch primarily through attending Ben’s seminars. Chuck says “When Ben introduced us to his book and the FTI System, it was a prayer answered. Pat and I had such bad experiences with professional money managers; now we were able to apply our study and experience to managing our own portfolio using the FTI System. I was so impressed with FTI that I asked Ben if I could represent the company in Ohio. So, I got started by presenting seminars. From there Pat and I have continued to work in several capacities as FTI Associates.”

Chuck was part of an investment club in the Columbus, Ohio area and has interested several of those members in the FTI System. They now meet regularly as an "FTI Interest Group" to discuss FTI (more on that below, under Pat's biography).

Chuck's involvement with FTI is included below, with Pat's.

Pat Coutellier - Assistant Business Manager

Pat has a B.S. degree in Nursing from Capitol University.

Pat supervised a staff of 15 nurses and technicians at The Ohio State University Medical Center. She was directly responsible for managing a budget of over $600,000 and assisted with budget oversight for a $13 million surgical unit. She was a contributing author of the otology chapter in Alexander’s Care of the Patient in Surgery, 10th edition. Pat is presently the Parish Nurse for North Broadway United Methodist Church.

Pat and Chuck helped to organize and lead an investment club using the NAIC model for investing. Both Pat and Chuck have attended the Week long AAII (American Association of Individual Investors) Investment Seminar, which covers various aspects of investing. Pat says “After we studied the book and learned about the FTI System, we dissolved the investment club and convinced many of its members to become subscribers to FTI. The system has been very good to us!”

Pat and Chuck work together to update the subscriber database, mail out book orders, answer FTI e-mail questions, assist in updating the constantly changing information about our list of mutual funds, publish the weekly report as part of the FTI team, and act as a sounding board for new ideas as part of the team.

Dr. Teresa Haynes - Consultant

Dr. Teresa Haynes has a B.S. in Mathematics from Eastern Kentucky University, an M.A. in Mathematics Education from Eastern Kentucky University, an M.S. in Mathematics from Eastern Kentucky University, and a Ph.D in Computer Science from the University of Central Florida

Teresa has been a Professor of Mathematics at East Tennessee State University for over 17 years, and is still a faculty member, working at less than full time. Her main interests are conducting research in an area of mathematics called Graph Theory. She has published over 100 papers in refereed journals and continues her work in this area. She has also taught several other courses in mathematics, such as calculus, statistics and probability, and more.

Teresa says she is interested in FTI because she has seen it develop and work with our own accounts, beating the markets in nearly every year since the mid-1990's, even before it was fully developed. To use her words: "I think it is a brilliant idea (not just because my husband created it). It allows one to compare funds (apples and oranges) with a single number." Teresa's current role is that of a consultant/advisor.