Please enjoy my monologue Thinking Tools with Michael Covel on Trend Following Radio. This episode may also include great outside guests from my archive.
In this episode of Trend Following Radio:
Flynn effect
Surely alarm
Termite colony compared to Gaudi construction
Genetic evolution
Shaping neurons in the brain
Intrinsic value
“You can’t do much carpentry with your bare hands, and you can’t do much thinking with your bare brain.” – Student of Daniel Dennett
My guest today is Wesley Gray. He served as a Captain in the United States Marine Corps and taught as a finance professor at Drexel University. He earned an MBA and a PhD in finance from the University of Chicago and graduated magna cum laude with a BS from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Wesley is founder of Alpha Architect, an asset management that delivers affordable active exposures for tax-sensitive investors. He has published four books including: “Quantitative Value,” “DIY Financial Advisor,” “Embedded” and his newest book “Quantitative Momentum.” He is a contributor to the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and the CFA Institute.
The topics are his books Quantitative Momentum: A Practitioner’s Guide to Building a Momentum-Based Stock Selection System and Quantitative Value: A Practitioner’s Guide to Automating Intelligent Investment and Eliminating Behavioral Errors.
In this episode of Trend Following Radio with Wes Gray:
The Houston Rockets are attempting a historical amount of 3-point attempts this season. On December 17th the Rockets broke an NBA record attempting 61 3-pointers. They broke their own record of 50 3-point attempts set on Nov 25. In four of their last five games the Rockets have attempted 40+ 3-pointers.
I attached a shot chart from the 61 3-point attempt game. The chart clearly distinguishes the Rockets from their opponent. It is apparent the Rockets strategy is to attempt a high percentage short range shot or a lower percentage but higher value 3-pointer. The mid-range shot clearly has a lower expected outcome when factoring the lower percentage and 2 point value. It appears the Rockets are operating near an “efficient frontier.”
Scroll down on this article to see the Rio Grande (D-League team) shot chart and compare how similar it is to the Rockets.
I thought you’d find this as interesting as myself. Observing my beloved Chicago Bulls go the opposite direction is almost as maddening as their lack of intellectual curiosity.
Please enjoy my monologue Epic Behavioral Episode with Michael Covel on Trend Following Radio. This episode may also include great outside guests from my archive.
In this episode of Trend Following Radio:
Remembering self vs. Experiencing self
How the measures of happiness are being implemented into public policy
How failure to accept one’s losses can lead to risk-taking in trading
My guest today is Ayn Rand. Rand is best known for her two best selling novels, “The Fountainhead” and “Atlas Shrugged.” Michael plays two clips of Donahue interviewing Rand. Rand is controversial, but her thinking is accurate and clear. She breaks down altruism, government regulation, free market, monopoly, God, feminism, terrorism, and many more topics. You may not agree with her on all points, but there is inspiration to be taken away from her passion and to-the-point thinking.
The topic is Objectivism.
In this episode of Trend Following Radio we discuss:
Altruism
Government regulation
Acting on faith
Living by emotion, not reason
Women’s rights
Religion
Monopoly
Spending money on the un-gifted minds rather than the gifted
Dear Michael, your last couple shows were interesting for their intersection of the ideas. When I was listening to the Watts show, I was thinking that his description of money sounds a lot like Harari’s description in Sapiens–money as a collective narrative or myth. I was wondering if Harari had listened to Watts at some point. Then you had on Tim Price who mentioned the same big idea and cited Harari explicitly. Have you ever reached out to Harari and considered getting him on? That would be an interesting show, although his first book (Sapiens) is much more interesting than his new one. Price also mentioned Beinhocker’s “Origin of Wealth” which is one of the most underrated books about economics in recent years–he would be worth looking at, too. More broadly, Beinhocker is going into complexity theory. The foundations of that were in a very interesting paper from 1972 entitled “More Is Different” by P. W. Anderson: here. Anderson later won a Nobel Prize in physics. He is still alive, but very old and I don’t know what kind of shape he is in, but if you wanted to get another Nobel winner he would be one to go after. Here’s a lecture he gave about a decade ago on the development of complexity theory based on his paper: here. I think you’ll find it up your alley. You have an interesting show and I enjoy listening to it. I’m always amused by the personal history, too, since I’ve now lived in the Falls Church/Vienna VA area for about 25 years.
