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Earl Weaver, AI and Motivation with Michael Covel on Trend Following Radio. Dig in and find some old school diversity…

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Hi Michael, my name is Andre and I’m from Brazil.

I’ve been reading and listening your content for a while now. I’ve read Complete Turtle Trader and Trend Following and I listen to almost all your podcasts. I really like your work!

Implementing this trend following mindset into my brain could cleared some huge mistakes that I took with my money in recent past. I bought a business franchise from an American company in 2014, but I bet all the money that I had that moment. Long story short, I spend 3 years with this business just paying my expenses and could not save any money during this period.

In January 2017, we finished our contract since I have not sold more franchises as stipulated in contract. I ended up with no business and no money.

Because of the great recession that is striking Brazil since 2015, all the economy is frozen and is very hard to find a job right now.

Since I’m very disciplined with rules and to save money, I would like to ask you for an advise. Do you think I could apply the rules [in X] to start saving some money and them, purchase your Flagship Course to improve my trader’s abilities?

I have never invested our traded in stock markets and I couldn’t find any material our course in Portuguese of Trend Following. No one is talking about it down here and a few people really knows it.

Thank you very much for your time in reading my e-mail.

Best regards,
André Á.

I think you should do everything you can to solve the puzzle. Read everything. Some you will find for free, some not. But just go. Jump!

Feedback in:

Hi Michael,

I suppose i have never really thought of myself as a “trader” per se. My challenge is really a result of not having a defined plan when entering a trade/position – not having discipline to exit a trade that is not working. My entries are also not based on any systematic trend approach but more thematic so if i am honest with myself, they are more educated guesses than anything.

I have been interested in trend following after coming across it in the course of research at the wealth management firm where i work. The portfolios we build are more based on a broad asset allocation framework where we buy and rebalance around target exposures rather than trading based on trends. I find trend following fascinating as in some ways it really flys in the face of more traditional investing concepts but is undeniably successful and at its essence very intuitive.

I just recently finished reading your book Trend Following and have been listening to the Top Traders Unplugged podcast. My goal is to start doing research on systems to get an idea of what might work best for me but was unsure exactly where to start so i figured this was a good place. Appreciate all of the good info in your book, will probably need to pick up some of your others and am also enjoying your vast catalog of podcasts.

Thanks!
Hans

Good job! Keep pushing.

feedback in:

I come from a fundamentalist approach in the choice of assets, doing analysis of multiples, analyzing strategy and competitors of companies and even doing valuation. The main change in my mindset was to understand that this approach is limited and that technical analysis can help me to improve my results, this being a complementary strategy to my primary fundamentalist choice. The biggest challenge today is whether or not to enter an operation and how to set my stop loss and when to finish the operation, making profit.

Best regards,
Miguel

So you want to blend trend following with fundamentals?

Not a good idea. No evidence for such.

Subscribe to Trend Following Radio on iTunes

One of the most successful companies of the digital age, The Alibaba Group, are obvious innovators when it comes to utilizing emerging technology in business strategy. Their Executive Vice President, the former Chief of Staff and strategy advisor to founder Jack Ma, opens up on how the new landscape is shaping how value is created.

Dr. Ming Zeng has conducted extensive research on e-commerce, the growth strategy of Chinese companies, the competition and cooperation between Chinese and multinational firms, and how the emergence of Chinese competitors is changing global competition. He knows the landscape of digital business and has contributed to creating a global powerhouse that is reshaping how businesses operate.

With access to the latest technologies, Zeng has seen first-hand how artificial intelligence, machine learning, the mobile internet, and cloud computing are redefining how value is created. He explains how Alibaba and companies like them are using these technologies to automate decisions, develop new products, and plan strategic positioning.

Smart Business: What Alibaba’s Success Reveals about the Future of Strategy is his simple, overarching framework to guide strategy formulation and execution in this data-rich and highly interactive environment. It’s accessible and written to shed light on these successful companies to those outside of the technology industry and startups.

Ming Zeng was chief strategy officer of Alibaba Group from January 2008 to 2019. He joined the company in August 2006 as executive vice president of strategy, and served as acting president of China Yahoo! from November 2006 to December 2007.

In this episode of Trend Following Radio:

• Smart Business: What Alibaba’s Success Reveals about the Future of Strategy

Mentions & Resources:

• Ming Zeng

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Hello Michael,

I listen to your podcast and I have the latest version of Trend Following. I had reached out to you recently on LinkedIn, didn’t hear back but I recall you discussing one time on your podcast how you don’t pay much attention to LinkedIn. Of course it could also be that you’re busy or just simply chose not to reply (understandable and either way, no harm no foul and no love lost).

Anyhow, I just thought I’d reach out one more time. I decided to switch careers and undertake an MBA full time and concurrently seek my CFA designation; I only have one more term in my MBA and CFA level three next June.

I keep hearing good things about [blank] and I’ve been thinking about heading there post MBA/CFA and hopefully start my financial career there if that’s where the trend is. (I feel North America is overdone, along with London, Hong Kong etc).

I’d love to hear your thoughts/opinion if possible.

By the way, awesome episode on Feynman, he’s one of my intellectual heros. I read the Character of Physical Law in high school and almost ended up going into physics. I highly recommend the book by Lawrence Krauss titled Quantum Man, it’s about Feynman. I know you had Krauss on your podcast, he’s actually a friend of mine 🙂

Sorry to blabbering. Again, no harm no foul. I just had to give it another shot and hope you don’t hold that against me; certainly not trying to pass you off or waste your time.

Thank you for your podcast and insights!

Thanks for the great feedback, but as for jobs… that my friend is not my business.

Read Seth Godin’s book Linchpin. First 30 pages.

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Hi Mike,

I have recently picked up a copy of Trend Following and also found your wonderful podcast. Just finished listening to as much Tom Basso and Jerry Parker as you have on there and feel like Neo from the Matrix when he wakes up from having all the martial arts uploaded into his brain.

*opens eyes and turns to Morpheus* “I know kung fu”

Anyway, just wanted to thank you for providing this fantastic service to the world of trading! Also, at the end of your podcasts you say to email you and that you’ll send us everything that we need to get started. If you have time could you please point me in the right direction?

If it helps figure out what I need, my background is like this:

– Been in the market since 1999 (got in due the mania, subsequently got killed and learned great lessons from getting killed…good thing I was only 20 and didn’t have much to lose!).
– Have become a competent investor in the value investing mold over the last 20 years and believe that it works, however who has the time or inclination to learn everything and anything about hundreds of companies? I do this for fun but cannot spend 40 or 60 hours a week doing it.
– Have traded on the side as this is what I love to do.
– Recently found Trend Following, and the light-bulb went off–> this is the thing I knew worked intuitively as my most profitable trades have been from breakout highs/lows.
– Recently handed my company to a CEO that I have been grooming for a few years and can now follow my passion of trading. willing to work hard at it.
– I do not have the gambling/excitement about trading any more, and just want to make money. Am very happy to just set buy and sell stops according to a mechanical system and take all the losing trades if it means winning overall. Losing 70% of the time and taking draw downs is fine with me.
– Generally have always had a probability based mindset. I love games like limit poker where if you play correctly and play the odds, you will eventually win out. I do not care about short term unlucky moves against me if the long term system is sound. Have made a good chunk of money in poker and fantasy sports where you can systematize winning

Thanks again!

Mike S.

Video sent!