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“Thank you for telling me where I have been going wrong all these years…”

Feedback in:

Good evening Michael,

I read your latest email with great interest. You are absolutely correct, as I am reluctant to admit. I have been a financial adviser in the UK for nearly 40 years, and retired 10 years ago. I had my own small firm running collective fund portfolios for wealth clients, and they did OK. I always used active fund managers, and have never used tracker funds. There are seven [name] in the family, so we are a smart bunch. Yes, I have one of those PhDs, and my [name], so we know we are always right.

I am comfortably off, but have never made serious money in the markets. I started buying shares in 1973, so have seen 1974, 1987, the 2000 tech bubble, 2008 credit crunch etc. I bought your book 10 years ago and discarded it as too simplistic. How could such a simple idea possibly work?

I would not call it overconfidence, but intellectual arrogance. I am only just starting to come to terms with the fact that I have been wrong for 40 years. I will read your book again with a more open mind and start from scratch!

Thank you for telling me where I have been going wrong all these years: how could I possibly have be so mistaken?


Welcome!

How can you move forward immediately to Trend Following profits? My books and my Flagship Course and Systems are trusted options by clients in 70+ countries.

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“How do I logically set a stop loss…”

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Hey Michael,

I know you get a lot of emails, but I had to tell you how I laughed at your description of SBF with his flabby man boobs. I’m like come on dude at least try to be respectable, but one look at that guy and I knew he was a fraud.

Ok question. I buy skandisk. It’s up 15% in a few weeks. How do I logically set a stop loss?

Enjoy your podcasts a lot.


You need a full system, not a partial guessing process.

How can you move forward immediately to Trend Following profits? My books and my Flagship Course and Systems are trusted options by clients in 70+ countries.

Also jump in:

Trend Following Podcast Guests
Frequently Asked Questions
Performance
Research
Markets to Trade
Crisis Times
Trading Technology
About Us

Trend Following is for beginners, students and pros in all countries. This is not day trading 5-minute bars, prediction or analyzing fundamentals–it’s Trend Following.

“Jack Schwager and his Market Wizard series got me to believe that I could make it…”

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Hello Mr. Covel,

Like you, I wasn’t born into royalty; just the son of a car mechanic and a secretary for a welding supply company. But I had a huge run of luck on the right side of a trend (although I didn’t know it at the time) and became financially independent in 2020-2021 in my early 40s.

My journey into trading is too long to describe here, but Jack Schwager and his Market Wizard series got me to believe that I could make it in the markets and introduced me to characters like Larry Hite and Ed Seykota. And Nassim Taleb (as well as other traders) helped me to better structure my thinking on how to make decisions under conditions of uncertainty. And through Hite’s “The Rule” I found you and your Trend Following book.

I just want to say ‘thank you’ for making such an excellent guide to life. Using primarily outcomes to make decisions rather than theory/”knowledge,” and immediately cutting out what is not working while trying to find and perpetuate things that do work has been a very useful philosophy/strategy for my life.

I just listened to one of your podcasts last night with Ed Seykota, and you mentioned Alan Watts. His “The Wisdom of Insecurity” is in my opinion a truly top notch book, very relevant to trading and letting go and “feeling” one’s way through life, following major trends, rather than trying to control everything. For me, Trend Following is the future way of thinking.

So again, just wanted to say ‘thank you.’ Books like yours have greatly enriched my life.

Sincerely,
Brad J.

Welcome!


How can you move forward immediately to Trend Following profits? My books and my Flagship Course and Systems are trusted options by clients in 70+ countries.

Also jump in:

Trend Following Podcast Guests
Frequently Asked Questions
Performance
Research
Markets to Trade
Crisis Times
Trading Technology
About Us

Trend Following is for beginners, students and pros in all countries. This is not day trading 5-minute bars, prediction or analyzing fundamentals–it’s Trend Following.

Get off at the next station

There is an old Japanese legend that carries more weight than any Ivy League finance degree. It says that if you find yourself on the wrong train, you should get off at the nearest station.

It sounds like common sense. But in the markets, common sense is the rarest commodity. Most people treat a wrong trade like a marriage. They realize they’ve entered a position that is moving against them. The “story” they bought into isn’t coming true. But instead of getting off, they stay in their seat. They start looking for a reason to stay.

The Cost of the Return Trip

They think, “If I just wait long enough, it will turn around.” Or, “I can’t leave now, I’ve already lost 10%.”
The longer you stay on the wrong train, the more expensive the return trip becomes. This isn’t just about geography. It is about your capital, your time, and your psychological health. In trading, the “return trip” is the profit you need to make just to break even.

If you lose 50%, you don’t need a 50% gain to get back to zero. You need 100%. That is the math of the “Big Boy” trap. It is the belief that you found a secret door to wealth that doesn’t require discipline or the acceptance of loss.

The Discipline of the Exit

Trend followers don’t wait for the conductor to explain why the train is going the wrong way. If the trend breaks, we exit. We take the small loss. We don’t protect our ego. We protect our capital.

Precision is for surgeons. In the markets, precision is a trap. Most people are paralyzed by the fear of being wrong. They want to be perfect before they start. But the legends don’t win because they have a secret map to the truth. They win because they fail more than you do. They simply have the discipline to get off the wrong train before it takes them to a place they can’t afford to be.


How can you move forward immediately to Trend Following profits? My books and my Flagship Course and Systems are trusted options by clients in 70+ countries.

Also jump in:

Trend Following Podcast Guests
Frequently Asked Questions
Performance
Research
Markets to Trade
Crisis Times
Trading Technology
About Us

Trend Following is for beginners, students and pros in all countries. This is not day trading 5-minute bars, prediction or analyzing fundamentals–it’s Trend Following.

Ep. 1388: Ross Greene Interview with Michael Covel on Trend Following Radio

Episode 1388
Episode 1388

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My guest today is Ross Greene. He is a clinical child psychologist. Greene’s research has been extensively published in academic journals and he and the CPS model have been mentioned in popular media. He advocates against punitive, exclusionary disciplinary practices, including detention, suspension, expulsion, corporal punishment, restraint, and seclusion.

The topic is his book The Kids Who Aren’t Okay: The Urgent Case for Reimagining Support, Belonging, and Hope in Schools.

In this episode of Trend Following Radio we discuss:

  • American education system challenges
  • Meeting kids where they are
  • Meritocracy vs equity
  • Behavioral issues and classroom disruption
  • Nature vs nurture in learning

Mentions & Resources:

Listen to this episode:

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“I have tried forex, crypto, shares, indices, day trading, long term trading…”

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Hi Michael,

Thank you for your email. I’ve been listening to some of your podcasts and I wanted to learn more about your strategy.

What’s your biggest trading challenge right now? What’s keeping you from achieving the consistent profits?

Well I suppose it is having a system, strategy or process that actually shows growth. I have been trading for over 14 years. I have been on trading courses, read trading books, signed up to traders’ programmes, and I have nothing to show for it. My investment pot is smaller now than when I started. I have tried forex, crypto, shares, indices, day trading, long term trading. Everything has failed.

I’m hoping that your Trend Trading strategy can be the one to give me faith that I can be a successful investor. And it needs to happen soon because I’m not in the prime of my life, but it would be nice to see that I can provide for my family a bit more than a pension.

Marce C.

I’m here to help!


How can you move forward immediately to Trend Following profits? My books and my Flagship Course and Systems are trusted options by clients in 70+ countries.

Also jump in:

Trend Following Podcast Guests
Frequently Asked Questions
Performance
Research
Markets to Trade
Crisis Times
Trading Technology
About Us

Trend Following is for beginners, students and pros in all countries. This is not day trading 5-minute bars, prediction or analyzing fundamentals–it’s Trend Following.