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Lacking a system is my biggest challenge.

I’ve done discretionary trading with mixed results but have experimented with a simplified trend following in my 401k with mutual funds using a weekly chart.

It got me out of the market completely 2 weeks ago (thank God!) and the last two prior years got me 20% plus just using Fidelity 500 Index fund.

Since it got me out of trouble I’ve been thinking about doing a deep dive into system development with trend trading as the cornerstone.

Can you adjust/customize trend trading to suit your needs? I don’t think I could stomach a serious drawdown at my age (51).

Billy

I can help on the system part.

And you can adjust risk/reward/DD.

See my FAQs.

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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
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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.

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Hello Michael,

After a half a decade journey from a bizarre podcast journey with [crazy person] talking about [name] for President, stumbling onto your podcast from there, picking up all your books, delving into your reading list, and finally taking the plunge with your Flagship Strategy course I wanted to say thank you for creating a learning path to help me change my life.

I have now been fully engaged as a trend following trader as my sole profession for over two and a half years. I put in the hours and work to suit a trend following system to my risk tolerance and long-term time preference, but recently it has shown its’ robustness in the face of the “black swan” events that have made up 2020 thus far. This week was another reminder of how truly robust trend following is in the face of conventional and tail risk-blind equity-focused strategies.

Wishing you all the best and looking forward to your next book or project.

Sean

Thank you!

Thanks for the feedback. Those kinds of emails keep me motivated!

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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.

Feedback in:

Michael –

Just want to thank you for offering the Trend Following course! I bought it about a year ago and have incorporated your key principles into my system. Having stop losses on all positions has saved my butt in this market. I’m down about 5% vs the market being down well over 20%. Will now switch to being patient and looking for opportunities as they present themselves with the same focus on stop losses and position sizing that I learned from you.

Having a system brings a level of calm I don’t see in a lot of friends right now. Like you we live out of the US (Puerto Vallarta, Mexico). Being outside of the US makes it easier to step back and observe instead of being in the middle of the hysteria friends back home are experiencing.

Thanks again for your course, podcasts and books!

Leo W.

Welcome!

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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.

Subscribe to Trend Following Radio on iTunes

My guest today is David J. Hand, an emeritus professor of mathematics and senior research investigator at Imperial College London, a former president of the Royal Statistical Society, and a fellow of the British Academy. His many previous books include The Improbability Principle, Measurement: A Very Short Introduction, Statistics: A Very Short Introduction, and Principles of Data Mining.

The topic is his book Dark Data: Why What You Don’t Know Matters.

In this episode of Trend Following Radio we discuss:

• David Hand
• Dark Data: Why What You Don’t Know Matters
• Improbability principle
• Statistics
• Underestimating variability
• Improbability principles
• Fabricated data
• Social Sciences

Mentions and Resources:

• Jim Simons
• Greg Zuckerman
• Coronavirus (COVID-19)
• The Big Short
• Steve Wozniak
• Anthony Hopkins
• Winton Capital

Listen to this episode:

• Listen to this podcast on iTunes. (Please leave a rating!)
• Listen on Spotify.
• Listen on Stitcher.
• Libysn RSS.
• Download as MP3 by right-clicking here and choosing “save as.”
• Free Video.

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Feedback in:

Hi Michael,

You asked me what my biggest challenge in trading is. It is for me to find the right time horizon. I currently traded a mean reversion strategy on a day end basis, but after several months I noticed that it is to the short term for me. I want to trade more on a weekly basis. I learned this only by trading the system. With backtesting, it did not help me. I think finding the right system that fits me is really the holy grail as Tom Basso and Van Tharp always say, and it is true. But you have to go through the learning curve yourself.

More maybe later, I am currently reading your books and I think trend following on a midterm basis is more suitable for me than daily trading. I like to study daily, but not trading.

Thanks for your feedback.

Have a great day,
Philip

Good perspective.

But I help people get there faster.

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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.

Feedback in:

I’m sure you’ve heard similar:

I have friends 55+ who have Vanguard index funds “because fees are low”. One claims to have standard 60/40 allocation, another 75/25 allocation. They are nervous for the last 2 weeks.

Neither has a process to re-balance. The first one simply could not pull the trigger in January to sell a bit of his stock index to maintain a 60/40 ratio. Selling is very very difficult for him, while the market is going up.

Thank you for your great podcast, and emphasis on Thinking & Process.

Brian

Welcome!

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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.

Feedback in:

Michael,

I always enjoy your podcast, I will do a better job of providing reviews! I started trading a trend following strategy after reading Turtle Trader 7 years ago, and it has changed my life. Currently, I am a Spinosaurus client of yours as well. I also have been practicing yoga for 2 years and it has changed things for me once again, your occasional mention of yoga sparked my interest. So basically, I have learned a lot from you. I have sent you an excerpt from the book “Meditations on Intention and Being” by Rolf Gates before. My understanding is that he is a yoga-teacher instructor, maybe he would be a good interview. Today’s reading stood out to me and I thought I would share a few lines:

“The inner life of humanity is haunted by the implacable fact that the things we create and love are impermanent and that the futures we are living into are uncertain. Yoga outlines a set of actions that can significantly reduce the amount of suffering we have to put up with.”

A separate note, in my day job I am a 20-year financial advisor and I recommend to clients that we allocate a percentage of the portfolio to the available mutual funds that use systematic trend following, and it is usually the most questioned investment. Unfortunately, all the funds that a broker-dealer will approve are the low volatility ones, so you don’t see a lot of “crisis alpha”. Interestingly enough. Dunn Capital has a fund now through Arrow Funds, my broker-dealer will not approve. One reason: “It does not have a long enough track record.” LMAO.

Thank you,

Chris

Thanks!

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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.