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Please enjoy my monologue The Act of Thinking Can Feel Nice with Michael Covel on Trend Following Radio. This episode may also include great outside guests from my archive.
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Dear Michael Covel,
First, I would like to thank you for your effort to continually seek out the truth and enlighten others on successful trading strategies, and the philosophies of successful market participants. The most recent edition of Trend Following has opened my mind, and increased my hunger for financial success. I am writing to you today as a young trader asking for guidance and hope to not take much of your valuable time.
There is an invisible hand that has led me to the path of trading since I was about 16. As many, I started by reading books on the subject. I quickly learned that success in trading is not so much in having a complex strategy, but in being able to manage the complex realm of your own behavior and to be consistent over time. This is a challenge that continues to intrigue me.
I’ve juggled with multiple systems and observed relative success. Over time I’ve built up the confidence to believe that this is something I can be good at, and the determination to work through inevitable roadblocks.
In August of 2018 I left work with the intent to invest a chunk of cash I’d saved up. However, it wasn’t until March of this year that I truly felt ready to trade full-time. I came strong out the gate primarily on the short-side. This was short-lived, and my account has since been the subject of large fluctuations without significant advancement.
My brief experience as a trader has shown me I have the potential to be successful, but more importantly it has taught me that I will never truly succeed until I improve at managing my emotions, systemize key components, and find a mentor.
It is important to mention I enrolled in a program that cost me a sizeable $18,000 CAD which I am set to finish at the end of this year. Long-term value investing is what attracted me to this program and although it covered the topic, it mainly focused on credit spread strategies that simply haven’t resonated with me. Perhaps this is because I enjoyed other strategies I learned from books so much more.
The reason I share this, is to point out I am having an internal conflict as to which is the best path to take. I am willing to start over with something that better resonates with me.
My goal is to take control of my financial freedom and live a comfortable life. This includes having the ability to experience everything my heart desires, and hopefully be of service to other individuals and communities. If I can do it for myself, I want to invest other people’s money in the future, and help them reach their goals as well.
Today at 22, I couldn’t be more certain about my desire to be a successful trader and money manager, yet so uncertain about how to get there. Deep down I know this is what I want to do. I also know success is possible with discipline, a placid mind, and humility.
I made the decision to not enroll in university to pursue trading/investing. Today, part of me wonders if I’ve had it all backwards. Mr. Covel, with great respect I hope you have some free time to answer the following questions.
Is it better for me to go back to school, get a stable job in financial services, and then pursue trading full-time? Or should I stay the course and work towards figuring it out now? If the latter, what is the best path moving forward to grow trading as a career and find a mentor?
I understand if you are busy and apologize if this was of inconvenience to you. Anything you can share with me, I consider to be invaluable and thank you in advance.
Regards,
David M.
Read 500 of his blog posts here.
That will point you in the right direction, college or not, job or entrepreneur.
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Hi Mike
I have another question if its okay. I just ordered your book, Trend Following, will receive it on November 22, and look forward to reading it, and get started on some stock analysis, initially on ETFs.
I am a beginner in the stock world, but have read a lot about it, and many of the articles I have read say that it is difficult to beat the market, and especially if you have to beat the market so it makes a difference. Do you have any figures on how the systems from your book Trend Following are performing for beginners.
I know it’s a difficult question, and I’m also not sure if you give a specific recipe for a system in your book, since I haven’t read it yet. but in Denmark it is possible to have about 7% on ETF per year, and that is okay – but when you start investing as a 52 year old man and I know that I have come late to invest, but it is Now I have the time, the interest and the money to invest for. Then it may well give a little more than 7% per year, otherwise I might as well just invest in ETFs on a monthly basis, and save myself from all the analysis work, which I look forward to – as I love to work with numbers and excel sheets.
Hope you can make me a little wiser on an average return for Trend Following, without promising anything.Kind Regards,
Johnny H.
Denmark
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.
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I’d really be surprised if someone like you took time to read this, but we all just get one chance, so I might as well try and ask. I’m an Philosophy major from Slovakia, who got intrigued by the idea of, at first, trading, then trend-following. Wanting to implement my own strategies, I learned to code. Which also made it possible for me to land a developer job at a large corporation. Anyway unlike devs abroad, I’m not able to save more than say 200 bucks a month. With that little money it seems hard to be able to trade huge amount of markets if you risk 1% per trade. I’ve reached out to one hedge fund, just to find out their minimum is 100k. Is this only a game for large players, who firstly made something of themselves and then want to invest that?
I’ve also tried launching my own subscription based website, to get the ball rolling. Took me 1 year to develop and finish completely, didn’t go anywhere. I guess I just have to try harder next time around, and my mistake was focusing on Slovakia (it’s just 6 million people, third of whom are not probably capable even browsing internet).
It’s probably not much, but at least I’ll comment on iTunes.
Thanks for reaching out. Read to start.
Then read more of the links/pages all over.
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 Buster Benson, an entrepreneur and a former product leader at Amazon, Twitter, Slack, and Patreon. He’s now CEO of 750words.com and writes for Medium.
The topic is his book Why Are We Yelling?
In this episode of Trend Following Radio we discuss:
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What fascinates me is the Opportunity Cost. If you go down the path of taking in information, and taking in information that is just made up, not real, and assuming it to be real… there’s an opportunity cost to that. All the time that you spend on stuff that is not real prevents you from getting ahead on what is real. So the trick in this day & age, if there is one, is the filter.
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.
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My biggest challenge is that I work for the Royal Danish Navy and sails in the North-Atlantic, and do not have access to fast internet, only slow slow internet. I need to figure out a system with less time online, and think that trend following could be it.
Yes it can be.
You can use EOD or EOW data — no day trading with trend following.
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.