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Please pass on to Mr. Covel that I am 49% through his educational and entertaining book. I have only found one typo, albeit significant, but the book is excellent.

Thanks. Typo? Which book?

That was funny. Your email ended at ‘best’ on my screen, until I screened down and saw. It was humorous because I thought, given your creative writing style, with editorial perfectionism, you could not let the typo pass. For a moment I thought you had let it pass and could not believe it. Then the postscript: “PS. Typo? Which book?”

It is in ‘Trend Following’. Very well written, thank you, and insightfully entertaining with the quotes from other brains. I have also read, “The Complete Turtle Trader’. It was also well presented and enjoyable reading. Although ‘Trend Following’ is a much broader doorway to how we think and don’t think. The quotes you have presented in ‘Trend following’ are, for the most part, literary treasures in their own right.

I am on the west coast. It is time to close down and go help my wife and our visiting son, with dinner. I will look back through the book tomorrow or Sunday and tell you what and where it is.

Thx!

Section 6 Human Behavior > Page 195 · Kindle Location 7674

The book, ‘Trend Following’ reads: As these examples show, risks must considered in the most ordinary of situations and high-pressure environments alike.

To my mind, one of the outstanding characteristics of your writing is the graceful flow of the detailed presentation; which is rare in a non-fiction (hopefully, haha), technical subject. For that reason, the typo is an interruption to that flow.

I am only half way through the book, but a question, if I may. Is it possible that any current phenomenal success of your cited trend traders is related, at least in part, to the size of their positions creating, sustaining or enforcing the trend of their investment selections?

I was surprised to see Mark Spitsnagel ‘Dao of Capital’ mentioned in your book. His writing put me on to reading Henry Hazlett, ‘Economics in One Lesson’ and Ludwig von Mises, ‘Human Action’, also quoted in your book. Of Hazlett’s book, Spitnagel says, it is the one book he would want his kids to read. I opened Hazlett’s ‘Economics in One Lesson’ on a Saturday and finished it the next day. It is rewarding to me to read their works and yours.

Thank you and best wishes for a good day for you.

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

Please enjoy my monologue A Perfect Time for Wisdom with Michael Covel on Trend Following Radio.

Listen to this episode:

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

Want to learn more Trend Following? Watch my video here.

Feedback in:

Dear Michael,

My name is V., and I am an aspiring trader from Romania, currently living in The Netherlands.

I’m emailing you because I would like your opinion on something, and I’m seeking your opinion because you’ve been a great inspiration to me. My trading style and system owe much to you and Tom Basso, with whom I corresponded a bit and who also helped me with my trading system. Your book “Trend Following” and your podcasts have significantly influenced my trading and personal development. Your evidence-based, confident, and no-nonsense attitude, along with your libertarian worldview, have made me a better and more confident trader (and person!). Trend following fits my job in the biotech sector as well (long hours and mentally demanding), as it allows me to manage trades in the evenings and frees me from constant screen-watching during the day.

So what I wanted to ask is, what is your opinion/stance on prop firms, or, to be more accurate, funding firms such as FTMO, the 5%ers, etc.? Do you think this is a good way to go about if one has only a small personal trading account and wants to add to it to reach a point where he/she can make meaningful profits without taking huge risks?

I know that most of these firms ultimately profit from failed traders who pay the fee but fail the challenge. Of course, they need a small number of successful traders too, who receive payouts in order to prove their legitimacy (I guess like a casino). However, they have so many rules and it seems really tough to trade with them as a trend following trader, even though I adapted my system to a certain extent to fit their rules. My trading system is very simple and is based on determining the trend on the daily chart (using either price action and/or a moving average), and using ATR and/or Bollinger bands to determine my SL and position sizing/risk. One prop firm rule that my system cannot deal with is trailing daily drawdown which resets every day based on your equity. I cannot deal with this because if I am to let my winners run, I need to give quite a bit of space for price (and, therefore, for my unrealized P/L) to fluctuate from one day to another. Nevertheless, there are some firms out there who do not have this daily trailing drawdown, but they are a bit less reputable, for example Crypto Fund Trader, or The Funded Trader (who shut down operations for a while and screwed a lot of customers, including myself).

Growing an account of only a few thousand dollars is pretty challenging, and I see the prop firms route as one of the very few viable options to add significant sums to my personal account at the moment. It might sound like biotech pays well enough for me to deposit large sums every month, but it doesn’t, especially in the Netherlands where everything is very expensive. I also tried approaching a few actual proprietary trading firms, but they seem to want someone who’s already a pro or very good at math, and I am neither. Also, they seem to dismiss trend following and believe that HFT is the only way to make money, which really frustrates me.

So, again, I would love to hear you talk about this, prop (funding) firms and your opinion on this, or other routes underfunded trend followers can follow to make this a full-time endeavor. I would love to hear this in a podcast, and also I’d be very happy if I would get a reply to this email. Of course, I imagine that you are very busy and also receive a lot of emails, so I understand if you don’t reply to every single one of them.

And if I may dare a more personal question, what personality trait or habit (learned or otherwise) would you say that was very important for you to reach success? Of course there’s almost never just one thing that leads to success, but if you had to name a trait or habit of yours, what would you name?

I am asking this because I grew up with the myth that if you study hard enough, get a university degree, get a good job and work hard, you will be successful, but I came to realize that that doesn’t make you successful. It might make you a high earner, but most high earners I see around me are working their life away doing something they don’t enjoy and are stressed all the time. This doesn’t quite look like success to me. Success to me is financial independence, doing your own thing and loving the thing you do, and having the freedom to live where you want and structure your life the way YOU want, just like you and other people I admire.

I’m sorry if this last question is too personal or too much coming from a stranger, and feel free to ignore it of course.

In any case, I would be honored to hear back from you!

All the best,
V. C.

Prop firms are a dead end. They restrict you to very tight draw downs. Will never work.

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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 am a struggling day trader with some swing trading mixed in.

I am currently long biased. My strategy is to formulate a watch list consisting of high volume low float stocks preferably with news. Then using technical analysis of chart patterns and indicators like VWAP and 9EMA. I formulate a plan for entering into the trade with profit target and a pre-determined stop loss. My problem seems to be having the discipline to stick to my plan.

My swing trading strategy involves scanning for major break outs like at or near 52wk highs. Then again with the technical analysis to determine major support and resistance areas so I can put together a plan of action. The few swings I did at the beginning of this year I think I did fairly well on but I do have a relatively small account.

Thanks.

I would stop all of this. Start here.

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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:

Hi Michael,

Wanted to send you a quick note to thank you for the fantastic books on trend investing.

I’m on my 2nd book of yours, and have also read “The Rule” by Larry Hite (also amazing).

I am still trying to get my head wrapped around the process, but hopefully with more reading and practice it will come together. For years I’ve thrown darts at selecting stocks, mutual funds, etc and not made significant progress.

As a veteran (USMC) I wish I had known/started this when I was in the service, we would be having a very different conversation, but today is the day. Improvise. Adapt. Overcome.

Again, with compliments and regards,
Neil G.

All of my links below. Jump in!

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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

Please enjoy my monologue Tech and Trend with Michael Covel on Trend Following Radio.

Listen to this episode:

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

Want to learn more Trend Following? Watch my video here.

Feedback in:

Hi Michael,

I have been future market trading for several months now and have read a few books such as Trading in the Zone, your: The Complete TurtleTrader, Trend Following Mindset, Best Loser Wins, and currently reading Reminiscence of a Stock Operator.

Do you have any other recommendations/tips for someone still fresh in their trading journey?

I do have a trading mentor and that has been vital in my learning and behaviors too.

Thanks,
Matt A.

Yes. Start here.

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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.