Just want to drop you a quick note to tell you that I enjoyed listening to your last podcast with Simon Black. Some of his thoughts resonate with mine – such as being responsible for oneself and not “hope that the government will make it right”. Big thanks for sharing such insightful interviews for free. It’s inspiring.
Your work is great, Mike. Keep doing what you do, and how you do it. The fact that you keep one foot in obscurity, staying just under the radar – it’s like the old days of college radio. Mainstream is for sellouts.
Was on my daily post-trading hike, enjoying your Valeant podcast. As usual this one also very well done! You know, as I was listening it reminded me of an article I read a number of years back about [Bill] Ackman. I couldn’t remember where I read it, or even all the details, but remembered the article discussed this bike ride Ackman took where he was so [!@#$] egotistical I was thinking at the time this guy is gonna blow up some day. He’s the type that just can’t admit he’s ever wrong, and we both know in trading one had to lose at times to win. And then I heard the Podcast. When I came back from the hike I googled Ackman bicycle ride and it came up immediately; was in Vanity Fair.
Keep up the good work!
Best,
[Name]
PS. Something else I wanted to tell you. After enjoying a Tom Basso podcast, [we connected]. Then a few months ago he posted something about the [location] in [location]. I emailed him and mentioned my [location] home is less than a mile from there. He emailed me back and we found out we’re within a mile of each other. Since then we’ve become friends, had dinner with [people] a few weeks ago. Thanks to you for hooking us up.
Very cool on Tom.
Tom coming on my podcast… really set a tone early on and throughout. Next time I am in the States I need to swing through [location].
You must use trend following like technical analysis as a tool not a religion. I do believe quantitative easing is good because it drives the stock markets up and as a trader I make my money and pocket when the stocks are going up not with philosophy therefore I believe in Wall Street’s industry and the SEC and the Fed and US government whether good or bad ethically as they are a fact all those so called gurus predict or praise one thing and make money as counterparts as trading is binary buyer or seller by taking the opposite direction/position example Bill Bonner predicted in Money Week mag a few years ago that QE would lead to financial disaster leading to hyperinflation but there is no unemployment right now in the us 5 % there is a growth 3 % / year the highest standards of living in the world big house / cars etc. it is an affluent society but for a tiny minority of lazy couch potato people of course you get my point the truth is none can predict the future and if directors from the fed with a background of PhD in economics from Harvard the most brilliant people cannot they have the best reports from administrations then gurus cant either.
I believe as a taxpayer QE is fair because it drives my stocks up on the market and i want my money back because unemployed workers do not pay taxes and even if QE does not create enough jobs in the real world economy who cares
The worker should learn how to play the game and risk his money on the stock exchange instead of watching football games on TV all day
No pain no gain.
There will always be losers and winners and it is a matter of choice
My feedback:
1. Trend following is a tool. You have some misunderstandings you can correct if you are curious.
2. There are some points in your rant I think might make sense, but other parts are incoherent.
From Bondi Beach Australia thank you for a fantastic Podcast, I listen to you as I drive my 400 ton mining truck, you have added much knowledge to much trading journey and the great thing is I have many more to get through. Cheers.
Hello from Blue Ocean Strategy! We recently listened to the podcast “Masters in Business: Michael Covel” on Barry Ritholtz’s Big Picture (January 13, 2016). We really appreciate when people take the time to mention blue ocean strategy and as a thank you, we share the best content with our growing global audience via our website, social media accounts and email newsletter. We thought our audience would enjoy this piece and so we have already mentioned and posted a link to it in our eLibrary – here.
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Thanks! I hope to have Professor Kim on my podcast soon. Let’s make that happen.
A listener passed this along. An interesting post from Finance Trends (source):
Valeant Pharmaceuticals (VRX) is now big headline news, as the stock’s downward slide continues to punish investors, big and small.
Hedge fund manager, Bill Ackman of Pershing Square was reported to have lost $1 billion in a single day due to VRX’s latest plunge. Institutional ownership of Valeant’s stock was very widespread. As mentioned in our last post, a huge number of hedge funds and mutual funds owned big positions in VRX. Smaller investors may also be feeling the hit in their personal investment accounts or in their pension funds’ returns.
Let’s not focus too much on the investors who were unfortunate enough to get burned in this stock crash. The media and the investing world are already having a field day with this debacle. Instead, let’s take a fresh look at the chart to better understand why so many savvy investors were hurt in this decline.
As you can see in this updated daily chart (see below), VRX had been showing signs of distribution (professional selling) for weeks heading into the fall of 2015.
After breaking down through its 200 day moving average (the red line), the stock moved sideways for a time before plunging through the $150 level. Here’s where the decline really accelerated and volume ramped up.
Towards the end of 2015, we saw a nice rebound in VRX and a bit of chatter about how “everything would be fine” and “here is a smart place for big investors to average down and buy more”, etc. Well, as recent events have shown us, that is not exactly how things played out for the investors who stubbornly held on to their bullish “thesis” for VRX.
At the start of this week, VRX was trading near $68. By Tuesday, the stock had plunged by over 50% to close at $33.49. As of today’s close, VRX is trading at $29.65, 60% lower from our previous Valeant (VRX) update at the end of February.
If you didn’t read my last post on VRX, go back and check out the closing section, “How to avoid disastrous stock declines”. If you know someone who is stubbornly holding on to major losses in their portfolio or trading account, share the article with them. While nothing is foolproof in investing, these simple ideas may help you pare or avoid the disastrous losses that can ruin any investor, big or small.
“The most important rule of trading is to play great defense, not great offense. Every day I assume every position I have is wrong. I know where my stop risk points are going to be. If they are going against me, then I have a game plan for getting out.” – Paul Tudor Jones, via Darvas Trader.
