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Category: Interviews

Ep. 238: Larry Hite and Alex Greyserman Interview with Michael Covel on Trend Following Radio

Posted on by Michael Covel
Larry Hite and Alex Greyserman
Larry Hite and Alex Greyserman

My guests today are Larry Hite and Alex Greyserman.

Hite is a hedge fund manager and is one of the forefathers of system trading. He was famously featured in the Market Wizards book. A few years ago he started ISAM with Stanley Fink. Greyserman has 25 years of experience in the CTA industry, and was originally hired by Larry Hite at Mint.

Greyserman is Chief Scientist at ISAM (PhD in Statistics). He is also a professor at Columbia University.

The topic is Trend Following.

In this episode of Trend Following Radio we discuss:

  • Singapore, and Covel’s recent excursions in Asia
  • How the game has stayed the same despite zero interest rate policy
  • What people are missing when they say “trend following is dead”
  • How you’ll never get perfection
  • Their 800 year study, the premise, and what was found out
  • Measuring human nature
  • The difference between divergent and convergent strategies
  • Risk management
  • Having “perfect” knowledge
  • Using long trends and getting whipsawed in shorter trends
  • The asset class of trend following compared to the NASDAQ buy and hold, etc.
  • What’s changed about human nature through all the booms and busts
  • Insurance, hedging your risk, and the risk transference process
  • Asymmetrical leverage
  • Adjusting to new environments
  • How those that survive are the most adaptable to the environment
  • How trend following automatically adjusts to what’s happening

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Ep. 237: Sharon Moalem Interview with Michael Covel on Trend Following Radio

Posted on by Michael Covel
Sharon Moalem
Sharon Moalem

My guest today is Sharon Moalem, a physician and author. Moalem’s previous book, “Survival Of The Sickest”, was a New York Times bestseller.

The topic is his book Inheritance: How Our Genes Change Our Lives, and Our Lives Change Our Genes.

In this episode of Trend Following Radio we discuss:

  • Rafael Nadal as an example of digging deep in genetics
  • How our bodies are constantly in a state of deconstruction and reconstruction
  • How DNA is under constant modification
  • Genetic personalized medicine
  • “Jeff the chef” and an example of specific dietary needs
  • Dysmorphology and analyzing the hands, feet, and face of an individual
  • Gregor Mendel and his pea experiments in genetics
  • How your behavior can dictate your genetic destiny
  • The future of personalized genetic medicine
  • Critics and misunderstandings of genetics
  • Vitamins on an individual basis

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Ep. 236: Robin Hanson Interview with Michael Covel on Trend Following Radio

Posted on by Michael Covel
Robin Hanson
Robin Hanson

My guest today is Robin Hanson, an associate professor of economics at George Mason University and a research associate at the Future of Humanity Institute of Oxford University.

The topic is outside the box economic perspectives.

In this episode of Trend Following Radio we discuss:

  • Prediction markets
  • Vernon Smith and coming up with the “why” for booms and busts
  • Dealing with a complex world based on our limited abilities
  • Steering towards humanity’s future
  • Hanson’s physics background, and how he came to where prediction markets became a passion
  • How prediction markets can make us pay more attention to the truth
  • Hayek and Mises, and some of their thinking early on
  • What taboos and idealogical beliefs might stop one from making optimal decisions
  • If people have employed particular trading strategies to the prediction markets
  • Stop losses as information and as risk preference
  • Setting up a market to bet on geopolitical events in the Middle East, and the controversy based around that
  • Why DC politicians often cannot handle the research Hanson does
  • Why Hanson has elected to have his head cryonically preserved after medical death based on a cost-benefit analysis

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Ep. 235: Harry Markowitz Interview with Michael Covel on Trend Following Radio

Posted on by Michael Covel
Harry Markowitz
Harry Markowitz

My guest today is Harry Markowitz, the third Nobel Prize winner to appear on this podcast. Markowitz is an American economist who received the 1989 John von Neumann Theory Prize and the 1990 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. Markowitz is a professor of finance at the Rady School of Management at the University of California, San Diego.

The topic is modern finance.

In this episode of Trend Following Radio we discuss:

  • Justin Fox and “The Myth Of The Rational Market”
  • Markowitz’s beginnings, and the Nobel Prize
  • Markowitz’s 1952 paper
  • How Markowitz felt about some of his prescriptions and ideas being interpreted into dogma
  • Why Wall Street was not interested in Markowitz’s theories at one time
  • Diversification for the right reason
  • Markowitz’s new four-volume book
  • Advice on maintaining mental acuity at an advanced age and sounding like you’re 35 when you’re 86 years young
  • Markowitz’s attraction to the philosopher Hume
  • If it was fifty years later, if Markowitz would be a quant running a hedge fund today
  • Markowitz’s legacy
  • On being comfortable vs. being rich
  • The leveraged long-only hedge fund industry and being coaxed into putting your money into these institutions
  • Long Term Capital Management and portfolio theory

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Ep. 234: Ryan Holiday Interview with Michael Covel on Trend Following Radio

Posted on by Michael Covel
Ryan Holiday
Ryan Holiday

My guest today is Ryan Holiday, director of marketing for American Apparel; media strategist for Tucker Max, Dov Charney, and others.

The topic is his book The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph.

In this episode of Trend Following Radio we discuss:

  • Marcus Aurelius’ philosophy and stoicism, and why it has such a hold on Holiday
  • Distraction
  • Why the impediment to action actually advances action
  • The unpredictability of the world, and how we react to the world
  • George Clooney, and his start as an actor related to the obstacles we all face
  • Steve Jobs’ reality distortion field
  • What drives Holiday today
  • How will is the ultimate trump card
  • The two definitions of will
  • Alabama Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban and his approach to the moment of now
  • Feeling great about the fight, the adversity, and the challenge
  • How the process is intrinsically valuable

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Ep. 232: Tucker Max Interview with Michael Covel on Trend Following Radio

Posted on by Michael Covel
Tucker Max
Tucker Max

My guest today is Tucker Max, an American author and public speaker. He chronicles his drinking and sexual encounters in the form of short stories on his website TuckerMax.com, which has received millions of visitors since Max launched it as the result of a bet in 2000.

In this episode of Trend Following Radio we discuss:

  • Covel and Max talk about their first meeting, and Max’s brutally honest advice to Covel
  • Diet and nutrition
  • The NCAA, college athletics, exploitation, the media, and having to ‘beat’ the system
  • Marginal cost and marginal product
  • Entrepreneurial thinking and Max’s early career
  • Max’s experience in marketing
  • Protecting your independence
  • Christopher Hitchens
  • Facing rejection in publishing, and how rejection is part of success
  • How success only teaches you to repeat what you did before, and failure forces you to think
  • What drives Max today
  • How the landscape has changed in regards to authors
  • The fight for authority and trust in the publishing world
  • What motivates Tucker Max today–the quality of relationships you have with other people, and what you do that matters to others

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Ep. 230: Mark Minervini Interview with Michael Covel on Trend Following Radio

Posted on by Michael Covel
Mark Minervini
Mark Minervini

My guest today is Mark Minervini, a technical analyst, acclaimed author, instructor, and independent trader. He has over 30 years of experience in finance, and was featured in Jack Schwager’s Stock Market Wizards; Conversations with America’s Top Stock Traders.

The topic is his book Trade Like a Stock Market Wizard: How to Achieve Super Performance in Stocks in Any Mar

In this episode of Trend Following Radio we discuss:

  • Importance of influences outside of the finance world
  • Minervini’s atypical background in music and how he got to where he is today
  • Capturing ‘super performance’ and the trend
  • The importance of cutting your losers short
  • How Minervini spends his day
  • Richard Love and ‘super performance’ stocks
  • Why Minervini is not a fan of diversification beyond the minimum amount that you can get away with
  • Richard Donchian, Jesse Livermore and their influence on Minervini
  • Timeless strategies
  • Paul Tudor Jones and ‘losers average losers’
  • The importance of not just trading what you know
  • ‘New high ground’ and not being afraid of buying higher highs
  • Risk management and bet sizing
  • The biggest areas where new traders often start off on the wrong foot
  • Howard Lederer and poker players as an analogy to traders
  • Why you shouldn’t even turn on the television as a stock trader

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Minervini