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Category: Podcasts

Ep. 33: David Stendahl Interview with Michael Covel on Trend Following Radio

Posted on by Michael Covel
Dave Stendahl
Dave Stendahl

My guest today is Dave Stendahl of Capitalogix, the Managing Partner at Signal Trading Group and the co-author of a number of books. His focus is on trading systems and portfolio construction, specifically within the global futures markets. He tracks and trades 40 individual markets across eight different sectors.

The topic is trading.

In this episode of Trend Following Radio we discuss:

  • Stendahl’s approach is that a system should have as few moving parts as possible; it should be simple enough to be explained on the back of a cocktail napkin
  • Analogy to cars, and how you can easily fix a simpler car in your garage as opposed to a complex Lexus
  • Everyone is using a system in one way or another
  • Stendahl talks about his beginnings, collaborating with his father in the mid 1970’s
  • When he was introduced to technical analysis, and had the lightbulb moment, he realized he could make money based off of something other than fundamentals.
  • Stendahl’s dyslexia
  • Ray Dalio of Bridgewater, who says that he is 100% systematic, but doesn’t use any technical information
  • Position sizing and money management, and how you can approach this systematically

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Ep. 29: Mike Dever Interview with Michael Covel on Trend Following Radio

Posted on by Michael Covel
Mike Dever
Mike Dever

My guest today is Mike Dever, an American businessman, futures trader, entrepreneur, and author. Dever is the founder and CEO of Brandywine Asset Management, Inc., an investment management firm founded in 1982.

The topic is Trend Following.

In this episode of Trend Following Radio we discuss:

  • Being an entrepreneur from an early age and making his first investments in his early 20s
  • Some of the myths discussed in “Jackass Investing”
  • How everybody is a market timer
  • The stigma against investing in futures
  • Return drivers
  • The risks you take by being risk averse
  • The shift in attitudes towards volatility in America
  • Why strategies based on sound return drivers are so important to his firm and where he’s at today

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Ep. 28: Entrepreneurism with Michael Covel on Trend Following Radio

Posted on by Michael Covel
Episode 28
Episode 28

Please enjoy my monologue Entrepreneurism: The Importance of Not Doing What You’re Told with Michael Covel on Trend Following Radio. This episode may also include great outside guests from my archive.

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

Ep. 27: Scott Patterson Interview with Michael Covel on Trend Following Radio

Posted on by Michael Covel
Scott Patterson
Scott Patterson

My guest today is Scott Patterson, an American financial journalist and bestselling author. Patterson has made a career of reporting the subterranean inner-workings of the markets, writing for the Wall Street Journal, Rolling Stone, and Mother Earth News. His first book, The Quants: How a New Breed of Math Whizzes Conquered Wall Street and Nearly Destroyed It, was released in 2010.

The topic is his book Dark Pools: High-Speed Traders, A.I. Bandits, and the Threat to the Global Financial System.

In this episode of Trend Following Radio we discuss:

  • Trace the history of high speed trading and electronic communication networks (ECNs) back to Josh Levine, who founded Island, the computer system that led to the high frequency trading we see today
  • Technological revolution behind Island, and how its transparency led to dark pools – opaque markets where bids and offers are not made public
  • Patterson goes on to propose that the entire market has gone dark
  • The relation of dark pools to the flash crash
  • The regulation of dark pools
  • How the real New York Stock Exchange is in a data center in the countryside of New Jersey

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Ep. 22: Mike Aponte Interview with Michael Covel on Trend Following Radio

Posted on by Michael Covel
Mike Aponte
Mike Aponte

You can listen to my interview with famed MIT card counter Mike Aponte:

My guest today is Mike Aponte, a professional blackjack player and a former member of the MIT Blackjack Team. Aponte was featured in the bestselling book “Bringing Down The House” as the player Jason Fisher, which was adapted into the movie “21”.

The topic is investing.

In this episode of Trend Following Radio we discuss:

  • Due to his systematic approach, he’s definitely not a gambler; he’s an investor
  • Aponte’s beginnings
  • The similarities between systematic card counting and trend trading; the psychology behind the two
  • How even some of the more advanced mathematicians at MIT didn’t have the risk-taking constitution it took to make the cut
  • Some revealing anecdotes along the way, including a run in with casino security that ended with them actually asking for his autograph

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Ep. 19: Todd Miller Interview with Michael Covel on Trend Following Radio

Posted on by Michael Covel
Todd Miller
Todd Miller

My guest today is Todd Miller, a trader who runs a systematic trend following firm, Availeth Capital, with partner Jim Byers. Availeth is a small fund which was started in February 2011, and Covel relates Miller’s start to his chapter in ‘The Little Book of Trading’ on trader David Druz.

The topic is Trend Following.

In this episode of Trend Following Radio we discuss:

  • How Miller got his start working at Fidelity, and how observing the annual returns of one of Fidelity’s biggest mutual funds after the tech bubble burst led him to adopting a trend following mindset
  • The path he took that eventually led him to starting Availeth Capital
  • Importance of in-person interaction
  • The issue of survivorship bias
  • How trend following is the only strategy that can take advantage of the uncertainty that is coming
  • How some trend following traders have followed other passions once they’ve made their billions
  • Covel also discusses his upcoming 10,000 (!) page book, Trend Following Analytics.

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Ep. 18: Jack Schwager Interview with Michael Covel on Trend Following Radio

Posted on by Michael Covel
Jack Schwager
Jack Schwager

My guest today is Jack Schwager, an American trader and author. He is the author of the Market Wizard series. His books have remained relevant over the past 25 years, and for many traders they are the best trading books on the shelves today.

The topic is his book Hedge Fund Market Wizards.

In this episode of Trend Following Radio we discuss:

  • Some of the commonalities between the many traders Schwager has interviewed, and the lessons that can be gleaned from their diverse approaches
  • Schwager’s new book opens with a quote regarding the importance of even-mindedness from rock climber Alex Honnold
  • How topics seemingly unrelated to trading can contain relevant lessons
  • Many of the other traders profiled in Hedge Fund Market Wizards are discussed, including Ed Thorp, Steve Clark, Jaffray Woodriff, and Ray Dalio.
  • Schwager’s big takeaways from his interviews have been, and the lessons he’s learned from talking to some of the most successful traders in the game
  • How markets behave differently in different environments
  • The importance of asymmetric positive skew trades
  • How diversification is the “only free lunch on wall street”
  • How Schwager defines risk
  • The “gain to pain” ratio

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