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Where Do I Start?

Feedback in:

Thanks so much for taking my email. I was recently pointed to Michael Covel’s podcast while listening to a Stansberry Radio podcast. I’m a touring musician, and these podcasts are what I listen to when I get the late shift to drive the bus! Really keeps my brain thinking. As with most musicians, I have a passion for what I do and have enjoyed the past 20 years doing so. However, the financial hardships that this can bring to a family are evident. My wife and girls have been an incredible help to me, and have supported me in all my escapades. We have had the opportunity to travel the world, and feel really blessed. Now, although I am still touring, I’m looking for a different opportunity for the future. Before moving into music for a career, I worked with in a financial advisory role out of college with a local firm. I obtained all the “needed” certifications to do so. However, looking back, I was nowhere near a place to be giving out financial advice. I was just selling. As I have gotten older, I am truly considering diving back in for the benefit of me and my family. I don’t have much to start with, but have been pouring through material. I have always loved the markets and the work behind the scenes. However, I don’t always understand the entire process. I know that I need to be taught a plan/system and rules to follow to start, but really have no idea where to begin in that. I have been reading everything I can get my hands on as money and time allows including the book about the Turtles. I really feel like this system, once understood, I can stick with. The rules to me do not appear to be hard for my personality type to grasp/hold on to. I like to win… even when a system might take some losses to grow. I guess I am really contacting you all to reach out and ask for some help. I have opened a small trading account with low transaction fees. I’m really starting from scratch and wanted to get your advice on what is the best way to approach things and what steps you would recommend. Thanks again for the time, and for the podcasts and books. I have really enjoyed the experience already. I look forward to hearing your recommendations and advice.

Brian [name]
[name], TX

There is no short answer, but here are some:

1. My books.
2. My training and systems.

Those are the best places to start.

Note: A great benefit to trend following? You don’t have to be glued to a screen. Far from it.


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
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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.

Don’t Run Against the Wind… Go With the Flow

Feedback:

Hi Michael, A quick note to thank you for the wonderful podcasts (and your books). I’ve been listening to them whenever I go for my runs a few times a week. And in the midst of all the market nonsense, these podcasts (TF-related or not) have kept me sane as I trade trends. TF is like running with the wind which may not come all the time. But when they do come (slow or fast & furious), I make sure I run with it, not against it. It’s easier that way. I sometimes wonder why people run against the wind. Press on with your work!

Warmest regards,
Francis

Thanks Francis!


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.

Prediction is for ‘Suckas’

From The Huffington Post:

“According to a survey by Paola Sapienza and Luigi Zingales, effectively all economists agreed that stock prices are hard to predict. Only 59% of average Americans felt the same way.”

No surprise.


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.

Ep. 157: Mike Bellafiore Interview with Michael Covel on Trend Following Radio

Mike Bellafiore
Mike Bellafiore

My guest today is Mike Bellafiore, the co-founder of SMB Capital, a proprietary trading firm in New York City, and SMBU, its trader education company. Bellafiore also writes regularly for the globally popular SMBU blog, where he shares ideas on how to improve trading performance.

The topic is his book The Playbook: An Inside Look at How to Think Like a Professional Trader.

In this episode of Trend Following Radio we discuss:

  • Real rewards to being a successful trader
  • Passion in trading
  • Why professional traders fail
  • Parallels between trading and writing
  • Bellafiore’s history and definitions of “prop trading”
  • Trading short timeframes and intraday trading
  • The “prop desk”
  • Ups and downs in Bellafiore’s career
  • The early history of SMB Capital
  • Bellafiore’s early struggles with his father’s health concerns, his mother’s death, an SEC investigation, and how “The PlayBook” came out of it
  • The ten attributes of a great trader
  • Trading psychology and mindset
  • Personality types and short-term trading
  • Microscalping and swing trading
  • Expertise, flow, and mastery
  • Process vs. outcome
  • Entrepreneurship
  • The importance of coaching
  • The four ways to become great at anything

Listen to this episode:

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You Have to Be Asleep to Believe It

Great video clip from George Carlin. He reiterates everything I talk about on my blog, in my books and on my podcast, “It’s called the American Dream because you have to be asleep to believe it.”:

My film on the same subject.


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.

17% Per Year?

Feedback:

Hey Mike, I’ve been wondering something about the returns of trend followers throughout the decades and I would like to hear your opinion. I believe I once heard you say that the average trend follower according to the data available indicates an average return of about 17% annually (Correct me if I’m wrong). However, I can’t help but think of the incredible returns of hundreds to thousands of percent that Jesse Livermore and others in day like Bernard Baruch (don’t know if he was a trend follower) was able to achieve. If I remember correctly, at one point, Livermore was doubling his money almost weekly. What do you think is the reason for such astronomical returns? I think there was more to it than just the 10 to 1 stock leverage of their era. Do you think it was because of Livermore’s poor money management? He did have a tendency to bet to entirely too much on his trades. Perhaps it was the combination of betting too much plus the 10:1 stock leverage. What do you think?

There is not some one set return number for Trend Following (i.e. 17%). Those old guys? You have their audited returns?


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.

Warren Buffet Meme: His View onDerivatives

Warren buffet meme says derivatives are weapons of mass destruction, then uses derivatives to make billions


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.