Subscribe now and watch my free trend following VIDEO.

Category: Trend Following

Ep. 56: Steve Brechtel Interview with Michael Covel on Trend Following Radio

Posted on by Michael Covel
Steve Brechtel
Episode 56 Steve Brechtel

My guest today is Steve Brechtel. Over the past 20 years Brechtel has worked as a trader for three of the top 100 hedge funds in the world: Trout Trading (now Tewksbury Capital) in Chicago and Bermuda, Crabel Capital in Milwaukee, and now Two Sigma in NYC (a $10 billion fund) — all short-term systematic funds.

The topic is trading.

In this episode of Trend Following Radio we discuss:

  • Brechtel’s history, from his beginnings roughing it as a Pizza Hut manager while working an insurance job, to finding his way to Monroe Trout, to working at Crabel, to his career at Two Sigma today
  • History in Virginia
  • Why he was hired at Monroe Trout in the first place as a new trader and the advantages of having a beginner’s mind
  • The difference between the short term/systematic traders that Brechtel worked for and the longer term trend following Covel talks about
  • The six strategies Brechtel learned trading the pits
  • What’s changed and what’s the same now that technology has evolved
  • Ayn Rand, objectivism, and Trout
  • Brechtel’s transition from Trout to Crabel, and the differences between these two firms
  • His work at Two Sigma today
  • Brechtel’s screenplay (“Unhedged”) using hedge funds and high finance as its backdrop
  • Writing the script, how his movie differs from other Wall Street movies
  • Covel talks with him about his experience in making his own documentary, “Broke: The New American Dream”

Listen to this episode:

Jump in!

Ep. 54: Steve Burns Interview with Michael Covel on Trend Following Radio

Posted on by Michael Covel
Steve Burns
Steve Burns

My guest today is Steve Burns. Burns has been investing and trading in the stock market successfully for many years. He is the author of seventeen books about the stock market. He is one of this site’s top reviewers for books about trading and investing having read and reviewed several hundred books.

The topic is his book New Trader, Rich Trader: How to Make Money in the Stock Market.

In this episode of Trend Following Radio we discuss:

  • Tech bubble of the late 1990s
  • Chapter titles in Burns’ book
  • Problems with buy and hold
  • How “rich” can be a mindset rather than a number
  • The role of luck and circumstance in trading
  • Staying away from the need for constant action and waiting for the “fat pitch”
  • Developing a robust system
  • Staying away from predictive trading approaches
  • Viewing the markets as a video game as a means to help with trend trading understandings

Listen to this episode:

Jump in!

Courtney Smith Appears on Covel Podcast

Posted on by Michael Covel

Courtney Smith makes his 1st appearance on the podcast. Listen now.

Courtney Smith
Courtney Smith

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.

“The podcasts help…to inspire, educate and reinvigorate my ‘animal spirits’ as I ride the bucking bronco each and every day.”

Posted on by Michael Covel

Feedback in:

Michael: I wanted to reiterate my ongoing appreciation for your passionate pursuit of trend following. The podcasts help a great deal and they serve to inspire, educate and reinvigorate my “animal spirits” as I ride the bucking bronco each and every day.

Recognizing a free market is not a free lunch, and that your generous and copious free content must be supported, I bought kindle versions of Trend Commandments and The Little Book during the past month. They occupy space with Reminiscences of a Stock Operator*, The Capitalist Spirit by Yale Hirsch and Morales & Kacher’s book Trade Like an O’Neil Disciple. (*The Jon Markman version is a great edition of this trading classic, offering deep historical context throughout the entire book.)

In fact, the very first kindle book I purchased was a new edition of Trend Following, putting the “smart” into my smart phone. 🙂

Whenever new editions come out, of course, they will be purchased.

It all began with email back in 2003 or so. That first tuition seemed “pricey” but I have made (and lost and made) multiples of that over time. The real tuition was the time spent putting the lessons into practice.

Thank you again for the spark, for I shall keep the fire burning bright and hot.

Best,

Edward

Thanks Edward!

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.

The Trend Is Our Friend White Paper

Posted on by Michael Covel

Read The Trend is Our Friend: Risk Parity, Momentum and Trend Following in Global Asset Allocation. Abstract:

We examine the effectiveness of applying a trend following methodology to global asset allocation between equities,bonds,commodities and real estate.The application of trend following offers a substantial improvement in risk-adjusted performance compared to traditional buy-and-hold portfolios. We also find it to be a superior method of asset allocation than risk parity. Momentum and trend following have often been used interchangeably although the former is a relative concept and the latter absolute. By combining the two we find that one can achieve the higher return levels associated with momentum portfolios but with much reduced volatility and drawdowns due to trend following. We observe that a flexible asset allocation strategy that allocates capital to the best performing instruments irrespective of asset class enhances this further.

More trend following white papers.

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. 49: David Cheval Interview with Michael Covel on Trend Following Radio

Posted on by Michael Covel
David Cheval
David Cheval

My guest today is David Cheval. Cheval was an inside witness to Richard Dennis and Bill Eckhardt’s famed Turtle experiment. Through the involvement of his former wife, famed original TurtleTrader Liz Cheval, David Cheval’s history and background for the Turtle story comes from a unique vantage point.

The topic is Turtle Trading.

In this episode of Trend Following Radio we discuss:

  • Events surrounding the Turtle experiment, including his own interesting part in alerting his former wife to the opportunity (he is still an investor in her firm)
  • Cheval’s progression from a runner on the Chicago pits, to the formation of his CPO (Dearborn Capital Management), to his career in law today
  • The presence of Richard Dennis on the Chicago Board of Trade in the years prior to the Turtle experiment
  • Some of the lessons that can be gleaned from some of the most successful Turtles
  • The difference between volatility and risk
  • Why basic trend following philosophies are timeless

Listen to this episode:

Jump in!

Ep. 48: Michael Gibbons Interview with Michael Covel on Trend Following Radio

Posted on by Michael Covel

 

Michael Gibbons
Michael Gibbons

My guest today is Michael Gibbons, a market timer (otherwise known as a trend following trader) who runs a firm called Gibbons Trading. Gibbons started as an economics major and quickly realized that much of what he was taught in academia didn’t add up. He has been trading since 1971, and was one of the first to discover what is now known as stock index arbitrage. He was one of the first to use computerized trading and currently provides his proprietary research primarily to large traders and hedge funds.

The topic is Trend Following.

In this episode of Trend Following Radio we discuss:

  • How Gibbons started in the markets
  • The fallacies of buy & hold and fundamental analysis
  • Trading prices apart from everything else (and how this is close to playing the market like a video game, i.e. pong)
  • The problem of when the media is simply “making things up”
  • How trading can be primarily psychological
  • The problems of the efficient market hypothesis (EMH) and academia
  • The benefits of having a trend following strategy during chaotic times; the danger of gurus
  • Separating your ego from your trading

Listen to this episode:

Jump in!