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Tag: interview

Ep. 126: James Altucher Interview with Michael Covel on Trend Following Radio

Posted on by Michael Covel
James Altucher
James Altucher

My guest today is James Altucher, an American hedge-fund manager, author, podcaster, and entrepreneur who has founded and cofounded over 20 companies. He has published 20 books and is a contributor to publications including The Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, TechCrunch, and The Huffington Post.

The topic is his book Choose Yourself!

In this episode of Trend Following Radio we discuss:

  • The new book and why all the rules we thought of as normal (“The banks will always finance my house”, “The stock market will always go up”, “The big corporations will always hire me”, “If I have a college degree, there will always be a job for me”) are imaginary
  • Why a good trader trades their own self first, and the importance of choosing yourself and making a consistent inner life
  • The need to become an entrepreneur and artist in today’s climate, and why you might be looking down the barrel of a career in temp staffing if you don’t
  • The collapse of the middle class and 9-5 “jobs” as we know them
  • The importance of doing the un-obvious
  • Why you’re only as valuable as your network
  • The need to exercise your idea muscle
  • Sunk costs and opportunity costs
  • Breaking the cycle of consumerism, buying memories and not buying objects
  • Commitment bias
  • Finding a career at 27, Stan Lee of Marvel Comics, endurance, and the importance of doing something for yourself today
  • David Gilmour of Fiji Water and the benefits of adventure
  • Medication, lifestyle choices, and the necessity of good sleep hygiene
  • The need to be an artist where your life is the canvas

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Money Management Clarity Called For

Posted on by Michael Covel

Feedback in:

I listened to your recent podcast with Jason Russell. The part concerning the importance of money management was interesting. My question: what is meant by money management? It seems to be a term that everyone uses but never really defines and it’s always good, right, just and American. Any trade you do that reduces your risk and volatility is good? And, the big question: when do money management trades become discretionary trades that are used in place of following the system? Back in the early ’90s when I sat in front of my CQG and got spooked by volatility I would override my system exits and reduce my positions only to have to buy them back a few days later. I correctly called that discretion and a lack of discipline – a trader must follow the system and enter and exit only when the system rules dictate it. Now, all of these ideas can be programmed and can be called “money management” when, in my opinion, they are little more than systematized discretion. Is it no less discretion and panic driven when the computer is telling you to do it? So many of the trades are not part of the system – entry, exit, stop loss – that produced the 2000 trade sample size that makes one feel that should rely on a trend following system. What’s the difference between a necessary sample size and “it’s worked in the past?” A lot. CTAs need to face this issue.

Thanks for the feedback [Name].

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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.

Ep. 121: Jason Russell Interview with Michael Covel on Trend Following Radio

Posted on by Michael Covel
Jason Russell
Jason Russell

My guest today is Jason Russell, the President and CIO of Acorn Global Investments in Canada. Russell brings a unique perspective to the show with a very clear strategy on how his firm makes money for their clients.

The topic is Trend Following.

In this episode of Trend Following Radio we discuss:

  • Russell’s background and how he came to form Acorn Global Investments
  • Russell’s strategy for Acorn and “the baker analogy”
  • The idea of “winners stay, losers go”
  • Showing his investors every position that Russell has
  • How the terms “commodity trading adviser”, “trend follower”, “quantitative trading” don’t exactly describe what many traders do
  • Ed Seykota and the “trading tribe”
  • Letting go of “why” and simply riding out trends
  • Where strategies like Russell’s fit in the context of a portfolio
  • The importance of delivering uncorrelated results to the S&P 500
  • Drawdowns and the psychological effect of going through one alone, uncorrelated to other markets
  • How there’s nothing more important than risk management

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Ep. 111: Nick Radge Interview with Michael Covel on Trend Following Radio

Posted on by Michael Covel
Nick Radge
Nick Radge

My guest today is Nick Radge. Radge operates The Chartist (www.thechartist.com.au). He began trading in 1985. During a stint working for an investment bank in Singapore Nick dedicated his evenings testing trading strategies; 2 hours a day for 18 months, a total of at least 750 hours. Nick’s first book, Every-Day Traders (John Wiley & Sons Australia Ltd, 2003), was written to identify the traits of successful traders.

The topic is his book Unholy Grails – A New Road to Wealth.

In this episode of Trend Following Radio we discuss:

  • How the trend following world is foreign to many people
  • The importance of drawing distinctions between traditional value investing and alternative systems like trend following
  • How the name of the game for many fund managers is not necessarily performance but funds under management
  • Playing the game of mathematics vs. playing the game of picking the right stocks
  • Why the US stock market has gone straight up despite all the fear going on elsewhere in the world, and why you shouldn’t “fight the tape”
  • Closet trend followers
  • Why price can’t be faked
  • Trade restrictions, cultural attitudes, and the importance of being able to step out of the crowd
  • Why individuals have an advantage over fund managers
  • The value of understanding trend following even when you don’t actually use it as a strategy
  • Spotting ‘trends’, how you can’t spot a trend until it’s started or until it’s over, and using hitchhiking as an analogy for trading
  • How trend following is useful when outlier events and black swans appear
  • Using rules and strategies to fight fear
  • The difficulty of using Warren Buffett as an example, and the problems that arise when managing larger amounts of money
  • Radge’s thoughts on being an entrepreneur

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“You certainly know how to connect the dots and express them with clarity and passion.”

Posted on by Michael Covel

Feedback in:

Michael, In one of your recent podcasts you pointed out Japanese investors and their risk aversion vs. their market’s performance over the past decades. When you next made the accusation that the same thing was happening among Americans you nailed it! It is exactly what is happening here, and, as you pointed out, it goes far beyond just investing in markets. You certainly know how to connect the dots and express them with clarity and passion. I only discovered your podcast a couple months ago but must say that I enjoy your insights and perspective while, alternately, so many other podcasts are so narrowly focused on what the S&P 500 will do in the next day-week-whatever. I find your thinking about how we engage the world around us similar to my own philosophy and will continue to listen and enjoy. Thank you for sharing. Regards,
Steven R.
Deerfield, IL USA

Thanks Steven. Appreciate the kind words.

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. 95: Chris Kacher and Gil Morales Interview with Michael Covel on Trend Following Radio

Posted on by Michael Covel
Chris Kacher and Gil Morales
Chris Kacher and Gil Morales

My guests today are Chris Kacher and Gil Morales.

Kacher is the co-founder of TriQuantum Technologies, holding company for KJA wherein he is lead portfolio manager. Dr. Kacher’s metrics have called every major top & bottom in bitcoin since 2011 to within a few weeks of the top. He was up in 2018 vs the average performing crypto hedge fund at -54% (PwC).

Morales was personally recruited by Bill O’Neil himself to join William O’Neil + Company, Inc. as a Vice -President and Manager of the Institutional Services Division, responsible for advising over 600 institutional investor clients, and as an internal portfolio manager responsible for managing a portion of the firm’s proprietary, internal assets. From 1997 to 2005 he achieved a return of approximately 2100% in his portion of the firm’s proprietary account. In 2004 he was named Chief Market Strategist at William O’Neil + Company, Inc.

The topic is their book In The Trading Cockpit with the O’Neil Disciples: Strategies that Made Us 18,000% in the Stock Market.

In this episode of Trend Following Radio we discuss:

  • The “O.W.L.” ethos, and the story behind it
  • Reversion to the mean mentality, and how it can often be the kiss of death for traders and investors
  • Trading psychology, the idea that “you must lose to win”, how the least important statistic is your percentage of gains v. losses in your trading account
  • Dealing with emotionalism and why clients often want to hear something that will make them feel better
  • Teaching people to let go of the news and simply watch the price action
  • Why people think that “this time is different”, put their trust in the central economy, and why trend following will survive into the future
  • Understanding that investing is always a process of changing along the way
  • What mental clutter in the way of fears, biases, concerns and more can build up in the mind and get in the way of clear and decisive decision-making

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Ep. 94: Tushar Chande Interview with Michael Covel on Trend Following Radio

Posted on by Michael Covel
Tushar Chande
Tushar Chande

My guest today is Tushar Chande, a trader, author,co-founder and head of research at Rho Asset Management in Switzerland. Chande has had a long and distinguished career in technical analysis; he brings a unique perspective on how to look at the markets as a trend following trader. He came to America and earned his Ph.D. in metallurgical engineering from the University of Illinois in 1984. 

The topic is Trend Following.

In this episode of Trend Following Radio we discuss:

  • Early influences, and chart the journey from his days as an engineering student to his accomplishments as a systematic trend following trader
  • Analogy between sports and trading, how the best sportsmen rely on having a stable and predictable environment (unlike the markets)
  • Evaluating performance within the context of the market
  • Discretionary trading v. systematic trading
  • Learning through “trial and terror”
  • The Rho Trend Barometer and the ability to quantify the environment
  • The problem of indexes
  • The Sharpe ratio
  • The importance of market movement to trend following trading
  • “The black box disease”
  • Trusting your system
  • Cognitive biases
  • The benefit of the “black swan” and outlier events and why these events are so beneficial to a trend following system
  • Whether “one-hundred Ph.D.’s are better than one”

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