Subscribe now and watch my free trend following VIDEO.

Interview with Dan Ariely: The Upside Of Irrationality

Feedback in:

Michael, I heard on the podcast you are visiting my adopted city of Beijing where I have lived for the past 8 years. If you need anything while there, places to go eat, see, my friend has great Israeli restaurant there etc. Whatever you need let me know. My local China mobile number is below. We are out of town so can not meet but can help. Glad you enjoy Asia. I moved there from Wall Street about 8 years ago. Life never been the same ever since. Also, you will love this interview. Full link below. Best of luck with CLSA.

Miguel: Continuing from this definition of decision making you write about the Lancelot story where he’s a fighter and claims that the key to fighting well is not worrying about the outcome but rather focusing on having perfect concentration (minimal stress). How can you relate this story to decision making?

Dan: What is interesting about this story is that by not valuing his life Lancelot became much more rational in a standard way. Basically, the way we think about it is that emotion makes people irrational. Not bad necessarily, but irrational, and if you can disassociate yourself from your emotions you can make more rational decisions. That is exactly what Lancelot was able to do-So during a sword-fight where you want to fight to the best of your ability you don’t want any stress, and to do so you don’t want to think about anything besides the immediate fight. By detaching yourself from emotions you are able to do that.

Thanks for the nice words and words of wisdom!


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.

Stark Divide for the Mentality Between Success and Failure


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.

Deeper Issues At Play for Day Traders

Ed Seykota on day trading: “Traders use it medicinally as distraction from deeper issues.”


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.

How Does One Get to Be a Trend Following Trader? A Great One?

Consider wisdom from author Seth Godin:

Wouldn’t it be great to be gifted? In fact…It turns out that choices lead to habits. Habits become talents. Talents are labeled gifts. You’re not born this way, you get this way.

Start. Find an edge somewhere (anywhere) and start.


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.

Going The Extra Mile and Trend Following

Do you really want to be in a box with millions of traders and investors with the same training, technique and style (i.e. fundamentals, forecasts, buy and hold, talking heads, etc.)? Richard Dennis danced to a different beat and his creation of the Turtles landed him in the hall of fame. Dennis relayed one of his quirks that helped set him apart:

“I used to go to bed with a book of charts,and just flip through them before I went to sleep. I wasn’t trying to analyze or interpret them, just retain them so that my mind could work on them while I slept.”

Who knows if this exercise worked? What matters is that he was so fired up about being great and forever improving, that he was OK with experimenting and trying out new new things. What will you do differently today? Ludwig von Mises nailed it:

“The class of those who have the ability to think their own thoughts is separated by an unbridgeable gulf from the class of those who cannot.”

True that.


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.

Are You Throwing Your Children Under The Bus?

Feedback in:

Hi Michael,

Just listened to your podcast on the universal kick-in-the-ass known as the death of the McJob. I couldn’t agree more. What people do not realize, however, is that through osmosis we pass our attitudes on to our children. If we are afraid to get out from under the weight of societal expectation to be another drone zombie with the rest of them, what message does that give to our children? A child looks up to its parents for guidance and reassurance. We see it during, say, a thunder storm, where our children are nervous and instinctively glance over at us to see if WE are afraid. Well what if we are and we show it? What do we communicate to our children if we show our fear? The obvious answer is that they then become afraid because they rely on the parent to show them the things they should be afraid of.

So when a parent does not follow your message, does not get out there and make something happen, and instead retreats into the illusory safety of corporate zombi-ism, they have let down their child in a way that goes far beyond not giving them the latest toy or a ride to the mall. They have basically told them that there is safety to be had by huddling in a collapsing building. So if people won’t take your words to heart for themselves, then they should at least do it for their children.

By the way, Mike, I’m writing this from my hotel room overlooking The Bund in Shanghai. I’m here visiting my daughter who graduated last year as a top-notch high school student and winner of a couple significant citizenship awards. She has read all your books and has the Trend Following mentality. Last summer she made the decision to head to China to learn Mandarin and to see more of the world before going to university. And in case everyone thinks that what you’re saying is all about money, she is volunteering for a charity that helps Chinese kids make a difference in their world because she herself wants to make a difference. Because of her can-do attitude, the money is already there; it’s a given, because once you are there mentally, the results are inevitable. She has had no trouble accumulating the money she needs to achieve her goals, but she’s taking this year to go beyond the money, and as you probably guessed, I couldn’t be more proud of her. She not only thinks it, she does it.

Thanks Michael, keep up the message!

Dale

Thanks Dale. I couldn’t have said it better myself.

If you want to live a life of complacency, a life that is run by what the masses are telling you to do, then that is your choice. Just know that your children will be subject to the same kind of ruling over their lives. Don’t lead them to believe that “there is safety to be had by huddling in a collapsing building”.


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.

“This is my retirement money. I can’t afford to be out of the market anymore!”

John Hussman writes about investors with no plan who buy at the top, panic, sell, and get killed:

“This is my retirement money. I can’t afford to be out of the market anymore!”

“I don’t care about the price, just Get Me In!!”

“It’s a healthy correction”

“See, it’s already coming back, better buy more before the new highs”

“Alright, a retest. Add to the position – buy the dip”

“What a great move! Am I a genius or what?”

“Uh oh, another selloff. Well, we’re probably close to a bottom”

“New low? What’s going on?!!”

“Alright, it’s too late to sell here, I’ll get out on the next rally”

“Hey!! It’s coming back. Glad that’s over!”

“Another new low. But how much lower can it go?”

“No, really, how much lower can it go?”

“Good Grief! How much lower can it go?!?”

“There’s no way I’ll ever make this back!”

“This is my retirement money. I can’t afford to be in the market anymore!”

“I don’t care about the price, just Get Me Out!!”

Obviously, he is not a price based trend following trader, but his understanding of trading psychology dovetails nicely with trend following.


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.