Podcasts by Category
Better System Trader
If you’re looking for inspiration, motivation and practical advice on improving your trading results, Better System Trader delivers every fortnight. Each episode brings you an expert trader who shares their own story, along with the steps, both good and bad, that they've taken on their path to success. With a focus on actionable insights, the tips and tricks used by the experts contain loads of value, providing you with insanely practical tips and tools you can start using TODAY. Improve your trading with Better System Trader.
- 238 - 235: How traders can compete in the markets and find profitable edges - Jason Strimpel
In this episode, Jason Strimpel from PyQuantNews joins me to discuss how traders can find profitable edges and compete effectively in today's fast-paced markets. Whether you're a seasoned trader or just starting out, Jason's strategies and insights are invaluable for anyone looking to up their trading game.
Here’s just some of the points you’ll discover:
How some traders get into trouble by confusing skill with luck,
Why charts and basic trading platforms aren’t enough to compete in the markets,
The importance of looking outside the charts for genuine market inefficiencies,
The dangers of brute-force data mining for strategy design and what to do instead,
Creative approaches to finding robust trading edges,
The impact of behavioral patterns and structural market inefficiencies on trading strategies,
How data-driven strategies can help you identify and capitalize on market inefficiencies,
Identifying areas in the market where inefficiencies may exist,
And much more.
Disclaimer:
Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice.
Thu, 09 May 2024 - 1h 01min - 237 - 234: The Trading Panel – Episode 11
Welcome to a new trading series called "The Trading Panel," where I collaborate with Jason Perz from Against All Odds Research and a panel of traders to discuss the markets and all things trading. Participants in this week's panel are:
Andrew Swanscott Jason Perz Pavel Kycek Steven Strazza
[0:02] Welcome and Overview [0:21] Panel Introduction [9:59] Discussing Trading Strategies [11:18] Integrating Various Trading Tools [13:02] Detailed Strategy Analysis [14:36] Using Regime Filters in Trading [23:46] Understanding Trading as a Discipline [25:17] Realities of Daily Trading [33:47] Handling Drawdowns in Trading [36:07] Learning from Trading Drawdowns [41:34] Analyzing Trading Performance [44:28] Concluding Remarks and Takeaways
Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice.
Thu, 25 Apr 2024 - 49min - 236 - 233: The Trading Panel – Episode 10
Welcome to a new trading series called "The Trading Panel," where I collaborate with Jason Perz from Against All Odds Research and a panel of traders to discuss the markets and all things trading. Participants in this week's panel are:
Andrew Swanscott Jason Perz Pavel Kycek Jerry Parker
0:00 Introduction to the Panel 1:18 Introduction of Jerry and the Bird 6:14 Jerry Discusses Trend Following 11:13 Emotional Aspects of Large Trades 15:01 Role of Outlier Trades in Portfolio 23:21 Diversification and Stock Selection 30:15 Ignoring Market Noise 39:39 Trading Volume and Risk Management 50:08 Commodity Stocks and Portfolio Diversification 55:26 Final Thoughts and Takeaways 57:15 Panelists' Closing Statements
Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice.
Thu, 18 Apr 2024 - 57min - 235 - 232: The Trading Panel – Episode 9
Welcome to a new trading series called "The Trading Panel," where I collaborate with Jason Perz from Against All Odds Research and a panel of traders to discuss the markets and all things trading. Participants in this week's panel are:
Andrew Swanscott Jason Perz Pavel Kycek Mish Schneider Ian Culley
00:00 - Introduction and Guest Welcoming 01:25 - Discussion on Trading Commodities 03:42 - Analysis of Current Market Trends 06:36 - Historical Comparison of CPI Trends 10:11 - Geopolitical and Market Predictions for 2024 14:23 - Cocoa Market Surge and Trading Strategies 21:08 - Short-Term Trading Techniques in Volatile Markets 26:43 - Intermarket Analysis and Sector Insights 33:09 - Emerging Markets and Investment Opportunities 42:53 - Cryptocurrency Trading Strategies and Market Analysis 52:00 - Audience Q&A and Relative Rotation Graphs Discussion 57:25 - Closing Remarks and Contact Information
Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice.
Thu, 11 Apr 2024 - 57min - 234 - 231: The Trading Panel – Episode 8
Welcome to a new trading series called "The Trading Panel," where I collaborate with Jason Perz from Against All Odds Research and a panel of traders to discuss the markets and all things trading. Participants in this week's panel are:
Andrew Swanscott Jason Perz Pavel Kycek Tom Basso
[0:02] Introduction [1:14] Guest Introduction [2:24] Discussion on Market Trends and Portfolio Management [7:13] Importance of Risk Management [10:12] Psychology and Handling Drawdowns [15:29] Learning from Market Experiences [19:34] Matching Personality with Trading Style [25:06] Becoming a Trend Follower [29:24] Coping with Market Crises [35:03] Balancing Life and Trading [42:20] Brain Processing and Idea Generation [45:03] Systematic Trading Insights [53:42] Misconceptions in Chart Patterns [1:01:43] Wrap-up and Contact Information
Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice.
Thu, 04 Apr 2024 - 1h 12min - 233 - 230: The Trading Panel – Episode 7
Welcome to a new trading series called "The Trading Panel," where I collaborate with Jason Perz from Against All Odds Research and a panel of traders to discuss the markets and all things trading. Participants in this week's panel are:
Andrew Swanscott Jason Perz Larry Tentarelli Steven Strazza
Here are a few of the topics we discussed on the panel:
1. Importance of Simplifying Trading Strategies – Simplifying strategies helps in identifying trends and making trading decisions more effectively.
2. Using Moving Averages and Relative Strength – Moving averages and relative strength indicators are valuable tools for identifying trends and potential breakouts.
3. Adapting to Market Conditions – The importance of sticking to your strategy and waiting for favorable market conditions rather than constantly changing strategies.
4. Options Trading and Pattern Matching – Different options strategies can be used based on the pattern and structure of the stock, providing leverage and flexibility.
5. Risk Management and Position Sizing – Managing risk is crucial in trading, and position sizing should be based on overall risk tolerance and stop placement.
Plus much more, watch the replay to extract all the goodness!
[0:01] Introduction and Welcome [1:44] Highlighting Recent Interviews [3:17] Discussing Trading Strategies and Charts [6:16] Importance of Consistency in Trading [8:27] Adapting Trading Strategy to Market Conditions [10:38] Risk Management and Strategy Adaptation [13:28] Options Trading Insights [15:34] Market Trends and Sector Performance [19:20] Understanding the Value Line Index [21:50] Deciding Trading Timeframes [27:10] Importance of Risk Management [31:12] Risk Management with Options [33:23] Position Sizing in a Portfolio [41:49] Favorite Stocks and Sector Analysis [52:13] Relative Trends in Trading [52:46] Closing Remarks and Contact Information
Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice.
Thu, 28 Mar 2024 - 55min - 232 - 229: The Trading Panel – Episode 6
Welcome to a new trading series called "The Trading Panel", where I collaborate with Jason Perz from Against All Odds Research and a panel of traders to discuss the markets and all things trading. Participants on this week's panel are:
Andrew Swanscott Jason Perz Jeff Hirsch Jason Shapiro
00:00 Episode Introduction and Host Welcome 01:44 Discussing Historical Market Trends with Jeff 06:49 Jeff Shares Sector Insights and Trading Ideas 10:08 Where to Find Jeff and His Work 11:04 Shifting Focus to Jason Shapiro's Trading Insights 19:26 Jason's Perspective on Market Conditions and Fed Policy 28:02 Discussing Common Trading Mistakes and Learning Processes 36:56 Highlighting the Importance of Risk Management 42:06 Unpacking Trading Industry Myths and Realities 46:11 The Dangers of Following Misleading Trading Gurus 53:43 The Significance of Personal Experience in Trading Success
Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice.
Thu, 21 Mar 2024 - 1h 12min - 231 - 228: The Trading Panel – Episode 5
Welcome to a new trading series called "The Trading Panel", where I collaborate with Jason Perz from Against All Odds Research and a panel of traders to discuss the markets and all things trading. Participants on this weeks panel are:
Andrew Swanscott Jason Perz Moritz Seibert Pavel Kycek
0:00 Welcome and Show Introduction 1:21 Discussing Trading Panels and Expectations 2:15 Reality of Trading and Drawdowns 3:16 Introduction to Professional Trading 8:20 Focus on Commodity Trading and Systematic Strategies 10:45 Embracing Volatility and Drawdowns in Trading 15:54 Managing Open Trade Profits 21:27 Importance of Aligning with Investor Expectations 26:02 Historical Context and Risk Management 30:38 Advice for New Traders on Strategy and Expectations 43:17 Handling Broker Fees and Optimizing Costs 47:24 Building Confidence and Consistency in Trading 54:36 Audience Questions and Panel Responses 58:05 Personal Journeys and Aha Moments in Trading
Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice.
Thu, 14 Mar 2024 - 1h 27min - 230 - 227: The Trading Panel – Episode 4
Welcome to a new trading series called "The Trading Panel", where I collaborate with Jason Perz from Against All Odds Research and a panel of traders to discuss the markets and all things trading. Participants on this weeks panel are:
Andrew Swanscott Jason Perz Mish Schneider Pavel Kycek
0:00 - Opening: Welcome and Panel Introduction 1:06 - Mish's Perspective on Market Prediction 5:02 - Insights from a Floor Trader's Journey 10:38 - Discussing Price Action and Trading Psychology 13:12 - Crypto Market Trends and Algorithmic Trading 21:16 - Diverse Trading Strategies: Discussion 30:52 - The Shift from Short-term to Long-term Trading 38:37 - Expert Tips on Identifying Market Tops and Bottoms 45:35 - Advice for New System Traders 49:09 - Episode Wrap-Up and Where to Find the Panelists
Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice.
Thu, 07 Mar 2024 - 50min - 229 - 226: The Trading Panel – Episode 3
Welcome to a new trading series called "The Trading Panel", where I collaborate with Jason Perz from Against All Odds Research and a panel of traders to discuss the markets and all things trading. Participants on this weeks panel are:
Andrew Swanscott Jason Perz Richard Brennan Kevin Green Pavel Kycek
0:00 – Show Introduction and Panelist Greetings 0:49 – Panelists’ Backgrounds and Trading Philosophies 6:17 – Analyzing Economic Indicators and Their Impact on Markets 13:19 – Debunking Market Myths with Price Action Signals 24:21 – Transitioning to Systematic Trading for Longevity 36:34 – The Role of Macro Factors in Shaping Trading Strategies 49:05 – The Future of Trading: AI, Cryptos, and Beyond 1:02:27 – Wrapping Up: Key Takeaways and Contact Information
Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice.
Sat, 02 Mar 2024 - 1h 14min - 228 - 225: Algorithmic Crypto Trading - Pavel Kycek
Unlock the secrets of algorithmic crypto trading with Pavel Kycek in this entertaining and insightful episode. Whether you're a crypto newbie or a seasoned trader looking to refine your trading strategies, Pavel's insights into the volatile world of cryptocurrency and expertise in algorithmic trading will guide you through the complexities of systematic trading, risk management, and much more.
Here are some of the topics you’ll discover in this discussion:
How to identify what style of trading works best in crypto,
The “Idea first” approach to building trading strategies that work,
Indicators in crypto trading and how simple your trading strategies should really be,
The type of strategies that work in the crypto market right now,
Common robustness tests that work in crypto and which ones you should avoid (and why),
Risks with crypto trading and how to reduce them so you can sleep well at night,
Selecting the best cryptos to trade & the different behaviour and characteristics of coins,
How the crypto markets are changing and what that means to future trading strategies,
Regime filtering - when to use them and when to avoid them,
Generating portfolios of crypto strategies and the types of strategies to include for performance stability,
And much more...
Disclaimer:
Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice.
Wed, 28 Feb 2024 - 1h 05min - 227 - 224: "The Trading Panel" Episode 2
Welcome to a new trading series called "The Trading Panel", where I collaborate with Jason Perz from Against All Odds Research and a panel of traders to discuss the markets and all things trading. Participants on this weeks panel are:
Andrew Swanscott Jason Perz Kashyap Sriram Pavel Kycek Kevin GreenTimestamps
[00:00] Introduction and Overview of Trading Topics [06:37] Discussion on Personal Trading Experiences and Learning Curves [12:21] Insights into Systematic vs. Discretionary Trading [15:43] The Role of Market Cycles in Trading Profitability [17:33] Exploring the Impact of Rate Decisions on Trading Strategies [23:54] Debunking Common Trading Myths and Strategies [25:07] Discussion on Options and Volatility Trading [28:27] Carry Trades and Their Potential Risks [30:42] Unforeseen Market Events and Their Impact on Trading [33:17] The Swiss Franc Event: A Case Study [36:30] Exploring Premium Scalping and Its Risks [39:25] The Yen-U.S. Dollar Carry Trade Discussion [42:12] Institutional Strategies and Risk Management Techniques [43:28] Policy Changes in Trading Instruments: USO ETF Case [46:27] Futures Contracts: Managing Expiry and Liquidity Risks [49:24] Liquidity and Risk Management in Trading [53:42] The Negative Oil Price Event: An Anecdote [54:54] Closing Remarks and Contact Information of Panelists [56:05] Final Thoughts and Upcoming Episode Teaser
Disclaimer:
Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice.
Sat, 24 Feb 2024 - 58min - 226 - 223: "The Trading Panel" Episode 1
Welcome to a new trading series called "The Trading Panel", where I collaborate with Jason Perz from Against All Odds Research and a panel of traders to discuss the markets and all things trading. Participants on this weeks panel are:
Andrew Swanscott Jason Perz Kashyap Sriram Markets & Mayhem Mike Melissinos Pavel KycekTimestamps[00:00] Introduction to The Trading Panel [00:53] Speaker Introductions [08:23] Discussion on Trading Strategies and Market Positions [15:18] The Importance of Backtesting in Trading [20:06] Diversifying Trading Strategies and Portfolios [25:07] Handling Market Expectations and Predictions [28:36] Strategies to Avoid Curve Fitting in Trading [33:32] Price Agreement and Trading Decisions [38:31] Combating Curve Fitting with Simple Strategies [41:07] Fundamental Analysis in Trading Decisions [43:33] Systematic Trading and the Role of Historical Data [47:44] Closing Thoughts on Curve Fitting and Trading Strategies [52:16] Wrapping Up and How to Follow the Speakers
Disclaimer:
Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice.
Sat, 17 Feb 2024 - 1h 06min - 225 - 222: Surviving Uncertain Markets - Richard Brennan
Get ready to unlock the secrets of trading in uncertain markets with Richard Brennan and your host Andrew in this power-packed episode! Whether you're a novice or a seasoned trader, this episode is filled with invaluable insights that will help you navigate the volatile waters of the market with confidence.
Key Points You'll Learn:
Core principles for long-term trading success,
Understanding market dynamics,
The barbell approach to trend following,
The benefits of using simple models in trading,
How to identify and mitigate fragility in trading strategies,
Managing risk with tail properties,
The power of diversification and strategies to achieve maximum diversification,
Navigating market regimes and fat tail events,
And much more.
Disclaimer:
Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice.
Thu, 15 Feb 2024 - 1h 26min - 224 - 221: Bad trades, shorting disasters and just get out!
Discover the good, the bad and the ugly of systematic trading as our guest Cesar Alvarez from Alvarez Quant Trading shares some key moments in his trading career all traders can learn from!
Key Points You'll Learn:
The impact of bad trades and what to do when you’re in a trade you shouldn’t be in (the answer may not be what you think!),
Why the market can actually be a distraction to your trading and how watching the market LESS could be the key to improving your results,
Shorting disasters and how to avoid that one disaster trade that could wipe out your account,
A common perception about systematic trading that just isn’t true (and how to overcome it),
Plus loads of insights into algo trading, risk management, short selling and valuable lessons from many years of trading.
Disclaimer:
Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice.
Wed, 31 Jan 2024 - 48min - 223 - 220: 3 Biggest Lessons From Tennis Pro to Trading Pro
Jump right into this exciting episode where Scott, a former tennis coach turned expert trader, shares his journey and tricks of the trade. With his witty anecdotes and deep insights, Scott's story isn't just about trading; it's a tale of transformation and finding success in unexpected places.
Key Learning Points:
Transitioning Careers: Hear how Scott switched from tennis coaching to trading and the lessons he learned.
Trading Strategies: Discover Scott's approach to different trading strategies and what works best.
Risk Management: Learn about the importance of balancing trade size and managing risks.
Cultural Influence: Find out how culture can significantly impact your trading success.
Adapting to Change: Gain insights on staying flexible and adapting to market changes.
Disclaimer:
Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice.
Tue, 16 Jan 2024 - 50min - 222 - 219: 3 Biggest Lessons from Chart Trader to Algo Hedge Fund Manager
In this episode, our guest is breakout trading specialist and Hedge Fund manager Tomas “Mr Breakouts” Nesnidal. In our discussion Tomas shares the 3 biggest lessons from his start in discretionary chart trading up to breakout trading mastery, plus some interesting stories along the way (like the trading tips he learnt from a CIA agent!) Packed with practical tips, eye-opening insights and interesting stories, this is a must-listen for anyone looking to up their trading game. Tomas's story is one you don't want to miss. Key Points: Transition from Discretionary to Algorithmic Trading The Role of Lifestyle in Trading Choices Exploring Breakout Trading Strategies Incorporating Robustness Testing in Trading The Importance of Exit Strategies over Entries Developing a Successful Trading Model Influence of Mentors in Trading Development And Much More. Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice.
Wed, 03 Jan 2024 - 54min - 221 - 218: Trading Triumphs - Jerry Parker #3: The Dangers of Optimization
Want better performance from your trading strategies?
In part 3 of my chat with legendary trend-following Turtle Trader Jerry Parker we discuss optimization, how to really extract better performance from your trading, and common traps to avoid.
Key discussion points:
Minimizing Optimization for Maximum Effect: How over-complicating your approach can backfire, why less is often more when it comes to trading strategies and what you should do instead.
The Power of Simplicity: Learn why fewer rules often lead to better trading outcomes.
The Role of Back Testing: Discover the benefits and limitations of this crucial and often mis-used trading tool.
Diversifying Exits for Better Results: How diversifying your exit strategies can enhance your trading performance.
Adapting to Market Volatility: Tips on how to stay afloat and succeed in fluctuating markets.
And much more.
Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
Thu, 21 Dec 2023 - 22min - 220 - 217: Trading Triumphs - Jerry Parker #2: Excessive Risk
This is part 2 of my chat with legendary trend-following Turtle Trader Jerry Parker. In this episode, Jerry unravels the complexities of trading size, risk management, and the mental fortitude required in the world of trading. From personal anecdotes to professional insights, this episode is a treasure trove for traders at any level.
Key Points You'll Learn:
Trading Within Limits: Understand the importance of trading size that aligns with your comfort level.
Adhering to Systems: Discover why sticking to systematic rules is crucial for long-term success.
Mental Resilience: Learn about the psychological challenges in trading and strategies to cope with stress.
Personalizing Risk Management: Find out how to balance risk-taking with your personal risk tolerance.
Learning from Mistakes: Hear about Jerry's early experiences and how they shaped his approach to trading
Plus much more.
Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
Tue, 19 Dec 2023 - 18min - 219 - 216: Trading Triumphs - Jerry Parker #1: Fear of Executing Trades
In this episode, legendary trend-following Turtle Trader Jerry Parker shares his journey from the initial struggles to mastering the art of trend following. Whether you're a newbie or a veteran in trading, this discussion offers valuable insights and real-life lessons that can transform your approach to the markets.
Key Points You'll Learn:
Overcoming the fear of entry and the importance of executing trades.
The role of systematic rules in trading success.
Learning and growing from trading mistakes.
Adapting strategies according to market trends.
Developing the right trader mindset for long-term success.
Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice.
Mon, 18 Dec 2023 - 21min - 218 - 215: Trading Triumphs: Kevin Davey's Journey To Success Part 3
Ever wondered what it takes to design profitable trading strategies that can even win trading competitions?
In Part 3 of my chat with trading champion Kevin Davey, Kevin shares his approach to winning a trading competition, and how this relates to all traders, including strategy design, overcoming setbacks, and success and luck in the trading.
Here’s just a taste of the nuggets of wisdom Kevin shares in our chat:
Championship Strategies: Dive into the tactics Kevin used to win the Robbins World Cup Trading Championship.
Crafting Robust Trading Systems: Uncover the art and science behind developing trading systems that deliver results.
Balancing Skill and Luck: Kevin sheds light on how luck influences trading outcomes and the importance of skillful decision-making.
Resilience in Trading: Learn how to set achievable goals and effectively recover from trading downturns.
Essentials of Back Testing: Find out why Kevin emphasizes the power of back testing in creating trading strategies.
And much more!
Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
Tue, 05 Dec 2023 - 22min - 217 - 214: Trading Triumphs: Kevin Davey's Journey To Success Part 2
Step into the gripping world of trading with Kevin Davey, a seasoned trader with a tale that'll keep you on the edge of your seat!
In part 2 of my chat with Kevin, he shares his journey from relentless losses (and margin calls) to transforming his trading approach. Kevin's story is a rollercoaster of emotions and lessons.
Key Points You'll Discover:
The Perils of Scale Trading: Kevin's early strategy and how it led to a tough learning curve.
Emotional and Financial Impact: The psychological toll of repeated losses and the importance of mental resilience in trading.
Transition to Algorithmic Trading: How Kevin shifted gears to a more data-driven, algorithmic approach.
Risk Management Insights: Kevin's take on the critical role of risk management in trading success.
Diversification as a Strategy: Why trading multiple strategies and markets is crucial for stability.
Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
Tue, 05 Dec 2023 - 19min - 216 - 213: Trading Triumphs: Kevin Davey's Journey To Success Part 1
Dive into the world of trading with Kevin Davey, a champion trader who turned his part-time passion into a full-time career. In this enlightening discussion, Kevin spills the beans on his journey and strategies that helped him climb the ladder of success in the trading arena.
Key points you’ll discover:
Transitioning from Part-time to Full-time: Kevin shares his personal journey, revealing how he smoothly transitioned from part-time trading to becoming a full-time professional.
Strategies for Success: Uncover the effective trading strategies that Kevin employed to stay ahead of the game.
Overcoming Challenges: Learn about the hurdles Kevin faced in his trading career and how he overcame them.
The Importance of Environment: Kevin emphasizes the role of a supportive and conducive environment in a trader's success.
Consistency is Key: Discover how consistency played a crucial role in Kevin's trading journey, ensuring long-term success.
Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
Mon, 04 Dec 2023 - 27min - 215 - 212: Trading Triumphs - Brent Penfold's Journey to Success
Dive into the pivotal moments that shaped a trading veteran! Brent Penfold shares the twists and turns of his journey, from a chance encounter that launched his career to the mentorship that saved him from his own trading pitfalls. Get ready for a candid look at the successes, stumbles, and strategies that define a true market maestro.
Key Points Listeners Will Learn:
- How unexpected opportunities can kickstart a trading career.
- The importance of mentorship in navigating the trading landscape.
- Transitioning from discretionary to systematic trading.
- The value of backtesting and choosing the right tools for your strategy.
- Why transparency and accountability are crucial in trading.
Fun Fact: Brent still sometimes counts waves due to his early imprinting with Elliott Wave theory, despite now being a systematic trader.
Next Steps:
Ready to level up your trading game? Visit indextrader.com.au for more details on Brent's upcoming workshop and don't forget to contact Brent for a special 10% discount exclusively for Better System Trader viewers. Just mention you saw him here and get ready to transform your trading!
Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
Wed, 22 Nov 2023 - 1h 10min - 214 - 211: Trading Triumphs: The Journey to Success with Adrian Reid
Buckle up because we've got a special treat for your trading journey!
Adrian Reid, a seasoned trader with a wealth of experience, joins us on Better System Trader, in this special "Trading Triumphs: The Journey to Success" series, to get real about what it truly takes to succeed in the market.
In this discussion, we dig deep into 3 defining moments of Adrian's trading journey, to uncover what really helped him achieve success. We're unpacking the trials, triumphs, and timeless wisdom of trading. This isn't just an episode; it's a masterclass in perseverance and profit.
Here are 5 keys you'll unlock in this episode (plus many more!):
- The Marathon Mindset: Learn why trading is a long-haul game and how keeping a level head through the wins can define your success. Diversification is Your Safety Net: Discover Adrian's strategy for using gains to spread your risk and open new doors in the trading world. The Power of Patience: Adrian spills the beans on how waiting out a staggering 27 losing trades in a row taught him the patience of a saint—and the payoff was heavenly! Emotional Equilibrium: Get the inside scoop on handling the mental game of uncomfortable drawdowns without losing your cool (or your shirt). System Adoration: Why falling in love with the process, the rules, and the rigorous testing of your trading system can be the most rewarding relationship you'll ever have.
📢 **MORE INFO** Get more details about this episode, including exclusive show notes, summary points and the transcript, at https://bettersystemtrader.com/211
Ready to accelerate your learning curve? Jump into Trader Acceleration Week with Adrian, it's free. Register now at: https://go-bst.com/taw
Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
Fri, 17 Nov 2023 - 1h 18min - 213 - How do successful traders make better decisions?
How can traders make better decisions to improve their trading results?
In this episode, Matt Zimberg from Optimus Futures joins me to discuss decision making, what traders do wrong and how to be a more successful trader (and person) by making better trading decisions.
Here are some of the topics we discuss:
The importance of decision-making in trading, Common mistakes traders make, How traders underestimate “the game of trading”, Filtering out bad trading information and training your brain to make good decisions, The importance of learning about things outside the market, The 3 main goals of successful traders, Fear and euphoria, Contrarian trading, people who shouldn’t trade, and much more.Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
Fri, 09 Dec 2022 - 1h 07min - 212 - Using "Big Picture" Analysis to Guide Trading Decisions - Brent Penfold
Are you looking for unique ways to use “Big Picture” analysis to guide your trading decisions? In this episode, Brent Penfold from indextrader.com.au joins me to share some interesting (and effective) techniques he uses to determine the big picture to guide trading and investing decisions, including:
Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
Sat, 26 Nov 2022 - 1h 07min - 211 - Indicators vs Price Action - Which is King?
Which is better for trading strategies - Indicators or Price Action? In this episode, Scott Welsh from scottwelshstrategies.com joins me to answer this eternal question. Here are some of the topics we discuss:
Strange things that have impacted the markets this year, The value of reviewing simple strategies, Expectations traders have of trading strategies, Choosing the right trading style for a market, How to determine which markets trend the most, Old trading strategies that continue to do very well, How to manufacture “lucky” trading, Tracking dozens of old strategies, Identify strategy failure, The recent performance simple trading strategies, Plus much more!Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
Mon, 14 Nov 2022 - 56min - 210 - 207: Preparing for a new trading year
3 amazing guests join us to discuss trading insights of the past year and how to prepare for a HUGE trading year ahead, including:
Getting better as a strategy builder, Challenges building short index strategies, Switching between old and new strategies, Timeframes for short-term trading strategies, Scaling out in volatile sideways markets, When the next bear market will begin and the transition from Bull to Bear, Trend following over the last few months, "V" price movements in the markets, Stop & Reverse and small stops in crazy markets, Plus doing more of what works, old strategies that do well, algorithmic short selling and much more.Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
Fri, 24 Dec 2021 - 1h 33min - 209 - 206: “Systematic Crypto” – Adrian Reid
Adrian Reid from Enlightened Stock Trading joins us to discuss systematic crypto trading, including:
Why traders should consider the crypto markets right now, The mistakes most traders make with crypto, Choosing the best exchanges, data and software for crypto trading, Why buy and old is a bad approach to crypto and what you should do instead, The types of strategies that work in the crypto markets right now, The 3 types of risk in the crypto space (and how to reduce them), How to overcome limitations in crypto data, plus Regime filters, optimization, stop losses, backtesting, robustness, auto trading, price behaviour and much more.Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
Thu, 25 Nov 2021 - 58min - 208 - 205: “Simple strategies, stable results.” – David Stendahl
David Stendahl from SignalTradingGroup joins us to discuss techniques traders can use to achieve more stable results, including:
Why it's good to understand a systems logic and will simple systems continue to work, How to apply adaptive logic to simple systems, Mistakes traders make using seasonals, How "seasonal depth" can identify when a market is likely to make a big move, Using environmental overlays to adjust position sizing, Using VIX to switch strategies on/off, Plus, we discuss which is better: diversification of systems or markets?Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
Thu, 11 Nov 2021 - 1h 00min - 207 - 204: “How to leverage market biases to improve strategy performance” – Lawrence Chan
Lawrence Chan from DayTradingBias joins us to discuss market bias and how to leverage structural bias to increase strategy performance, including:
"Atomic strategies" and knowing when to NOT trade, The most toxic period to backtest a strategy, Why market behaviours are becoming so predictable, How some trading platforms are taking traders down the wrong path, Exploring biases caused by recurring events, Why traders should think in concepts first, Plus, leverage and volatility breakouts, chart patterns, simple tools, knowing the behaviours of market participants, human psyche, market internals and much more.Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
Thu, 28 Oct 2021 - 56min - 206 - 203: “Going against the crowd - a contrarian approach to trading profits.” – Jason Shapiro
Jason Shapiro from Crowded Market Report discusses a contrarian approach to trading profits, including:
Why contrarian trading makes sense, How to identify crowded trades and why price is not a good contrarian signal, What the markets really are and why traders don’t understand it, Risk management for contrarian trades, Why traders shouldn't care about being right or wrong, Plus, COT report, hedgers and speculators, fading the “experts”, trading through news events and much more.Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
Thu, 21 Oct 2021 - 50min - 205 - 202: “Buying pullbacks, avoiding bear markets” – Larry Tentarelli
Larry Tentarelli from Blue Chip Daily joins us to discuss techniques to buying pullbacks and avoiding bear markets, including:
Determining the trend with price action and why price action is better than indicators, Using volatility and range expansion as warning signs, Impact of the index on individual stocks, Managing trades when markets are breaking down, Reliability of moving average crosses, Clues that indicate a pullback may be turning into a bear market, Using market internals to identify potential turning points, Plus, systematic rules vs discretionary trading, trading in a bear market, controlling the urge to overtrade, scaling-out of positions, sector rotation and selection, what to watch for in the markets right now, and much more.Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
Thu, 07 Oct 2021 - 51min - 204 - 201: “Getting serious about part-time trading” – Kris Longmore
Kris Longmore from RobotWealth joins us to discuss 4 key areas part-time traders need to take seriously to be successful, including:
Why it’s important to understanding market participants and why they're trading, 3 common things traders do that almost guarantee they will blow up, Setting realistic expectations for retail traders, The "edge pyramid" and where retail traders should target, The “backtest cycle of doom”, why backtesting is not research, and a better approach to finding a trading edge, plus Risk premia harvesting, turn of the month edges, universe selection, VIX trading edges, FX seasonality, portfolio Zen, risk allocation, crypto trading, machine learning and much more!Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
Thu, 23 Sep 2021 - 1h 06min - 203 - 200: “Using market noise to improve strategies” – Martyn Tinsley
Martyn Tinsley from TradeLikeAMachine joins us to discuss market noise, and how to leverage noise to improve trading strategies, including:
Why it's important to understand market noise, The impact of market noise on trading strategies, Using noise to filter assets and timeframes, Example of impact of market noise on Mean Reversion strategies, The best strategies to trade in noisy markets, The difference between noise and volatility, Harmonic price patterns, instantaneous noise filtering, trading currency pairs, signal lag in noise indicators, repeatable patterns vs indicators and much more!Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
Wed, 15 Sep 2021 - 1h 00min - 202 - 199: “Trading statistical edges in crypto” – Brian Blandin
Brian Blandin from Markets Science joins us to discuss how to find and trade statistical edges in the crypto markets, including:
The things traders need to be aware of before trading crypto, Common factors and repeatable patterns that move the crypto markets, Software, programming language and exchange selection, How to screen cryptocurrencies to find those worth trading, Safety of funds at unregulated brokers, Crypto market correlation to stocks and index futures, Moving from discretionary to systematic crypto trading, volatility, slippage, liquidity and much more!Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
Tue, 07 Sep 2021 - 59min - 201 - 198: “3 ways to improve trading models” – Curtis White
Curtis White from Beyond Backtesting joins us to discuss 3 ways traders can build better trading models, including:
The problem with trading models and why traders struggle to incorporate predictive factors into models, What drives the markets and using market cognition for better trading ideas, Identifying and trading different markets and datasets, Using statistical creativity in the strategy validation process, Problems with Walk Forward Optimization and the 'proven winner' solution, Testing with different bar types, the negative impacts of being too risk averse, and much more!Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
Tue, 24 Aug 2021 - 47min - 200 - 197: “How to use volatility to outperform the market” – Kyle Schultz
Kyle Schultz from Algorithmic Futures joins us to discuss how to leverage volatility in your trading strategies to improve risk/reward and outperform the market, including:
Why volatility is a key component in trading strategies, 3 main ways to apply volatility in trading strategies,\ Types of volatility filters and when to use them in the strategy development process, Using VIX term structure as a regime filter, Adapting strategies to different volatility regimes, Mean reversion vs momentum in different volatility regimes, And much more!Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
Tue, 10 Aug 2021 - 54min - 199 - 196: “How to avoid curve fitting using independent testing” – Jeff Swanson
Jeff Swanson from EasyLanguageMastery discusses how to avoid curve fitting your trading strategies using the "independent testing" technique, including:
The things traders do that cause curvefitting, Is curvefitting a trading strategy really that bad? Independent testing and why you should use it when developing trading strategies, How to do independent testing of filters and using optimization to judge filter consistency, Testing combinations of filters and why you should look to remove Plus, types of filters to test, where to get trading ideas, how long to test a trading idea, when to switch strategies off, combining filters, tweaking a strategy and much more!Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
Tue, 03 Aug 2021 - 55min - 198 - 195: “Low-effort Trading Strategies” – Cesar Alvarez
Algorithmic trader Cesar Alvarez from Alvarez Quant Trading joins us to discuss low effort trading strategies, including:
An explanation of rotational trading and the benefits/challenges of using rotational strategies, Why rotational trading is a fantastic way to diversify time (and also get to “trade lazy”), How often to rebalance and the impacts of the day you choose to rebalance, Ranking methods and some of the most effective ways to find the best candidates, How to reduce the churn in rotational trading with one small but powerful exit tweak, Plus, universe selection, risk management, rebalancing, short trades, mean reversion, stock splits, audience questions and much more!Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
Tue, 27 Jul 2021 - 54min - 197 - 194: “How to improve trend following performance” – David Lundgren
Trend following trader David Lundgren joins us to discuss how to improve trend following performance, including:
The problem with momentum (and why momentum “doesn’t work”), Why momentum isn't working today, Mixing momentum with trend following for better performance, The 4 conditions that must happen for a trend to occur, Modeling regime drivers and digging deeper to understand true market health, What to do when trading strategies are struggling, And much more.Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
Tue, 20 Jul 2021 - 1h 05min - 196 - 193: “Innovation as a trading edge” – Dr Brett Steenbarger
Trader, author and performance coach Dr Brett Steenbarger discusses how traders can get an edge by applying innovation to their trading, including:
The 2 levels of improvements traders can make, Why traders resist innovation and how to address hesitation to change, How to innovate by looking at what we do well, Why NOT trading can be an innovation for traders, Impacts of lifestyle and mindset on innovation, Why you should “limit your search” when looking for edges, The 2 qualities most shared amongst successful traders Plus, odds and backtesting market patterns, skill vs luck, testing in relevant market regimes, what successful traders focus on and much more!Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
Wed, 14 Jul 2021 - 52min - 195 - 192: “Predicting profitability using machine learning” – Ernie Chan
Quant trader Ernie Chan from PredictNow.ai joins us to discuss how to predict the profitability of trades using machine learning, including:
Unconditional probability and the problem with win% in backtest reports, Why “conditional probability” is much more useful for a trader and how to apply conditional probabilities to capital allocation, Why you should use Machine Learning for risk management and capital allocation only (and not for building trading strategies), Why feature selection and feature importance ranking are so valuable, Plus, the best ML techniques for prediction, how simple should trading strategies be, insights from cluster-based feature selection, do these techniques really work, ML as a crystal ball and much more!Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
Tue, 15 Jun 2021 - 54min - 194 - 191: Combining Algos using State-Based Market Design – Richard Metzger
Richard Metzger from Quantsys.net joins us to discuss how to combine algos using state-based market design techniques for more consistent trading performance, including:
Why it's important to be sceptical of your algos, The main causes of poor algo performance and how state-based market design can address these issues, How to define market states into "buckets" and why you should keep them simple, Combining state-based algos to create a system, plus Adjusting inputs for market states, combining strategies in Tradestation, market states vs regime filters, and much more!Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
Wed, 09 Jun 2021 - 1h 00min - 193 - 190: Performing like a world champion even under stress and uncertainty – Mandi Pour Rafsendjani
Mandi Pour Rafsendjani from High Performance Trading joins us to discuss tips and techniques to perform like a world champion, even under times of stress and uncertainty, including:
The 2 types of fears that lead to stress in trading, Self-image and accelerating trading performance, The 3 different areas to look at when dealing with stress, "Protective Pessimism" and positive vs negative thinking, The "3M's" to check when a strategy stops working, The "Queens Gambit" strategy to performance improvement, plus How to recover from larger drawdowns, overtrading, Wim Hof and yoga, self-talk, mindset and why the market is like an “all you can eat” buffet you can keep going back to – yum!Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
Wed, 02 Jun 2021 - 1h 08min - 192 - 189: Managing multiple trading strategies – David Bean
David Bean from Capstone Trading Systems joins us to share tips and techniques to manage multiple trading strategies, including:
When to start trading a strategy live (the answer may not be what you think!), Why you should learn to love “ugly equity curves”, Watching the markets for trading ideas, Identifying patterns and cycles in portfolio drawdown, Why you should consider correlation based on methodology instead of typical correlation measurements, plus Patterns vs optimization, single idea strategies, market truths, retesting failed patterns, low frequency trading strategies and much more.Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
Wed, 26 May 2021 - 1h 06min - 191 - 188: “Why trading can be so challenging (and what to do about it)” – Adam Grimes
Adam Grimes from Talon Advisors discusses why trading can be so challenging and what to do about it, including:
Why it can be so hard to learn from the markets, The dangers of doing stupid things in the markets that generate a good outcome, Random price movements and finding more predictable moments, Why having success outside of the markets doesn’t guarantee you’ll be a good trader, Trading psychology and interacting with randomness, Adapting to uncertainty and mispricing risk, Deliberate practise, Algo vs discretionary trading, when to stop trading a system, new events, out of sample date, how far to backtest and forward test before going live and much more.Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
Wed, 12 May 2021 - 1h 15min - 190 - 187: “How to spot a trading scam” – Kevin Davey
Algorithmic trader Kevin Davey discusses the sneaky tactics trading scammers use to trick people and how you can spot a fraud and protect yourself, including:
How to check if testimonials are real, Some simple ways to tell if a trader really is trading live as they claim, How to spot fake trading strategies, Trading gurus who report unrealistic returns and flaunt fake wealth, Websites you can use to check if trading educators are scammers, Why teach if you can trade, Fake trendlines and cherry-picked examples for books, Plus, Paypal refunds, money back guarantees, audited trading records, realistic rates of return, reputable trading educators, the old hedge fund trader/caravan park scam, and much more.Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
Wed, 05 May 2021 - 1h 11min - 189 - 186: “Breaking the rules for higher returns” – Scott Welsh
World Cup Trading Championship runner-up Scott Welsh joins us to discuss how "breaking the rules" and doing the opposite of "traditional" trading approaches can lead to higher returns, including:
"Burning the ships" and how limiting beliefs are hurting traders, Why traders should "start from the end" and work backwards, Why it's good to see losing in your trading, The 80/20 rule and why "getting the star" beats diversification, How to achieve real-life trading that’s better than the backtest, Selection bias - is it really so bad? Why you should say “screw you” to people who tell you that you can’t do it, Plus, doing the opposite to conventional trading wisdom, breaking the rules with indicators, strategies that never break, trading platforms, beating buy and hold, small profit targets, and much more.Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
Wed, 28 Apr 2021 - 1h 03min - 188 - 185: How to avoid creating trading strategies that degrade quickly - Timothy Masters
Numerical Computing specialist and author Timothy Masters joins us (in his only ever interview) to discuss trading strategy development and validation techniques, including:
Why trading strategies fall apart in live trading, How luck impacts trading strategy results and the impact of selecting the 'best' trading system, Why trades in an out of sample dataset are NOT representative of future trades, 3 ways to use Monte Carlo Permutation tests in trading strategy development to avoid overfitting, evaluate strategy robustness and assess the quality of your strategy development process, The danger of using out of sample trades to compute the probability of drawdowns, Entropy and information of indicators and why it's important to strategy development, How stationarity really impacts trading strategies and what strategy developers can do about it, Using Walk Forward to determine how robust a strategy is in the market, Incomplete Beta Distribution to track strategy deterioration, Bootstrapping, granular Profit Factor, the predictive ability of technical indicators, counter-trend trading and much more.Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
Mon, 12 Apr 2021 - 1h 16min - 187 - 184: Increasing returns using "Performance Qualifiers" – Tomas Nesnidal
Breakout trading specialist and Hedge Fund manager Tomas Nesnidal joins us to discuss how to increase the returns of trading strategies using "Performance Qualifiers" while also managing risk, including:
What is Dynamic Position Sizing (DPS) and how can it improve risk-adjusted returns, How Dynamic Position Sizing is different to classical position sizing (and why DPS is better), Why it’s important for traders to connect position size with what’s going on in the markets, instead of just their equity curve, The 5 groups of Performance Qualifiers and how to use them to identify the probabilities of future trades, Why using filters to improve trading strategies can be dangerous (and DPS is a much better option instead), Plus, Dynamic Position Sizing and risk management, Optimal-f and older position sizing techniques, Dynamic Position Sizing for stocks, forex and other markets, why it’s important for traders to try new concepts, and much more.► Download the free DPS ebook at https://dpstradingtechnique.com or discover more from Tomas at https://systemsontheroad.com
Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
Tue, 30 Mar 2021 - 58min - 186 - 183: Overcoming Broken Strategies – Marsten Parker
Unknown market wizard Marsten Parker joins us to share how he overcame broken strategies and adapted his trading to deliver a 20-year track record most traders would envy, including:
Being featured in the “Unknown Market Wizards” book by Jack Schwager, The impacts of a 45% drawdown and how Marsten got back into trading, How to use a system stop to protect your trading account from large losses, Why it’s important to understand why a strategy works, Mean Reversion short strategies, why they’re dangerous and how to mitigate some of the risk, How to detect and protect yourself from a strategy that’s broken, Uncertainty in the market and the future performance of strategies, Equity curve trading, market speed, diversified strategies, tracking old strategies, indicators, market regimes and much more.Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
Wed, 24 Mar 2021 - 1h 02min - 185 - 182: How to identify high probability markets - David Steets
David Steets from Systematic Individual Investor joins us to discuss how to map market probabilities and identify high probability markets using "edge stacking" techniques, including:
The importance of mapping market probabilities, How to identify if something really contains an edge, Blending return probabilities across buckets to create a probability map, Classifying markets over multiple timeframes, How to confirm which edges are currently relevant, Using both technical and fundamental in models, The reliability of edges over time, Managing conflicting information and edges, Bear market signals, integrating discretion, weighting edges, VIX term structure, “anti-edges” and much more.Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
Tue, 09 Mar 2021 - 1h 00min - 184 - 181: Short-term Swing Trading Techniques – Ivanhoff
On this BST live show, Ivan from Ivanhoff Capital joins us to discuss “Short-term swing trading techniques”. Here are some of the topics you’ll discover in this episode:
The 2 most important factors in swing trading, Why short-term trading is better than longer-term trading, Measuring market environment and detecting changes, How to find the hot sectors in the market, Shorting stocks and adapting to market corrections and downtrends, Swing trading in choppy markets, Stacking the odds in your favour, High conviction setups, breakouts vs dips, protecting profits, trailing stops, time stops, swing trading psychology and much more.Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
Wed, 03 Mar 2021 - 42min - 183 - 180: 3 ways traders kill trading strategies (and how to avoid them) – Rob Carver
On this BST live show, Rob Carver from systematicmoney.org joins us to discuss “3 ways traders kill trading strategies”. Here are just some of the topics you’ll discover in this episode:
What can go wrong with strategies in live trading, The impact of model complexity on prediction error, (and are simple models really better than more complicated ones - the answer may surprise you!), The dangers of overstated backtest performance, The impact of historic costs on backtest results, The 3 types of overfitting, including 1 that most traders don’t even realise they’re doing, and how to reduce their impact on your trading models, Strategy robustness and letting data define complexity, The overfitting "levels of sin", Correcting for the "multiple testing problem", Fitting metrics, sample size, data quality, prediction error and much more.Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
Wed, 24 Feb 2021 - 1h 13min - 182 - 179: Effective techniques to identify trends – Doc Ahrens
On this episode of BST Live, Doc Ahrens from Trendline Dynamics joins us to discuss “Effective techniques to identify trends”, including:
The Macro-trend Analyzer indicator and 3 ways to use moving averages for macro trend analysis, Why it's important to have simple trading solutions and what failures in aerospace can teach us about trading strategies, Studies that conclude technical indicators don't work, Using visual confirmation to understand indicator reaction to market scenarios, The 3 types of support and resistance, How to draw trendlines properly, why it's impossible to “understand the market”, the importance of persistence in trading and loads more.Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
Tue, 16 Feb 2021 - 1h 01min - 181 - 178: How to build Mean Reversion trading strategies – Stefan Friedrichowski
So, the verdict is in…
Afrotechmods says:
“I think this is the most informative guest you have ever had! Thank you both.”
What am I talking about?
On this episode of BST Live, Stefan Friedrichowski from JFD Bank joined us to discuss “how to build Mean Reversion trading strategies”, and it was an absolute cracker! Even if you’re not a mean reversion trader, you have to see this one.
Here’s a small sample of the tips and insights you’ll discover:
The "alarm signal" that got Stefan interested in Mean Reversion trading, How to determine if a market is good for Mean Reversion or not, How to reduce noise and increase the information content in trading charts, The danger of using a Mean which moves too fast, How the distribution of 2 bar combinations gives clues about potential trading edges, Adjusting the Mean length based on the timeframe of the chart,Stop-loss vs take profit size, trading without a stop loss, degrees of freedom, statistical significance, sample size, entries, exits, and loads more.
Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
Wed, 10 Feb 2021 - 1h 30min - 180 - 177: Superior returns from superior risk management – Laurent Bernut
Ever wondered how to turn $10k into $100k (or more) in just 2 years (or less)?
Many traders have, especially early in their careers…
But how do professional traders achieve superior returns while also protecting capital.
On this week’s episode of BST Live, Laurent Bernut from Alpha Secure Capital joined us to discuss “Superior returns from superior risk management”, and a new approach to risk management where you can put risk appetite on autopilot, protect capital and achieve superior returns.
Here are just some of the tips you’ll discover:
How to turn 10k into 1 million (or more) in just 2 years..., How unrealistic trading expectations set you up for failure, What is "superior" risk management and why investors are like teenage girls, Concavity and Convexity Oscillators for dynamic risk management, Position sizing with small accounts, Why you should let the market dictate the risk for you, How to judge the tradability of a strategy, plus Emotional capital vs financial capital and which is more critical, Risk management after long periods of underperformance, mean reversion vs trend following, the problem with pyramiding into positions and MUCH more.To hear all about it, head on over to bettersystemtrader.com/177 now to watch along or check in with your favourite podcast app if you like to listen.
Happy trading!
Andrew.
PS. Laurent even turned the tables and asked me a question on why I do Better System Trader. Check out my response at bettersystemtrader.com/177
Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
Wed, 03 Feb 2021 - 1h 26min - 179 - 176: Dealing with market uncertainty and lessons of 2020 - Michael Grech
With 2020 coming to a close, we’ve got a great opportunity to stop for a breather (phew!), look at some of the craziness that has happened this year, and identify how we can use those insights to improve our trading even more in the future.
On this episode of BST Live Mike Grech from Quantopolis.com joins us to discuss 2020 and how we can better deal with market uncertainty. Here are just some of the tips you’ll discover:
Why 2020 has produced 5 years of market action in 1 year, How this year has produced outsized returns for some trading styles and what could happen next, Understanding your strategy, how it reacts to markets and when to stop trading it, The future impacts of 2020 on backtesting, re-optimization and quant trading, What could crash an overvalues stockmarket if a global pandemic can't, Tail-risk hedging during volatility environments, The drawbacks and dangers of using indicators in trading, plus… The psychology of gains and losses, the information we don't see as traders, the best risk management tool you can possibly have, and MUCH more.Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
Wed, 16 Dec 2020 - 57min - 178 - 175: 3 under-utilized techniques to build dramatically better trading strategies – Brian Miller
“Randomness has the greatest negative impact on single entry trading strategies.” – Brian Miller (Optimized Trading).
In this new episode of BST Live, Brian Miller from Optimized Trading joins us to discuss “3 under-utilized techniques to build dramatically better trading strategies”.
Brian shared some unique ideas for building (and improving) trading strategies. Here are just some of the tips you’ll discover:
Basic market classifications most traders use (that miss the complete picture),
Designing models for specific market classifications Managing trades as market classifications change, How to get started building multi-structured strategies, Matching the strategy style to the market, Multi-value, multi-entry strategies, and diversification, Adaptive money management using market classifications, plus… Trade frequency, trending vs mean reverting, intelligent allocation, and much more.Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
Wed, 09 Dec 2020 - 1h 08min - 177 - 174 : How to find statistical edges to improve your trading – Scott Andrews
“There are literally hundreds of statistically valid patterns in every market.” – Scott Andrews (Investiquant).
So, where are they hiding out, how can we find them and how can we determine the patterns are actually valid and not just random noise in the market?
In this new episode of BST Live, Scott Andrews from Investiquant joins us to discuss how to find statistical edges to improve your trading. Here are just some of the tips you’ll discover:
How to find potential edges and which markets are best, Why it’s more important to spend time watching and studying the market than actually trading it, The "3 C's rule" to separate genuine signals from the noise, How long can pattern edges actually last and do dead edges ever recover? How to track the health of an edge using t-score, Using "traditional" indicators in patterns, How to deal with drawdowns (and possibly the trading quote of the year!), The "Speed Bump Rule" to manage drawdowns, plus… Allocating capital, edges in stocks, building pattern libraries, ensembles vs patterns, day trading edges, context, sample size, and much more.Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
Wed, 25 Nov 2020 - 1h 01min - 176 - 173: Trend Trading Tactics – Brent Penfold
Is the trend REALLY your friend?
And if so, why do so many trend traders fail?
Global futures trader Brent Penfold joins us to discuss trend trading tactics, including:
• Why trend trading is so difficult for traders, • Why traders should be careful using indicators, • How to overcome challenging periods in trend trading, • The surprising robustness of really old strategies, • Why bright people struggle in the markets, • Drawdown, risk, position-sizing, volatility cycles, data mining, and much more.
Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
Wed, 18 Nov 2020 - 1h 14min - 175 - 172: The Magic of Momentum Trading – Alan Clement
Quant Trader Alan Clement from Helix Trader discusses momentum trading & strategies, including:
Why momentum trading is so popular and how it works, What makes a good trend indicator and the 4 best indicators to identify trends, Why the moving average is not a good trend indicator, How to rank stocks by momentum and how many momentum stocks to hold in a portfolio, The danger of stops and using momentum for exits instead, How dual momentum protects during Bear markets and market crashes, Filtering out false signals in indicators, Plus, market regimes, shorting weak stocks, position sizing, and much more!Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
Wed, 11 Nov 2020 - 1h 00min - 174 - 171: How to survive market sell-offs – Perry Kaufman
With the US elections just days away, traders are thinking about how the markets may react to whatever news the elections may bring.
Will we see a big selloff, wild swings in price, and huge spikes in volatility?
Or do the markets typically deliver something else around election time?
In this episode of BST Live, Perry Kaufman from Kaufman Signals joins us to discuss how to survive market selloffs, including:
Historical returns around election days since 1924, The 2 types of prices shocks and the best approach to handling them, The link between stock price and percentage change and why you should avoid trading low priced stocks, Should traders hedge to reduce risk, The dangers of Price Shocks on backtesting results (and how to avoid them), How to determine the volatility level where returns are no longer worth the risk, Plus, volatility parity, rebalancing, portfolio volatility, and much more!Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
Tue, 03 Nov 2020 - 56min - 173 - 170: How to detect when a trading strategy is failing – Kevin Davey
Ever had a strategy that looked like it was broken and wondered if you should stop trading it or not?
Strategy failure (or periods of poor performance) are just a part of trading, but how you deal with it can have a HA-YUGE impact on your overall results… so how do you detect when a strategy is failing?
How do you work out if you should stop trading it or just give it some more time?
In this episode of BST Live, trading champion Kevin Davey joins us to discuss how to detect when a strategy is failing, including:
• Why looking at a single equity curve is not giving you the full picture, • How to determine the potential ranges of future strategy performance, • Using Statistical Process Control to monitor trading strategies and which metrics are best, • How Probability Cones can give traders a more informed view of strategy performance (and when a strategy could be broken), • What do to when a strategy over-performs (the answer may not be what you think!), • Should you turn a strategy back on if it recovers after extremely poor performance, • How a really good backtest can actually be a predictor of bad performance, • Plus, much more!
Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
Wed, 28 Oct 2020 - 1h 15min - 172 - 169: Will AI replace the human trader – Bob Pardo
Are our roles as traders coming to an end soon?
Is AI and ML (that’s Machine Learning, not Money Laundering or Meat Loaf…) going to take over the trading world?
Trading veteran Bob Pardo from Pardo Capital joins us to discuss these topics plus much more, including:
How AI is missing common inputs used by human traders, Modeling the expertise of human traders using Expert Systems, The dangers of using computers to blindly create strategies, Retail edges vs Institutional edges and how private traders can compete, The lifespans of edges (are they getting shorter?), The Dynamic Statistical Profile of strategies and taking strategies offline, Correlations (and how correlation can be a 2-edge sword), Objective functions and when it doesn't matter which one you choose, Using performance feedback and indicators on equity curves, Adaptive trading systems, fitting your process to your objective and much more!Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
Wed, 21 Oct 2020 - 1h 03min - 171 - 168: How to optimize strategies for robustness (properly) – John Ehlers
DSP and Cycles expert John Ehlers, joins us to discuss all things optimization, including:
Why optimization is a statistical process and how to assess the results properly (including what to look for at “the 50% line”), How much data you should REALLY use for reoptimization and why many traders use way too much data (and the impact it has on trading strategies), The 3 best fitness functions to use in reoptimization and the dangers of a popular metric that can lead to over trading, What the speed of optimization results can potentially tell you about strategy robustness, The only 2 things that count when assessing a strategy (yup, just 2!), Plus, much more.Also, if you want to discover more of John’s Cycles and DSP techniques, John is running his annual workshop for the very last time this year (he’s retiring to go fishing and build model aeroplanes). The workshop is run over 4 evenings (US time – Oct 19-23) and it’s 100% online so no travel or quarantine required. For more info, visit: http://bettersystemtrader.com/jeworkshop2020
Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
Tue, 13 Oct 2020 - 46min - 170 - 167: Improve trading performance by being a flexible trader – Steve Ward
High-performance trading coach Steve Ward from TradeAtYourBest.com discusses:
How to find the best opportunities during challenging times, Why shifting perspective is such a critical skill for high-performance, How to overcome internal resistance to become more adaptable, “Learning vs Earning” and how to improve your chances of longevity in trading, How to integrate being flexible with the “follow the system” approach of algo/systematic trading to be better prepared for whatever the market may hold, Key actions traders should be doing right now to prepare for an unknown future in the markets, Plus, many more practical tips to improve trading performance.And if you want even more practical tips on high-performance trading, you should check this one out:
For the first time ever, Steve is running the 6-week "Trade At Your Best Trading Psychology Course" to teach private traders (he usually only works with institutional clients) the mindset and mental skills required to succeed in the markets, and close the gap between potential and actual returns.
So, if you want to see what knowledge, insights, and techniques Steve reveals to his Insto clients behind closed doors, this could be your only chance. (Have to admit I’m intrigued too…)
The program starts next week, you can find more details about the program at http://bettersystemtrader.com/taybcourse
Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
Wed, 07 Oct 2020 - 47min - 169 - 166: Consistent Equity Growth using Diversification – Nick Radge
Nick Radge from TheChartist.com.au discusses how to achieve consistent equity growth using multiple layers of diversification.
For more details about The Empowered Trader monthly newsletter, visit http://theempoweredtrader.com
Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
Mon, 28 Sep 2020 - 1h 06min - 168 - 165: Effective Market Regime Techniques - Cesar Alvarez
Cesar Alvarez from AlvarezQuantTrading.com discusses effective Market Regime techniques to improve strategy performance and reduce risk by only trading in the best market conditions.
Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
Mon, 21 Sep 2020 - 55min - 167 - What's next for BST?
Details about what's next for BST and the special event being hosted this weekend.
Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
Wed, 16 Sep 2020 - 08min - 166 - Important Announcement
As I'm sure you've realised, I've taken a break from podcasting for the last year or so.
I've been focusing on some other trading projects so I haven't released any new episodes for quite a while, but over that time I've received a lot of messages from traders hungry for more podcast episodes.
Has Better System Trader finished? Is it coming back?
I have some interesting news to share - take a listen.
Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
Sat, 12 Sep 2020 - 02min - 165 - 164: Performance Accelerators - Steve Ward
This podcast episode made me think back to the very first computer I bought in my high school days.
We’re talking about the mid-1980, when computers were still relatively new.
Actually, my first computer was a commodore 64 (how good were they!), which my parents bought me, but the first computer I actually bought myself was a pretty serious computer at the time. It cost about 3 or 4 thousand dollars, which back then was quite a bit of money. And this computer only had a fraction of the power that we have in our mobile phones these days, but back then it was one of the fastest you could get.
Anyway, this computer had a special switch on the front of the case, it was called the 'Turbo' switch. I’m not exactly sure how it worked, but when some programs were running slow, I could flick the turbo switch on and it would accelerate the performance of the computer.
And I was thinking, wouldn’t it be great if we could have a ‘Turbo’ switch for trading, where we could just flick the switch and instantly boost our performance?
Wouldn’t that be awesome?
Well, I don’t think such a switch exists unfortunately, but there are definitely things we can do to accelerate our performance, and that’s exactly what we’re discussing today with our special guest and leading performance coach Steve Ward.
Steve has over 25 years of teaching, coaching and training experience.
He works with traders, fund managers and banking professionals across the globe, helping them to improve their decision making, risk taking and ability to achieve and sustain high performance.
Steve’s work is focused on delivering evidence-based practical strategies and tactics, and in this podcast episode we discuss a number of performance accelerators in trading.
Here’s some of the things you’ll discover:
The key factors that can accelerate trading performance, Why the ‘j-curve’ is so important for developing traders and how to shortcut the process to profitability, How the best traders manage the short-term discomforts of trading to achieve long-term gains, Why suppressing emotions in trading can be like trying to hold a beachball underwater, and how to improve our behavioural flexibility for higher performance, How situational awareness training used by the US marines can improve our trading abilities, Tips to functioning at our best in a world of hyper distractions, Plus, much more.Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
Sun, 23 Jun 2019 - 49min - 164 - 163: The Laws of Trading - Agustin Lebron
In this podcast episode we’re going to be talking about something incredibly fundamental to traders.
It’s something we have to do all the time as traders, and it can have such a huge impact on our trading performance. In fact, it doesn’t just impact trading, it can impact ALL aspects of our lives.
So, what is it? Any ideas?
It’s decision making.
Now I don’t need to explain the importance of decision making, it’s pretty obvious… I’m sure we’ve all made good and bad decisions over time and had to live with the consequences, but as traders, what can we do to improve our decision making?
Well, in this podcast episode we’re joined by special guest Agustin Lebron.
Agustin began his career as a trader and researcher at one of the worlds largest market-making firms - Jane Street Capital. Over the years he has traded many different kinds of securities and has created, developed and implemented successful trading strategies.
In my chat with Agustin you'll discover:
The “laws” traders need to apply to make better decisions, Why you're never really happy with the trades you make and what to do about it, Identifying your “personal edge” and leveraging it in the markets, Why traders need to integrate “storytelling” into their processes, The dangers of traders “mistaking the map for the territory”, How to approach a model when it’s breaking down, Plus, much more.Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
Sat, 01 Jun 2019 - 35min - 163 - 162: Building effective entries and exits - Kevin Davey
Glad you could join us today for a discussion on what is probably one of the most popular topics in trading, and that is entries and exits.
Traders love talking about entries, but the truth is, when you dig deeper and test them out, you might just discover lots of entry and exits techniques either don’t actually work very well at all or don’t work as well as expected.
So, how do traders know what makes a good entry or exit?
How do we go about building effective entries and exits for our trading strategies?
Well, in this podcast episode we dig deeper into entries and exits with special guest Kevin Davey.
Kevin has just released a book on entries and exits, so we’re going to dig into that a little and discuss a number of other aspects of entries and exits too, including:
What makes a good entry – logic, symmetry, indicators, patterns or something else? How to test the effectiveness of an entry to determine if it’s any good, An unexpected way to use entries that could radically improve your trading strategies, The hidden dangers of combining and optimizing exits, A simple technique to determine if you could be optimizing too much, Where to find enough entries and exit ideas to keep you busy for a year, Plus, much, much more.Let’s get started with my chat with Kevin on entries and exits.
Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
Sun, 19 May 2019 - 42min - 162 - 161: Improving performance with strategies that manage strategies - David Bean
Our special guest for this episode has done some really interesting work into strategies that manage trading strategies based on their current performance.
This can have a huge impact on performance results, but what does it actually mean, how does it work and how can we do it?
Well, David Bean from Capstone Trading Systems is joining us to explain exactly that, plus he’s going to share a whole lot more, including:
Patterns versus indicators, where they fit in a strategy and which works better, Why market regime filters may not be the best approach and an alternative solution that could be better for you, How to really dig deep into understanding how a strategy and market truly works and the benefits of knowing that, How to determine the best time to start trading a strategy and when to stop trading it, How to plan for, manage and even profit from strategy degradation, Plus much more.So, enough of the delays, lets jump right into my chat with David Bean.
Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
Fri, 12 Apr 2019 - 37min - 161 - 160: How to achieve long-term trading success - Linda Raschke
I just want to start by saying happy new year! I know it was a few weeks back, but I hope you’ve had a good start to the year and I wish you all the best for 2019.
Now I’m really excited to be sharing this episode with you for a number of reasons.
I think it’s very timely considering this is the time of the year where we make new years resolutions. We reflect on where we are and what we want achieve. Perhaps we’ve set some goals and started achieving some of those, or maybe even broken some of them already.
In this episode we’re going to be talking about what it takes to be the best, or perhaps I should say YOUR best.
We’re going to be talking about high performance trading, what it takes to have a successful trading career over the long term.
And joining us for this chat is one of the best, Linda Raschke.
As I’m sure you know, Linda has experienced a very high level of trading success throughout her career. There aren’t too many traders around who can say they’ve had the level of performance, success and longevity that Linda has had, so she’s really an excellent person to discuss this with us today.
She’s going to share some stories with us, and some valuable trading wisdom which I’m sure you’ll find valuable, so let’s jump straight into my chat with Linda, hope you enjoy it!
Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
Sun, 27 Jan 2019 - 40min - 160 - 159: Maximising the potential of portfolios - Adam Butler
With so much focus often on the actual trading strategies or investments, portfolio construction can sometimes become an afterthought… or not even considered.
However, as we’re going to hear about today, portfolio construction and optimization has the potential for huge increases in wealth...
But there are a number of aspects we need to carefully consider if we want to maximise the potential of portfolios.
Joining us today as our special guest is Adam Butler, CIO from quantitative asset management company Resolve Asset Management.
Adam has published some interesting research on portfolio construction and optimization, and he’s even provided a portfolio optimization framework that can guide investors and traders towards the appropriate optimization method.
In my discussion with Adam today, you’re going to discover:
How some traders and investors apply rules to portfolio construction based on a flawed premise, How the ‘Portfolio Optimization Machine’ framework can guide investors toward the appropriate optimization method, Why some errors in estimates don’t have a particularly large impact on portfolio outcome and where the real challenges comes in, The differences in constructing portfolios in stocks versus futures, The multiple dimensions of diversification and how to approach the risks of rebalancing, How to choose the best portfolio construction and optimization technique for you, Plus much more.Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
Sun, 25 Nov 2018 - 43min - 159 - 158: Bull, Bear or Correction? Reading the signs - Troy Bombardia
With recent market stock market actions, talk again is turning to whether this is just another correction.
Will the bull market resume or are we in the beginning stages of a bear market?
In this episode we have a timely look at the market with Troy Bombardia from investment research firm Fundamental Capital and the website BullMarkets.co.
Troy has been working in his family’s hedge fund for 10 years now, and applies a unique mix of Fundamentals, Technicals, and Statistics to his trading models.
In my discussion with Troy today, you’re going to discover:
Why Technicals alone can’t give an accurate reflection of the long-term market view and what you need to incorporate instead, Why lots of traders that use fundamental analysis are doing it wrong and which fundamentals really drive stock market declines, The difference between a bear market and a “big decline” and the conditions to watch out for in each, Why leading economic indicators are also leading stock market indicators, and how to read them to prepare for potential market changes, What the economic indicators are saying about stock market conditions right now, including when the Bull market could be ending and the final step to watch out for as it unfolds, The importance of reflection in trading, and the 2 key aspects traders need to focus on to always be improving, And much more.Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
Sun, 28 Oct 2018 - 40min - 158 - 157: Assumptions, Probabilities and Diversification with Michael Grech
Joining us today as special guest is Michael Grech from Quantopolis.
Mike is a quantitative trader with a background in signal processing and computer modelling, and in our chat you'll discover a number of interesting topics, including:
Trading based on assumptions and building portfolios of diversified strategies, Why every trader should have some kind of volatility strategy in their portfolio and how to balance risk vs reward in volatility strategies, Mike's latest book on quantitative investing, How concepts from the book "Thinking Fast and Slow" have applications to traders. Plus, Mike is going to let us in on a project he’s currently working on that uses a combination of simple systems and Artificial Intelligence to mimic a human trader and also to calculate market probabilities.We cover a lot in this episode so check out my chat with Michael Grech.
Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
Sun, 30 Sep 2018 - 41min - 157 - 156 - Where is technology taking us? - Dr Tom Starke
A common dream sold to traders, especially when they’re starting out, is the dream of sitting back on the beach sipping cocktails while our trading systems go to work and make us money.
While certain aspects of that dream are possible, for example automated trading, traders still need to do a lot of work to get to that point.
We’ve got to research the markets, find trading edges, do testing and robustness checks, monitor strategies and systems, tweak and adjust where required...
It’s really not as simple as the dream sounds.
But with recent advances in technology, including AI, machine learning and quantum computing, are we close to having fully autonomous trading systems?
That is, can systems really learn trading rules themselves, find profitable edges and trade them, while we do sit back on the beach, boat or couch sipping cocktails and counting our money?
In this podcast episode we're going to explore how recent advances in technology are impacting the trading space now and where it could be taking us in the future.
And to do that we have special guest Dr Tom Starke from AAAQuants.
Tom specialises in AI and machine learning solutions and he has some interesting insights to share with us, so let’s get started now and jump over now to my chat with Dr Tom Starke.
Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
Mon, 17 Sep 2018 - 42min - 156 - 155: Stories from the trading floor - Damon Pavlatos
In this episode we’re going to be talking about the pits.
The trading pits may be closed (or most of them are anyway) but there is a lot of history there. There are lots of stories and events that occurred in the pits over the years that we can still learn from today.
On this podcast episode we have special guest Damon Pavlatos who has been extensively involved in the commodity and financial futures industry since 1978.
He has held Exchange Memberships on the CME, CBOT and Mid America Exchange.
Not only did he trade on the floor for himself but he also executed for some of the biggest players around, including Paul Tudor Jones, Louis Bacon, Monroe Trout, Toby Crabel and others.
In Damons 40+ years of experience he’s seen a lot, and he’s experienced a lot too. So, in our chat today he’s going to share some interesting stories from the floor, and some valuable lessons for traders of all levels of experience too.
Some of the things you’ll discover in my chat with Damon are:
The crash of ’87 – what it was like leading up to, trading through it and how the crash of 2008 was scarier than the crash of 87, One of the biggest causes of traders blowing up their accounts - it may not be what you think, Why volume could be the most important indicator and how order flow ‘clues’ can impact trading results, Why it so important to ‘stay ahead of the curve’ and adapt to changes in technology and the markets, Why some types of brokerage firms are dangerous and how to check if they’re properly capitalised, And so much more.We cover a lot in this episode so let’s jump over now to my chat with Damon
Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
Sun, 02 Sep 2018 - 1h 09min - 155 - 154: From Billion dollar trades to private trader - with Petra Zacek
Ever wonder how the ‘other side’ trades?
I suppose it depends what ‘trading world’ you live in but in this episode we’re exploring 2 different worlds - the institutional world AND the private trading world.
And joining us to do that is special guest Petra Zacek.
Petra started out in the institutional world and in this episode she shares some interesting stories and lessons about her time there.
But now that she’s a private trader she’s also going to share some insights into trading her own account and the transition from institutional to private trading.
Some of the things you’ll hear in our chat today are:
Why it’s important to think outside the box and express your trade idea in different ways, Making the switch from institutional to private trading and the impact her institutional experience has had on her trading today, How the institutional world research ideas, including what private traders are up against and how we can compete, Benefits of collaboration, using algos as an additional filter on top of a setup, how to balance accuracy with win/loss ratio plus a whole lot more.So let’s jump over to my chat now with Petra.
Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
Sun, 19 Aug 2018 - 42min - 154 - 153: High performance trading - with Mandi Pour Rafsendjani
Quite often the focus for traders are the technical aspects of trading - indicators, back-testing procedures, robustness checks, statistics, trading platforms, infrastructure etc.
All of these aspects can have an impact on trading performance.
However, there are other aspects of trading too that often go unrecognised, ignored, and can have a huge impact on our performance no matter how good our strategies are.
What are they?
Joining us today to discuss high performance trading is Mandi Pour Rafsendjani.
Mandi is a trader, speaker and peak performance trading coach who works with independent traders, prop trading firms and hedge funds to improve their trading performance.
Some of the things you’ll discover in my chat with Mandi are:
The key aspects that set high performing traders apart from everyone else, How traders can identify what’s really holding back their performance, Why it’s important to have a ‘reset button’, Two aspects of drawdown and how traders can more effectively manage drawdown, How to strengthen your ‘taking-losses’ muscle to better handle losses, And much more.So let’s jump over now to my chat with Mandi on high performance trading.
Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
Sun, 05 Aug 2018 - 52min - 153 - 152: "Backtesting trading strategies does not work" - John Ehlers
"Backtesting trading strategies does not work!”
Got your attention?
Maybe you agree with this statement.
Perhaps you strongly disagree and you’re currently heading out to the backyard to grab your pitchfork.
Or maybe you’re shaking your head thinking ‘what the heck swanny, have you finally lost it man?’.
Well, the good news is I haven’t lost it (yet). We're going to dive deeper into this statement in the podcast episode today.
But first, I'd like to introduce our guest - John Ehlers.
John is a friend of the show. He’s been a guest multiple times, discussing topics such as cycles, indicators and digital signal processing. In our chat today we’re going to tackle robustness and also intraday trading.
Some of the things you’ll hear on the show today are:
The startling differences between intraday and daily timeframes and the critical factors you need to watch out for, Why it’s more difficult to predict where market prices are going on an intraday basic compared to daily timeframe, and how you need to think about intraday data differently, We’ll be digging deeper into this “Backtesting trading strategies does not work” statement to find out what it means, How to use a simple Genetic Optimization trick to determine the robustness of a strategy How Genetic Optimization can be used to identify suitable ranges for optimization parameters Why short walk forward periods could be better than longer, Plus a whole lot more.So lets jump over to my chat now with John Ehlers.
Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
Sun, 22 Jul 2018 - 40min - 152 - 151: Buy the fear, sell the greed - Larry Connors
As Warren Buffet once said: "the stock market is a manic depressive.”
The market can be full of euphoria and greed one moment, and switch to fear and panic the next.
This can often be a time of danger and high-risk for some traders, but for other traders it’s a time of immense opportunity.
How?
In this podcast episode we’re joined by special guest Larry Connors.
Larry has over 30 years in the financial markets industry and has been featured on the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Dow Jones, & many others.
He has been providing high-quality, data-driven trading research for over 15 years, and I’m sure that many BST listeners have a stack of his books on their bookshelf. I definitely do!
In my chat with Larry you'll discover:
How human emotions drive the market, and why it’s so important to look beyond price charts and indicators to understand what's moving the market, How we can leverage extremes in specific human emotions to create quantifiable and profitable edges, How Larry came up with the idea of publishing his book ‘Buy the Fear, Sell the Greed’ and what traders can learn from it, 3 simple indicators to quickly judge the mood of the market, How Warren Buffets investment approach to be ‘fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful’ can also apply to short-term trading, And yes, I’m going to ask Larry about that famous ‘Stops hurt’ chapter published over 10 years ago that still has people talking today, Plus we cover a whole lot more.Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
Sat, 07 Jul 2018 - 35min - 151 - 150: Looking at markets from different angles - Rikard Nilsson
In this podcast episode we’re going to be talking about strategy design and different ways to look at the markets, and joining us as our special guests is Rikard Nilsson from Autostock.
Rikard trades all different styles and markets, and has even built his own trading platform with some interesting features he’s going to share with us.
Plus he’s going to share some interesting ideas on how he looks at the markets, some of which you may not have heard of before, including:
The 'Predictive Average' indicator – how it can be used to indicate potential market behaviours over the following days/weeks and months, Validating strategies across different instruments, Excluding certain parts of the day based on data, Adaptive 'Backtrack Technology' and how to filter trading signals and position sizing dynamically based on past market behaviour, Plus loads more, so let’s jump over now to my chat with RikardDisclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
Sun, 24 Jun 2018 - 38min - 150 - 149: Trading in Probabilities - Scott Hodson
A huge part of algorithmic trading is all about stacking the odds in our favour.
Finding statistical edges, identifying times when probabilities indicate that market conditions are either favourable for a trade or perhaps unfavourable for a trade.
And although probabilities aren’t certainties, they can still be an important guides for traders, so joining us as special guest for this episode is Scott Hodson from Probable Trades.
Some of the things you’ll discover in my chat with Scott are:
How to apply probabilities to trading strategies and why looking at cross-sectional probabilities across multiple dimensions of data can potentially enhance trading results, How a Probability Almanac can help track the performance of a trading strategy over certain time periods, Why it can sometimes pay to have a fundamental knowledge of the stocks you’re buying instead of just blindly following trading signals, How analysing risk to reward of past trades can help to determine at what point taking more risk is not beneficial, Why you need to care for your ‘emotional capital, just as much as your ‘trading capital’, A specific type of stop that can reduce the length and size of drawdowns, Shorting strategies as a hedge to smooth out the equity curve and reduce drawdowns, And much more.Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
Sun, 10 Jun 2018 - 35min - 149 - 148: Plugging holes in strategies and portfolios - Ryan Moffett
In this episode we’re going to be talking about holey strategies and portfolios.
Now, when I say "holey" I’m not talking about religion, divine intervention, holy grails or anything like that, although we could probably apply todays topics to those type of strategies that need divine intervention (and who hasn’t had a strategy like that at some point?).
No, when I say "holey" I mean something with a hole in it, like a bucket that has a hole in the bottom.
When you put water or some other liquid into that bucket, obviously it starts leaking, reducing the performance of that bucket and today we’ll be discussing holes in trading strategies and portfolios that could be reducing trading performance.
Joining us as special guest for this episode is Ryan Moffett from Blackpier Capital.
Ryan has spent the last 12 years specializing in designing and trading robust strategies, working with and being mentored by traders out of the CBOE as well as hedge fund managers out of New York and California.
Some of the things you’ll discover in my chat with Ryan are:
Why manual backtesting can be more beneficial than automated testing, How ‘deliberate practise’ can be used in the strategy creation process to get a deep understanding of a strategy, How to find holes in a trading strategy that could punish your trading performance, The hole in people’s portfolios and how allocating a small portion to ‘the 4th asset class’ can be a good hedge for a portfolio when other markets aren’t doing too well, Plus a hole lot more... (see what I did there!)Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
Sun, 27 May 2018 - 47min - 148 - 147: Building trading strategies with confidence with Adrian Reid
Confidence is a powerful thing – when people have it they can do some pretty amazing things, but on the opposite side, a lack of confidence can be debilitating too, and for traders it can have some similar effects, especially when the performance of a strategy starts to suffer and a trader has money on the line.
So, what can we do about this?
How can we have more confidence in the strategies that we build and trade? Confidence that we’ve built strategies that are robust. Confidence to continue trading strategies during the periods when strategy performance may be struggling.
Our special guest for this episode is Adrian Reid from Enlightened Stock Trading, and in our chat Adrian is going to enlighten us on building trading strategies that we can have confidence in.
We’re not just going to talk about trading psychology here, but Adrian will be sharing practical aspects of system design and validation, that can give us more confidence in the strategies that we create and trade live.
Some of the things you’ll discover in my chat with Adrian are:
The 5 key areas traders must address to build confidence in a trading system, Significance testing - why it’s important to strip a strategy down to just the core components and how to determine which components are really driving performance, Why the transition from backtesting a strategy to trading it live can be a difficult and uncertain one, and the preparation steps you need to take to make the transition smooth, How a technique called ‘start-date stepping’ can provide valuable insights into how a strategy could really perform in live trading, Plus, performance profiling across market conditions, sensitivity testing, why traders lose discipline, testing strategy rules in reverse, and much more.Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
Sat, 12 May 2018 - 55min - 147 - 146: Using indicators to predict stock movements with John MacLeod
Predictive modelling is used in many aspects of our lives today..
in the banking and insurance industries to assess the risks and behaviours of customers…
in marketing to anticipate customer purchasing behaviours…
in meteorology to forecast the weather…
in fact there are too many applications to list here but predictive modelling has the potential to be applied pretty much anywhere, even in the markets.
Now you may be saying ‘wait, I’m not in the business of predicting, my trading is all reactive, I don’t predict, I just follow the markets’.
I’m not going to go into that argument today but before you make any decisions or judgements about this episode I invite you to take a listen because we discuss the predictability of indicators, and some of the things you’ll hear in our chat about indicators are very interesting, no matter how you use them in your own trading.
Our guest for this episode is John MacLeod. John has a background in using Predictive Modelling, working as a consultant to develop predictive models in consumer banking and mass marketing, and has applied this expertise to the stockmarkets as well.
Some of the things you’ll discover in my chat with John are:
Predictive modelling – what it is and how can it be used in trading to select stocks that may be setup for a big move, Using indicators as predictors and 3 major conclusions John has made by analyzing the predictability of 160 indicators – these results may surprise you! The accuracy of predictive modelling, which factors can impact accuracy and the easiest time periods to produce high accuracy predictions, How data derived from indicators can actually be more effective as predictors then the indicators themselves, Plus much more.Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
Sun, 29 Apr 2018 - 43min - 146 - 145: Protecting capital through proper risk management with Aaron Brown
I think it’s pretty safe to say we’ve had some interesting times in the markets so far this year.
There has been an increase in uncertainty, higher volatility and even outside of the markets there have been a number of events that seem to be impacting the markets.
Some traders may be seeing the current market environment as riskier than it has been in the recent past, while other traders may be enjoying the increased opportunity, but whichever way you look at it, there is something that all traders need to consider if they want to last a long time in this business, and that is how to protect capital through proper risk management.
The guest on the show this episode is risk management expert Aaron Brown, who has worked for JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley and even spent 10 years as risk manager for quant based hedge fund AQR.
In our chat today we’re going to cover some interesting and practical aspects of Risk and Risk Management, and how we can plan for and protect ourselves, which you may find incredibly timely given recent market developments. Some of the things you’ll discover in my chat with Aaron are:
The biggest misconception about risk and how traders should really be looking at risk instead, Why low volatility environments can be riskier than high volatility environments, One of the biggest risks to the markets that can impact everyone and can be hard to measure and how to plan for it, How traders should approach drawdown management, Why correlations are ‘mythical’ and the right way to think about financial markets, Risks in the markets todayDisclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
Sun, 15 Apr 2018 - 54min - 145 - 144: Building dynamic trading strategies with Trader Janie
One of the biggest issues we have as systematic and algorithmic traders is that the markets are dynamic and constantly changing, however its quite common to build trading strategies that are static and are designed to take advantage of an optimal set of conditions which don’t actually last very long, if at all.
This can cause periods of good and poor performance as trading strategies fall in and out of sync with the markets, so it makes logical sense to try including some adaptive elements into trading strategies to help them adjust better to the markets as they change.
Our guest for this episode is Jane Fox, aka Trader Janie.
Jane runs the website Quantitrader, and is here to share some of the techniques she uses to add dynamic abilities to her trading strategies, plus we discuss some other important topics too, including:
The top 3 components of trading strategies and how adding adaptability to these components can improve a trading strategy, Why static stop losses could be hurting your trading performance and some techniques Janie uses to overcome these issues, How a ‘circuit breaker’ can save your trading account when things turn ugly, A dynamic position sizing technique Jane uses to increase returns while also reducing drawdowns, Plus a whole lot more so let’s get started with my chat with Trader Janie.Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
Sun, 01 Apr 2018 - 37min - 144 - 143: The 'DNA approach' to trading with Bruce Vanstone
The discovery of DNA as well as the understanding of its function and structure may be one of the most important discoveries of the last century.
As researchers continue to unlock its secrets, the applications to the scientific, medical, agricultural and forensics fields has been enormous.
From enabling the breeding of animals and crops that are better resistant to disease, to being able to accurately identify criminals and victims, and even to detect diseases early on and create breakthrough treatments for diseases that were previously considered lethal, DNA research is having a huge effect on mankind.
But just as scientists are getting a better understanding of DNA and it’s potential applications, can traders apply the same to the markets?
One of the topics we discuss in this podcast episode is the 'DNA approach’ to trading. What is it, how can we understand it and what are the benefits?
To discuss this topic plus a number of others, we're joined by Bruce Vanstone from Vanstone Trading.
Bruce is a trader, consultant and university lecturer in Computational Finance and Big Data. He’s published a number of research papers and trading systems, and presented material at a number of non-academic conferences. He also consults to a boutique funds management business, trading personally and at a larger fund management level.
In our chat with Bruce you’ll discover:
The 'DNA approach' to trading and why you need to understand it, How to add another layer of logic over a strategy to identify the best trading conditions, Why it’s important to have trading strategies with academic credibility, How a simple change in timeframe can increase returns and reduce drawdowns, The common ‘trap’ strategy creators fall into when adjusting strategies without even realising it, Plus much more.Let’s head on over to my chat with Bruce.
Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
Sun, 18 Mar 2018 - 48min - 143 - 142: Mastering the Fundamentals with Martin Lembak
The idea for this podcast episode has its roots in a trip I made to the States last year.
I was at a conference and one of the speakers was 1993 Karate World Champion Ricardo Teixeira.
Ricardo was explaining how he came about becoming World Karate Champion and he shared his #1 secret to achieving this success, any ideas what it was?
It was something that sounds incredibly boring, but it produces big results, and that is:
Mastering the fundamentals.
Ricardo explained that leading up to the World Championships, he spent months and months just practising the core fundamental moves. He wasn’t practising all those complicated, fancy looking moves you see in the Hollywood films.
No.
He spent weeks just practising a punch...
Until he became so great at it that nobody else could beat him.
I think this “mastering the fundamentals” approach has strong applications to trading too.
Many traders, especially when starting out, think that the latest software or fanciest indicator is going to guarantee their success, but over time I think we realise that there are some core fundamentals to trading which really bring the results, and perhaps from time to time we even forget them too, so today we’re going to discuss some fundamentals with our guest Martin Lembak.
Martin is in a very interesting position because he has access to hundreds of different trading strategies, being traded live in the markets, so he’s in a very exclusive position to see what works and what doesn’t.
In our chat today you’ll here:
Why it’s important to understand the characteristics of a market before trying to create or match strategies to that market, How to choose the types of strategies that suit the personality of the market and the types of trading styles that are the most popular (and profitable) in the markets right now, Commonalities between developers of successful trading strategies and what traders can do to accelerate their progress, The fundamentals of portfolio construction, including some challenges and false assumptions of creating portfolios, Broker selection and some warning signs when assessing whether a broker is safe to use, Plus much more.So, let’s get started, over to my chat with Martin.
Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
Sun, 04 Mar 2018 - 35min - 142 - 141: Models are like unicorns - with Kevin Saunders
We have a really interesting one here for you today, one that may challenge your existing thoughts on trading models.
I know this episode has certainly made me think about it from a different angle, so I hope you enjoy this.
Our guest for this episode is Kevin Saunders from Tribelet Capital.
Kevin is a specialist in electronic trading across many international exchanges, co-founding Non Correlated Capital in 2009, which later became a licensed CTA with more than USD 40 million under management.
He has won a bunch of awards for his trading and academic achievements, and he also developed a program here in Australia called the “Joey Experiment” which we’re going to talk a little bit about as well.
In our chat today you’ll discover:
Why traders must disentangle themselves from the requirement that a model must work and produce money – and the alternative approach that uses charts more predictable than the underlying market, Why building a mathematical model is like creating a unicorn that doesn’t represent reality, Why traders need to stop thinking about building a model as a ‘solution’ and how to think about it instead, Plus much more.Sounds interesting? Well let’s get started, and jump over now to my chat with Kevin.
Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
Sun, 18 Feb 2018 - 50min - 141 - 140: Forecasting a Volatility Tsunami with Andrew Thrasher
In this podcast episode we’re going to be talking about something that can have a huge impact on the markets and on trading strategies. It’s something that can happen very quickly and cause a lot of damage, and that is spikes in volatility.
And our special guest to discuss volatility spikes today is Andrew Thrasher, who published a research paper called ‘Forecasting a Volatility Tsunami’, which won the Charles Dow award in 2017.
Whenever the VIX is at low levels we here all about in the mainstream media, with the implication that it’s about to rise, however a low level in the VIX alone doesn’t necessarily mean volatility is going to increase, and in our chat today Andrew is going to explain why and he’s also going to share his research and the 3 key factors that can actually improve predictions of volatility spikes.
In our chat today you’ll here:
How volatility is usually interpreted and why this common approach is unreliable and missing a key part of the picture, Why a low VIX reading alone is not a good predictor that volatility will rise, 3 key factors that can improve predictions of volatility spikes, Plus much more.Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
Sun, 04 Feb 2018 - 31min - 140 - 139: Generating alpha from institutional activity with Jason Bodner
Welcome to the first podcast episode for 2018, happy new year!
I hope that you had a great Christmas or holiday season and all the best for 2018.
In this podcast episode we’re talking about the impacts that large institutions can have on the markets, especially on stocks, and how certain institutional behaviours can indicate potentially big moves in prices.
Our special guest is Jason Bodner from Macro Analytics for Professionals (MAP).
His previous experience working some big institutional orders has given him some valuable insights that I’m sure we can all find useful, so in our discussion today you’ll hear:
How institutional activity can indicate potentially big moves and the signals to look out for, How the techniques of scouting out players on a sports team can apply to stock selection too, 3 basic factors that can quickly identify when institutions are working a big trade, plus loads of other signals to watch for as well, How mixing technical with fundamental factors can give you a more complete picture than just technical or fundamentals alone, Plus much more.Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
Sun, 07 Jan 2018 - 46min - 139 - 138 - 2017 roundup: the year in review
Well here we are, another year gone (and so fast too!).
I’m glad you could join me for this final episode for 2017, where we’ll be reviewing all of the special guests we had on the show this year, the topics and insights they've shared plus their top trading lessons.
I think this is a great way to look back, to be reminded of some of the key points, and all of the amazing knowledge our guests have shared with us this year.
Also, thanks for all of the emails of support and appreciation throughout the year, I’m glad that what we’re doing here has been so helpful! I hope you have a great Christmas and holiday season and all the best for 2018... It’s going to be a massive year!
Happy trading,
Andrew
Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
Sun, 24 Dec 2017 - 34min
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