Better System Trader

A few weeks ago we organised a family holiday for December.

We booked a luxury villa in Port Douglas and we’re all really excited to get there and start enjoying the holiday.

Last year the Huffington Post published an article about vacations, and shared a study in a journal claiming that just planning or anticipating your trip can make you happier than actually taking it.

I’m not sure if anticipating a holiday is more fun than actually taking it (I guess that depends on whether you have to take your kids or not...), but there is definitely value in anticipation, which ties in quite nicely with this podcast episode.

Our guest today is John Carter, and John is going to share with us the value of anticipation in trading, and how anticipating market action and the “pain points” of other market participants can give us an edge in trading.

Some of the topics you'll hear are:

• How anticipating the actions and pain points of other market participants can give you an edge,
• A simple but powerful mental switch that can crush the fear of executing trades,
• The subtle clues the TICK and volume data give to indicate if a trend or range bound day could be more likely,
• How to identify potential false breakouts and how ‘stop runs’ can actually improve your trading results.

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.

I can’t believe it’s only 4 weeks until Christmas!

We’ve got the Christmas ads running on the TV here already...

The local grocery store has the Christmas decorations up...

And they’re even playing Christmas carols - can you believe that?

At home my 5-year-old daughter is already priming me for what she wants from Santa this year, which by the way is pretty much everything on TV right now!

2017 has gone by really fast and we’re coming into a time of reflection and rest, time to take a break if you can, and so I wanted to take a few minutes in this weeks Trading Thought to talk about balance, both in trading and in life.

Pretty early on in my trading journey I was absolutely consumed by trading.

I lived and breathed it, it was all I could think about and all I wanted to do was quit my corporate job and trade for a living.

By day I was working a full-time job in a bank, and at night I was staying up late to day trade the ES. I joined a trading room and my wicked plan was to get a few hours sleep after my day job so I could then trade the US session during the night, and then when the US markets closed I would have a brief rest before I went off to work for the day.

Sounds crazy right?

Well at the time I thought it was a great plan, but I’m sure we can all see how poor it really was.

You can probably guess what happened too.

It wasn’t sustainable.

I was only able to do it for a short period of time before lack of sleep impacted not only my trading, which sucked by the way, but it also started impacting my day job and it also pissed off my girlfriend at the time because...

I wanted to watch 1 minute bars more than watch a movie with her!

So, at that time there was no balance in my life, and my trading, health, relationships and life really suffered.

In this weeks Trading Thought, I want to share some thoughts from Linda Raschke on how Balance can make us better traders.

Then after that I have a small announcement to share, so take a listen to some nuggets of wisdom from Linda first.

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.

In this weeks ‘Trading thought’ we’re going to discuss an issue that all traders have to face...

How do you know when to stop trading a strategy?

A common approach is to wait for a strategy to reach the maximum historical drawdown and then either stop trading the system or look at modifying it or optimizing it, but...

There are a couple of problems with that approach:

1. Once the strategy has hit that drawdown level, the damage is already done, you’ve already taken a series of losses to get to that level,
2. What if you stop trading the strategy and it recovers from the drawdown, you missed out on the recovery.

When we have a system that goes into drawdown, we never really know if it’s the beginning of the end for that strategy or if it will be a drawdown within expectations, so it can be tricky issue to address.

Can this be managed differently?

Are there warning signs to watch out for that can tell us if our strategy is sick or healthy and can we manage these sick strategies differently without having such an impact on our trading accounts?

In this episode we’re going to hear from Alan Clement, who is going to share some ideas on measuring system health, so take a listen to our chat with Alan.

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.

As markets become more mature and more efficient, it can be become increasingly difficult to find sustainable edges.

Many traders are looking at the same data and using the same techniques, so what are our options here?

2 of the obvious options we have are:

• Try to find a unique approach to the markets or at least something that isn't so popular,
• Explore alternative markets where inefficiencies are more prevalent.

In this episode, our guest Bert Mouler is going to discuss both options and share his solutions.

Bert has been an independent trader for close to a decade and is the President and CIO of Profluent Capital, which uses advanced AI and machine learning technology to produce uncorrelated alpha for their clients.

In our chat today, you will learn:

• Cryptocurrency markets – what to trade, the huge inefficiencies that exist and finding edges in the bitcoin markets
• The advantages and disadvantages of Machine Learning and tips to use it effectively in trading
• Feature engineering and the importance of looking at data in unique ways

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.

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.