Chat With Traders is your key to the minds of trading's elite performers. Start listening to learn how a diverse mix of traders went from zero to hero, how they successfully trade markets today, and get their best tips 'n pointers for profitable performance, plus much more. Note: You are responsible for your own trading decisions—this is not financial advice.
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Jorge Soltero discusses his journey from Chicago's trading pits as an options market maker, including his time at the legendary Hull Trading Company. He delves into the culture of floor trading, the challenges of transitioning to electronic and institutional trading at firms like Goldman Sachs, UBS, and Merrill Lynch, and his expertise in options and ETFs. Jorge also shares his perspective on the evolving landscape for retail traders and his personal strategies now trading from Puerto Rico.
Quant trader David Bush returns to discuss his advanced strategy development, focusing on objective functions, risk assessment, and avoiding pitfalls like curve fitting and poor backtesting. He highlights the critical role of simplicity for robust strategies in non-stationary markets, the importance of a strong data infrastructure, and the personal discipline of "intensity, not time" for effective development. The conversation also covers his recent competition wins and his outlook on strategy longevity.
In this episode, George, known as @RollyTrader, shares his evolution as an Australian equities momentum/swing trader. He highlights the impact of early family influences, pivotal advice from an asset manager, and invaluable mentorship from market legends like Mark Cook and Mark Minervini. George elaborates on his strategy, focusing on specific setups, meticulous chart analysis, disciplined risk management, and his eventual foray into venture capital and building a new financial information platform.
I’m not sure how to best say this, but Edward Thorp, is kind of a big deal… Not only in the world of financial markets, but he’s also a household name amongst the gambling scene. He’s the man who beat the dealer, and later, beat the market. It was during the late-50’s and early-60’s, when Ed, a math genius and professor at MIT, took on the challenge of discovering a way to get an edge playing gambling games such as blackjack, roulette and baccarat. Long story short; Ed won—and he’s now considere...
In this Q&A episode, Delaney Mackenzie addresses a wide range of quantitative trading topics from listener submissions. Key discussions include recommended learning paths and resources for aspiring quants, evaluating and optimizing trading strategies, and practical considerations for live trading such as managing alpha decay and slippage. The conversation also delves into the role of machine learning and deep learning in finance, alongside specific features and future plans for the Quantopian platform.
This episode features John Netto, a high-velocity, cross-asset trader, who discusses his unique path from a US Marine to a seasoned market participant. He details how early experiences in sports betting and the military instilled discipline, which later became crucial for overcoming initial trading losses. Netto emphasizes the importance of versatility, continuous process refinement, and embracing discomfort to achieve lucrative returns, using advanced technology and deep research to navigate diverse market regimes and dynamically allocate strategies.
This episode features options trading legend Anthony Saliba, who reflects on his 40-year career, including his early days as a CBOE market maker and his feature in Jack Schwager's Market Wizards. He discusses the evolution of options markets, key lessons from significant wins and losses, and the non-cliché traits of successful traders. Saliba also details his entrepreneurial ventures, from building trader education programs to diversifying wealth, all guided by the principle of necessity driving innovation.
Turney Duff was a hedge fund trader on Wall Street who lead a truly excessive lifestyle. In 2013 he released a book about his experiences—titled, The Buy Side. And currently, Turney is a consultant on the Showtime TV series, Billions. On this episode we cover everything, from what it was like to trade more than one billion dollars at Galleon Group—which was the hedge fund run by Raj Rajaratnam, currently serving an 11-year prison sentence for partaking in one of the largest insider trading rings...
Brendan Poots shares insights into The Priomha Group, a pioneering sports betting hedge fund. He explains their strategy, which involves in-play hedging and meticulous risk management, allowing consistent returns with low volatility. Poots also discusses the challenges of investor education and the unique benefits of sports betting as an asset class uncorrelated to traditional financial markets.
In this episode, 22-year-old day trader Alex, known as @AT09_Trader, shares his journey from financial struggles to aggressive small-cap shorting, highlighted by a $40k loss during the volatile DRYS shipping sector madness. He elaborates on his strategy of shorting sympathy plays, the importance of adaptability, and how he overcomes his stubbornness in trade management. Alex also recounts his entrepreneurial venture into flipping a foreclosure property, revealing the unexpected challenges and ultimately reinforcing his passion for trading.
Max Margenot joins to demystify machine learning, explaining its broad definition, its widespread use from credit card fraud detection to satellite imagery analysis, and the distinction between supervised and unsupervised learning. The discussion delves into the "hype cycle" around ML in finance, emphasizing its power for unstructured data but cautioning against naive direct price prediction. Key takeaways include the necessity of model simplicity, rigorous out-of-sample testing, and the dangers of incomprehensible "black box" algorithms to navigate ML effectively in trading.
In this episode, quant trader Dave Bergstrom explains his unique approach to strategy development, moving from traditional technical analysis to data-driven methods. He highlights the transformative power of learning to code, detailing how it enables effective data mining and strategy testing. Bergstrom also shares his three fundamental laws for robust trading: prioritizing asymmetric risk/reward, maintaining consistent position sizing, and leveraging the law of large numbers, all while stressing the importance of realistic expectations through Monte Carlo and variance testing.
This episode explores portfolio optimization, focusing on translating alpha predictions into trades and balancing returns with risk using constrained optimization. The discussion covers real-world constraints, differentiates between risk factors and risk models, and addresses the critical issue of biases in quantitative models. A practical example of a "gun trading strategy" illustrates how these concepts apply to refining hypotheses and building robust trading algorithms.
Harvard Business School Professor Eugene Soltes delves into his book, 'Why They Do It: Inside the Mind of the White-Collar Criminal.' He shares insights from extensive interviews with convicted executives, including Bernie Madoff, on the psychology and circumstances behind major financial frauds. The episode covers the mechanics of Madoff's Ponzi scheme, complex insider trading cases, and Soltes' theory of 'failure of intuition' as a key driver of these crimes.
Delving into the next step of quantitative trading, this episode discusses combining alpha factors to build more robust predictive models. Guests explain how "weak classifiers," even those barely better than a coin flip, can be intelligently aggregated using ensemble learning and machine learning algorithms like Adaboost to reduce noise and amplify signals. The conversation also covers the importance of low correlation between factors, methods for monitoring factor lifespan, and the practical considerations for independent traders applying these advanced techniques.
My guest for episode 1-0-1 is Siam Kidd, from Norwich in the UK. He’s a former-air force pilot, turned retail trader. He’s also a serial entrepreneur, and on a quest to dramatically improve the schooling system. We got to chat about his shaky beginnings as a trader, his rock bottom moment, and how he trades currency pairs—using a technical-driven approach, with the goal of catching major trends when they happen. During the later half, I ask Siam about why he got into business, how he’s found the...
This episode delves into the core of modern quantitative equity workflows, introducing alpha and risk factors. Guests discuss universe selection, how factors are developed and evaluated, and the importance of understanding portfolio exposure to risk sources. A detailed example of the "Female CEO" alpha factor highlights practical applications and challenges in turning trading ideas into profitable strategies.
This special 100th episode features Bao, @Modern_Rock, an independent day trader and former Silicon Valley software engineer. Bao recounts his early life as a Vietnamese immigrant facing discrimination, which fueled his determination and work ethic. He discusses his transition from a complacent engineering career to disciplined penny stock trading, including taking a calculated risk by mortgaging his house, and later reinventing himself after regulatory changes ended his niche. The episode delves into the mental aspects of trading, stressing consistency, managing confidence, and avoiding common pitfalls like "furus" and emotional trading.
Delaney from Quantopian details the often-unseen biases in finance, including multiple comparisons, overfitting, survivability, and data cleaning bias, explaining how they can lead traders to believe they are right when they are wrong. The discussion covers practical methods quants use to mitigate these biases, like out-of-sample testing and outlier handling. Furthermore, the episode delves into the history of quant trading, its evolving culture, and the innovative use of exotic data sets like satellite imagery for market analysis, setting the stage for future episodes on advanced quant strategies.
Energy trading expert Brynne Kelly shares her career evolution from starting in the mid-office to leading merchant trading desks for companies like BP, emphasizing her persistent fight to become a trader. She details her fundamental, relationship-driven trading style, which focuses on time spreads and macro trends rather than technical charting. The episode also delves into the complexities of commodity markets, including bilateral contracts, producer hedging, and the impact of technology, offering insights into how market structures have shifted over her two-decade career. Kelly concludes with practical advice for aspiring traders on treating trading as a serious business.
Peter To recounts his transition from a successful online poker career, where he turned $20 into $20,000, to navigating the world of trading. He details his progression from a "gold bug" and value investor to a day trader who capitalized on a unique OTC market inefficiency. The episode delves into his prop trading experiences, highlighting the difference between supportive and "churn-and-burn" firms, and explores his philosophy of "trading nihilism," which embraces unconventional methods and the role of emotion in trading. He also touches on the challenges of market evolution and the security risks associated with Bitcoin exchanges.
Derek Wong, Director of Systematic Trading at a Shanghai fund, shares his career trajectory from agricultural pits to quant shops in Asia, offering unique insights into China's retail-dominated emerging market. He delves into his fund's multi-strategy approach, distinguishing between convergent and divergent trading, and explains his three-dimensional diversification model. Derek also provides actionable advice for traders, emphasizing systematization and continuous improvement beyond initial profitability.
Nico shares his unique trading path, starting with early success and a subsequent seven-year period of losses. He discusses breaking bad financial habits, learning technical analysis, and the pivotal moment he decided to take trading seriously by going full-time. The episode delves into his current momentum short-selling strategy, focusing on "flying pigs," and highlights the crucial role of risk management, accountability through trade documentation, and the support of a like-minded trading community in his eventual success.
This episode features Adrian, a former professional sailor who transitioned into independent day trading. He discusses his demanding sailing career, including harrowing encounters with storms and pirates, which instilled a process-driven mindset. Adrian then delves into his trading journey, emphasizing how he learned from early mistakes to focus on consistent rule-following and statistical analysis, particularly through "maximum adverse excursion," rather than seeking shortcuts. He details his approach to market familiarization, daily planning, and extensive weekly reviews, underscoring the vital importance of preparation and mental discipline in achieving trading success.
In this episode, Kenny Glick recounts his extraordinary journey from stand-up comedy to the high-pressure world of 90s boiler room brokerage firms, exposing the unethical practices he encountered before pivoting to professional day trading. He discusses his disciplined approach, emphasizing identifying "exhaustion situation formations" and using VWAP for reversals, then converting winning day trades into swing trades with options. Kenny also offers crucial advice for aspiring traders, highlighting common pitfalls like emotional decision-making and the importance of knowing when not to trade.
Futures trader Ben (@BLB_Capital) details his transition from construction to trading after an injury, emphasizing how he learned order flow from a successful bond trader. He discusses his core strategy of hedging positions across two accounts, utilizing rotations and identifying trapped traders. Ben also shares insights on avoiding common new trader mistakes, the pitfalls of commercial trading education, and the power of automation in his focused daily routine.
Dario Mofardin, a global macro fund manager, shares his evolution from short-term to longer-term swing and position trading, focusing on patient execution and "fat pitches." He explains his methodology, combining top-down macro views with Elliott Wave theory, intermarket analysis, and rigorous risk management. Dario also details his structured daily routine and comprehensive trading checklist for consistent decision-making and performance.
Craig Scott shares his extensive journey in trading and investing, from high school competitions to managing significant capital. He details his distinct hybrid style, which integrates fundamentals, momentum, sentiment, and instinct, while famously eschewing technical charts. The episode delves into his lessons from major losses, his disciplined approach to setting entry/exit points, capitalizing on transitory market events, and the strategic use of options and hedging for risk management, underscoring the importance of conviction and resilience.
This episode features Michael Halls-Moore, who shares his experiences in algorithmic trading, from his early career as a quant developer focused on crucial data cleansing to his current role as an independent trader and consultant. He delves into his portfolio-centric approach to risk management, the importance of diversification across strategies like trend following and mean reversion, and how he leverages advanced machine learning techniques, including non-traditional data sources. Michael also offers valuable guidance on programming languages and learning resources for those interested in algorithmic trading.
In this episode, Blake Morrow, also known as @PipCzar, recounts his evolution from a struggling stockbroker to a highly profitable independent Forex trader, overcoming significant early losses through discipline and mentorship. He details his systematic approach to navigating FX markets using technical analysis, particularly Fibonacci, and how he incorporates economic drivers. Blake offers practical advice on managing leverage, understanding market psychology, and selecting reliable brokers, emphasizing consistent engagement and a robust risk management framework for sustained success.
