Michael and Dave discuss NASDAQ's initiative to tokenize all securities and the implications for traders. They discuss: What tokenization is and what that means for equities How it affects settlement and paves the way for 24/7 trading Prediction markets and positive externalities of betting ("Betting is a tax on bullsh*t.") Dave proposed a bet to Michael based on the volume traded in the opening and closing crosses in the future And much more... --- Before you go! The next time you find yourself...
Nov 03, 2025•51 min•Ep. 65
Oct 27, 2025•33 min•Ep. 64
We've got news for you - there's nobody who cares enough about your stops to go "hunting for them." And getting stopped out by a penny is frustrating, but it's actually a good sign. Blaming an algo or anything else for your trade getting stopped out is counter-productive Why most traders are completely wrong about placing stops How to select stops for your strategy in a data-driven way Much more... --- Before you go! The next time you find yourself in a drawdown, I want you to stop what you're d...
Oct 20, 2025•47 min•Ep. 63
In this episode, we tackle this popular question. Dave polled several traders he coaches and got some surprising answers. How much is trading like, say, poker, or something that is even more up to chance? Even starting a business can be called gambling if defined purely as "risking money on uncertain outcomes." Does having an edge make trading less like gambling? In a casino, is the house "gambling" because it has a strong edge? What's your take? --- Before you go! The next time you find yoursel...
Oct 13, 2025•31 min•Ep. 62
In this episode, we discuss the best way to use alternative data in your backtest. What is alternative data and how can you use it in a strategy? Examples of alternative data Using it in real-time versus a backtest How to automate the process for backtesting and real-time trading Other episodes mentioned: Using News in Your Trading Strategy --- Before you go! The next time you find yourself in a drawdown, I want you to stop what you're doing and head on over to betterbacktesting.com to sign up f...
Oct 06, 2025•42 min•Ep. 61
In this episode, Dave discusses a conversation he had with John M. from SMB Trading and his unique approach to taking a strategy live. We discuss: John's 35+ strategies he runs live How he quickly gets a strategy running in production His approach to collaboration with other traders What is "strategy taste" and how you can improve yours over time --- Before you go! The next time you find yourself in a drawdown, I want you to stop what you're doing and head on over to betterbacktesting.com to sig...
Sep 29, 2025•37 min•Ep. 60
Follow-up discussion on quant and discretionary trader collaboration. We discuss: How Dave first connected with Bella The cultural DNA of SMB Capital The challenges of quant/discretionary collaboration The importance of being a giver, not a taker Related episode: Mike Bellafiore and Nick Coutrakon from SMB Capital on Trading Teams Creating a Trusted Trading Group Books mentioned: Give and Take by Adam Grant| The Go-Giver by Bob Burg and John David Mann --- Before you go! The next time you find y...
Sep 22, 2025•43 min•Ep. 59
Mike Bellafiore and Nick Coutrakon join the podcast to continue a discussion Mike had with Dave on the makeup of trading teams at SMB Capital, a proprietary trading firm in NYC. What's the best way to include a quantitative trader in a discretionary trading team? --- Before you go! The next time you find yourself in a drawdown, I want you to stop what you're doing and head on over to betterbacktesting.com to sign up for my free backtesting email course. I hope to see you there!...
Sep 15, 2025•52 min•Ep. 58
Are you a profitable trader but hesitant to automate your trades? In this episode, we discuss multiple steps to take towards having a computer make trades without fully automating. --- Before you go! The next time you find yourself in a drawdown, I want you to stop what you're doing and head on over to betterbacktesting.com to sign up for my free backtesting email course. I hope to see you there!...
Sep 08, 2025•44 min•Ep. 57
We discuss 4 different variations of a strategy that Dave is deciding between and the thought process for doing so. --- Before you go! The next time you find yourself in a drawdown, I want you to stop what you're doing and head on over to betterbacktesting.com to sign up for my free backtesting email course. I hope to see you there!
Sep 01, 2025•44 min•Ep. 56
Lessons learned from buying a new trading computer. --- Before you go! The next time you find yourself in a drawdown, I want you to stop what you're doing and head on over to betterbacktesting.com to sign up for my free backtesting email course. I hope to see you there!
Aug 25, 2025•36 min•Ep. 55
Remote desktop solution mentioned: RustDesk TailScale --- Before you go! The next time you find yourself in a drawdown, I want you to stop what you're doing and head on over to betterbacktesting.com to sign up for my free backtesting email course. I hope to see you there!
Aug 18, 2025•50 min•Ep. 54
More discussion on buying power and running out of it might be a good thing. --- Before you go! The next time you find yourself in a drawdown, I want you to stop what you're doing and head on over to betterbacktesting.com to sign up for my free backtesting email course. I hope to see you there!
Aug 11, 2025•43 min•Ep. 53
Is running out of buying power... actually good? Here's the graph of buying power mentioned in the episode: Is Running Out of Buying Power A Good Thing? --- Before you go! The next time you find yourself in a drawdown, I want you to stop what you're doing and head on over to betterbacktesting.com to sign up for my free backtesting email course. I hope to see you there!...
Aug 04, 2025•42 min•Ep. 52
How many trades should your strategy take and how profitable should each one be? There are two distinct approaches to answering this question, and most profitable traders fall into one camp or the other. --- Before you go! The next time you find yourself in a drawdown, I want you to stop what you're doing and head on over to betterbacktesting.com to sign up for my free backtesting email course. I hope to see you there!...
Jul 28, 2025•38 min•Ep. 51
Should you restrict your strategy to trade a certain list of symbols? In a surprisingly heated debate, Michael and Dave discuss this topic and different reasons for each approach. --- Before you go! The next time you find yourself in a drawdown, I want you to stop what you're doing and head on over to betterbacktesting.com to sign up for my free backtesting email course. I hope to see you there!...
Jul 21, 2025•50 min•Ep. 50
Looking at your P&L while you're trading is toxic. This also applies when looking at someone else's results - perhaps even more so. --- Before you go! The next time you find yourself in a drawdown, I want you to stop what you're doing and head on over to betterbacktesting.com to sign up for my free backtesting email course. I hope to see you there!
Jul 14, 2025•36 min•Ep. 49
Be wary when going from backtest to live trading. You're at peak optimism, and if you're not careful, disappointment awaits. In this episode, we discuss all the ways a live trading can fall short of your backtest and what you can do about it. --- Before you go! The next time you find yourself in a drawdown, I want you to stop what you're doing and head on over to betterbacktesting.com to sign up for my free backtesting email course. I hope to see you there!...
Jul 07, 2025•53 min•Ep. 48
How to get out of backtest world and make the next steps to get your strategy live. --- Before you go! The next time you find yourself in a drawdown, I want you to stop what you're doing and head on over to betterbacktesting.com to sign up for my free backtesting email course. I hope to see you there!
Jun 30, 2025•41 min•Ep. 47
The second episode in our series on creating profitable strategies using backtesting. We review: How most traders backtest the wrong way How to add columns to your backtest What columns make the most sense How your "library of columns" gets more and more valuable over time --- Before you go! The next time you find yourself in a drawdown, I want you to stop what you're doing and head on over to betterbacktesting.com to sign up for my free backtesting email course. I hope to see you there!...
Jun 23, 2025•46 min•Ep. 46
The first episode in a mini-series on how to create a trading strategy using backtesting. --- Before you go! The next time you find yourself in a drawdown, I want you to stop what you're doing and head on over to betterbacktesting.com to sign up for my free backtesting email course. I hope to see you there!
Jun 16, 2025•44 min•Ep. 45
We discuss Dave's recent experience using ChatGPT to create the Strategy Cruncher , a tool for optimizing your trading strategies. Prediction market for who will have the best AI model by the end of the year . --- Before you go! The next time you find yourself in a drawdown, I want you to stop what you're doing and head on over to betterbacktesting.com to sign up for my free backtesting email course. I hope to see you there!...
Jun 09, 2025•49 min•Ep. 44
Every trader has an opinion on what the perfect metric is to evaluate a strategy and to optimize on. We discuss our favorites and why. --- Before you go! The next time you find yourself in a drawdown, I want you to stop what you're doing and head on over to betterbacktesting.com to sign up for my free backtesting email course. I hope to see you there!
Jun 02, 2025•48 min•Ep. 43
"If your backtest looks great for the last 3 months, why do you care what it looked like before that?" A trader Dave started coaching recently asked this question. The answer cuts to the core of why most traders give up on a trading strategy and end up quitting trading altogether. The Spurious Correlations website that was mentioned in the podcast. --- Before you go! The next time you find yourself in a drawdown, I want you to stop what you're doing and head on over to betterbacktesting.com to s...
May 26, 2025•47 min•Ep. 42
You've got a lot of ideas, each requiring a certain amount of work. How do you decide what trading ideas are likely to pan out? Improving an existing strategy Creating a new strategy Related workflow tasks The ICE Method --- Before you go! The next time you find yourself in a drawdown, I want you to stop what you're doing and head on over to betterbacktesting.com to sign up for my free backtesting email course. I hope to see you there!...
May 19, 2025•48 min•Ep. 41
We discuss the most common objections traders have to using automation and how to get over the hump. --- Before you go! The next time you find yourself in a drawdown, I want you to stop what you're doing and head on over to betterbacktesting.com to sign up for my free backtesting email course. I hope to see you there!
May 12, 2025•34 min•Ep. 40
A follow-up on our previous interview with Jared Tendler where we go deeper into: the role of optimism in trading poker and trading learning from top performers in non-trading fields A chart of earnings season: https://www.davemabe.com/earnings-season/ --- Before you go! The next time you find yourself in a drawdown, I want you to stop what you're doing and head on over to betterbacktesting.com to sign up for my free backtesting email course. I hope to see you there!...
May 05, 2025•40 min•Ep. 39
This week, we interviewed Jared Tendler, a mental coach for traders, poker players, and golfers. Jared has written several books, including The Mental Game of Trading . This was a wide-ranging interview where we discussed: The mental side of systematic trading How poker and trading are similar and different What traders can learn from top performers in other fields Find more info about Jared on his website: https://jaredtendler.com/ --- Before you go! The next time you find yourself in a drawdow...
Apr 28, 2025•57 min•Ep. 38
When the market is raging in a way that's far out of the ordinary, should you turn your strategies off? Or let it be business as usual? We discuss the things to consider. --- Before you go! The next time you find yourself in a drawdown, I want you to stop what you're doing and head on over to betterbacktesting.com to sign up for my free backtesting email course. I hope to see you there!
Apr 21, 2025•37 min•Ep. 37
We discuss how Dave turned a trader's frustrating bad habit into a positive workflow for creating new trading edge. This is a great case study for the power of a positive mindset and a desire to get better. --- Before you go! The next time you find yourself in a drawdown, I want you to stop what you're doing and head on over to betterbacktesting.com to sign up for my free backtesting email course. I hope to see you there!...
Apr 14, 2025•39 min•Ep. 36
