Thu, 28 December 2017
Will reading a bunch of books and obtaining academic knowledge about the markets guarantee that you will become a more profitable trader? We believe that everybody knows the answer is, “Not necessarily, and in many cases, probably not.” Most people understand there’s no guarantee. So, the real question is why? Why doesn’t the acquisition of knowledge yield an equal, one-to-one benefit? In Episode 581 of The Traders Podcast, your hosts Rob Booker and the producer Jason Pyles talk about blazing your own trail instead of just trying to do the same thing everyone else is doing. Thanks for listening to The Traders Podcast. We release new episodes every Tuesday and Thursday. Subscribe free in iTunes and join us! Links for this episode: Subscribe to Rob’s YouTube channel here: https://youtube.com/robbooker Rob on Twitter: @RobBooker The Traders Podcast on Twitter: @TradersPodcast Jason’s movie podcasts: Hear Jason’s movie podcastMovie Podcast Weekly where he and some friends review new movies that are in theaters! Movie Podcast Network Jason’s movie podcast network. Movie Podcast Network Twitter: @MovieCastNetwrk |
Tue, 26 December 2017
Welcome to The Traders Podcast! In Episode 580 your hosts Rob Booker and the producer Jason Pyles continue their conversation from the previous episode in which Rob said he was moving forward with Bitcoin and made some predictions! In this show, Rob’s predictions are even bolder — about five times bolder… Rob also talks about why he’s giving cryptocurrencies a shot. If this kind of talk intrigues you, join us for Episode 580 to hear more! Thanks for listening to The Traders Podcast. We release new episodes every Tuesday and Thursday. Subscribe free in iTunes and don’t miss a single release! Links for this episode: Subscribe to Rob’s YouTube channel here: https://youtube.com/robbooker Rob on Twitter: @RobBooker The Traders Podcast on Twitter: @TradersPodcast Jason’s movie podcasts: Movie Podcast Network Jason’s movie podcast network. Movie Podcast Network Twitter: @MovieCastNetwrk |
Thu, 21 December 2017
Yep, you read that right. As has become a Christmastime tradition on The Traders Podcast, your hosts Rob Booker and the producer Jason Pyles are musing about Bitcoin again. And in fact, it is here in Episode 579 that Rob explains his ambitious albeit late-to-the-game plan to go all in on Bitcoin. This episode is a must-listen for anyone who is typically amused by Rob’s shenanigans, because he explains his cryptocurrency plans for the next 12 months! Thanks for listening to The Traders Podcast. We release new episodes every Tuesday and Thursday. Subscribe free in iTunes and join us! Links for this episode: Subscribe to Rob’s YouTube channel here: https://youtube.com/robbooker Rob on Twitter: @RobBooker The Traders Podcast on Twitter: @TradersPodcast Jason’s movie podcasts: Movie Podcast Network Jason’s movie podcast network. Movie Podcast Network Twitter: @MovieCastNetwrk |
Tue, 19 December 2017
Though it may seem unusual, Episode 578 of The Traders Podcast isn’t as bizarre as you might think. Sure, Jason the producer plays a sample from his rap alter ego, “J-Flexx,” and your host Rob Booker briefly talks with J-Flexx about “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” (don’t worry — no spoilers!). But really, that’s pretty typical stuff for The Traders Podcast, all things considered. What makes Episode 578 special is a listener feedback text message from Louis, an insightful, 21-year-old steel mill worker in Texas. Louis doesn’t want to work his physically taxing job forever, so he asks Rob for some advice regarding getting started with trading robots! Thanks for listening to The Traders Podcast. We release new episodes every Tuesday and Thursday. Subscribe free in iTunes and join us! Links for this episode: Subscribe to Rob’s YouTube channel here: https://youtube.com/robbooker Rob on Twitter: @RobBooker The Traders Podcast on Twitter: @TradersPodcast Jason’s movie podcasts: Movie Podcast Network Jason’s movie podcast network. Movie Podcast Network Twitter: @MovieCastNetwrk |
Thu, 7 December 2017
Thanks, in part, to the long-suffering influence of Traders Podcast listener, Talon, your host Rob Booker recently moved from the Mac platform back to Windows for trading. In Episode 577, Rob and the producer Jason Pyles talk about Rob’s readjustment as he gets used to Windows once again. This unusual episode features “Dark Rob” talking about a light topic. You hear about surprising developments such as Rob giving up his iPhone X and starting to read the Bible again. Rob doesn’t preach any scripture, but he talks about the clarity he has gained from spending less time on his phone. Thanks for listening to The Traders Podcast. We release new episodes every Tuesday and Thursday. Subscribe free in iTunes and join us! Links for this episode: Subscribe to Rob’s YouTube channel here: https://youtube.com/robbooker Rob on Twitter: @RobBooker The Traders Podcast on Twitter: @TradersPodcast Jason’s movie podcasts: Movie Podcast Network Twitter: @MovieCastNetwrk |
Thu, 30 November 2017
In Episode 576 of The Traders Podcast, your host Rob Booker talks to the producer Jason Pyles about a text he received from Paul, who works a full-time career as a pilot. Because Paul travels on long-haul flights, it proves to be difficult for him to monitor his trades. Many currency traders complain that they can’t trade as their full-time job because they already have to work a non-trading-related full-time job and can’t be distracted by devoting their time and attention toward the markets. But that’s where automated trading can be helpful. In Episode 576, Rob talks about some of the finer points of robot trading. Thanks for listening to The Traders Podcast. We release new episodes every Tuesday and Thursday. Subscribe free in iTunes and join us! Links for this episode: Subscribe to Rob’s YouTube channel here: https://youtube.com/robbooker Rob on Twitter: @RobBooker The Traders Podcast on Twitter: @TradersPodcast Jason’s movie podcasts: Movie Podcast Network Twitter: @MovieCastNetwrk Full Episode Transcript: Rob: Mr. Pyles, I got a text message from one of our listeners. Jason: Oh, did you? I love when the listeners text you at your personal phone number. Rob: All right. So years and years and years ago, like when we were doing trader radio. Jason: Mm-hmm. Back in the day. Rob: A hundred years ago, one of our listener’s name was Paul. I won’t give Paul’s name, but one of our listener’s names was Paul. Paul’s a long haul pilot for Delta. London, Paris, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Beijing, Dublin, Honolulu, Japan. Now, Delta doesn’t fly to Houston, so I don’t get to see him. Well, he texted me the other day. I haven’t heard from him in just years. He texted me. Now he’s doing a route from wherever. I don’t know where his home base is now, but Salt Lake and also Honolulu, which is just awesome stuff. Anyway, he’s like I’m getting back into it. Here’s what he writes, he writes, “Hey. I just grabbed your lifetime membership deal. I’ve known you for a long time. Have you lost your mind? That’s a lot of value. Thank you. Looking forward to getting some time with you between flights. I need to fly less, help my folks, and help my family. One of my family members has an issue with vertigo. Plus I’m going to retire someday. Wouldn’t mind cutting that retirement short. Move to Florida a few years ago from Long Island. Hope’s all well with you. My cousin is near to you in Houston and she works in mission control maybe we can go on a tour of a lifetime if I go over there.” Jason: Oh, nice. Jason: Lots of updates there. Rob: How would you handle trading if you were a pilot and all these long haul flights? I remember talking to him about this. Jason: Oh, my. Rob: Way back when. Like how difficult it is to juggle flying, trading, all that stuff. Jason: Well, I think there are two ways to handle it. At least two that I can see, Rob. It’s have a trusted trading partner for when you’re in the air, or to use a stop loss, right? Rob: Yeah, that’s a good plan. Jason: Okay. So those are probably the boring answers. I bet you have a more exciting way. Rob: No, I love your answers. I love it when you comment on this stuff. Jason: Okay. I know because it’s like … Rob: I love it. I’m in the process now a year plus ago, I interviewed on the podcast on Trader Radio, I interviewed Scott Haywood who was, at the time, had gone from a dollar a day to a thousand dollars a day then got up to $2,000 a day by trading the robot. The robot is lovingly referred to as Finch. Still running. Still hundreds and hundreds of people out there running the robot. There’s a new version of the robot that is come out. I call it the Dr. Bill Finch because Scott Haywood and Dr. Bill in Los Angeles, who’s a real doctor, anesthesiologist, and Joel, super genius, former IT director at a major American university, and Steven, a ex-Marine. Anyway, just an awesome crew. I would call us the trading expendables. Jason: Yes. Yes. I like this. Rob: Get an imagine in your mind. As a side note, last night I got out of bed because I couldn’t sleep. The reason I couldn’t sleep is because I needed to see Rocky 2. Rocky 2 opens up by literally playing the end of Rocky 1. That’s the beginning of Rocky 2. It is some of the most gripping movie film that you can ever watch is some of this stuff. Unless you hate violent sports and that’s, of course, you get a pass. Anyway, so being in the expendables. The expendables and I, we get together and we sort of formed a group of people who test and experiment and built and refine this robot to reduce its draw down and in some cases use a stop. In other cases, not use a stop. Dr. Bill reached deep into the Rob Booker archives of materials that I’ve taught over the years, and he made a refinement to the Finch robot that I now lovingly refer to as the Dr. Bill Finch. This one reducing the draw down and has a very consistent track record over the worst periods of time. 2014, which is garbage for robots and early 2017, which is double garbage for robots. The early 2017 is the financial equivalent of Rocky’s left eye in Rocky 1. You got to cut it open and let it bleed out in order for it to get better. Jason: Right. Rob: This robot refined things in a way. He just used stuff that I’d taught in the past, and he paid a programmer to build it. This refines that robot to the point that it’s consistent, the draw down is lower, and we’re in the middle of testing it. We have a new member of the back testing expendables. His name is Frederick. Frederick’s in Lexinburg, another lifetime member. Jason: Mm-hmm. Rob: Frederick is just pounding out the tests in meta-trader using our friend Daniel’s portfolio tester. We are fast approaching a time where I could say everyone listening who is a pilot. Just kidding, I know that that’s a really small number of people. Jason: Right. Rob: Anyone listening that doesn’t want to sit in front of the computer. Anyone who wants to get exposure to this stuff, but literally there’s no way that you’re going to sit there and day trade, which I don’t know why anybody would want to do in the first place. That seems like a complete waste of time. Anybody that wants to do that could actually run that robot and not have the same risk of significant draw down because it does kind of filter out the trades. It’s more selective. Salon selective. It’s really selective. You’re worth it. You’re worth it. As you can tell, I’m really excited about it. That’s what I would suggest to someone like Paul. You get that thing running because when you’re in the air, when you’re on the ground, when you’re with your family, what you’re going to do is you’re going to check in on it, but it’s going to run in the background. Every once and a while you’re going to need to get together with your family of traders and you’re going to need to tackle a problem that might have arisen. The robots turned off or the server went down or one trade didn’t close out at its profit. You’re going to have to deal with problems, but you’re going to be an asset manager. You can’t do this trading as your full-time job because you have a full-time job, and it’s hundreds of people in the back of a giant flying metal thing. Jason: Right. Rob: You can’t trade during that. Jason: Mm-hmm. Rob: So that’s what I would suggest. Jason: I like that. Is Scott Welch apart of the trading robot expendables? Rob: So Scott Welch would be like Jason Statham. He’s on the fringes. He’s so good and he’s so dangerous that he’s on the edges of it. Jason: He’s so dangerous. Rob: He’s just almost too dangerous for us. Jason: Right. Right. I can see it. Rob: No, he doesn’t do our same robot. So he has his own collection of robots, which are awesome. Jason: I see. Rob: On that note, I’m actually creating some of these robots now for stocks to run when the trade station platform. Jason: Neat. Rob: I’m very excited about that, Jason. It’s going to … In our last episode, we talked about buying value stocks on a dip. I have a way of doing that and we’re going to put that to work in the stock market. Then I’m going to be running … Remember, I said if the long term way to get rich off of Bitcoin is not to trade Bitcoin, it’s to take extra $200, $300, $400, $500, whatever you can per month, and buy value stocks. Jason: Yes. You did. Rob: That’s exactly what this robot will do. It will just do it automatically without you having to think about it. Jason: Nice. That’s nice. Well, I hope you have followed the Dwight Shrute advice from the Office where you give the robot just a six foot cord in case you can unplug it if it turns on you. Rob: I don’t remember that one. Scott Welch is going to love that comment. Jason: That’s one of the funniest. I just love it. Anyways … Rob: That’s pretty great. That’s pretty great stuff. I have some news for anybody that’s interested in any of that. So I had some news that that robot is done. That robot is complete. That robot is ready. You can just … I don’t know. You can go to RobBooker.com. That’s the best place to go. You want more information about that stuff. But we put the robots on sale because I know a lot of listeners are going to want to see that. Some of you have been thinking about it for long time, so we put them on sale. It’s the end of the year and we’re having the online trading version of the Toyota-thon. You know, the end of the year sale. So go to RobBooker.com and I will put a link on the home page. It’ll just be a giant link on the home page with a robot with a six foot cord. Jason: It should be you like jumping up in the air really slowly and then they freeze frame it when you’re half way up. Remember that? Oh, what a feeling. Rob: Oh, right. Okay. I’ll do that in the office right now. I’ll take a picture of that. That’s a great idea. Jason: I’m full of them today. Rob: We call it the Rob-athon. Jason: Right. Rob: The Bot-athon. Jason: Love it. Rob: That’s actually … Yeah. On the 12th day of the bot-athon … Yeah, that’s good. My true love said to me Dr. Bill Finch … Yeah, go get it everybody. Do it. The bot-athon. That’s what we’re going to call it. Whatever. But, hey, you know what to do, people. Jason: Mm-hmm. Rob: Get the robots. Jason: That’s right. Rob: Jason, I had a question for you in the last episode and I forgot to ask it. Jason: Okay. Let’s hear it. Rob: You keep talking about a movie about a billboard. Jason: Oh my goodness. Yes. It’s called Three Billboards Out Ebbing, Missouri. I know that’s not … Rob: You’re just joking around with me now. There’s no way that’s the real … Jason: I know. That’s what everybody says to me when they hear that. It’s not the sexiest title, but it is about three billboard outside of Ebbing, Missouri, except that’s a factious place. But it’s amazing. Do you like Francis McDormand? Do you like Fargo? Rob: Yeah. A lot. Jason: Okay. Well, see, if you like that, I think you’ll love this. It’s not a Cohen brother’s film, but it has that feel. Rob: It has that feel to it. Jason: It sure does. It’s a very dark comedy. It’s a crime drama. It’s very violent, as well, but hilarious. I saw it with a couple of friends in the theater. It was uproariously just a good time. I was crying laughing. Hilarious. Rob: Where can people hear about your review of that movie? Jason: Mm-hmm. MoviePodcastWeekly.com. Rob: All right. Thanks, Jason, for your advice and your thoughts and your movie recommendations and your friendship. Jason: Absolutely, Rob. My pleasure. It was fun to be here today. Rob: We’ll see you next time everybody. We’re on every Tuesday and Thursday. Download us on iTunes. Wherever delicious podcasts are consumed and leave us a review. I like to read the reviews of the show and see what you think of the show. So if you could jump on over to iTunes and leave us a review or rating, that would be spectacular. That’s something you could do for us that we would really appreciate and really helps us out. Jason: Mm-hmm. Rob: And love the crap out of all y’all. We’ll see you later everybody. I’m Rob Booker. He’s Jason Piles. This is the Trader’s Podcast. |
Tue, 28 November 2017
We’re not really known for being conspiracy theorists, but in Episode 575 of The Traders Podcast, your host Rob Booker and the producer Jason Pyles discuss the continued meteoric rise of bitcoin and whether it is the target of North Korean hackers. Thanks for listening to The Traders Podcast. We release new episodes every Tuesday and Thursday. Subscribe free in iTunes and join us! Links for this episode: Subscribe to Rob’s YouTube channel here: https://youtube.com/robbooker Rob on Twitter: @RobBooker The Traders Podcast on Twitter: @TradersPodcast Jason’s movie podcasts: Movie Podcast Network Twitter: @MovieCastNetwrk Full podcast transcript: Rob Booker: Mr Pyles. |
Wed, 22 November 2017
Happy Thanksgiving from your friends at The Traders Podcast! In Episode 574, your host Rob Booker talks to the producer Jason Pyles about his disappointment with the iPhone X and smartphone culture in general. Listen as Rob considers taking a hiatus from smartphones for a while. Thanks for listening to The Traders Podcast. We release new episodes every Tuesday and Thursday. Subscribe free in iTunes and join us! Links for this episode: Subscribe to Rob’s YouTube channel here: https://youtube.com/robbooker Rob on Twitter: @RobBooker The Traders Podcast on Twitter: @TradersPodcast Jason’s movie podcasts: Movie Podcast Network Twitter: @MovieCastNetwrk |
Thu, 16 November 2017
Good morning traders! Welcome to The Traders Podcast with your hosts Rob Booker and the producer Jason Pyles. Today we are bringing you episode 573. Listen in as we talk about the tax cuts we have been hearing about in the news, surely you’ve been hearing about them, too. Is this new tax plan really going to be a reality? And if so, what would the repercussions be? Throughout the show we land on the idea that it is OK to be wrong. Rob recommends checking out the book Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman. Thanks for joining us! The Traders Podcast releases new episodes every Tuesday and Thursday. Subscribe free in iTunes! Links for this episode: Subscribe to Rob’s YouTube channel here: https://youtube.com/robbooker Rob on Twitter: @RobBooker The Traders Podcast on Twitter: @TradersPodcast Jason’s movie podcasts: Movie Podcast Network Twitter: @MovieCastNetwrk |
Tue, 14 November 2017
In Danzan Ryu Jujitsu (and other forms of martial arts), taking falls is inevitable. A martial artist will be thrown, and he or she must learn how to fall like a black belt to avoid major injury. There are two ways to take a fall: the way your opponent wants to throw you, or you can actually choose to take control of your own fall and assist your opponent in throwing you so you can remain in control of how you fall and particularly how you land. This is how you fall like a black belt and avoid getting injured. In Episode 572 of The Traders Podcast, your hosts Rob Booker and Jason Pyles draw some parallels to the inevitability of taking a financial loss when trading the markets (and being in control of your own “financial fall” to avoid catastrophic injury). We discuss the inevitable and eventual fall of Bitcoin and whether that great fall is nigh… Join us! Links for this episode: Subscribe to Rob’s YouTube channel here: https://youtube.com/robbooker Rob on Twitter: @RobBooker The Traders Podcast on Twitter: @TradersPodcast Jason’s movie podcasts: Movie Podcast Network Twitter: @MovieCastNetwrk |
Thu, 9 November 2017
Welcome! In Episode 571 of The Traders Podcast, your hosts Rob Booker and the producer Jason Pyles talk about the benefits that come from experience. Have you ever noticed how you can tell in the first few minutes if a movie will be good or bad? You just know! You’ve probably had a lot of experience with movies and you know what to look for to identify a good movie. Applying the same concept to trading, let’s talk about intuition. How can you tell in just a few minutes if a trade is going to be good or bad? There are 3 phases that every trader goes through. First, the trader is excited about all of their trades. Second, the trader experiences boredom. And third, the trader starts to break out of the box. But here’s the key: in order to break out of the box a trader must have the experience under their belt to help them have that all-important intuition. Thanks for listening to The Traders Podcast. We release new episodes every Tuesday and Thursday. Subscribe free in iTunes and join us! Links for this episode: Subscribe to Rob’s YouTube channel here: https://youtube.com/robbooker Rob on Twitter: @RobBooker The Traders Podcast on Twitter: @TradersPodcast Jason’s movie podcasts: Movie Podcast Network Twitter: @MovieCastNetwrk |
Thu, 2 November 2017
Welcome! In Episode 570 of The Traders Podcast, your hosts Rob Booker and the producer Jason Pyles talk about an important lesson: the recurring cycle in the markets which teaches us that anticipation is more powerful than reality. Rob talks about this principle in relation to the stock market’s reaction to the expectation of tax cuts. We also talk about the problem with deciding how we think things should be rather than recognizing the way things actually are. Rob also tells us about an in-flight discussion he had with an oil trader. Thanks for listening to The Traders Podcast. We release new episodes every Tuesday and Thursday. Subscribe free in iTunes and join us! Links for this episode: Subscribe to Rob’s YouTube channel here: https://youtube.com/robbooker Rob on Twitter: @RobBooker The Traders Podcast on Twitter: @TradersPodcast Jason’s movie podcasts: |
Tue, 31 October 2017
Happy Halloween! Welcome to The Traders Podcast with your hosts Rob Booker and the producer Jason Pyles. Want to talk about something really scary? Episode 569 is a listener feedback “mailbag” episode whose questions coincidentally pertain to discipline in trading. We talk about how getting what you want requires making tough decisions to do things that are difficult. During the course of this show, we field questions from Steve, Tyler and a person we call “Grateful.” Join us! The Traders Podcast releases new episodes every Tuesday and Thursday. Subscribe free in iTunes! Links for this episode: Subscribe to Rob’s YouTube channel here: https://youtube.com/robbooker Rob on Twitter: @RobBooker The Traders Podcast on Twitter: @TradersPodcast Jason’s movie podcasts: |
Thu, 26 October 2017
In Episode 568 of The Traders Podcast, your hosts Rob Booker and the producer Jason Pyles talk about fear and how bad experiences with trading can haunt you and tend to affect your perception of yourself and your ability to trade successfully. Jason cites singer-songwriter Glen Phillips who sings about this victim-mentality rut in his song, “Professional Victim.” Technically, the possibility of success always exists, so it’s never completely impossible to make money. Unfortunately, sometimes we convince ourselves of the defeatist C-3PO perspective that “we seem to be made to suffer” and that being an unprofitable trader is just “our lot in life.” Join us for Episode 568, so Rob can explain how to break out of the victim cycle of abuse from the currency markets. Thanks for listening to The Traders Podcast. We release new episodes every Tuesday and Thursday. Subscribe free in iTunes and leave us a review! Links for this episode: Subscribe to Rob’s YouTube channel here: https://youtube.com/robbooker Rob on Twitter: @RobBooker The Traders Podcast on Twitter: @TradersPodcast Jason’s movie podcasts:
Rob Booker: Jason, have you ever punched anybody in the mouth? |
Tue, 24 October 2017
Halloween might be around the corner, sure, but of course, serial killers are no laughing matter. In Episode 567 of The Traders Podcast, your hosts Rob Booker and the producer Jason Pyles don’t intend to make light of how much traders have in common with serial killers, but as you will hear in this episode, the similarities are uncomfortably numerous… Serial killers can do unspeakable things and still feel totally “normal.” Much like traders, serial killers tend to live outside of typical societal norms (in some ways), and they do things that tend to separate them from others. And they are completely at peace with this fact. We trust that all our listeners are fine, upstanding contributors to your respective communities, but if you’d like to hear more out of morbid curiosity, listen to Episode 567! Thanks for joining us for The Traders Podcast. We release new episodes every Tuesday and Thursday. Subscribe free in iTunes so you don’t miss any new episodes! Links for this episode: Subscribe to Rob’s YouTube channel here: https://youtube.com/robbooker Rob on Twitter: @RobBooker The Traders Podcast on Twitter: @TradersPodcast Jason’s movie podcasts:
Rob Booker: Okie dokie artichoky. Mr. Pyles. |
Thu, 19 October 2017
Most people go through life making the same mistakes at age 60 that they made at age 20. It’s astounding and even discouraging, but unfortunately, it’s true. And some people structure their lives so they can succeed in one area while acting out internal conflicts in another area. In Episode 565 of The Traders Podcast, your hosts Rob Booker and the producer Jason Pyles explore the pitfall of self-destruction and how many traders get caught in this downward spiral. Rob says that 75 percent of experienced traders are struggling with self-destructiveness. Join us to learn how to escape the self-destruction cycle! Thanks for listening to The Traders Podcast. We release new episodes every Tuesday and Thursday. Subscribe free in iTunes, and please leave us a review! Links for this episode: Subscribe to Rob’s YouTube channel here: https://youtube.com/robbooker Rob on Twitter: @RobBooker The Traders Podcast on Twitter: @TradersPodcast Jason’s movie podcasts:
Rob Booker: Mr. Pyles. |
Tue, 17 October 2017
Most people go through life making the same mistakes at age 60 that they made at age 20. It’s astounding and even discouraging, but unfortunately, it’s true. And some people structure their lives so they can succeed in one area while acting out internal conflicts in another area. In Episode 565 of The Traders Podcast, your hosts Rob Booker and the producer Jason Pyles explore the pitfall of self-destruction and how many traders get caught in this downward spiral. Rob says that 75 percent of experienced traders are struggling with self-destructiveness. Join us to learn how to escape the self-destruction cycle! Thanks for listening to The Traders Podcast. We release new episodes every Tuesday and Thursday. Subscribe free in iTunes, and please leave us a review! Links for this episode: Subscribe to Rob’s YouTube channel here: https://youtube.com/robbooker Rob on Twitter: @RobBooker The Traders Podcast on Twitter: @TradersPodcast Jason’s movie podcasts:
Rob Booker: Mr. Pyles. |
Thu, 12 October 2017
We understand. We like excitement, too. But trust us when we tell you that your trading account is not the place to look for thrills. In Episode 564 of The Traders Podcast, your hosts Rob Booker and the producer Jason Pyles warn that when your tried and true trading strategy becomes boring for you and you’re tempted to mix it up, remain steady and safe. Look for roller coasters and drama elsewhere in life, but not in trading. Also in this episode we discuss our newly opened comments section. We hope you will get involved in our community! Thanks for listening to The Traders Podcast. We release new episodes every Tuesday and Thursday. Subscribe free in iTunes and join us! Links for this episode: Subscribe to Rob’s YouTube channel here: https://youtube.com/robbooker Rob on Twitter: @RobBooker The Traders Podcast on Twitter: @TradersPodcast Jason’s movie podcasts:
Rob Booker: All right, Jason, I have a special announcement, which we alluded to on the previous episode. |
Tue, 10 October 2017
Sometimes the most valuable truths about trading are those we don’t want to hear … or accept. In Episode 563 of The Traders Podcast, your hosts Rob Booker and the producer Jason Pyles talk about the importance of focusing on how to reduce your risk, not making money. If you manage your risk, the money will accrue over time. This is not very sexy news for those who want to “get rich quick” and become overnight successes, but those are the realities of trading. Also in this episode, we receive a question from Dave in Columbus, Ohio, who asks about hedge funds and why so many have closed this year after being so profitable for so long. Dave wants to know why they aren’t profitable anymore. Join us, and we’ll discuss it! Thanks for listening to The Traders Podcast. We release new episodes every Tuesday and Thursday. Subscribe free in iTunes and leave us a review. Thank you! Links for this episode: Subscribe to Rob’s YouTube channel here: https://youtube.com/robbooker Rob on Twitter: @RobBooker The Traders Podcast on Twitter: @TradersPodcast Be sure to catch up with Scott Welsh at his Website Jason’s movie podcasts:
Jason Pyles: Hey, Rob. One of my favorite things on The Traders Podcast and something I really missed was getting questions from the listeners because I find that these episodes where we’re discussing the listener’s thoughts and concerns are some of the most insightful, for me at least. |
Thu, 5 October 2017
Do you use the news to make your trading decisions? Or perhaps you’ve been wondering if you should learn more about trading fundamentals in relation to economic news and news in general. In Episode 562 of The Traders Podcast, your hosts Rob Booker and the producer Jason Pyles discuss trading off the news cycles and how economic fears and hopes can influence the markets. Join us to learn more! Thanks for listening to The Traders Podcast. We release new episodes every Tuesday and Thursday. Subscribe free in iTunes! Links for this episode: Subscribe to Rob’s YouTube channel here: https://youtube.com/robbooker Rob on Twitter: @RobBooker The Traders Podcast on Twitter: @TradersPodcast Be sure to catch up with Scott Welsh at his Website Jason’s movie podcasts:
Rob: I call this meeting to order. Jason: All right. Rob: The Traders Podcast Episode 562, I believe. Jason: I think so. It might be right. Rob: I’m not quite sure, but I believe it’s 562 and want to welcome our new listeners to the podcast. If you want to start with the Traders podcast and you’re brand new to the show, might I recommend episode one which you can find at traderspodcast.com. And if you like the show, we’d love to hear from you and you can leave a comment on the episode post at traderspodcast.com. Just leave a comment. We’ll maybe read it on the air, answer your question. That kind of thing. Okay, let me ask you a question Jason. Nothing in mind, I just want to ask you, right now in the United States, as we’re talking and as we’re recording this message, what is the big news? Jason: Oh, the big news? Rob: First thing that comes to mind. Jason: Presently the NFL people kneeling and people standing for the National Anthem. Rob: Okay, it was easy. You came up with it. It rolled right off the tongue. It didn’t take you a long time to think about it. Now, there are some days and times when answering that question is a little bit more difficult. There are quiet news cycles, and during those quiet news cycles, there really isn’t a major thing. You might have said recently, Oh well it’s Hurricane Irma or Hurricane Harvey or this devastation in Puerto Rico,’ from I think it was Maria. Whatever it was. But from time to time, there’s no major news but usually you can say, with absolute certainty, this is what the major thing that I’m hearing about in the news is. And today on the podcast, what I’d like to do is address how that relates to the world of trading, because there are traders out there who announce that fundamentals or economic news or just news in general, is the major driver of price action. And because it’s the major driver of price action, that it is the sole thing that someone should focus upon. Now hey listen, I’m no one to argue with focus and I think that’s a great idea. And I think that if you do want to focus on fundamentals and you want to make that a strategy, then focus on it exclusively and do great at that. And if you want to do that, focus on watching for the release of the economic news reports that come out and focus on learning how to trade short term strategies that are in line with whatever numbers were released or the surprise, or I don’t know, whatever else. Jason: Is it okay if I have three different TVs to watch? Rob: Yes. Jason: Okay, awesome. Rob: There were these commercials about trading back in the day when Yahoo was a thing. And I wish I could find this commercial online, but this guy wakes up and there’s a TV with Yahoo Finance on it. And then he walks in the kitchen, there’s a TV or monitor with Yahoo Finance on it. Everywhere he goes in the house, he’s looking at economic news or something and everywhere he goes, and I thought, Oh, that guy’s got the life. Jason: Right. Rob: Or it was like an E Trade commercial but I really think it was Yahoo. But anyway, I was like, Yeah, that’s the best ever. That’s amazing. And now I want to get away from that stuff and I just want to sit and read and stuff. Okay, but yes you can have three TVs and whatever else or you can get a Bloomberg terminal and focus on the news and economics and diving really deep into that one subject area. But I want to just speak about a particular way that our listeners can focus on the news and use it to benefit their trading or to avoid costly mistakes or big problems. Jason: Okay. Rob: So the other big economic and political news that’s going on right now is that there is a major conflict politically between North Korea and the United States. Jason: Yes. Rob: And it seems to have escalated into some pretty significant tension and that tension has resulted in the financial markets gyrating more wildly than usually and risk assets like the stock market’s dropping, and safe haven stuff like the Japanese yen, rising. And it really as of the time of this recording, it’s still really in its infant stages and we’re not seeing a lot of that yet. And by the time you listen to this episode, maybe a lot of this has already played out. But the lessons that I want to talk about right now are still the same and still going to be applicable. And here they are. The question you want to ask at a time like this is what is the major political or news related influence right now? What is influencing the collective consciousness of the nation wherever you live? And in the United States right now, it’s the National Football Association and kneeling or standing during the National Anthem. And then you’re gonna ask yourself, does that inspire fear or hope or indifference in the financial markets? What would your opinion about that be Jason? Jason: I think that would be indifference for that particular subject. Rob: Right, it’s indifference. And during that time, if that’s the only major economic news or whatever news, if that’s the only thing, then there is no reason to incorporate economic fundamentals in your analysis. And I know some of you listening disagree with me. But I’m talking about the big moves. Of course, if there’s a consumer price information release that day you could use that for short term trading or whatever. I’m speaking about something bigger and that has more influence. Now we’ll move on to the North Korea. Do you think that the North Korean news which is capturing the fearful imaginations of so many people, do you think that inspires fear, hope or indifference in the financial markets? Jason: Well, it seems fear, but my understanding of trading is, traders can usually benefit from other people’s sorrow and pain. Is that right Rob? Rob: That can be true, yeah. So let’s talk about that. That’s a great segue way into what we’re doing here. Okay, perfect. Because the North Korea situation is so dominant and its on the front pages, and because it does lead to fear, what we then look at is we have some options and we want to be careful. Number one, we don’t want to be going long or buying lots of risk-related assets. We don’t want to go long, lots of technology stocks. We don’t want to go long, the broad financial markets. We don’t want to do that immediately because that fear is pushing the markets lower and causing people to, in other words, worry and that worry is expressing itself through declining prices. And what you can do in a situation like that, as that news dominates and as that news escalates and as that news sort of just circles on top of each other and comes back around on itself, you can basically turn that into a trade that lasts more than one day. Last week, I shorted the Euro Japanese yen, and I did that very publicly and I did that on Twitter and on my big telegram channel that everybody follows me on, and in my members area and whatever else, and I shorted the Euro Japanese yen and it dropped significantly. And the reason that I did it was primarily economic or news related. This news was gathering steam, hitting the front pages and the only thing that it could result in is fear. Now I could have done what you just mentioned, Jason. In a situation where there’s a lot of fear, like a financial crisis or whatever else, I can wait for that fear to dissipate or in another words, I can use that fear as an opportunity to buy financial instruments that I have wanted to buy for a while and I can buy them on sale after they’ve dropped. Jason: Yes. Rob: I can use every drop of information to sort of enter the market and collect some of this asset that I know I really like. Jason: That’s neat. Rob: And you could do either one of those two things. I’ll give you another example. So when Donald Trump was elected president, I know this sounds like I’m just bragging but maybe I am a little bit, but I said back in March of 2016, there’s no way he loses. He’s absolutely gonna win the presidency and I remember my mom called me. She goes, Oh that’s so great. I’m so glad. I really hope you’re right. And I was like, You’re a Donald Trump supporter? I was like, What? What? I don’t understand this but okay. And a lot of people were really happy with me because I said that, and a lot of people really hated me because I said that. I think all told that week, 150,000 people heard me say that, that week. Jason: Yeah, it’s not like you were making a value judgment, right? You were just making a prediction. Right. Rob: Right. Yeah. And then, I made a value judgment and said, When he wins, the dollar will fall and gold will rise within 12 months, gold will rise to $2,000. Was totally right about the election and totally wrong about the result. Totally wrong about that. He got elected and all of a sudden his promise to put a ton of money into infrastructure and possibly lower taxes, just pushed the dollar up and be protectionist, pushed the dollar up and the financial markets just went crazy. They loved it and then gold fell. And I was wrong about all of those things. But, okay, that doesn’t matter, that’s not the most important part. The most important part of it is, is that I could either have said, All right, what I’m going to do is, I’m going to go ahead and I’m gonna just trade this sentiment. I’m going to go with this sentiment. I might not have thought it was going to happen but I’m gonna view it, it’s reality. It is what is happening and so I’m gonna go along with it. I’m just gonna basically ride this thing all the way up. I’m gonna just go with it because the news is dominating, it’s causing this momentum and I’m going to ride it. Or, just like you said, everybody else’s euphoria could be an opportunity for me to get in and trade against them when the time is right. And so the other way to play it was, to wait until the end of last year when the dollar sort of topped out after a giant run upward, the dollar kind of topped out and then started to fall. And I could have waited for the euphoria to settle down and dissipate and I could have used this rally in the dollar for example, to start shorting the dollar every time it moved up let’s say 5%. Just like you said, I could basically fade euphoria or fade fear. Go the opposite direction that the entire crowd is going and use that as an opportunity. Jason: Yes. Rob: And I think that’s the real way that you play the news or whatever you want to call it. That’s the way you do it is you either take the sentiment as it is right now, you say, Does that inspire fear or hope? And then you trade that hope or fear. Or you say, That’s not gonna last forever. I’m gonna start fading that or trading against it and building a position. And those are some of the biggest trades that you can ever take in your whole life. Jason: Yeah, because it’s not a matter of is it going to move the other way. You know that that’s gonna happen, that’s inevitable. But the question is, when, right? So that’s a timing matter. Rob: Right. Jason: Gotcha. Rob: Yeah, and because most people are pretty good at picking direction, because these are obvious things that nothing can go up forever and any euphoria associated with Donald Trump’s election or any fear associated with the North Korea situation dissipates over time, because it’s just a reality, that will eventually turn around. The real question is how do you build a position slowly and surely without losing your shirt and keeping your losses down. How do you build a position over time and can you become patient enough? Can you do that? Are you able to be patient enough to build that position? That’s the real question. Jason: Yes, yes. Tricky. Rob: So in other words, I don’t know what’s happening right now in the markets, but I’m long the yen right now anyway, as most of the yen pairs, the Euro yen, the Aussie yen and the stock market, they’re all up. THey’ve all gone up and so as they’ve gone up, I’ve wanted to basically fade that euphoria and this North Korea situation is sort of the catalyst that turns all that stuff around. That one news reporter, or one news event, or one news cycle ends and then another thing picks it up and carries it in the other direction. And that seems to be or appears to be what might be happening now. And so I’m kind of hoping and maybe I’ll get lucky, that I’m gonna be able to catch the beginning stages of something that maybe lasts for a long time and travels in the opposite direction. Maybe. If not, I’ll just stop out and not worry about it. Jason: Yeah. Set your stop losses, right Rob? Rob: Yeah, yeah. Maybe you’re right, maybe you’re wrong. But if you’re wrong, just get out and just go back in later on with whatever. Exactly. Jason: Yeah, it’s simple. Rob: Where can I go to hear more about movies? Jason: Well, you could go to MoviePodcast.Network. We have eight different shows there and it talks about all different kinds of movies, like sci-fi movies, westerns, horror movies, new stuff that’s in theaters. So yeah, check it out, MoviePodcast.Network. Rob: That sounds amazing. As of the time that we are discussing all of this stuff, what are you going to see this weekend? Jason: Oh yes, American Made, the new Tom Cruise movie. Have you seen trailers for that? Rob: Oh yeah, yeah. He’s like a crazy wild adventure guy. Jason: Yeah, but once again, on an airplane. It’s like you can’t have a Tom Cruise movie where he’s not flying in airplanes improperly. Rob: Did you like the Jack Reacher movies? Jason: I liked the first one. I did not like the second one. Rob: Yeah, okay agreed. I didn’t even get through the second one. Jason: Yeah, yeah. Agreed. I know what you mean. Yes. The first one’s very good though and it was set in Pittsburgh, our old stomping grounds. Rob: Oh. Oh right. Jason: Thereabouts, right? Rob: Yeah, okay. Jason: That was kind of cool. Rob: All right, well, Jason thanks for that. And thanks for listening our dear friends. You can go to traderspodcast.com, comment on the episode. Don’t forget in iTunes, we’d love it if you’d click that subscribe button in iTunes, that helps us out. That helps the show. That helps us all, helps us all, helps all people of all walks of life. Not really, just helps us. Just me and Jason. Jason: That’s right. Rob: Hopefully that’s worth it still the same. We love you all. We’ll see you next time. Bye for now. |
Tue, 3 October 2017
Peter Drucker once said we greatly overestimate what we can do in one year, but we greatly underestimate what is possible for us in five years. In Episode 561 of The Traders Podcast, your hosts Rob Booker and the producer Jason Pyles discuss trading goals, namely, what they could be versus what they should be. Often a trader’s goal-setting has to do with bottom-line numbers, as opposed to goals that help the trader develop characteristics over time to accomplish those goals. Join us to hear more! Thanks for listening to The Traders Podcast. We release new episodes every Tuesday and Thursday. Subscribe free in iTunes! Links for this episode: Subscribe to Rob’s YouTube channel here: https://youtube.com/robbooker Rob on Twitter: @RobBooker The Traders Podcast on Twitter: @TradersPodcast Be sure to catch up with Scott Welsh at his Website Hear Jason’s movie podcasts: Horror Movie Podcast where we’re Dead Serious About Horror Movies. Movie Podcast Network a group of eight film-related audio podcasts that cover various movie genres.
Rob Booker: Mr. Pyles. Jason Pyles: Rob Booker. Rob Booker: Peter Drucker once said, People often over estimate what they can accomplish in one year, but they greatly underestimate what they could accomplish in five years. Your thoughts? Jason Pyles: Oh my, when I hear this quote it’s a little overwhelming for me because I’m like, okay, how am I supposed to know? If I have trouble grasping the smaller amount of time, how could I even have an idea of what to shoot for in the larger amount of time? Rob Booker: So, where do you fall on the subject of, the spectrum of goal setting then? Jason Pyles: Well, that’s a good question. I get the concept that where if you work backwards, reverse engineer your big goal, then you can break it down and find out what the smaller thing should be, what you should do next. Yeah, I’m a big fan of goal setting actually. My biggest mistake has always been I try to make too many goals, too many things to accomplish. For me it’s like pick one or two things and focus on those, accomplish those, and move on to the next thing. Rob Booker: Oh, that’s interesting. I really like that. I was thinking this morning about my own goals related to trading and what those goals could or should be. I realize that so often in the world of trading, what we do is we set goals that are largely financial in nature. We set a goal to make a certain amount of money, but we don’t often set goals, or we forget that we should set goals that focus primarily on the things that someone does to make money in the markets. What someone will do is they will set a goal to make $500 a week, but they don’t really set any goals related to the type of person that they’re going to be or the type of schedule that they’re going to keep, or the little things that they do, the incremental things that get you all the way to the goal that you said that you wanted. A little bit of each of those things is really necessary, and as a trader, it’s good to think about what you can and want to accomplish in purely financial terms. What I thought I’d share today is maybe a little bit of a strategy that has worked for me in the past, and even try to explain how those things are interrelated for a trader in particular. Because as a trader, it’s not going to work if you simply say, I want to make a lot of money and I’m going to use the law of attraction, and suddenly then you’re just suddenly making a bunch of money in the markets. It’s just too difficult. It’s just doesn’t really work. Jason Pyles: And it’s not really specific, right? Rob Booker: Yeah. I’ve seen this happen a bunch of times to myself and other people. I’ll set a goal to make a certain amount of money from trading, or just make a certain amount of money, and I’ll assume that it’s from trading and then I’ll make the money from somewhere else. So it’s like, okay, I mean thank you universe. That was great, but I really wanted to learn how to do this trading thing. So let’s say someone out there is listening and they’re relatively new, and maybe even they’re listening and their partner or spouse is listening with them and they’re interested in the financial markets. They don’t really know if it is a scam or if it’s possible. They want to set some goals because setting goals makes it sound like you’re serious. So here’s a little strategy for goal setting. If you’re brand new to the world of trading then your goal should be to not lose more than a certain amount of money. Your goal should be within a six-month period of time to discover and focus on one particular trading method that you’re going to use somewhat exclusively, whether it’s systematic and robotic or otherwise. Those are the two things that matter so much. When you take Peter Drucker to heart, and I’m sure he was a good man … Well, I don’t know if he was a good man. He could’ve been a complete deviant for all I know. I don’t know anything about the man. I mean some of the stuff was kind of creepy. Anyway, the point is that he said, Oh well, think about what you can accomplish in five years. Let’s see, if you started thinking about five years, you run into what you said, Jason, that when you’re just starting out as a trader thinking about the five-year thing is ridiculous. Jason Pyles: Yeah, you’re like, I don’t even know if I want a baby in eight months, right? Rob Booker: Exactly. Think about all the children we could have in five years. Well, let’s just focus on maybe taking care of the one we have. So you don’t want to have an expansive vision as a trader. Maybe if you’re in some other industry, but as a trader you want to focus at the start on finding and excelling at a system that’s going to require a ton of experimentation and a ton of creativity, and a ton of learning about lots of different things, and diving in and bringing in information from all different kinds of sources and all different places. It’s going to require that. So you’re going to do a lot, but during that time your goal is to eventually come to love and focus on one system that seems to produce any kind of return, any kind of positive return, even if it’s just a dollar a week, anything that produces a return, positive return. Then the second focus is on not losing more than a certain amount of money within each day, week, or month. Those are the two most important … those are the goals that matter that lead to incremental success. Jason Pyles: So Rob, I have a question about this, that what you said is just very simple and I love that, actually. But I wonder if somebody kind of new to trading, maybe in their previous work … You spend eight hours at a day job doing whatever it is for eight hours and it’s complex. There are lots of things to do. Do you think that traders get a little bit … They’re a little surprises that, Oh, so all I need to do is A and B, like what you just said? Do you think that sometimes they just feel like they should be doing more and so then they try to do more? Rob Booker: Yeah, I feel like people are disappointed when they find out they don’t have to do more. There’s this badge of honor of martyrdom that traders, or really everyone kind of has it; I’m doing something difficult. Like the tech used to say, I’m doing the laundry, if you wanted to be called a superhero for having done something really ordinary. I think we want trading to be different and we want it to be exciting, and we want it to be complicated. A lot of people get into trading because they’re interested in the markets, and they’re interested in the markets because it seems like a get rich quick scheme. So they learn everything they can but as soon as it becomes apparent that the primary responsibility is to not lose money, the primary responsibility is not to make money then people just, they lose their interest. I think one way that people get caught up in the markets is this idea that you can make a lot of money and that’s what inspires … So, it’s the same way that you want to learn everything you can about someone you’re dating in order to get that relationship to the next level, hubba-hubba-hubba, you know. If you realize that that’s never going to happen … yeah, maybe it’s just not going to happen, then your interest in learning their favorite color or favorite flavor of ice cream … then you’re not going to do it anymore. You’re just not as interested. I think that happens a lot in the world of trading that true love is in a relationship … Listen, what I’m learning in life is that it’s getting through the simple moments and enjoying the companionship when all that other stuff has faded away and some of that passion isn’t the same as it was at the beginning of the relationship, and it’s a friendship and it’s a lot of other things. You want to know more about that person even though you already know everything about that person. I want to get to that stage and getting to that stage requires not blowing it, you know. Jason Pyles: Right. Rob Booker: Not blowing it, but the challenge at the beginning of the trading career isn’t that you’re going to become bored with it or it’s going to bad or whatever. The challenge is blowing the whole thing to the high heavens. That’s the challenge and that’s the same with the relationship. In trading, it’s very similar that the goal is to just not blow it. Don’t lie to the other person at the beginning of the relationship. Don’t give them a disease. There’s just things you don’t do, and the same with trading. Don’t blow it. It makes it kind of sad because you want it to be all over the top and crazy and wonderful and amazing, but there are these simple things to do and that’s all you need to do. It’s your only responsibility. Jason Pyles: Well, as most of the traders out there know, I’m not a currency trader myself. But I will say I can see into the world sometimes, maybe. I think that the reason why perhaps they feel impatient or frustrated is it reminds me exactly of that dating advice you get when you’re single and they’re like, Hey, when you stop looking, that’s when it’s going to happen and you’ll fall in love. Because I feel like we’re saying, Just don’t lose money. Then once people get that and they stop having their hearts set on making money, then they actually do start making money, but we can’t think of that. Rob Booker: Yeah, right. I mean imagine a movie where the hero of the movie is desperately seeking love, and then in the search for love becomes lonely, and in the search for love hit’s rock bottom, and in the search for love exhausts all the options that they could have thought and runs through everything. Then doesn’t notice, right, the person that works at the record store that’s kind of geeky, and loved them all along and he didn’t really notice it and invested … Anyway, I mean you get the idea that this is what traders do. They go, Oh well, I didn’t know how to use those moving averages. This Fibonacci stuff is amazing, [crosstalk 00:11:06]. They have an affair with Fibonacci and then one day they wake up and the Fibonacci is tying their shoes quietly at the edge of the bed and they’re like, Where are you going? The Fibonacci is like, I just need some space, and then they leave. Then they’re like, Oh, fudge muffin, and later on by the pool they meet again, or they meet exponential moving average and they’re like, Oh, wow, that’s just what I needed! It’s my rebound. They’re constantly going from one to the next and it’s exhausting. Then they realize that there’s this simple way of doing things that produced a return, and it wasn’t spectacular but it wasn’t for anybody that’s doing well. I have a friend. His name is Tim Sykes and he’s a penny stock trader. He’s good to his family and he’s good to his students. He’s just … overall he’s a good person. He used to have as really brash persona. Time says to people, he says this all the time, Like start with a small account and you’d be surprised what you can accomplish if you focus. He’s not saying you’re not going to make a lot of money. He’s just saying don’t put your entire focus on that. Learn the pattern. Learn the system. What I say is download a simple robot. Automate your trading and watch the robot trade. Manage the robot. Be an asset manager, and don’t go down the road of all the other crazy things that you can do. Just be a little bit less frantic about trying to achieve success and do one thing, and that is protect your account. Don’t lose money. Don’t have a big loss. If you can do that, if you can simply cross that hurdle, the stuff that opens up to you as a trader is unbelievable. It’s unbelievable what will happen to you if you simply never allow a significant loss to occur in your account. If you’re constantly paying down your bad trades or cutting off your bad trades, or whatever … Everybody can find a simple strategy that will make some kind of return, but most everyone blows it all because they get too excited. That’s the challenge. Do the things that are incremental. Do the incremental small things well and then just, as a primary responsibility, protect your trading account. Jason Pyles: Uh-huh (affirmative), I love it. Rob Booker: Let’s plug the movie podcasts. Jason Pyles: Sure, yeah. So if people out there are into movies, which I am, then you can listen to our reviews of the new movies that are in theaters at MoviePodcastWeekly.com. If you happen to like horror films, we also have another show called HorrorMoviePodcast.com, which is perfect for Halloween season. Rob Booker: Brilliant. I love the podcasts, can’t wait. Jason Pyles: Thank you. Rob Booker: I might even start listening to the horror movie podcast. Jason Pyles: You’d be surprised Rob. It’s a lot more analytical than you think. Rob Booker: Okay, that sounds good. Hey, I watched A Ghost Story, starring Casey Affleck and Rooney Mara. Jason Pyles: Yeah, so what did you think? Rob Booker: Okay, my wife was like, What is going on here? [Crosstalk 00:14:19] Jason Pyles: She’s eating pie for 10 minutes straight, right? Rob Booker: I loved it. Jason Pyles: Me too. Rob Booker: It’s a movie that stayed with me after I watched it. Jason Pyles: Uh-huh (affirmative), it sure does. Rob Booker: Which is a defining characteristic of a movie that I know I love. Jason Pyles: Same, yeah. Rob Booker: But it’s not … It’s a frustrating movie also. Jason Pyles: It’s a little bit of an art film, so yeah. Rob Booker: Yeah, exactly. All right everybody, until next time, I’m Rob Booker, and that’s the producer. Thanks for listening and subscribing to The Traders Podcast. |
Thu, 28 September 2017
Author Ray Dalio is the founder and co-chairman of Bridgewater Associates, which has become the largest and best-performing hedge fund in the world. In Episode 560 of The Traders Podcast, your hosts Rob Booker and the producer Jason Pyles discuss Palio’s book, “Principles: Life and Work.” Rob says what was most important in building his company wasn’t knowing the future; it was knowing how to react appropriately to the information available at the time. We traders often become obsessed with a desire to know the future and with being right. Join us for this episode, and let’s explore these principles together. Thanks for listening to The Traders Podcast. We release new episodes every Tuesday and Thursday. Subscribe free in iTunes! Links for this episode: Subscribe to Rob’s YouTube channel here: https://youtube.com/robbooker Rob on Twitter: @RobBooker The Traders Podcast on Twitter: @TradersPodcast Be sure to catch up with Scott Welsh at his Website Hear Jason’s movie podcasts: Horror Movie Podcast where we’re Dead Serious About Horror Movies. Movie Podcast Network a group of eight film-related audio podcasts that cover various movie genres.
Rob Booker: All right, there’s a new book out, Jason. Jason Pyles: Oh, tell it. Rob Booker: This is my favorite book, other than Shonn Campbell’s book Inventory Trading, which if you have not read that book, stop everything, go to Amazon. I think it’s even part of the Kindle Unlimited program. It is magnificent. Shonn’s not a writer and he’s not a professional educator, but it’s a great book. I’m just going to give him a little plug there. Other than that, I just finished reading essentially what is the best book about the financial markets I’ve ever read in my life. Jason Pyles: Wow. That’s high praise. What is it? Rob Booker: And I don’t ever say that, really. I said it about Shonn’s book, but there’s not a lot out there otherwise. Jason Pyles: Yeah, okay. Rob Booker: So a few years ago, I became enamored with, and there really is not a better word for it, enamored with Ray Dalio, the founder of Bridgewater Associates, and the story behind the building of the largest hedge fund in the world, now managing over $160 billion in assets. And I became fascinated, Jason, with this guy because of his reputation for having a culture at work of radical transparency, which I think we’ve touched on this subject before in previous episodes. Jason Pyles: Okay, yeah. Rob Booker: At the company, there are no meetings about other people held in private, unless it’s something sensitive to do with their health, which you don’t reveal outward. But there are no conversations about other people, there are no reviews, there are no private conversations in the company. Everything is recorded all the time, and there are editors at the company that chop up the footage into digestible chunks so that it can be archived and searched for and watched later. There is a culture of radical openness about disagreement, and there’s only about 1,500 employees there, and they have just cycled through and chewed up people left and right, because this culture just does not do well for people who are conflict avoiders. As you and I know, you and I are both world class conflict avoiders. Jason Pyles: Oh yeah. That’s [inaudible 00:02:12]. Rob Booker: We actually almost made the US Olympic Team for conflict avoidance, but since it was a competition, we dropped out. We didn’t want to compete. Jason Pyles: Exactly. Rob Booker: We didn’t want to compete with … We didn’t want to take the spot from somebody else. Jason Pyles: That’s true. That’s true. Rob Booker: That’s the culture, and I became really fascinated by this culture that has built this great company. Anyway, they had an internal document at Bridgewater Associates, and this internal document was written by the founder and it was called Principles. Seven years ago, you could only get it by finding a copy somewhere on the deep web, like you could find someone had uploaded an original copy in PDF form somewhere on the web. And you could download it and read it and it was all formatted incorrectly and was messed up, and it was just gold to me. It was just absolute gold. And I would save it to all of my electronic devices, print it out, get it bound, highlight it, everything, because they’re these principles that he used to build his company and run his life, and principles are these universal laws that can be applied to any situation. Instead of directives, which are do this in this exact instance, a principle is a general law that can be applied in a variety of circumstances. And he wrote all 200+ of his principles out. That became popular, then he offered it for download on his website, and then that turned into a book contract. And near the end of his career … he’s in his early 70s now … he wrote Principles: Life and Work. And I just got a copy on Tuesday, and I just blew through this book, and it was astounding. If you’re listening now and you haven’t downloaded the book or you haven’t read it, I think it’s sold out on Amazon, but you can still of course get the electronic copy. I want to read some quotes from this today, Jason, and just talk about some of the concepts that are in this book. It’s just absolutely brilliant. Jason Pyles: Yeah, let’s do it. Rob Booker: What was most important in building my company wasn’t knowing the future. It was knowing how to react appropriately to the information available at each point in time. And As traders, we become obsessed with knowing the future and being right. This is the world’s most consistently successful hedge fund manager ever in history. He’s the most important … other than Warren Buffett, he’s the most important financial persona in the last 50 to 100 years, and he’s telling you it’s not important to know the future, which so many people think is important, that predicting the future is really important. It’s not. It’s learning how to react appropriately to the information that you have in front of you. An example of this would be thinking that when you plan a trade, you need to plan a trade that’s going to work out. Well, you just need to plan a trade and take it, and then all the money is made, or the success comes, from dealing with it as it is once it’s open. The money isn’t made before it’s open. The money is made from dealing with situations as they go. In other words, to be prolific in your trading at the early stages and learn as much as you can from each individual trade that you take, and then become more selective over time. Anyway. Jason Pyles: May I ask a clarifying question there, Rob? Rob Booker: Yes, I mean I’ll take on the persona of Ray Dalio and then I’ll answer your question. Jason Pyles: All right, thank you. In terms of what you just said, if someone … so how does that jive with not interfering or fiddling with your trade prematurely or something like that? You know what I mean? Where’s the balance there between those two? Rob Booker: At the beginning of one’s trading journey, there is no balance. You fiddle infinitely with it. You accept that you know nothing, but that there’s so much power and success that can come from openly admitting that you don’t know anything. For as long as you can possibly keep that attitude toward life, you don’t mind fiddling with it, but the point is that you fiddle with it consciously with the goal of learning from that. Open a hundred trades and fiddle with all of them, but make notes about what didn’t work, and in particular, make notes about what didn’t work. Jason Pyles: Nice, okay. Rob Booker: And then don’t repeat that. But at the beginning, instead of trying … This is so good that you brought this up. Instead of trying to be so selective at the beginning, putting so much pressure on oneself to be right and to prove to others that you know what you’re doing, don’t even try to prove to others that you know what you’re doing. In fact, openly admit that you don’t know what you’re doing, and don’t put the emphasis on that. So when you open a trade, don’t worry about whether the trade is right, worry about what you’re doing with it, and at the beginning of your trading journey, do all kinds of stuff with the trade. Open up the same trade in five different trading accounts, and treat every single one of them differently, and see what didn’t work. Then as time goes on, see what did work. Jason Pyles: That’s good. I like that. Rob Booker: All right, this is another great one. Maturity is the ability to reject good alternatives in order to pursue even better ones. Jason Pyles: I like that. I like how he says maturity, because yeah, that’s the key to that right there. An immature person would just take whatever they can get, but this is having the insight to take what is best. Rob Booker: Exactly. Exactly. And maturity … It automatically builds into it the fact that when you start off as a trader, you’re not mature, and you shouldn’t … you don’t have the ability to reject good alternatives to pursue even better ones, because you don’t know the difference. Part of maturing as a trader is taking enough trades and learning enough from them that you can sort out what doesn’t work for you and what does work for you. And he has this intense process that started manually, by hand, and then went, as the computer age evolved, he could throw all this stuff into a computer. But every single time when … In the early ’80s when faced with the thought and the idea that inflation was spiraling out of control and it was going to lead to a depression, he basically drew a conclusion and went on Wall Street … what is the name? Louis Rukeyser, who was … he did this PBS show on Friday nights that I used to watch … and he went on there and he announced that there would be a depression. And he says, I’m certain of it. And there was no depression, and he was fantastically wrong, and he lost everything. He lost his company, he had to fire everybody, couldn’t even afford to fly to Texas to meet with a client that would have kept the company going. That all happened because he bet the farm on … and he wasn’t mature, he didn’t know and he thought he did. So when 2007, 2008 came along, they by that point had built all these models, and they could run the data through all of these models. He went through newspapers from a hundred years ago. He went through everything, and he said when all of these economic conditions exist in this way, this is what has generally happened. And this time, in 2007 and 2008, he didn’t bet the farm, so to speak, and he didn’t say that he was certain. He did meet with government officials and published warnings, but in his own trading and for his own clients he didn’t bet the farm. He put a bet that things were going to go wrong, and he put protections in place so that if the market dropped there would be a hedge. In the year 2008 when the market was down and the average hedge fund was down more than in any year in history, they were up like 42% or some crazy number. Or 14%, whatever it was. And he said, I could have made even more, but what I did this time was I didn’t bet the farm. He was mature. He did all the things right because he was mature, and he only got that way because he’d been doing it at that point since the early ’70s, so for 30+ years. There are a lot of people in our industry and in our world of trading that want to be that good, and they want to be that good within 12 months. Jason Pyles: Oh yeah, that’s the hard part. You just want to be successful and mature right off the bat, but … Rob Booker: Somebody asked me one time, they said, I want to do a podcast. How do I do a podcast? And I said, You get a microphone and you start talking into the … well, get in touch with Jason and have him produce your show, ask him to produce your show … but get a microphone and start speaking into the microphone and start uploading the content. They said, Well, how do I have a popular podcast? I was like, Oh, do that a thousand times. Jason Pyles: Yeah, Rob. Brilliance. That’s exactly right. Rob Booker: At this point in time, you and I know what works and we know what doesn’t, right? Jason Pyles: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Rob Booker: And we’ve tried hard on some episodes and come up short, and naturally released episodes that were the best ever, to our listeners anyway. And how are you going to know the difference between those? How would we at this point know how to redirect an episode that might not be … whatever. You only know it through experience and through doing it wrong and through making the mistakes. And we’re still learning. We’re still learning how to do a full transcript of each episode and promote the … You have to just fall for the idea, fall in love with the idea that you don’t know anything, and that to the extent that you can, you’re going to figure out what generally works, a principle. And you’re going to do the best you can of implementing those principles in your trading. But you’re never going to fall for the idea that you know exactly what’s going to happen next. Jason Pyles: It’s a marathon, not a sprint, right? Rob Booker: Right. And there’s just an obsession with … it’s perpetrated out there by podcasts like this one, that there’s a chance that you could make a lot of money within a really short period of time. But really, there’s a chance that you can make a lot of money over a long period of time … Jason Pyles: [inaudible 00:13:04]. Rob Booker: … if you’re stupendously lucky. All successful people operate by principles that help them be successful. Without principles, you’d be forced to react to circumstances that come at you without considering what you value most and how to make choices to get what you want. This would prevent you from making the most of your life. He also goes on to say, Three questions matter most: what do you want, what is true, and what are you going to do about it? What I love about these three questions at the very beginning of the book is that a lot of us think we know what we want. At the same time, a lot of us haven’t spent a lot of time thinking about that and thinking about the consequences of wanting something most. And that’s the first question: what do you want most? And then second, say what is true. So let’s say I said, What I want most is a million downloads of the Trader’s Podcast within the next 12 months starting now. And then I would ask, But what is true? Will people listen to podcasts that are uploaded consistently, and people are responding to Facebook advertisements, and unless I get a lot of people to share the episodes with other people, I’m not going to get that many downloads. People are going to have to introduce the podcast to their friends. So I would have to build a plan that took advantage of that. We’d have to upload consistently, we’d have to be dependable, and then we’d have to build a program where more people that don’t know about the podcast find out about it, and then people who already know about it are incentivized to share it. Those things are true. That’s true. At this point, we know that those things work. We know that. And we’d probably have to be … we’d have to do a bunch of things. I’d have to be interviewed by other podcasters that have a good audience and whatever else you’d have to do. Then the third question comes into play. What am I going to do about it, meaning would I be willing to get up early, would I be willing to stay up late, would I be willing to miss stuff with my kids? What am I willing to do about it? How bad do I really … I said I wanted it. That third question asks how badly do you really want it. Our friend of the show, Scott Welsh, he’s a very successful robotic trader, and he got that way from saying what does he want. He wants to automate all of his trading. Well, what’s true? It’s true that you’re not going to find an automated system that works unless you do hundreds of hours of backtesting, even thousands of hours of backtesting. The final question is what is he going to do about it. Then he did something about it, and that’s why he’s in the upper echelons of people who run robotic systems. Jason Pyles: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Yes. That sounded just like him when you were asking those questions. I’m like, Yep, that’s Scott’s philosophy. Rob Booker: This is probably my favorite quote from the book, and we can end with this one, and I recommend the book to everybody. It’s Principles: Life and Work by Ray Dalio, the founder of Bridgewater Associates. Time is like a river that will take you forward into encounters with reality, that will require you to make decisions. You can’t stop the movement down the river, and you can’t avoid the encounters. You can only approach these encounters in the very best way possible. Anyway, definitely worth reading. It’s a hard read for people that don’t like the financial world. If you’re the spouse of one of our dear listeners of the podcast, this is not the book to … Well, I don’t know, maybe it is. The stories are great. I mean it’s just fantastic. Jason Pyles: Well, it’s a thinker book, you know? It’s not just something you breeze through. You probably have to figure out how to apply it to yourself and how to internalize the principles. Rob Booker: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. If there are any books that you love as a listener, let us know in the comment section. Leave a comment on the episode 560 of traderspodcast.com. Jason, I would love to know more about movies. Where can I get … Jason Pyles: That’s nice. Well, how about moviepodcast.network? We have a whole network now of movie podcasts. We have shows about sci-fi, if that’s your thing, even westerns. There’s a show about westerns. I mean, who talks about westerns anymore? That’s pretty cool. Rob Booker: That’s pretty cool. Jason Pyles: Streaming movie content, we got that covered. We got horror movies covered. Geek stuff, like if you’re into the geeky world, we’ve got that. There’s even a retro show that covers movies that are 20 years or older. It’s very nostalgic that way. And then of course new movies in theaters. At Movie Podcast. Rob Booker: Have you seen A Ghost Story starring Casey Affleck? Jason Pyles: Yes, it’s one of my favorite films of the year. Rob Booker: I’m really looking forward to seeing this. Jason Pyles: It’s profound, Rob. It might not necessarily be for everybody, but if you watch that film … like we talked about with this book here … with an open mind and thinking okay, how does this apply to me, it’s very … You will reflect a lot on your own life. Rob Booker: Is it frightening? Jason Pyles: No. No, it’s not actually. It kind of looks like it might be a horror movie, but it’s not at all. Rob Booker: I’m very much looking forward to watching this. Jason Pyles: It may … It’s definitely going to be in my top 10 list at the end of the year. Rob Booker: Oh, that’s exciting. Oh, I can’t wait. Did you do a review of this on Movie Podcast Weekly? Jason Pyles: Sure did, absolutely. Rob Booker: All right. Go to moviepodcastweekly.com and search for A Ghost Story if you want to read that, or listen to that review. Jason Pyles: Yep. Episode 251. Rob Booker: And thank you everyone for listening. We love you so much. Don’t forget to subscribe to the episode on SoundCloud. You could follow it on SoundCloud, you could subscribe on iTunes, that’s always a big help. You can leave a comment or a review. The comments, we’d love for you to leave a comment at the traderspodcast.com website. That’s a great place to leave a comment. We’ll see you next time for 561. |
Tue, 26 September 2017
Good morning and welcome Traders Podcast listeners. Imagine if there were a website where you could watch others trade in real time… Not like a webinar, but more like a live reality TV show. Well, in Episode 559 of The Traders Podcast, that’s exactly what Rob Booker and the producer Jason Pyles talk about, among other things. We’re happy you’re joining us! Thanks for listening to The Traders Podcast. We release new episodes every Tuesday and Thursday. Subscribe free in iTunes and join us! Links for this episode: Subscribe to Rob’s YouTube channel here: https://youtube.com/robbooker Rob on Twitter: @RobBooker The Traders Podcast on Twitter: @TradersPodcast Be sure to catch up with Scott Welsh at his Website Hear Jason’s movie podcasts: Horror Movie Podcast where we’re Dead Serious About Horror Movies. Movie Podcast Network a group of eight film-related audio podcasts that cover various movie genres. Rob Booker: When is your meetup? Jason Pyles: It’s October 14. Rob Booker: I really gotta plan ahead on this. I think I already bought my ticket for it and I haven’t even- Jason Pyles: Yeah, that’s awesome. Rob Booker: Where is it gonna be? Jason Pyles: Yeah, it’s gonna be fun. It’s gonna be in Salt Lake City. Rob Booker: I gotta come to this. Jason Pyles: And I’ll tell ya, I mean yeah, if you’re gonna be in town, that Friday the 13th, we’re gonna hit a couple movies that day. And then the next day, Saturday, we’re doing the screening. That’s the actual formal event. And then we have a director coming in, we’re gonna do a Q&A. It’ll be really fun. Rob Booker: Why do I get the feeling that you’re gonna go see a scary movie on that Friday? Jason Pyles: I think, let’s see, one of them is Jackie Chan action movie, it’s The Foreigner. Rob Booker: Okay. Jason Pyles: And then the other one is called Marshall. Yeah, I don’t think there are any horror movies out that Friday, unless I’m wrong. I mean it is October, so they’ll probably be something by then but- Rob Booker: All right. Jason Pyles: But there will be a couple non-horror that you could hit with us if you’re around. Rob Booker: Okay. That sounds great. I really hope to make this. This is really- Jason Pyles: It’s super fun to go with the listeners, like to a movie. It’s really neat. It’s so funny. Rob Booker: There’s nothing even similar to this in the world of trading. Nothing. Jason Pyles: Really? Okay. Rob Booker: You can’t go to a trading together, you know what I mean? Jason Pyles: Okay, yeah. Rob Booker: Are we recording by the way? Jason Pyles: Yeah, it’s recording. Rob Booker: Okay. This is the best part about working with you. It’s the greatest part ever, it’s the best thing ever. Jason Pyles: Oh, thanks. Rob Booker: So what is the equivalent in the world of trading to, and could something be structured to produce that same, cause going to a movie together, right, you go to see it and then you get to talk about it with people who love to talk about it, right? Jason Pyles: Absolutely. Rob Booker: Does anybody talk during the movie? Jason Pyles: Oh, no. They know all my rules about going to movies cause we talk about it all the time. And so they even giggle about that, all that stuff. Rob Booker: Can I hear these rules? I need to know these rules. Jason Pyles: Well, I mean it’s just like for example, I prefer to sit in the top back row, center, in the middle. Rob Booker: Okay. Jason Pyles: And not everybody does that, so these other movie buffs who came to our last meetup, they were texting me and making fun of, like, the top back row sucks. And one guy was sitting beside me and he’s like, I’m nervous about even moving in my chair cause I know how particular you are. I’m like, Oh come on. I’m not. You know, they think I’m this Nazi about it, but I’m like that’s right. It’s just funny. Rob Booker: Oh my gosh, that’s pretty great. Jason Pyles: Yeah, they know me a little too well and it’s kind of embarrassing. Rob Booker: Oh my gosh. Okay, so that’s one of your rules. Any other rules that we need to hear if we go to the movies with you? Jason Pyles: Well, if we’re gonna be at like a ridiculous, okay, so one of my pet peeves since I sit in the top back row middle, is when people come in a little bit late and that’s fine, but their seat, cause in Utah, you pick your assigned seat. You actually know where you’re sitting ahead of time and when they come in the theater and they are actually sitting on the left of me, but they decide to enter from the right, so they walk in front of everybody in the row, rather than just coming up the other side and going directly to their seat. That kind of bugs me, but, I know. First world problems, Rob. Rob Booker: Oh, this is good stuff. I really enjoy, that’s pretty much my favorite moment. Jason Pyles: My neurosis, yes. Rob Booker: All right, so back to the world of trading. We welcome everyone here to Trader’s Podcast, Episode 559. What would be the equivalent? So watching someone live trade a big trading account, that would be kind of the equivalent, and then discussing it afterwards. Jason Pyles: Mm-hmm (affirmative)- Rob Booker: Someone should make a, do you know these websites exist where people can watch other people play video games? Jason Pyles: Oh yeah, yeah. There’s a lot of, I don’t know, Rob. I don’t know. Rob Booker: Right. Okay, exactly. I mean I feel, my kids though, they watch it all the time. I mean they’re obsessed with it. Jason Pyles: Really? Really, that’s interesting. Rob Booker: Oh, it’s so popular. Jason Pyles: Well, that makes sense. You know, it’s like okay, you want to learn how to do something so you’re watching someone who can do that thing, right? Rob Booker: Yeah. I mean I could even prepare a clip for you of one guy playing, I used to watch this guy, b-double o-b dub or whatever he called himself, he was pretty funny. He used to play Sim City and it was, I can’t believe I’m gonna admit this, I would watch this guy on YouTube play Sim City. Jason Pyles: Wow, nice. Rob Booker: I wonder if there’s a market for this in the world of trading. I’d love to hear from everybody that’s listening to the Podcast in the show notes of Episode 559 of The Trader’s Podcast at traderspodcast.com. And we would love to hear from you. Wouldn’t that be a practical thing? Could you imagine a website built where there was just live video, streaming video, of people trading? Jason Pyles: Neat. Rob Booker: And commentary on it. And then those videos were then saved and archived. Jason Pyles: Now see that makes a lot of sense to me because you’re demonstrating, I don’t know, I see a difference there. Because you’re demonstrating, okay in this scenario, I’m looking at these indicators, or I’m looking back and there would be a lot of reasons that you draw your conclusions that you could explain in that situation. And I think for me, the reason I’ve personally never gotten a lot out of the video game thing is because I can’t necessarily see what their hands are doing. It’s like okay, how are you doing that? Maybe it’s a direction. I know which direction to go but, so I think it works better for some mediums than others. Rob Booker: Okay. All right, I like that. That makes sense to me. So what if that also, what if there was a camera on, yeah, so there’d be a specific emphasis in this website on what they were doing showing it, but then why they were doing it. Jason Pyles: Yeah. Yes. Rob Booker: Yeah, that’s pretty great. That’s a great idea. Jason Pyles: Now you’re talking. Rob Booker: And it would be different than these live trading rooms, like a webinar. That’s not the same thing. I’m talking about a website where there’s like 10 different selections and you could watch any one of 10 different traders trade stocks or penny stocks or options or currencies or whatever and it would be ongoing right now. Jason Pyles: Neat. Rob Booker: And it would be, it wouldn’t necessarily be interesting all the time. You might see that person sitting there drinking a cup of coffee, waiting. Jason Pyles: So like a Truman Show of trading kind of. Rob Booker: Yes. That’s exactly what I’m talking about. And there’d be some commentary maybe from time to time, but that would be one thing. Or you could do one where there was a row of desks and there’d be a certain stock trader, options trader, currency trader, futures trader and a moderator. And they’d be maybe competing every day and you’d go from one to the other and say, Oh, Jeff is seeing something right now, let’s take a look and see what he’s doing. And that’s different than, once again, it’s different than a webinar. The live action quality to it, that sports broadcasting. And remember, people watched people play poker on TV. Jason Pyles: Oh yeah. Rob Booker: That made it all the way to ESPN. Jason Pyles: People watch people play golf, Rob, for heaven’s sake. Right? Rob Booker: Do you know what they do in Texas instead of playing golf? Jason Pyles: What is it? Rob Booker: I’m not even making this up. Jason Pyles: Okay. Rob Booker: They go shoot shotguns. Jason Pyles: Oh, nice. Okay. Rob Booker: On a range. Like you get a cart and you put your gun in the cart and you put your shotgun shells in the cart and then you drive on the range, you stop, you put your little key card in the box, shoots out a clay thing and then you shoot at it. Jason Pyles: I love Texas. That sounds exactly like a Texas thing. Rob Booker: It is so awesome too. I took Robbie out there to do it. It’s right down the street from my office. Jason Pyles: Cool. That sounds amazing. Rob Booker: Yeah. And so I walked up to the guy at the desk and I said, I’m just gonna be honest with you, I haven’t shot a shotgun since I was in Boy Scouts, you know, seven years ago. Just kidding, long time ago. So I don’t know what I’m doing, but we still want to shoot guns and he’s like, Do you feel like you could safely operate a gun and click the safety button? I’m like, Yeah. And he’s like, Okay, here’s a shotgun. Jason Pyles: Perfect. Rob Booker: I mean like, whatever. Yeah. Anyway, and that’s what they do. They go around and they shoot at things. But back to the other point. This is a, there’s something to this idea where the live action quality to it, where there’s commentary, discussion and there’s interaction between a host and a, there’s something to this and maybe a, I don’t know, that would really, I think that would come off really well. And it could even be once a week to start. I should just do it. Jason Pyles: I definitely think you should. I mean it reminds me, for some people this is a dirty word, but I think it’s cool. It reminds me of a trading reality show. A trader’s reality show. Rob Booker: Yeah. Right. Which is what I, I’ve wanted to do that for a long time. Jason Pyles: Yes, you have. Rob Booker: And I just can’t seem to, you know, you gotta have, we just did a podcast about this for the Marketing Podcast Weekly, but sometimes it’s easy to get bogged down on the details and not just do it. Jason Pyles: Right. Yeah. Rob Booker: And not just go for it, just stop thinking about it and just do it. Like stop making it into a big production and just do it. Jason Pyles: Yeah. I agree. I think you should, Rob. I’m always entertained by your projects. Rob Booker: Oh my gosh, that’s pretty funny. Yeah, it’s easy to get bogged down on the details. Do you ever see that guy that, the movie, Craigslist Joe? Jason Pyles: No I haven’t seen that actually. Rob Booker: Oh, okay. It’s, I think he made it for Netflix. Back in the day you could actually make a movie and then upload it to Netflix, you could literally upload it to Netflix, like literally upload it to Netflix. Jason Pyles: That’s amazing. Wow. Okay. Rob Booker: You could just log in and you could upload it. And this guy made a video, with a reasonably okay microphone and a shotgun microphone and a shotgun light and a reasonably inexpensive camera, and he lived for a month off of Craigslist basically, I can’t remember how he did it but it’s a memorable film cause he sells everything and then he goes out on the road and he only gets by in life through Craigslist. Everything is done through Craigslist. Jason Pyles: Right, okay. Rob Booker: And makes a whole movie about it. Jason Pyles: Yeah. I’ve heard of this. Rob Booker: It’s like a one camera movie that he made by himself and it got on Netflix. And I’m sure it’s been viewed millions of times. Jason Pyles: Yeah, for sure. That reminds me of the Super Size Me movie. The guy that lived off McDonald’s for a month, see what it did to his body. Rob Booker: Yeah, where his liver almost failed. Jason Pyles: Yeah, exactly. Rob Booker: Do you know, have you heard about his new movie? Jason Pyles: Morgan Spurlock, what’s his latest? Rob Booker: So, it’s a sequel to Super Size Me. I’m surprised you haven’t heard of this. Jason Pyles: What is it? Rob Booker: This is great. Documentary film, this is from eater.com, like eater E-A-T-E-E, whatever. Documentary filmmaker, Morgan Spurlock is gearing up to debut the sequel to his wildly popular 2004 movie, Super Size Me and this time around he’s taking on the chicken industry. Jason Pyles: Oh, okay. Rob Booker: Supersize Me 2: Holy Chicken! will focus on Spurlock as he opens his own fast food restaurant. Presumably the fast food restaurant in this film is Holy Chicken!, the four-day fried chicken sandwich pop-up that Spurlock opened in Columbus, Ohio last year. Jason Pyles: Interesting. Rob Booker: Yeah. So I actually think that this may be his best movie. It just debuted at the Toronto Film Festival, which kicks off, kicked off, it already kicked off. Jason Pyles: Mm-hmm (affirmative)- Rob Booker: What happens at the end of something that you kicked off? You kick it on? Jason Pyles: Yeah. That’s a good question. Rob Booker: You kick it out? Jason Pyles: Right. I don’t know. Interesting. Rob Booker: That’s interesting. Completely unrelated but because I saw the name James Franco on this website, I tried to watch the first episode of The Deuce- Jason Pyles: Oh, okay. Rob Booker: Starring James Franco. Made, basically written and I think the first episode was directed by the creator of The Wire. Jason Pyles: Yeah, David Simon. Yes. Rob Booker: It was just terrible. Jason Pyles: Was it terrible? I’ve been curious about that. Rob Booker: Yeah. Jason Pyles: I’m glad to hear. Rob Booker: It’s just a giant bag of beep. Like it just, if you want like a really great lesson in the male anatomy- Jason Pyles: Oh, yikes. Rob Booker: And specifically like, giant males, just hairy men, like you want to see all their body parts, that’s the show for you. Jason Pyles: Oh, wow. Okay. Rob Booker: Yeah. Holy Moly. Jason Pyles: Not necessarily what I was looking for, Rob. Rob Booker: It gets in the way of the plot. Like literally, gets in the way of the plot. Like actually visually gets in the, like there’s something you’re trying to see on the screen and something else goes full view on the screen and gets in the way of the plot. Yeah. Jason Pyles: Okay. Rob Booker: But it’s funny because you see all these characters from The Wire appear in the show. Like all of a sudden, D’Angelo Barksdale pulls up, gets out, he’s got these really long 1970s sideburns and he gets out of a cop car and he’s a street policeman- Jason Pyles: Oh wow. Rob Booker: And he goes and sits down to get his shoes shined. Remember Chris and Snoop from The Wire? Jason Pyles: Oh yeah. Rob Booker: He sits down next to Chris, who’s a pimp. Jason Pyles: It’s hard to see those people as different characters. Rob Booker: Yeah, and Omar’s even in it. Indeed. Jason Pyles: Oh, I love him. Rob Booker: Yeah. All the little hoppers are in that, anyway. Dominic West is nowhere to be seen. But anyway, so back to the original point, I’m sure no one’s made it through this episode. I love the idea of sort of a live action, real time, live trading with commentary and hosting. You know, like a host. Someone who’s, all right, I’m seeing that you’re doing this but broadcast live. Not broadcast on a webinar, that’s not the same thing. Broadcast like its poker, like multi-camera shots. Jason Pyles: Yes. Yes. Rob Booker: I don’t know. If anybody, if you can even remotely imagine yourself watching that, send us a message on the blog. On the Episode 559 of The Trader’s Podcast. Go to the website, don’t forget to subscribe to the show please. Download all the episodes, just download all of them. Jason Pyles: That’s right. Rob Booker: Just go on a download spree. Jason Pyles: Right. Rob Booker: You can even put your email address in there. I love getting that email about the new episodes. Jason Pyles: Yeah. Rob Booker: Do you get that email too? Jason Pyles: Yes, yes I do. Rob Booker: Do you do that for all of your podcasts? Jason Pyles: Yes, I do. Yeah, absolutely. Rob Booker: I love that actually. I’m gonna go to your, tell our listeners how they can go to your podcast. Jason Pyles: Let’s see, well we got moviepodcastweekly.com, that’s where you go for that one. Rob Booker: Okay. Jason Pyles: Yup. And just new movies that are in theaters. And then if you’re into horror for some reason, horrormoviepodcast.com. Rob Booker: All right. Jason Pyles: Yup. And you can check ’em out there. Love it. Rob Booker: I can’t find your, the link on moviepodcastweekly for subscribing by email. Jason Pyles: It may be down lower in the sidebar. I’m sorry, I’ll have to look at that again. We were recently talking about websites that were shotty or shottily designed. Yeah, so, that’s mine. I need to look at where that is. Maybe it got kicked to the bottom of the page. Rob Booker: Well, on that note, sometimes when you, now we’re talking about all kinds of stuff. Sometimes when you make it more difficult to accomplish something from a marketing perspective- Jason Pyles: Yes. Rob Booker: Only the people who want to hear from you the most are gonna do that. Like getting through this episode was really difficult so only people who really love us and the show have listened to this entire show. Jason Pyles: Right. Rob Booker: And they deserve something special. Jason Pyles: Yes. Rob Booker: One of you that’s listening all the way to the end, I’m gonna say a word now. I’m gonna say, I can’t do a secret word cause the first person to say the secret word, okay, anyway. If you just want to claim that you listened to the entire episode, go to traderspodcast.com, click on Episode 559, leave us a comment and a question, or just a thought about today’s show. Even if you didn’t enjoy it. Jason Pyles: Right. Rob Booker: And leave a comment there and we’ll reward one of you with a gift card at Amazon. A $25 gift card at Amazon.com. Or if Amazon’s not legal in your country, then you get nothing. Just kidding. Leave us a comment, we’ll send you a gift card. We’ll have one winner and we’ll reach out to you. You got through this show, you deserve to be rewarded for that. Jason Pyles: Yeah. Nice. Rob Booker: I still can’t find your- Jason Pyles: I’m sorry. I’ll have to see what happened to it then, Rob. I apologize. Rob Booker: I want to subscribe by email. Now I really want to do this. Jason Pyles: Okay. All right. I’ll figure that out and I’ll let you know, Rob. I appreciate it. Rob Booker: That’s great. So go to moviepodcastweekly.com everybody. It is a great podcast and if you scroll down on the right side, you can support the podcast by becoming a monthly reoccurring donor and I only say that because you and I have done hundreds and hundreds, 600, 700 episodes of podcasts together. Jason Pyles: Right. Rob Booker: And this is some of your best work and it really deserves to be, I don’t know, subscribed to. Jason Pyles: Well, thank you. I appreciate it. Rob Booker: And for those of you that want real stuff about trading, don’t forget to listen to episode 560 of the Trader’s Podcast, available in just a couple of days. I’m Rob Booker, that’s Jason Pyles, the producer, and you’re listening to the Trader’s Podcast. |
Thu, 21 September 2017
Welcome back! In Episode 558 of The Traders Podcast, your hosts Rob Booker and the producer Jason Pyles welcome back Scott Welsh once again to discuss the strangest things that ever happened to them in the world of trading. Rob tells a ghostly tale of a trading account he once managed that mysteriously opened trades on its own! And Scott tells a tale of his early days of robot trading when a storm thwarted his success. Thanks for listening to The Traders Podcast. We release new episodes every Tuesday and Thursday. Subscribe free in iTunes and join us! Links for this episode: Subscribe to Rob’s YouTube channel here: https://youtube.com/robbooker Rob on Twitter: @RobBooker The Traders Podcast on Twitter: @TradersPodcast Be sure to catch up with Scott Welsh at his Website Hear Jason’s movie podcasts: Horror Movie Podcast where we’re Dead Serious About Horror Movies. Movie Podcast Network a group of eight film-related audio podcasts that cover various movie genres. |
Tue, 19 September 2017
Rise and shine! Welcome to Episode 557 of The Traders Podcast! In this show, your usual hosts Rob Booker and the producer Jason Pyles welcome back special guest and fan-favorite Scott Welsh! As a world famous robot trader, Scott gives us an update on his successful journey in automated trading. And we also get a question from Tyler who asks for a recommendation on which trading platform he should use. As always, thank you for listening to The Traders Podcast. We release new episodes every Tuesday and Thursday. Subscribe free in iTunes and join us! Links for this episode: Subscribe to Rob’s YouTube channel here: https://youtube.com/robbooker Rob on Twitter: @RobBooker The Traders Podcast on Twitter: @TradersPodcast Be sure to catch up with Scott Welsh at his Website Hear Jason’s movie podcasts: Horror Movie Podcast where we’re Dead Serious About Horror Movies. Movie Podcast Network a group of eight film-related audio podcasts that cover various movie genres. Full transcript for this episode: Rob Booker: Mr. Pyles. Jason Pyles: Hey, Rob Booker, how are you? Rob Booker: Doing great. Jason Pyles: Hello, Scott. Scott Welsh: What is up, Jason? Good to hear from you. Is Rob there, too? I guess it’s good to hear from him, too. Jason Pyles: Yes. Scott Welsh: So great. Jason Pyles: It’s been too long. Scott Welsh: Too long, but I’m glad we’re here today. Jason Pyles: I know, it’s great. Rob Booker: There are some listeners who don’t know that we did, far too few, but about 150 episodes of a podcast together called The Rise and Shine Podcast, and I think we would all agree that everyone should stop listening to this right now and go check that out. Jason Pyles: Yeah. Scott Welsh: Just stop. We can wait. How long, 153 episodes? We can wait a half hour. We’ll just sit here. Jason Pyles: Yeah, they were short form. Rob Booker: They could play them on fast forward. Jason Pyles: That’s true. Scott Welsh: Exactly, yeah. Rob Booker: That’s spectacular. Our guest today is Scott Welsh, and Scott, what’s your website? Let’s just get that out there right now. Scott Welsh: It’s ScottWelsh.me. It’s S-C-O-T-T W-E-L-S-H.me, at me. Rob Booker: Alright, everybody, go check it out. Scott’s a good friend a longtime friend of the show. Not a first-time caller, not a first-time listener. We’re glad to have him here. Jason, we got a question from a listener, did we not? Jason Pyles: Mm-hmm (affirmative), yeah, we sure did. We got a question from Tyler. I can read it right now. It says, Hi, Rob, my name is Tyler and I recently discovered your podcast on iTunes and have been devouring episodes on my drive to work. I have a question for you about trading platforms. I’m new to this and I’m wondering if you have a recommendation for a platform. I’ve done some research and there are many to choose from. Some cost money, some allow trades in certain markets only, etc.. Do you spend any time in any episodes discussing this? Appreciate your thoughts. Tyler. Rob Booker: Well, Tyler, we do. We talked about this in episode 557, which is the one you’re listening to right now. Scott, do you have any- You and I have used about every platform there is. Do you have any comments on that? Scott Welsh: Yeah, I probably used less than you, but yeah. I looked around at a few platforms. I started on TD Ameritrade back in the stock days, and that feels like caveman days even though it’s a fine company or whatever. But as far as technical trading, wouldn’t you agree, if you ever looked at it it’s pretty poor? But as far as technical trading, I love TradeStation. That’s what I grew up on. That’s the first really complicated platform I looked at. I still use it, I still like it. MT4 has been fine for me. It’s super stable, so it’s been fine. But if I’m gonna open up a platform, I’d probably pick TradeStation or its cousin, MultiCharts. Rob Booker: Got it. Oh, I haven’t used MultiCharts. Is that a Windows-only platform? Scott Welsh: Yeah, I think it is, actually. Yeah. I’m doing it on Windows so I don’t know, but yeah. It’s basically like TradeStation. It’s similar. Rob Booker: Okay. Yeah, and it uses all the same language that TradeStation uses, right? Scott Welsh: Right, exactly. Yeah. Rob Booker: Can you trade 4X on MultiCharts? Scott Welsh: Yes, correct. Rob Booker: Oh. You can use all the robots that you built for TradeStation and you could run them on MultiCharts. Scott Welsh: Right. I bought it probably over a year ago. It’s very expensive, which is why a lot of people, I think, don’t use it. It’s quite expensive. I’m getting very much into MultiCharts. I’m thinking about running MultiCharts on my VPS instead MT4. That’s the conversation I’ve been having lately with myself. Rob Booker: Oh, wow. How expensive is it? Scott Welsh: A lifetime membership, I think, was $1,300, $1,200. Rob Booker: Oh, yeah, that’s … Yeah, alright. Scott Welsh: That’s a lot for people to spend, but yeah, I did it. Rob Booker: Yeah, I hear really good things about the platform, I just don’t have a Windows computer anymore. It makes it difficult to use stuff that needs a Windows computer. Now, why not just use something- Of course, we don’t necessarily want to recommend to Tyler that he jumps onto TradeStation or MultiCharts. What kind of free options would you recommend to Tyler? Scott Welsh: Free options, then yeah, I’d probably go into MT4. You can do a lot of good things with MT4. I’m just dubious about the testing. For me, I do tons of research. It’s what I love to do. It’s what I’ve done a lot of. For me, the way I’ve done testing in TradeStation, whatever I’ve done, all the work I’ve done, when I take it to live markets I get very similar results. In fact, most of the time my live results are slightly better than my tested results because people get really freaked out by that. Oh, I’ve done some fact testing, it’s curve-fitting, it’s over-optimizing, it’s not gonna work in real life. Well, that hasn’t been my experience. My experience is if something doesn’t work, it was bad design. It wasn’t because testing was fake and trading is real. I have not yet had that experience with MT4 where it shows up in the live market exactly as strategy tester does. It’s close, but TradeStation is superior. I’m gonna work on MT4 more, actually, in the next actually month or so. I will finally answer that question. I’m gonna buy some expensive data and I’m gonna see if it really can match up. MT4 might be fine. I would say it’s mostly fine right now, I just don’t like it as well as the MultiCharts, TradeStation option. Rob Booker: You’re saying that, in your experience, when you’ve done backtesting in MT4, MetaTrader 4, and then turned on a robot onto the live market, that the results have not matched up with your testing? Scott Welsh: Slightly worse, yes. Almost without exception, when I take TradeStation to the market, the real life is better. But I have yet to do extensive testing on MT4 and have it show up and look exactly the same. It’s a little bit worse so far. I’m gonna be doing more work on this. Rob Booker: What robots are you running right now? Scott Welsh: I run a robot that I called The Hornet, which is a day trading robot. I run that. I’m very focused with my trading, so I only have two currency pairs that I trade with that. I’m also running The Heron, which I just [inaudible 00:06:03] robot I released late May. I run a fair value robot, too, also. I’ve got some other things I’m gonna be running, but that’s what I’m running sitting here right now. Rob Booker: What about your trend trade robot that you had on the dollar/yen? Scott Welsh: I trade that in demo. I’m gonna open up an account and I am gonna be trading that, but I watch that every day. But I don’t have real money committed to that at this moment. Rob Booker: I’m obsessed lately with trend trading and trend trade robots. If you don’t mind, I’m gonna ask you a few questions about that. Scott Welsh: Let’s go, yeah. Rob Booker: Okay. First of all, does that trend trade robot use any stop losses? Scott Welsh: Yes. Absolutely it does. Yeah, it is, that robot is the epitome of all the cliches we’ve heard. Stop out quick and take big winners, that’s exactly how it’s designed. It’s got our- Rob Booker: Cut your losses short and ride your wins. Scott Welsh: Ride your winners, yeah. That one does exactly that. It takes … Well, who cares how it stops? It’s a short stop-out based on the volatility of the market at that time. Rob Booker: How many trades a year does that take? Scott Welsh: Well, I love trend-following, trend trading robots on big charts. I started testing them on 240-minute charts and those are fine. I love daily charts the best. I just love … They’re so much cleaner. The results are actually better. But it doesn’t trade that much and people that I’ve talked to, and I’m sure it’s even more so for you, they want trades, trades, trades every day. How often does it trade? That’s a question that people ask me when they’re talking about robots, which blows my mind. Shouldn’t it be, How good is it? Right? What are the- They don’t. How often does it trade? If you’re trading it on daily chart and you’re waiting for it to break to an all new level that it hasn’t been to in a long time, it could trade four times a year. That sometimes freaks people out. Rob Booker: How long are those trades open, though. Scott Welsh: Well, if it stops out, not very long. It could be a day. It could be a day or two ’cause those stops aren’t big. But the winners can be in for a month or two. But I’ve found that is not a problem. When you’re in profit, that’s a glorious month or two to spend. That’s not a problem to be in profit. The long trades, something good is happening. That’s good news. [inaudible 00:08:17] Rob Booker: Yeah, that’s really good news. What is that robot called? Scott Welsh: I just call it The Breakout. Rob Booker: The Breakout. Scott Welsh: Yeah, it’s based on the Turtles. It’s based on the famous Turtle methodology, but it’s not exactly the same as Turtles. I get questions about that. Just use it as inspiration. I didn’t actually follow the rules to the T. I made my own rules on it. Rob Booker: Okay. It’s not- Scott Welsh: But, yeah, The Breakout. Rob Booker: It’s not the same as the Turtles, Jason, there’s a bunch of turtles that live in South Florida and they do some trading and it’s not the same. Scott Welsh: Or the rock band from the ’60s. Jason Pyles: Not Leonardo, Michelangelo, gotcha. Scott Welsh: Oh, yeah, or those, too. Jason Pyles: Gotcha. Rob Booker: Did you see this comparison between Pennywise and one of the ninja turtles? They live in the sewer, they hang out with children, something crazy. Jason Pyles: No, but that’s hilarious. I love that. Rob Booker: But maybe Pennywise is secretly one of the lost teenage mutant ninja turtles. Jason Pyles: Mm-hmm (affirmative), I think so, yeah. There is a turtle thing from the novel, as well. That’s interesting. Rob Booker: Oh, interesting. There’s a connection. Scott, there’s also this thought in the back of my mind. Anytime anybody brings up trading, these Turtles, this question does come up. The ’80s or whenever it was, Richard Dennis and his partner had an argument whether or not trader were born or taught. Dennis said, I can pick some people off the street, teach them to trade, tell them to implement a system, and they’ll be successful. He was somewhat proven correct by teaching them a system to follow and asking them to follow it to the letter. The ones that did succeeded, and the ones that did not dropped out. The rest of it is, as they say, history. Every time we talk about trend trading, I’m sure you’ve been asked this before. Did you ever built a robot that was based on the Turtle trade trend-following system? Scott Welsh: Yeah, and that’s what this is. That’s exactly it. That was the inspiration for the Breakout robot, absolutely 100%. It’s just not exactly the same. Rob Booker: Okay. Scott Welsh: That’s exactly- I got fascinated by that story for the hundredth time and I decided, Well, I’m just gonna build something. I’m gonna get it in the market. There are still Turtles trading and trading very well and trading hundreds of millions of dollars. The Turtles still live from the original Turtle class. Rob Booker: They live for hundreds of years, as far as I’ve heard. Scott Welsh: Yes, they’re dinosaurs. Yes. Jason Pyles: There’s no shortage, is there? Rob Booker: There’s no shortage of turtle jokes in this episode. How do you answer the question, How many robots is too many? How do you choose a portfolio of robots to run? Did you upload all the results into a portfolio to see that they balanced each other out, or something like that? Scott Welsh: Well, it comes down to personal preference. It’s like, How many girlfriends do you want to have or How many boyfriends do you want to have? When you’re younger, you like dating around. I like talking to this person, this person. Then sometimes you get to a different part of your life and maybe you just want one person. The first is preference. What do you like? We’ve talked about it in podcasts before. Do you like a lot of action? Well, if that’s what you need for your trading then you’re gonna have a big portfolio. You’re gonna need a bunch of stuff. Something like the Turtle robot we’re talking about right now, if it trades four times a year, that’s gonna just mess you up. You’re gonna start taking trades that you’re not supposed to take and it’s gonna be awful. The first thing is, What do you like when people say, Well, what kind of portfolio? For me, the second question is all draw-down. How much draw-down? If you could have a draw-down that you like and it’s just one robot trading one system on one currency pair, and the draw-down is manageable, and it makes the amount of money you want, why do you need 10? For me, I love focus. I love deep focus on one thing at a time. I fight as hard as I can. What’s the least amount of robots I can trade and get the results that I want? Rob Booker: Okay. Scott Welsh: When you’re talking about fund managers, though, we’re talking about 50, 60, 100. To manage hundreds of millions of dollars, you have to be diversified. As you get more money in your account, diversification probably becomes more and more of an issue. Rob Booker: Okay, well that makes sense to me. There’s the famous, who is it, Renaissance Capital and [build simons 00:12:34] or whoever it is in Long Island or whatever and he built this firm of- Jason, it’s all turtles. The whole firm is turtles. The guy’s stiff, but once you break through his shell he’s pretty nice. They have a wide selection of grubs in the company cafeteria. Anyway, he hired a bunch of Russian physicists and scientists and whatever and they were managing billions and billions of dollars. Eventually, they all were so rich- This is actually true. It sounds like this is a story. They were all so rich that they gave back all the investor money and now this super secretive firm only manages its own money internally from all the people inside of the firm so they don’t have to deal with any of the regulations or answering to people or whatever. They have been known to … They have hundreds of strategies running, all of them automated, all of them with the computer that’s just making the trades and placing the orders, some of which are doing things as crazy as trading based on the cycles of the moon. He has been known to quote that it even gets stranger than that. If it works, he doesn’t care how stupid it sounds. Scott Welsh: There was that one time, though, he got flipped over on his back and they had to cease trading, then they flipped him back over and it was fine. Rob Booker: You couldn’t get back up. That’s right, yeah. Scott Welsh: Other than that, yeah, it’s been amazing. Rob Booker: Flipped on his back and he couldn’t get back up. Oh, my gosh. Jason, let’s plug your podcasts. Where can our listeners hear more about the best movies that are out right now? Jason Pyles: Sure. MoviePodcastWeekly.com and HorrorMoviePodcast.com. Rob Booker: I’ll plug Marketing Podcast Weekly for our listeners that are interested in online marketing, in particular in the financial space. You can listen to Jason and I sit around and talk about marketing, which I actually listened to Wednesday’s episode in its entirety again. I just listened to it again. Scott Welsh: That’s a good podcast, by the way, guys. I really like that. I know it’s new, but I look forward to that a lot. I like that. Rob Booker: Well, thank you. Jason Pyles: Thank you. Rob Booker: Scott, two things. One, where can our listeners find your podcast? Jason Pyles: Yes. That’s what we want to know. Scott Welsh: Yeah, okay. Well, Rob, knows that I’m thinking I would really like to do a podcast and I’m really thinking about that, so thank you, Rob, for bringing that up. That’s a little sore spot. No, it’s not a sore spot. Rob Booker: We’ll be on the lookout for that. Maybe we can plug it inside of some kind of a trader’s podcast network of shows. Jason Pyles: Yes. Rob Booker: Second of all, where can people find out more about this Breakout trend trading robot? I know that’s what everyone who’s listening right now’s gonna want to know about. Scott Welsh: Well, you go to that website and I’ve got listings of the robots that I offer. You can also email me, I’m the one who emails you back, which is Scot.Welsh@gmail.com, but it only has one T. My email has one T and my website has two. Rob Booker: Okay, and you can also go to the show notes for episode 557 of The Trader’s Podcast and inside those show notes, we’ll link to Scott’s website and some information about the Breakout robot. Will you come right back and join us for another episode? Scott Welsh: I would love that. Rob Booker: Let’s do it. Thanks for listening, everybody, we love you all. We’ll see you next time. |
Thu, 14 September 2017
In Episode 556 of The Traders Podcast, your hosts Rob Booker and the producer Jason Pyles discuss how success often comes from setting a goal to do the right things consistently (as opposed to just setting a goal to accomplish some great thing). Rob also talks about having a specific trick or “scheme” that is your job that you do consistently. And we discuss the approach of sticking to what you’re best at and exploring it further by looking deeper inside rather than branching out and experimenting with new and unfamiliar methods. Thanks for listening to The Traders Podcast. We release new episodes every Tuesday and Thursday. Subscribe free in iTunes and join us! Links for this episode: Subscribe to Rob’s YouTube channel here: https://youtube.com/robbooker Rob on Twitter: @RobBooker The Traders Podcast on Twitter: @TradersPodcast Jason’s movie podcasts: Horror Movie Podcast where we’re Dead Serious About Horror Movies. Movie Podcast Network a group of eight film-related audio podcasts that cover various movie genres. Full transcript of this episode: Rob Booker: Welcome back, Mr. Pyles. Jason Pyles: Thanks, Rob. It’s good to be back. Rob Booker: When we left our dear listeners, we were talking about the fact that sometimes success comes from setting a goal to do the right things consistently instead of setting a goal to accomplish some big thing. Success in my life has been a mix of those two things and then just pure luck at times. I want to talk today about if someone were to choose the path of success by doing the right things … We’re, of course, specifically talking about trading in the end. But generally speaking, let’s just talk about success in general. If it’s about podcasting because you started podcasting before anybody else that I know … Well, we kind of started together before anybody else that I know. Jason Pyles: Yes, we did. Rob Booker: We’ve continued through the years. You only continue if you’re getting some measure of success. What are some of the things that a podcaster does that they have to do consistently well or at least they have to do it consistently in order to succeed? Jason Pyles: I would say release episodes. You have to actually record the episodes and continue to release them. That’s one thing. I think for me it’s been … You have to have this interest in the topic itself. I genuinely love the topic. If you love it enough, usually you can continue talking about it. There have been podcasts, Rob, that I dropped pretty quickly that I realized I did not have a love like that one really stupid NBC survival show. What was that called? That was awful. Revolution or something like that. Rob Booker: Yeah, right. Jason Pyles: We went 10 episodes on that. We’re like, Yeah, that’s enough of this. Rob Booker: Oh, gosh. All right. You have to release content on schedule. You have to have a purpose, meaning I think probably podcasting about everything is not as effective as podcasting about something. Jason Pyles: Agreed. Rob Booker: All right. Let’s apply that to traders. It can almost be as simple as that. Maybe it can be as simple as that. You need to sit down at the computer at the same time everyday or you need to run a robot that’s going to run all the time. Then you need to have a specific purpose, or a specific technique, or a specific trick, or a specific method. I like to call it a scheme these days. Whatever the trick is that you do, you’ve got to have that one thing. That’s it. That’s your job. You’ve got to sit down and do that job in the same way that you have to release content as a podcaster. You have to sit down at the computer and you have to get that work done. Every month on the first Monday of the month at 11:30 p.m. my time, I sit down in a webinar with all of the members and I trade the Australian dollar when the Australian interest rate decision is released. It is potentially … I don’t know potentially. I mean it is. It is the best trading that I do all month long that I do. But it only happens once a month, Jason. Jason Pyles: Interesting. Rob Booker: I would guess that everybody listening, everyone that is a listener of the podcast, all seven of you, all of you, each of you has some kind of scheme or trick that you can do like that. However, that one scheme or trick doesn’t produce necessarily enough profit in order to accomplish your goal of trading for a living and so you seek other tricks, schemes, methods or strategies when in reality you’re already off course if you do that. It’s like saying to a podcaster, Well, I don’t have enough listeners from doing a podcast about scary movies, so now on the scary movie podcast we are also going to review children’s television shows with songs. Jason Pyles: Yes. And that’s actually a real example. I’ve seen a horror podcast do that where they started reviewing Twilight stuff in order to attract the Twilight fans which to the horror community is a huge betrayal. Rob Booker: Exactly what I was talking about. You got to stand for something. I’ve noticed, including this text message that I got the other day from our friend that was struggling and on the verge of quitting, this is exactly what I see happen is that I already know how to make this work but it’s not making me enough money so I’m going to add something to it. Instead of focusing on what is working and approaching that, someone will go off course and I mean when you find something that works like this Australian dollar strategy that I have and it’s … I’ve even described it on previous episodes of the podcast. You can go to robbooker.com and get on the email list if you want to learn more about all of this stuff. Jason, being successful means diving deeper into that. It means, all right, I’ve got one strategy for when the economic news is released and how I deal with it. What about a strategy diving in deeper to the behavior of the Australian dollar on the day that that news is released? That led to an additional strategy for the Australian dollar. Now, I had two strategies because I dove in deeper into what I was already doing. What if I doubled, or tripled, or quadrupled down on that, and I added a trade to one of the trades that I was already taking? What if I quintupled down on that strategy by … I know this sounds absolutely bananas. What if I just dove deeper into reading about the economics of Australia? What if I did those things? Instead of looking for the answers outside, I went inside. Instead of going horizontal or laterally looking for additional stuff to focus on to be a jack of all trades, what if I went deeper into what was already working and I tried to benefit more from that? Ideally, I would just be happy with what was working. Jason Pyles: Right. That reminds me of two things. It’s killing the goose that lays the golden eggs because then you see … You’re not getting any more golden eggs. You have a dead goose. It also reminds me if you have like an Olympic diver who’s practiced the same dive like a billion times and then the diver gets up and said, You know what? I’m going to try to change this up a little right here. Then they jump off and do something weird. Just saying. That’s what popped into my head as you describe this. Rob Booker: Right. My niece is a diver. I’m sure she’s got three or four dives. I’ve seen her compete. She has three or four dives, Rachel does, in her repertoire. She’s probably got her one … I don’t know this for sure. I’m going to send her this episode and ask her if she’ll answer. She probably got one go-to dive that she knows she’s really, really good at and that’s her go-to dive, and she knows she can’t lose that one. Why would she still practice that one even after she’s won competitions based on that? She’s not done with it. I see this happen with traders all the time. Well, that works, Rob. But what else do you got for me? I ain’t got nothing else for you. Jason Pyles: Well, they want something that works more, that produces even more results. That’s what they’re looking for. Rob Booker: Yeah, yeah. That’s true. Here’s a great example. It’s not a great example. It’s a terrible example but I have to say it. As I’m re-watching The Wire … My wife has never seen The Wire on HBO. It’s every White person’s favorite show about Black people. Jason Pyles: Yes, I know. It’s awesome. Rob Booker: I don’t know if that’s true or not. I just thought I’d say that. But, even President Obama said it was the best television ever made. Anyway, let’s get back to the point. In that show, Bubbles, he lives on the street and Bubbles tries to get on his feet and get off of drugs and he starts Bubbles Depo. Do you remember this? He has a shopping cart. Jason Pyles: Yeah, totally. Rob Booker: On the front of it, it says Bubbles and then Depo with no T at the end. It’s just Depo. He starts by selling T-shirts, just T-shirts. And, then he realizes that these people that live on the street, they don’t want to go to the store, whatever. They’re out selling drugs on the corner, whatever, and he needs to have candy, or bus passes, or other stuff for them. He went deeper into his one concept. He didn’t then start, I don’t know, a hotdog cart or he calls them pimp steaks. He didn’t start a pimp steak cart. He went deeper into what he was already doing. Maybe that’s a challenge that we could ask our listeners is what can you do to go deeper into what you already are doing instead of seeking additional answers or profit outside of what you’re already good at? It’s possible of course that someone doesn’t know what they’re already good at. That’s possible. You could listen to 500 episodes of The Trader’s Podcast and inside of those episodes, there would be at least, I don’t know, at least 10 different ways that you could focus. I heard from someone, Jason, just yesterday or the day before who just finished listening to all of the episodes of The Trader’s Podcast. I said, Oh, there’s a treat in store for you. Jason Pyles: Wow, that’s amazing. I want to thank that person for listening. Rob Booker: There’s a lot of people out there now that have just listened to every single episode. I think we can turn on the feature so that all of the previous episodes will appear inside of iTunes. We can turn that feature on so that if you want to get the old episodes on iTunes, you could do that. But, Jason, I don’t know if you knew this, of course you did, every single episode of The Trader’s Podcast is available in one location. Jason Pyles: It sure is. That’s right, Rob. Traderspodcast.com, right? Rob Booker: That’s exactly right. How can someone contact the show? Jason Pyles: Well, Rob here, my friend Rob is kind enough to give out his own personal cellphone number and, yes, it is his actual cellphone. You can text him at 304-281-8332 or just- Rob Booker: And, we appreciate you subscribing and downloading these episodes. We’re now at 1,773,360 downloads and we’d like you to be download number 361. Jason Pyles: That’s right. Rob Booker: Oh, my gosh. All right. Jason, let’s plug some movie podcasts here. Let’s make this happen. Jason Pyles: That’s right. In the time that I’ve been away, I’ve actually started a Movie Podcast Network, if you can believe that. Rob Booker: Can you believe it? Jason Pyles: Yeah. I think it’s a eight different shows about movies. We have some about Westerns, sci-fi, stuff like that. Check us out. Our little hub site is MoviePodcast.Network. Rob Booker: Nice. All right, everybody. Until next time. I’m Rob Booker and that’s the producer. Thanks for listening and subscribing to The Traders Podcast. |
Tue, 12 September 2017
Welcome back to The Traders Podcast, and welcome back to your host, Rob Booker, and The Producer, Jason Pyles! After a very long hiatus, we are back again here in Episode 555, where we address a trader regarding what to do when trading doesn’t work out the way you might have hoped. Remember to leave a comment below in the show notes and you could win a $25 Amazon gift card! The Traders Podcast will now release new episodes every Tuesday and Thursday, so please make sure you’re subscribed and join us! Links for this episode: Subscribe to Rob’s YouTube channel here: https://youtube.com/robbooker Rob on Twitter: @RobBooker The Traders Podcast on Twitter: @TradersPodcast Jason’s movie podcasts: Horror Movie Podcast where we’re Dead Serious About Horror Movies. Full transcript of this episode: Rob Booker: Mr. Pyles. Jason Pyles: Rob Booker. It’s been a long time. Rob Booker: Welcome back. Jason Pyles: Thank you. It’s good to be back. Rob Booker: Do you ever have anything that doesn’t quite work the way that you expected? Jason Pyles: Oh yeah all the time. Like my kids for example. Rob Booker: Give us an update on how you’re doing. Jason Pyles: Doing great, thank you. Another one of those things would be my heart. That’s a good example. Earlier this year I had open heart surgery and I’m much better now. Thanks to Cleveland Clinic. Rob Booker: You sound like it. You sound better than ever. Jason Pyles: Thank you. Yeah I feel a lot better. Rob Booker: I did a poll on Twitter on how badly our listeners wanted to hear your voice again. Someone said that you have a mix … Did you see this poll? Jason Pyles: No but I’m nervous about the results. Rob Booker: No need to be nervous. There were two choices. One choice was really bad. The second choice was really, really bad. And really, really bad won 78 to 28%. That adds up to more than 100% so more than 100% of our listeners want to hear you back on the show and most of those people want to hear you back really, really bad. One guy replied and said you sound like a mix between Casey Kasem and the Marlboro man. Jason Pyles: I’ll take it. I love that. Rob Booker: Sounds like a compliment to me. Jason Pyles: That’s how I’m looking at it Rob. Rob Booker: That’s great. That’s awesome. The movie related podcasts are doing great? Jason Pyles: Yeah absolutely. I still have movie podcasts weekly where we review the new stuff that’s in theaters. I’m still doing that crazy horror movie podcast as well. We’re getting thumbs up for It this weekend. Rob Booker: Alright. Are you going to go see that in the theater? Jason Pyles: Yeah. Tonight, in fact. Rob Booker: Oh my gosh. I can’t even get through the preview. He gets to the … The preview for the movie It, he gets up to the drain on the street and I just turn off the preview. I can’t even get past that part. Jason Pyles: Yeah. Rob’s like, I’m not doing storm drains. Forget it. Rob Booker: Storm drains, that’s right, exactly. Oh my gosh. Just one question about movies and then we can move on. At the end of Dunkirk, does somebody wake up from a dream? Jason Pyles: I know right. You’d wonder right. With Christopher Nolan. Rob Booker: I’m ready for a Christopher Nolan movie with a twist. I’m ready for that. Jason Pyles: Me too. Me too. I’ve been waiting for years. Rob Booker: Did you see his first movie? Jason Pyles: Yes, I did. [crosstalk 00:02:32] The student film he made? Rob Booker: Yeah. Jason Pyles: Hmm? Rob Booker: The Following or something like that? Jason Pyles: Yes it is. It’s still quite decent actually. Rob Booker: Maybe I’ll check that out today. Jason Pyles: Awesome. Let me know. Rob Booker: I really ought to start a podcast on your podcast movie podcast network about television ’cause I don’t really see movies anymore. Jason Pyles: Yeah, you should Rob. You’d be great at that. Rob Booker: That’s not a bad idea. Maybe one of our listeners would like to join me. I don’t know if you’d have us on the movie podcast network. Jason Pyles: Yeah. You’re pretty amazing. Even though it’s TV. We would just say, Well it’s the small screen. There’s the silver screen and then there’s the small screen. Rob Booker: Okay, that’s a good idea. Jason Pyles: Right, that’s what I think. Rob Booker: God, that’s awesome. We still haven’t talked about trading, which is the best part about this whole thing coming back together and doing a podcast. Officially, welcome back to both of us on the Trader’s podcast. It’s nice to be here. The subject for today’s episode Jason, is to welcome us back together, remind everyone that new episodes drop on Tuesdays and Thursdays, including full transcripts and show notes. Once again, very happy about that. Also, to talk about the subject Jason, when things don’t work out the way that you might have hoped. I got a message. Now usually, I would send this to you beforehand but it just came in and one of our listeners wrote in and was pretty heartbroken about the way that his trading has gone. I thought I would read that comment and then over the course of this episode and maybe the next, we could talk about this dear listener of ours and perhaps answer his concerns or whatever. Jason Pyles: Yeah. I hope we can help. Rob Booker: Let me pull this up. Essentially this fine gentleman writes in and has just had a really, really tough time. I’m going to read it if I can find it. Maybe one of our support team has already, yeah they’ve already tackled this one. They had originally moved it over to me. Yeah, but it’s gone now. What a bummer. Alright, well our friend had started in trading years ago, Jason. And had no success. Then started back up and had a lot of temporary success. Just recently went back to some old behaviors and dropped the ball, made some big mistakes and lost 50% of his account. I just felt heartbroken about it. The reason is, I want everyone to be successful. The question that our friend wrote in was, ‘When do I just quit? This didn’t work out the way that I wanted. This trading thing didn’t work out the way that I wanted. When do I just quit? Do you have any thoughts on this before I just go down this road and start yacking my pie hole? Jason Pyles: Wow. I can appreciate that because it’s like … I’ll say one thing really quick and turn it over to you ’cause you have way more experience and training. But I think it’s interesting, any time that someone has the courage to be reflective like that and have that be honest with yourself kind of moment where you’re trying to figure out what you should do next. I think that’s a good sign when somebody gets to that point. In my understanding, in the years that I was on the Trader’s podcast in the past. I think sometimes it’s difficult for traders to be honest with themselves. I think being at this moment where they’re reassessing, I think is an important place to be. I just wanted to acknowledge that and then turn it over to you, Rob. Rob Booker: I love that. I have a warning for this individual and anyone listening in, and to myself, just a reminder and a warning. The act of quitting because you lack discipline doesn’t reflect upon the endeavor, it reflects upon you, or me. If I quit my marriage because … Okay, there are reasons to quit a marriage. Having done that, I’m going to justify that. But of course, I’m happily remarried and I love my wife and she’s the greatest thing that ever happened to me. Let’s just say that we have a difficult day and things don’t go the way that I might have hoped or wished they had gone. But it’s just in the ordinary course of a relationship. If I quit, it doesn’t reflect on my wife, or the institution of marriage. It reflects on me. Let’s say that I lose my temper in the relationship, now it even reflects even more upon me and I have some work to do. That’s not a criticism. I don’t mean that to strike out at this individual. But I do mean to say, if what you’re telling me is that you’re struggling with discipline or making the right decisions at the right time, or avoiding the wrong decisions. If that’s what you’re saying, then it’s time to get some help. That help can come in the form of therapy or mentorship that you get through books. Or it can come through prayer and meditation. There are a lot of avenues for that. But the answer isn’t necessarily to close down your trading account and quit because trading doesn’t work. There are times when trading doesn’t work. There are times when that’s the case. And those instances might be when you’re trading a product that no longer is available. Or you’re trading a product like binary options outside of the United States where binary options outside of the United States are a complete scam and your broker’s going to walk away with all of your money and then you have no money left, then yes. There are times when there are external circumstances that prevent anyone from trading. But if it’s merely and I say merely in quotation marks, ’cause it’s a big deal. A lack of discipline, then I don’t really see what the point of quitting would be. Because the next endeavor that you take upon yourself, or the next really important thing that you try to tackle, you’re going to run up against the same lack of discipline or the same propensity to make a mistake or get yourself into trouble or do the thing that you said you weren’t ever going to do all over again. It doesn’t make any sense. You might as well draw a line in the sand, now, here. Change the way that you handle things. Get some help. Read some books. Do some meditation, whatever it takes. What are some ways that you have, Jason you’re an incredibly disciplined person. You got up again today at, what time in the morning did you get up again? Jason Pyles: It was about quarter till six. Rob Booker: Quarter till six. Our friend of the show Shawn Campbell probably got up at 4 o’clock in the morning. Jason Pyles: Oh yeah, Shawn yes. Rob Booker: What is this Jason? Is this cosmic energy flowing through you? What is this? You have an incredible amount of discipline. You once finished a podcast while you were sick. You said, Could you please hold for a moment podcasting crew. You went and threw up and then you went back and finished your podcast. Jason Pyles: That’s true, yeah. Rob Booker: That’s the discipline that we’re talking about. That is, you are an example of what we’re trying to achieve. What is it Jason? Were you born with this? Jason Pyles: I don’t know. Rob Booker: How did you come back from a surgery that left you feeling really … You were really bad off right after the surgery and then you just came roaring back. Jason Pyles: Yeah, honestly that surgery was worst thing that ever happened to me this year, this March. I’ll tell you. For me Rob, it seems like with both the surgery and the other thing it’s just a desire to move forward and to progress. Progression is really important to me. Yes, I plateau like everybody else. I’m not perfect at this. I get stuck in a rut. But when I really want to move forward with something in life that’s important to me like my own life or the Trader’s podcast. I was excited to get up this morning. It’s like, yes, I’m tired right now. Yes, this is difficult to get out of bed. But I want to progress and move forward and keep going. I think discipline can be born out of a desire to succeed. Rob Booker: Yeah, that’s a really … I like that. That’s the motivation to change for the better comes out of that desire to succeed. There’s a possibility that when I have been … Let’s just use me as an example. It’s not fair to use our friend as an example. But when I have unsuccessful due to a lack of discipline, it is possible that my goal in these instances has been to make money. Or my goal has been to save face or prove a point. Something along those line, as opposed to maybe a goal Jason, ought to be the goal itself should be doing the right thing. Or the goal itself should be to follow a process. We talked on our other marketing podcast weekly, shameless plug, we talked just on our last episode about the fact, oftentimes success isn’t the result of setting a big lofty goal that is accomplished all in one fell swoop. But instead, success is about setting a goal to do the right things every day and identity what those right things are. And then only do those things. Maybe we could come back in on our next episode on Thursday we could come back and talk about what those right things are. Jason Pyles: I like it. Rob Booker: How can, I don’t really remember anymore. How can someone reach the show? Jason Pyles: You know. I was going to ask you the same thing, Rob. I wasn’t sure what means we were using. I remember back in the day when- Rob Booker: I think they should send me a text message. Jason Pyles: Okay, ’cause I was going to say, I remember when you have everybody texting your own personal cell phone. Rob Booker: Let’s do it. Okay, my cell phone number is 304-281-8332. 304-281-8332. Or leave a comment under the show notes of today’s episode of the Trader’s podcast and we’ll give one commenter who welcomes Jason back, we’ll give someone an Amazon gift certificate. Jump on traderspodcast.com, click on today’s episode. Scroll down though the transcript and leave a comment for Jason. We’ll give one lucky winner, what do we say, $25 Amazon gift card. Jason Pyles: Yeah. That’s nice. Rob Booker: Jason, do you want to plug anything before we go today? Let’s do that. Jason Pyles: Oh, thank you, yes. I hope people could check out moviepodcastweekly.com if you want to hear about new movies that are in theaters. If you’re a horror fan, ’cause Halloween’s coming up soon, horrormoviepodcast.com Rob Booker: That sounds like a brilliant idea. We’ll see you next time everybody. |