Trading Story: Trading Interviews, Tips & Inspiration For Newer Traders

I wanted to go meta with you guys for a bit. I just crossed the 6-month mark on this podcasting venture. As you may be aware, I’ve been doing digital marketing for a bit, but have never delved into podcasting until mid-April 2015 – 6 months ago. Launched the Trading Story podcast and it’s been a fun journey with you guys so far. I’ve learned a ton and hopefully you guys have enjoyed it too and got a little educated about trading along the way. And it seems like a good time to step back and reflect on where we’ve gone together so far. I’ve got five lessons I’ve learned in the past 6 months of podcasting about the markets.

Dr. Barry Burns is trader, a business owner, a podcaster, and runs the very popular TopDogTrading.com. He’s the author of Trend Trading for Dummies. He runs a popular YouTube channel and a podcast also called Top Dog Trading. He holds a doctorate in hypnotherapy. It was a fascinating discussion with a great teacher and a nice guy.

On this week’s episode, there’s a little peek into my trading education. As I told you guys last week, I hired my trading coach. I’m aiming at the forex market. By the time this episode is released I will have been training with my trading coach for about 3 weeks. The entire course takes around 6 weeks or so – so I’m about half-way through now. One of the things my trading coach did – what every good teacher does – was assign me homework. That’s what I’ve been doing when I’m not learning from my coach either in person or on the webinars. I’ve been researching the market that I’m focused on, the forex market. And if you want to trade the forex, there’s a ton of free information online for the taking. For this podcast, I want to highlight 3 free resources that I think are perfect for learning to trade the forex. 

Joshua 'Josh' Martinez is a professional forex trader and educator. He's known as the FX Pathfinder at the Market Trader Institute. He's one of the most followed analysts on MarketTraders.com and can also be found at ForexTips.com. Their firm has been featured on CNBC, Fox Business, Bloomberg Television, & FXStreet.com.

So by the time this episode is released, I will be about a week-and-a-half into a new chapter in my trading story. Here goes… I Hired a Trading Coach Nothing too dramatic yet, just something that was a good next step on my personal trading journey. I’ve been talking it up for a few months now, ever since I launched the podcast back in April. So here we are, August 2015 – 4 months later – and I’ve taken the next steps in becoming a consistently profitable trader.

Robert Grebe is full-time trader, a veteran business owner and CEO. His experience spans from broadcast journalism to running a successful video game company. Most recently, he's the founder of traderztv.com, a collection of forex trading educators.

Joe Ross has been trading for a long time. He put on his first trade when he was 14 - and he's 80 now. That was 66 years ago. Since then he's been an employee, a business owner, and a full-time trader since the early 1980's. He's authored 12 books and teaches traders in his periodic seminars. He runs Trading Educators and has lived all across the globe thanks to his trading prowess. If you've been around the futures markets for awhile, you may have heard of Joe. Today, everyone gets to hear Joe Ross's trading story.

Sean Emory trades stocks, blogs at The Market Meter, and is responsible for managing over $1,000,000,000. That's billion with a 'B'. His posts have been picked up at Yahoo! Finance, Seeking Alpha, StockTwits, and more. This episode was fascinating because it was a peek into the world of a real-life institutional trader. Helpful to new and experienced traders.

So on the last episode, I had a fascinating discussion with Dr. Gary Dayton. Dr. Gary is a trader with a real-life earned doctor of psychology (Psy.D.) degree and a practicing psychologist specializing in trading psychology. And if you haven’t listened to it yet, I think it’s worth your time. But it got me thinking about trading psychology even more than before. The fact is, trading psychology is a hot topic in trading circles. Every trading coach, teacher, or mentor I’ve heard from deals with trading psychology. Though most trading coaches are not trained psychologists, most coaches see the value in trading psychology. It’s that important. So who are these trading psychologists – or those who practice trading psychology? And who are the best guys who teach psychology in trading? Brett Steenbarger Gary  Dayton Van K. Tharp Alexander Elder  Mark Douglas

Dr. Gary Dayton is a psychologist, a trader, and author of the book, Trade Mindfully: Achieve Your Optimum Trading Performance with Mindfulness and Cutting Edge Psychology.  In our discussion, Dr. Gary tells his trading story and reviews several aspects of trading psychology including the area of 'mindfulness' in trading. It was helpful discussion and valuable to both newer and experienced traders.

Hack #1: Manage your Schedule by Cutting Unnecessary ActivitiesHack #2: Manage Your Work Through the Pomodoro TechniqueHack #3: Manage Your Energy by Slaying Vampires A few weeks back, I had an email conversation with a newer trader about the podcast. He seems to be getting some value out of this podcasting effort and I’m so glad he reached out. One of the things this listener shared was a great idea for a podcast. He was interested in how these experienced traders managed their time. And that is a great question to ask some of these traders. But before I delve too deeply in these traders’ lives on how they manage their time, I thought I’d throw out a few ideas that I’ve been using personally as I’ve been ramping up my trading again. Take em or leave em, but they seem to be working for me.

Boris Schlossberg is the managing director at BK Asset Management. He has over 20 years of trading experience. He's the author of several books, one of which was "Millionaire Traders: How Everyday People are Beating Wall Street". 

In episode 43, I spoke with Jon Frohlich about proprietary trading at Maverick Trading. In Episode 29, I spoke with Mike Bellafiore about another proprietary trading firm, SMB Capital. So we’ve been covering this area a few different times. And I think it’s an important area for newer and aspiring traders.

In episode 43, I spoke with Jon Frohlich about proprietary trading at Maverick Trading. In Episode 29, I spoke with Mike Bellafiore about another proprietary trading firm, SMB Capital. So we’ve been covering this area a few different times. And I think it’s an important area for newer and aspiring traders.

So talking with Bruce Bower got me thinking about the title of his book: Peak Performance Trading & Investing. “Peak Performance” is sort-of a buzz phrase in personal development circles. It’s closely related to a couple of other terms in psychology that many trading psychologists have picked up on like “in the flow” or “in the zone”. Mark Douglas, a trader whose name has become synonymous with trading psychology entitled his book “Trading in the Zone”. And that book is probably the most famous of all trading psychology books.

Bruce Bower is an emerging markets trader who has plied his trade in hedge funds in Moscow and London. Now he's trading his own account. And he's written about it on his blog, How of Trading and how to do it yourself with his book, Peak Performance Trading & Investing. We had a very useful discussion for newer traders, especially on trading psychology.

Hello again – and welcome to this week’s more personal update on the Trading Story podcast. This week’s episode is going to be a little different from previous episodes. This will not be a tutorial about the market. This will not be a reflection on previous episodes – sort of like the flashback episodes you’d get on every 1980’s comedy we used to watch with the screens fading from present to past. Nope, not today. This week’s episode is an ask for the interested podcast listeners who are trading. A little background if you will.

Jeff Weber started out his investing career learning an obscure stock trading strategy as a soldier in a run-down hotel 10 miles from the Korean DMZ. And for 30-years, he’s been trading that strategy with double-digit returns nearly every year since. It was great discussion from veteran investor.

So last week, I let you into an unfolding drama on my end that directly related to my trading. I told you guys I was quitting my full-time job to focus on my marketing clients and trading. What I realized later, I didn’t give a lot of details related to the transition. I haven’t stopped working at the job yet. But that’s coming soon.

In this episode, I speak with Seth Freudberg, a former CEO turned options income trader. Seth made a major career switch into trading just a few years ago and he offers some great advice for anyone looking to to the same. Lots to learn on this podcast about the trading process as well as trading options for income.