Brent Donnelly has been in and around trading for close to 3 decades and has held major trading roles at investment banks and hedge funds with a strong emphasis on the FX and Global Macro, where he has been involved in both market-making and proprietary roles. Brent started trading in 1995 and has worked at several illustrious firms in the markets, including Citibank, Merrill Lynch, Royal bank of Canada, Lehman Brothers, Graham Capital, Nomura Bank and HSBC. Since 2004 Brent has been writing a brilliant free daily newsletter on the markets called AM/FX – This newsletter is read widely by professional traders across the world inside Investment banks, Hedge Funds, Asset Management Firms, and Even Central banks. Brent has also authored two books: The Art of Currency Trading and his most recent book, Alpha Trader: The Mindset, Methodology and Mathematics of Professional Trading. In this interview Brent tells us about AlphaTrader and talks extensively about trading, markets and what he believes it takes to be a successful trader. This interview pulls back the curtain somewhat on what it’s like to be a professional trader, and some of the challenges pro-traders face as they seek to battle the markets within a high pressured trading room environment. You can find out more about Brent on his personal website: http://brentdonnelly.comAlso visit Brent’s new venture Spectra Markets, where you can sign up for his free AM/FX Newsletter: https://www.spectramarkets.comYou also follow Brent on Twitter at https://twitter.com/donnelly_brent

AlphaMind The Podcast: Exploring Trading & Investing Mindset

Brent Donnelly: Alpha Trader - The Mindset, Methodology and Mathematics of Professional Trading

Narrative for WebsiteIn this episode we spoke with legendary trading psychologist Dr Van K Tharp. Dr Tharp has been coaching traders for almost 4 decades and came to prominence when he was featured in Jack Schwager’s very first Market Wizard’s book back in 1989. As you can imagine, with someone with that level of experience and knowledge, this chat goes beneath the surface of trading and into the inner realms of human performance, touching on areas of &apos;who we are&apos;, &apos;how we are&apos;, and &apos;how we be’, that are rarely discussed with such depth when talking about trading. Some of the themes we would like to emphasise include Ø  Our different modalities when engaged in trading, these include a hierarchy of different states.·       Things happen to me. > Becoming the Victim – Owned and liable to go into tilt.  ·       Things happen by me > Becoming a Non-Victim – Starting to Own Your Results. ·       Things happen through me. > Awakening and Becoming at One with the Market·       Being at One with the Market > May fleetingly or periodically be here but it’s impossible to remain here permanently. Ø  Science Thinking versus System Thinking:Science thinking believes we can identify causation, and then use that to identify possible futures. Systems thinking accepts the complexity and uncertainty of the world and holds a light view of possible causation and holds the polarity of trying to identify possible futures, whilst accepting one cannot possibly identify with any high degree of certainty the possible future. Ø  Alignments between you and your system, method, or approach. The importance of matching approaches to the market, with who and how you are naturally.Ø  How we hold beliefs about ourselves and how they influence our trading and how our negative emotions hold those beliefs into place. Ø  How we store negative beliefs in our body which then drive our decision-making behaviours. Ø  How these aspect conspire to put someone into victim mode. Ø  Modelling People who do trading well and the key ingredients needed to being able to model these, including being able to align yourself with their Signal, Feeling, Action sequence. You can find out more about Dr Van Tharp and his work at the Van Tharp Institute at https://www.vantharp.comAccess to his YouTube channel can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/c/vantharpHis Twitter handle is: https://twitter.com/vantharp

Dr Van Tharp: Avoiding a Victim Mentality in Trading.

In this episode Steven and Mark focus on what they consider as three key guiding principles which are vital for success in business, in life, and of course in trading and financial markets. These key guiding principles provide a solid foundation for a robust trading practice but are equally as applicable in other areas of work and life. This episode provides a deep exploration into these principles and looks at these key aspects and how they apply to traders in their work in a big picture sense and at a micro level day-in, day-out. 

3 Key Guiding Principles for Trading, Business and Life.

Journaling is one of the most useful activities a trader can engage in to help them become better traders, power their development, and help them refine their trading practice. However, it is also one of those activities that people think is a great idea but is something they think they’ll do another day, or they do a half-hearted effort. The exceptions are usually ‘exceptional people’. People who are willing to go that extra mile, put in the hard yards, take the time to learn about themselves and reflect on their trading. Our guests today are Steve Ward and Simon Cotterill. Together they have conceived, constructed, and published an outstanding new book/journal called the ‘Trader’s Mind Journal’. Steve Ward will be familiar to AlphaMind listeners and traders more widely. Steven has worked in the field of High Performance over many decades, he worked with Olympic Athletes, High Stakes Poker Players, Leaders in Business and with Traders and Investors in the Financial Markets. Steve realised the similarities between high performance sports and the trading world and developed a performance practice which has helped many traders make lasting improvements. Steven wrote his first book, High Performance Trading, a few years ago. It became an instant hit amongst traders and has seen his reputation in this world soar. Last year he released Bulletproof Trader to great acclaim. Simon Coterill came to trading after successfully running a printing company for many years. He started trading in 2010 and since 2014 has been day trading for his full-time career.Simon focused initially on technical analysis but increasingly recognised the importance of Developing his psychology around trading. The Traders Mind Journal started as a project to develop a personal trading journal for his own use, however coming from a printing background, he started to explore the possibility of creating a more formal trading journal structure to use.  Steve and Simon have been working together over the past couple of years to design, construct and produce the Traders Mind Journal. The journal is a fantastic product which will be hugely useful and valuable to traders as a personal reflection and development tool. The Traders Mind Journal is the best ‘published trading journal’ we have come across. We are delighted to announce that listeners of the AlphaMind Podcast can obtain a 15% discount off the face value price of the Trader’s Mind Journal by inputting the code AMP15 when they order the book direct from Trader’s Mind Journal on the website https://www.tradersmindjournal.com/You can also follow them on twitter https://twitter.com/mind_traders

Steve Ward & Simon Coterill: The Power of Trader Journaling.

Successful trading and investment has never been an easy task, with only very few able to encounter and navigate the turbulent waters of financial markets and remain standing nearly 4 decades later. This week’s guest is one of those few. Jonathan Baird is a Money Manager and writer of the outstanding Global Investment Letter. In his long career (managing primarily international/global equity mutual funds) Jonathan managed three different #1 ranked funds, and has won a prestigious Lipper Award for the best global equity fund in Canada.   Jonathan subscribes to the view that the challenge is the market, but that we ourselves are the real enemy. This underlines his work, with a strong focus on being self-aware, challenging himself, managing himself,  ensuring he aligns his work, his purpose and his personality in a way which is the most productive and effective for himself. Jonathan’s also believes that a high-quality source of independent analysis and opinion can make the process more efficient and lead to better-informed decisions. This has led Jonathan to start and distribute his own outstanding monthly newsletter, the Global Investment Letter, which has become essential reading for thousands of professional investors and money managers. The Global Investment NewsletterWe were attracted to  invite Jonathan as a guest by The Global Investment Newsletter and the outstanding and thought-provoking analysis that he regularly posts on his social media feeds on Linkedin and Twitter.The Global Investment Newsletter is a monthly journal that comments on capital markets around the world. It looks holistically at all aspects of the investment process. This includes providing views on geopolitical trends and their potential impact on markets. In addition, it includes insights on various other topics that may aid investors, such as investment philosophy, risk approach, and book reviews  that are included periodically. It is written in a style that is simple and straight-forward making its content accessible for both the experienced pro and the enthusiastic novice. You can learn more about the letter at this link: https://www.globalinvestmentletter.com/Jonathan also published great content to his social media feeds on LinkedIn and Twitter. These can be found here: Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanbaird88Twitter: https://twitter.com/JonathanBaird88

Jonathan Baird: Award Winning Money Manager – ‘I Have Seen the Enemy and He Is Us’.

30 years of trading success brought Jason Shapiro to the attention of Jack Schwager, who was looking for new interview subjects for the latest instalment of his brilliant series of Market Wizards books ‘Unknown Market Wizard’. Shapiro’s chapter in the book is called ‘The Contrarian’, which tells you pretty much all you need to know about his approach and style. In this episode, Jason opens up with about his trading approach, his contrarian philosophy and a whole host of topics around the trading process which listeners will find fascinating. Jason talks passionately about trading and his work. Some of the themes Jason talks about include: Why he is a contrarian. How being a contrarian is not the same as being countertrend. Finding your edge. The importance of getting the process right. Being objective in your views. How market’s discount the news. Using the Commitment of Trader’s report. And a host of themes which will inspire and fascinate the listener.Jason really opens up with great honesty about the realities of trading, of how he has been to hell and back more than once, the pain of losing, the learning experiences of becoming successful then losing it all, the journey and path to better process and practice, of how trading success is ‘the long game’.This is one of those interviews which is full of nuggets and lessons from beginning to end. Do not switch this episode off early, because it just gets hotter is it goes along. Jason also talks about the Crowded Market Report, a Futures trading education website which focuses on and supports traders in developing a unique contrarian approach. Also full kudos to the Crowded Market Report, who donate a portion of their proceeds to the Charlestown Early Learning Center, a non-profit organization, to provide a high quality, affordable educational program for 3, 4, and 5 year old children in the local community. You can learn more Jason at the Crowded Market report here: https://www.crowdedmarketreport.com/about/You can follow them on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/Crowded_Mkt_RptAnd connect with them on Linkedin here: https://www.linkedin.com/company/cmr-publishing/

Jason Shapiro – Through Trader Hell and Back, to Market Wizard.

Many people new to trading, and even many veterans, have a very limited view of Technical Analysis. They often see it as merely a tool used for analysing market price action, or may hold beliefs which may lead them to be sceptical or even cynical about its usefulness or validity. Yet,  technical analysis is far more than merely a tool for analysing the market price action, it can provide an entire framework for your trading. This includes helping improve timing of discretionary actions, forming the core underpinnings of systematic or quant-based approaches, enhancing your fundamental trading views, and even being a vital part of your risk management approach. In this episode we talk to Adam Sorab. Adam is a partner at a UK based hedge fund and someone with a deep and long history in the financial markets within trading and investment roles. Adam has played an active role as a significant user of technical analysis, and has also held a major role in some of the world&apos;s leading Technical Analysis Institutions. As you will hear, Adam is one of the most informed people on all things technical analysis and how to use it effectively and productively.Today Adam is a partner at Aptior Capital, a distressed debt hedge fund based in the UK. Prior to that, and for over a decade, he was head of technical research and product specialist sales at the hedge fund giant CQS where he produced technical analysis-based investment research and strategy for their traders and portfolio managers. Prior to that Adam held various roles, including his early years’ experience as an FX trader at the Swiss Investment Bank Credit Suisse, and head of Absolute Return strategies at Deutsche Bank Asset Management. Adam holds a Honours Degree in Economics from the London School of Economics and has  been heavily involved with our sponsorship partner the Society of Technical Analysts (the STA) where he was formerly chairman and remains a member of their ‘Investment committee’. Adam was also president of the International Federation of Technical Analysts (IFTA), the global body which the STA is itself a constituent member of. Adam brings a wealth of experience and insight that we are delighted and honoured to be able to share with our podcast audience, and which we are certain you will find informative, insightful and may challenge some of your long-held perspective and beliefs. Adam also talks about the STA outstanding Home Study Course and their Diploma programme, which is accredited by the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment (CISI), the leading professional body for securities, investment, wealth and financial planning professionals.You can find out more about the Society of Technical Analysts (The STA) and how you can become a member on their webpage: https://technicalanalysts.comYou can follow the STA on Twitter hereYou can also gain a discount on their brilliant Home Study course and Home Study Course and Diploma programme exclusively through AlphaMind at this link here.

Adam Sorab: Technical Analysis - Far more than merely a tool used for analysing market price action.

We are delighted to welcome back the wonderful Denise Shull to the AlphaMind podcast to talk about Visceral Intelligence and Trading. Visceral intelligence is the literal feeling that you get in your body that correlates with a decision you’re trying to make or an experience you are having.Denise is making her second appearance as a guest on the AlphaMind podcast. As one of the leading performance coaches in the trading and investment world, Denise has specialised in applying neuroeconomics and modern psychoanalysis in her work with hedge fund portfolio managers and high performance professional athletes. She is also the founder of The Rethink Group and author of one of the best-selling books on trader mindset – Market Mind Games In this episode we explore Visceral Intelligence and how We spend so much time up in our heads ruminating over the past and stressing about the future, that we miss out on vital clues and insights which our body and its feelings reveal and provide. This is why visceral intelligence and connecting with your body is so important.This episode covers a range of themes of interest to new and seasoned traders alike, including:·       How brain research on aspects of emotion, insight, intuition come to impact our trading practices. ·       How we can use this insight on emotions to make better trading decisions. ·       Useful analogies to compare to trading to improve how we manage ourselves as we navigate our way through the markets.·       Developing visceral intelligence by naming our feelings and recognising how we can use these. ·       Emotions and risk-decisions and recognising what is important and what is not.·       The Cognitive and emotional Intelligence partnership and how ‘the body keeps the score’.·       Keeping a track of your emotions to help make better trading decisions going forward. ·       How our trading systems are unique to each individual and how this makes learning other people’s systems so challenging.·       Improving your learning through greater knowledge of yourself. ·       Categorising your emotions and listening to your body’s feeling without judgement.·       The challenge and benefits of learning these elements when we have a resistance to honest self-reflection.·       The dangers of cutting yourself off from your feelings. You can find out more about Denise and her work at:The Rethink Group website: https://rethinkgroupltd.com/ You can follow Denise on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/DeniseKShullDenise’s book is ‘Market Mind Games: A Radical Psychology of Investing, Trading and Risk’.

Denise Shull: Developing Visceral Intelligence to Enhance Trading Performance & Improve Trading Expertise.

Money Coaching is a relatively new profession that combines sound psychological and coaching principles with practical financial coaching to help people transform their relationship with money. This week’s guest, Dennis Harhalakis is a Money Coach who spent more than two decades in bank trading rooms as a trader and salesperson and has worked in the private banking and wealth management world. That sort of experience provides a well-rounded perspective as a money coach to talk about how people engaged in trading and investing activities are impacted, positively and negatively, by their relationship with money. In this fascinating interview, we cover a host of topics and themes that explore that self/money relationship and how it influences our decisions, behaviours and emotional reactions to events. Dennis provides some practical advice for how people can start to improve their relationship with money and raises some interesting points about how our early-years’ experience around impacts our current relationship with money, and how this then affects they we behave, act and make choices, in our work and in our personal lives.  If you are interested to knowmore about Dennis, his website is: https://cambridgemoneycoaching.uk/His email is: contact@cambridgemoneycoaching.ukYou can also connect to Dennis on Linkedin: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/dennis-harhalakis

How Our Relationship With Money Shapes Our Trading Performance, with Dennis Harhalakis the Money Coach.

Merritt Black, our first returning guest, shares his personal insights and deep wisdom about the challenges traders face in the battle to succeed.     Merritt is the founder & head of trading at Apteros Trading, a proprietary trading firm, before that he headed futures and commodities trading at SMB Capital.    The first episode with Merritt in September 2019 proved enduringly popular and has remained one of our most downloaded episodes. In this new episode, as in the previous one, Merritt shares a depth of wisdom, honesty and humility which is rare. He allies that with an ability to encapsulate the key challenges traders face in their battles they face with both themselves and the markets. In this episode Merritt talks about the benefits of working in a proprietary trading business. He tells how working in a proprietary trading firm supports traders by fostering their trading development and providing them mentorship and guidance and a collaborative experience as they progress in their trading careers. Merritt also talks about Apteros&apos;s NADRO Methodology, which is a trading system, method and approach built on principals that teach the trader the language of the markets, helps provide direction for how they engage with the market, and supports their development of their trading playbook. This interview is in reality more of a conversation and broadens out to cover a whole range of themes around the behaviours, mindsets and attitudes traders need to embrace to power their development and growth   This episode is full of nuggets of wisdom, too numerous to mention and summarise. One thing is for certain though, the listener will learn so much from this episode that will both educate them and challenge them on some of their deep-held beliefs. You can learn more about Merritt and his work by visiting Apteros’s webpage: https://www.apterostrading.com/Merritt can be followed on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/merrittblack

Merritt Black: Golden Nuggets of Trading Wisdom

This episode&apos;s guest is Mental game Coach Jared Tendler. Jared is the author of a new book, “The Mental Game of Trading”.Jared has worked as a mental game coach with golfers and poker players and has written extensively about the mental game of poker.  The mental aspect of trading is probably the hardest and most challenging part of trading to manage and overcome. You can be strong technically, and may posses a great process or system, but it is the mental side which often causes the most frustration for traders. This is not dissimilar to what happens in sport and gaming; hence is why we were so keen to talk to Jared, who has made dealing with this aspect so central to his work.Jared talks about the blindspots people have in seeing the mental challenges and problems they face. He say they then then compound this error by trying to fix their costly and recurring trading habits by trying to improve their technical skills, when the the real root of these mistakes reside within each person at a psychological level.  Other issues Jared talks about include: - Issues around choking, which is common to all areas of high performance.- The importance of getting &apos;In The Zone&apos;.- How Jared’s approach, as featured in his book, seeks to bridge the gap from knowledge of psychological issues to helping people make transformations. - Many other areas of the mental game which will fascinating to people involved in and curious about trading and investment roles. Links to Jared and his new book: Webpage: https://jaredtendler.com/Twitter: https://twitter.com/jaredtendler  Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaredtendler/Book: The Mental Game of Trading: A System for Solving Problems with Greed, Fear, Anger, Confidence, and Discipline 

Jared Tendler: The Mental Game of Trading.

This episode focuses on peak performance.We are all familiar with the idea of coaching as a driver of peak performance in sports, however the concept of using coaching in other areas, particularly trading, remains largely alien to many. Yet trading is a high-performance activity. It requires clarity of mind, careful planning, acute reflexes, the ability to make split second decisions in fast moving complex and uncertain environments, and a competitive spirit. People rarely consider these aspects of trading. Most people see the job of trading as being about strategy and method. They thus devote vast amounts of energy to trying to find and develop systems or methods to win the strategy battle. It’s worth considering that the most successful traders do not have superior systems, methods or strategies to anyone else. What they do have is the ability to apply them more effectively. This is because they have the ability to work at peak levels of performance more often, more regularly and are able to sustain those levels. It is with this in mind, that people are turning increasingly towards performance coaching to help support, develop and motivate them towards developing a peak performance mindset and achieve excellence in the enormously challenging roles they face as traders.Mark Randall, one of the podcasts usual co-hosts is today the interviewed, rather than the interviewer. Mark, a veteran of the financial markets, is now one of the world&apos;s leading Peak Performance coaches.  For the past several years Mark has worked with people in trading and investment roles, as well as with people in leadership and management roles, and even those engaged in sports.  Mark focuses on developing the person to cultivate a peak performance mindset for the challenges they face. You can find out more about Mark and his work on the AlphaMind website https://alpha-mind.net. You can learn more about his Peak Performance Coaching programme for traders on the AlphaMind Blog here: https://alphamindblog.blogspot.com/p/the-alphamind-trader-mental-strength.htmlMark can be contacted on his email here mark@alpha-mind.net. Or you can also Direct Message him on twitter https://twitter.com/AlphaMind102 and on LinkedIn. 

Mark Randall: Cultivating a Peak Performance Mindset for Trading Excellence.

Ryan Paisey has been in and around markets for almost 2 decades. He has been a market-maker, a day trader, a scalper and a prop trader (almost an interesting new line for Steve Miller Band&apos;s &apos;The Joker&apos;). These days he devotes his energy to providing a trader news service ‘PriapusIQ’, which he describes as All Killer, No Filler, News & Commentary on all Things Markets & Geopolitics. His commentary, often accompanied by some acerbic market wit (yes he really is &apos;the joker&apos;), provides a more slanted and edgy perspective on news and analysis which differentiates it from the standard news and information offerings traders receive. In this excellent chat with us, Ryan shares some deep thoughts and perspective about a host of aspects of trading from his many year’s experiences. He feels passionate about the learning journey for traders, and how so many people enter trading without the sort of support and guidance he had from experienced traders who were around him in the physical settings of trading room environments. As you will hear in this vibrant chat, Ryan doesn’t hold back on his views. Ryan is driven by a desire to provide traders with an edge by having the sort of slant on news and information which they fail to get from standard news services. With barriers to entry so low, many traders come into trading unprepared, or with unrealistic expectations and then have to fend for themselves. By contrast, when Ryan started, he had the benefit of learning in a trading room environment which provided the sort of incubation which many modern traders miss out.  His news service aims to help address the absence of the sort of high valuable spin on news, in relation to markets, that use to be available to traders working in trading room environments.You can learn more about PriapusIQ at https://www.priapusiq.com/You can follow Ryan on Twitter at @PriapusIQ

Ryan Paisey: No Edge Will Last Forever

Paul Craven, a behavioural expert with a strong background in the investment industry, shares some fascinating insights into how the mind plays tricks on us that impact how we make decisions and choices in our trading and investment activities.Paul  is an expert in the field of behavioural finance. He talks. lectures and has a deep passion for this topic. Paul understands the challenges people in these fields face from having spent a career in the industry working for leading firms such as Schroder’s Investment management, PIMCO and Goldman Sachs. Paul's now works to promote the understanding of how behaviours impact how people make decisions in their business, trading and investment activities. Paul believes that a better understanding of psychology and how real people make real decisions in the real world provides a strong competitive edge to those who embrace it.As a well-known industry public speaker, Paul has given an excellent TEDx talk, offers private consultancy and decision-making workshops, and is a visiting lecturer at the London Business School. In addition Paul also has a fascination for the world of magic, and is a member of the exclusive 'Magic Circle', meaning that he can offer an extra perspective on how “the mind plays tricks.”Paul is also involved with Behavioural Lab, a company which combines data analytics and behavioural science to assess performance and apply behavioural techniques to cultivate best practice. You can find out more about Paul at https://www.paulcraven.com/Paul’s Twitter Handle is https://twitter.com/CravenPartnersPaul’s excellent and highly entertaining TEDx talk can be viewed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdkgBlOt8m0

Paul Craven: How the Mind Plays Tricks on Traders & Investors.

There is no easy money in trading, and just when you think there may be, the opportunities that produce it get snatched away from you. That’s the lesson our guest Joseph Gasperoni, who goes by the name JTrader, has learned and passed on to others in a 20-year career as a full-time day trader and educator.Jo started trading in the dotcom era in Italy. At a young age he was soon making the sort of money which most people dream of. Life seemed good and he seemed to be set-up for a great and fruitful career as a trader.  However, things change fast in markets, and the rich seams that Jo had tapped into soon ran dry. This maybe a sobering story for many young traders who are currently experiencing their own ‘easy money’. As Jo experienced, what seems like easy money rarely lasts, and when it stops, you need to work out how to make money in all market conditions. Following the taps running dry for Jo, he went through a period of deep reflection, anxiety and self-doubt. The period of underperformance was a hit to his self-esteem which he took personally, and which led to sleepless nights and panic attacks. After a break for a couple of years Jo returned and started trading in the U.S Markets, effectively starting over, learning a new strategy in a new market, and trading in new ways. The key to his story and subsequent success is one of adaption, evolution and re-learning. Jo also started his own educational arm which provides learning and mentoring services for traders. Education services are vital for new retail traders who miss out on the benefits of learning in a trading room environment. Whilst there are many dubious providers of trading education, Jo came to us highly recommended and we were able to explore this vital area of trader development.  As well as being a full-time trader and mentor, Jo is into mixed martial arts and bodybuilding.You can find out more about Jo on his website: https://jtrader.co/ and can follow him on twitter here https://twitter.com/jtraderco

JTrader: There’s No Easy Money - Adaption, Evolution and Learning.

A Podcast on the behavioural, psychological and emotional aspects of Trading & Investing Performance. Co-presented by Steven Goldstein and Mark Randall, ex-market Professional with over 70 years markets experience between them. They interview traders, analysts, psychologists, coaches, behavioural finance experts and authors from a variety of fields to explore the aspects of performance which help people develop and gain an edge in Financial markets.

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AlphaMind The Podcast: Exploring Trading & Investing Mindset

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