Chat With Traders

We’re joined by Jamaal Ghauri, a trader and fund manager who began his journey unusually early — first exposed to crypto markets as a teenager during Bitcoin’s early adoption phase, before moving into stocks and eventually options.

Jamal walks through the full arc of his development as a trader: early overconfidence, aggressive options bets, a rapid run-up followed by a major drawdown, and the hard lessons that ultimately forced him to rethink risk, position sizing, and process. From there, he explains how he rebuilt by focusing on more structured setups, volatility awareness, and consistency over time.

...

A quiet, end-of-year reflection on the middle stage of trading — where progress is subtle, patterns are familiar, and the real work happens internally.

Sponsor of Chat With Traders Podcast:

●       Trade The Pool:  ⁠⁠⁠http://www.tradethepool.com⁠⁠

Trading Disclaimer:

 Trading in the financial markets involves a risk of loss. Podcast episodes and other content produced by Chat With Traders are for informational or educational purposes only and do not constitute trading or investment recommendations or advice.

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In this episode, we examine what actually happens when crypto markets break — how leverage builds beneath the surface, liquidity disappears, and liquidation cascades turn volatility into systemic failure.

Doug Colkitt, a quantitative trader and DeFi builder whose experience spans both traditional finance and crypto market structure. Doug began his career on Wall Street at Citigroup before moving into high-frequency trading at Citadel during the 2008 financial crisis. He later built and traded his own systems across futures, volatility products, and international equities, including running a major market-making operation in Turkish stocks.

Today, Doug focuses on crypto an...

Returning guest Vincent Bruzzese — trader, former statistics professor, poker player, and former Hollywood behavioral analyst — joins Tessa for a candid discussion about navigating one of the most narrative-driven markets in years. Known online as “Hari Seldon” in the Real Day Trading community, Vincent is recognized for posting his trades live and delivering multiple years of standout performance, with returns north of 60% and even 80%. 

In this episode, Vincent talks about why traders are struggling with discipline, how sentiment and storylines are overpowering both fundamentals and technicals, and what separates structured trading from gambling. He also shares how tools like his...

Christian Carreon returns to Chat With Traders nearly three years after his first appearance, where he shared his remarkable journey through stage-five kidney failure and the discipline it forged in him as a trader. Today, he brings an even deeper perspective—on markets, on patience, and on the Box Strategy that has become his signature.

Christian is a breakout trend trader who waits for compression, defines his levels meticulously, and only commits when price breaks cleanly from the “box” with tight risk and clear direction. In this conversation, he walks us through how his approach has evolved, how he...

Dr. Efrat t Levy is a cybersecurity expert with a PhD in Computer Science and AI from Ben-Gurion University—one of Israel’s top tech institutions. After years studying how to detect hackers through side-channel signals, she applied the same logic to trading.

In this conversation, Dr. Levy explains how she uses machine learning to map non-repainting key levels that reveal the hidden order flow—the subtle timing and volume clues that expose the real intent of big players. She shows how correlated markets often move together at these key levels and how that insight helps her trade...

How a trader from Dallas built consistency—and a simple lifestyle of freedom in Southeast Asia—with a 30% win rate.  Diego Ivan Cortes Lopez grew up chasing perfection on the tennis court, where winning came naturally, but it was trading that taught him how to win by losing. After years of trial, error, and a six-figure setback, studying the methods taught by Oliver Velez, a prominent veteran professional trader, helped him rebuild his approach - focusing on daily support and resistance, clean reversal signals, and asymmetric risk-to-reward. Now trading large-cap stocks from Vietnam on a single 13-inch laptop with unclu...

We’re joined by Jack Schwager—author of the legendary Market Wizards series and co-founder of FundSeeder—along with his partner and fellow co-founder & CEO, Emanuel Balarie. Jack shares what it really takes to be considered for a Market Wizards book: not one formula, but a mix of standout performance, disciplined risk, and an almost obsessive commitment to process and adaptation. Along the way, we dig into why survival so often hinges on position sizing and pre-planned exits, whether strategies like trend following can still hold up today, and the paradox of how fundamental convictions can actually work against risk m...

A former competitive gamer, Mario Dimitroff from Bulgaria got his start on a local trading floor before discovering that the U.S. premarket session best fit his skills. Now trading for a living and doing nothing else, his news-driven, event-based scalping focuses on low-liquidity movers. Leveraging gaming-honed speed and pattern recognition, he quickly decides whether to ride momentum or fade to mean, enters/exits fast, sizes within liquidity, and sustains his edge by cutting losers quickly, avoiding drawdowns, and stacking small consistent wins. In this episode, you’ll hear how Mario turned his competitive gaming instincts into an all-in co...

Online funding prop firms have captured the attention of traders in recent years. In this episode, the CEO of Trade The Pool, Michael Katz, joins the podcast to answer key questions and offer perspective from inside one of the leading firms. The conversation explores how these firms operate, what they mean for traders, and the common debates surrounding them.  The goal is not promotion of prop firms, but to pull back the curtain and provide a clearer understanding of the role prop firms play in today’s trading landscape.

Links + Resources: 

●     Trade The Pool:  http...

Growing up in Germany without a financial background, Julian Komar became fascinated by stocks as a teenager. He moved past complex German trading products to concentrate on U.S. equities. Specializing in momentum and growth stocks on the daily timeframe, he blends fundamentals, technicals, and story analysis to uncover opportunities that put him in the best position for high-potential setups and riding powerful trends. As a disciplined breakout trader, he prioritizes risk control, market trends, and intuition gained through decades of experience.

About Julian Komar

Julian is a trader, mentor, and entrepreneur. With over 20 years...

From academic struggles at SUNY Albany to holding the world record for the largest prop firm payouts—roughly $4.5 million in total, Kyle Ng a.k.a. JadeCap’s journey started out like many aspiring traders. Sparked by a childhood friend's success in forex about 14 years ago, he found his way into the financial markets.  Like many traders, he went through the pain, losses and sacrifices and struggles, but at the same time he’s also unlike many traders, slowly building his edge through discipline, risk management, and a long-term mindset.

Over the years, he’s leveraged prop firms to...

What happens when a teenager growing up without TV in rural Canada stumbles across CNBC in a college dorm and sees people making $100,000 in a day? For Chris Vermeulen, that moment changed everything—and kicked off a 25-year journey of trading triumphs, painful losses, and profound strategy shifts.

In this episode, you'll meet a trader who’s lived through the tech bubble, the 2008 financial crisis, and everything in between. Chris doesn’t chase headlines or hype—he follows price, momentum, and something most traders overlook entirely: vibration and cycles.

From blowing up accounts to walking away fro...

Dylan Maltman, an intraday futures and forex trader and founder of Apex Capital, must have had exceptional clarity starting at a young age. Introduced to the markets in a high school presentation by a prop firm, Dylan caught the passion for the potential of the markets and persuaded his way into a position at the firm. Learning about back testing, he became obsessed with dissecting every nuance of past data so as to create a system with high returns with minimal drawdowns by understanding where edge can be found, as evidenced in the performance of the algorithmic strategies. Emphasizing...

Erik Smolinski returns to Chat With Traders after his first appearance on episode 272, joining Tessa for a trader-to-trader conversation about the intricacies of options trading, a topic Erik is deeply passionate about. In this episode Erik digs into one of Tessa’s own options strategies, offering thoughtful feedback and sharing his expertise and experience from years in the game. With so many myths floating around about options, their discussion clears up some of the biggest misconceptions and gives listeners a practical perspective on how to approach this trading style.

About Erik Smolinski:

Erik is a Ma...

In this episode we catch up with Patrick Petersson, who returns two years after his first interview on Chat With Traders on episode 260, where he shared his incredible story of overcoming hardship to attaining success in trading as a professional trader. Patrick has become best known for his intuitive, price-action, news-based, scalping trading style. Shifting from trading as a lone wolf to collaborating with others, Patrick shares his personal transformation that he underwent by mentoring and guiding other aspiring traders to realize their greatest potential.

In a refreshingly blunt conversation, Patrick shares practical, real-life trading topics and...

Michael Martin, raised in a hardworking blue-collar community, embraced the same ethic. An entrepreneur at heart, he hustled from cutting grass when he was 12 to working all types of jobs including golf caddying and waiting at restaurants to starting businesses. Determined to transition into the white-collar working world and being at the right place at the right time, he was exposed to the financial markets.  

He subsequently worked on Wall Street, managing commodity accounts. Despite the significant commissions, he realized that he could potentially earn more through an incentive fee. After three years at a brokerage firm, he...

Christian Mayer, with an institutional trading background, transitioned from equities to forex, focusing on fixed sized mean-reversion strategies with fundamental correlations where structural edge is statistically likely. His initial losses led him to a research and systematic-driven approach, and back testing. He trades with fixed position sizes, wide stop losses, and avoids compounding to minimize exposure to fat-tail risks and black swan events. Emotionally disciplined yet honest about the psychological strain of prolonged drawdowns, Christian blends rigorous quantitative methods with thoughtful strategy design. With a successful track record, including a second-place finish in one of the World Cup Trading...

A former engineer turned successful options trader, real estate investor and entrepreneur, Cody Yeh shares his incredible journey from the 9-to-5 grind to achieving financial freedom through smart investing and calculated risk-taking.

We unpack his options trading strategies, mindset hacks for building wealth, and how he helps others escape the rat race and take control of their financial futures. Whether you’re a trading newbie or a seasoned investor, Cody drops pure gold you won’t want to miss.

About Cody Yeh:

Cody Yeh is a Canadian entrepren...

Few people understand the minds of traders like Dr. Brett Steenbarger. As a psychologist who trades actively himself, he brings a rare combination of clinical expertise and practical experience to the world of financial markets.

You might know him from his dynamic presentations at SMB Capital, where he breaks down the psychology of trading with remarkable clarity. His willingness to evolve his views over the years through his extensive work with professional traders and hedge fund portfolio managers, has shaped his own trading approach too. 

His upcoming book, "Positive Trading Psychology," promises to share fresh p...

Steve Ruffley transitioned from a highly competitive trading floor environment to trading professionally as a retail trader. His entrance into trading was unplanned - a mix of ambition, timing, and the right connections. After leaving university early, he took a finance job and then moved to Gibraltar, where he met traders running a new trading floor. Intrigued, he joined their intense graduate program, enduring six weeks of brutal tests where failure meant dismissal. The trading floor was an adrenaline-fueled world - rows of screens, high-stakes trades, and a culture of camaraderie and competition. This experience undoubtedly shaped his trading...

Ross Haber’s trading philosophy is built on growth-focused strategies, heavily influenced by William O'Neil. Combining both technical and fundamental analysis, Ross emphasizes the importance of identifying leaders in strong market sectors and adapting to market cycles.  

Optimizing the use of relative strength, moving averages, and volume analysis, and tailoring it to each stock’s unique personality combined with his ability to manage risk through strategic scaling techniques and sell stops has been one of the cornerstones of his success. 

About Ross Haber

During his tenure as Portfolio Manager at William O'Neil & Company from 19...

Rick Bandazian Jr., a seasoned trader with over 15 years of experience in event-driven and merger-arbitrage strategies, reflects on transitioning from an analyst at JP Morgan and First New York Securities to establishing himself as an independent trader. Rick emphasizes his deep expertise in anticipating market moves based on nuanced corporate actions and his methodical approach to understanding catalysts. Despite the fast-paced nature of his work, Rick maintains consistency by staying disciplined, even during market lulls. Beyond trading, he’s a volunteer firefighter, driven by a strong sense of community.

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Laurens Bensdorp's trading journey began with years of losses as a discretionary trader. Frustrated by inconsistent results and mounting stress, he embarked on a mission to develop systematic trading approaches. His goal was simple but ambitious: create reliable systems that would deliver steady returns while minimizing losses.

This transformation wasn't overnight. Through years of careful development and testing, Bensdorp gained deep insights into the cyclical nature of his trading systems - understanding when they were likely to generate profits or face losses. His persistence paid off. By eventually creating and implementing over 55 different trading systems, he achieved...

Inspired by the impact of predictive analytics on sales at Sam Miesse's tech company, he became interested in applying quantitative analysis to the small cap market. Spending nearly 2 years collecting data and observing how money moved into and out of many small cap stocks convinced him that there were repeating patterns which could be statistically exploited. After many back tests Sam finally had a system which processed over 10,000 small caps and produced 20-40 actionable daily opportunities. Starting with an experimental $10,000, his rigorously back-tested system gave him the confidence to stick with the signals, despite suffering a $500,000 daily drawdown along...

Mark Ritchie II shares insights from his trading journey, shaped by disciplined risk management and a strong focus on price action and fundamentals. Growing up with a renowned trader father, Mark’s passion for trading developed later in life through hands-on experience. He prioritizes finding stocks in long-term uptrends, identifying low-risk entries, and refining his edge over time. Emphasizing the importance of controlling emotions, Mark advocates starting small, scaling up only when confident in a strategy’s effectiveness. His trading approach adapts to varying market conditions, using timeless principles to maintain capital efficiency and manage risk, helping him navigate both...

Alfonso Peccatiello’s (also known as MacroAlf on X) approach to the financial markets is rooted in macroeconomic insights, identifying market imbalances, and disciplined risk management. Having managed a $20 billion fixed-income portfolio, Alf has seen firsthand how understanding market dynamics and timing can unlock significant value. His strategies focus on spotting crowded trades, leveraging market dislocations, and carefully sizing positions to maximize returns while minimizing risk.

About Alfonso Peccatiello:

Alfonso is the founder and CEO of The Macro Compass, a firm dedicated to democratizing access to professional macro analysis, tools, and portfolio strategies. Leveraging his ex...

We caught up with Steve B, a seasoned professional independent trader with 10+ years of experience in the financial markets we got to know closely through the Chat With Traders Community. Steve teamed up with our community cohost and mentor at the time, Patrick Petersson (featured on episode 260) to run the CWT Community Live Trading Room. They mainly traded futures on major indexes. Many community members were interested in their futures trading approach and streamlined looking charts with key levels derived from options market data, which helped build their trading roadmap. Alongside Patrick, Steve has been an influential mentor inside...

We're joined today by Robb Reinhold, the Head Trader at Maverick Trading. Robb shares insights from a captivating trading experiment that's sure to intrigue both novice and experienced traders alike. The Flat Earth Trading Society experiment was a year long experiment testing the power of consistent position management and following a systematic trading process. Using random stock selections, Robb and his team implemented a rigid position management strategy to prove that disciplined exits and managing losses are more crucial than well thought out entries. Tune in as Robb walks us through the strategy, execution, and key takeaways from this...

There’s Contrarian Trading and then there’s Consistent Contrarian Trading. Can you really make money by consistently going against the crowd? Does it take a certain type of personality to be able to trade this way? Jason Shapiro was featured in “Unknown Market Wizards” by Jack Schwager and he returns to Chat With Traders for an update after two years since we last spoke with him. 

We delve deeper into his countertrend trading philosophy, learning about how he identifies overcrowded trades, and how market positioning and sentiment, rather than price, guide his trades, and focusing on the under...

Greg Magadini began his career as a proprietary trader for DRW Trading and Chopper Trading in Chicago and traded with SMB Capital as well. He later took a bold step, venturing out to trade his own book, bootstrapping crypto volatility with options and turning $50,000 into a staggering $1.3 million in consistent profits over nine years.

In addition to his trading success, Greg co-founded Genesis Volatility – a crypto options analytics company, which caught the attention of Amberdata and resulted in an acquisition. Today, Greg serves as the Director of Derivatives at Amberdata, continuing to leverage his expertise in the de...

We often hear that having “Discipline” is the key to trading success. But many of us traders continue to struggle developing discipline and good habits for trading no matter how hard and how long we’ve tried. Could there be a deeper reason for this?

As fellow human traders, we are commonly faced with our own programming that we are often unaware of. In this special episode, Sam Daghash, a professional coach and cofounder (alongside cofounder David Capablanca, featured on Chat With Traders Episode 257) of the Conscious Trading Academy specializing in helping traders overcome mental barriers, dive into a...

Michael shares his journey from aspiring NFL athlete to successful day trader. After a sports injury dashed his football dreams, he turned to day trading, teaching himself the ropes and overcoming early financial losses with the encouragement of his entrepreneurial mother. His trading strategy evolved over the years, focusing on short-selling highly volatile small-cap stocks after discovering his knack for it in 2021. His discipline, honed from years of football, helps him execute trades like a sniper—waiting patiently for the perfect setup before striking.

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Tony Greer, a Long Island native, ventured into Wall Street trading inspired by his father. With a background in business management from Cornell University, he honed his skills at Sumitomo Bank, UBS, and Goldman Sachs. He and his team meticulously diagrammed every aspect of the markets, from liquidity to potential swings, which allowed him to exploit edges in his trading playbooks. Running multiple commodity books, including gold and platinum, was like piloting the Millennium Falcon—quoting prices to global banks and witnessing monumental market moves. He eventually ventured out on his own to day trade. From tech stock investments to...

Starting in classical violin and computer programming, Marsten Parker's path took a transformative turn when he ventured into trading. Despite a rocky start, his disciplined, algorithm-driven approach led to consistent returns, earning him recognition in Jack Schwager's book, "Unknown Market Wizards". We get to learn about his transition from discretionary trading to systematic trading, emphasizing the importance of statistical analysis over emotional decision-making. Marsten used his programming skills to create fully automated trading systems to take advantage of breakouts, mean reversion, IPO opportunities, and other strategies.

About Marsten Parker

Marsten has been a full-time individual...

Trading commodities since 14 years old, Professor Hanke started learning the importance of closely following macro economic factors which impact the prices of currencies, commodities and consumer goods. His evidence-based approach uncovers the deeper forces driving inflation and market fluctuations and challenges prevailing narratives as it relates to economics. By exploring macro topics often overlooked by the mainstream, Professor Hanke broadens our collective understanding and invites us to think more deeply and critically about the economic forces shaping our world.

About Steve Hanke:

Steve Hanke is an American economist and professor of applied economics at the...

Saad Filali, worked for Goldman Sachs, specializing in Mergers and Acquisitions, then left and became a Trader. Understanding the thinking and trading styles of the many different market players is key to his trading, including those of institutions, sell side brokers, CTA’s, retail, and meme stock traders. Studying how they trade the volatility and news releases helps Saad to predict market movements and calculate suitable entry and exit points in his trades.

Saad now manages his own fund, called Fiat Elpis Macro Fund, and relies on news flow and research. He looks for discrepancies between market pr...

Unlock the secrets to superior mental sharpness and explore groundbreaking strategies to boost your cognitive function, from nutrition hacks and exercise tips to innovative biohacking techniques. Ben Greenfield, a renowned expert in the health and fitness sphere, reveals his top methods for optimizing brain health. Whether you seek to enhance focus, memory, or overall brain power, this discussion offers valuable insights and practical advice to elevate your mental game for peak performance.

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The lure of the markets seduced a successful musician into full time trading at a prop firm. Collaborating with other traders, Garrett Drinon learned the market signals, and other ingredients which go into great setups. Wanting to expand his reach, he uses his programming skills to create new algos which help him and his colleagues find the Unicorns and manage a larger portfolio than he could normally handle.

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As a risk officer with the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Will Gogolak was setting margin requirements and saw a wide variety of traders’ accounts and what separated the winning traders from the losing ones, before leaving to pursue his own trading and obtaining a PHD in finance and share his knowledge of quantitative analysis and market experience with students at Carnegie Mellon University. Combining his market experience with knowledge of statistics helps William create his custom buy the dip strategy with futures and leveraged ETFs, and focusing on probabilities and determining market direction for informed trading decisions.

...

Experiencing the noticeable communication differences between his childhood culture and his new home in the U.S., William Lam was driven to become aware of how his limiting thoughts imprinted from his family drove unhealthy unconscious actions. Learning how to shape his mental thought process played key roles in fulfilling big desires and creating a richer life. Hear how our minds are like operating systems to which we can influence for better or worse. We’re just scratching the surface in this episode, but it’s enough to get us to reconsider our thoughts and behaviors from a fresh persp...

A humble beginning as a gopher in the intense trading pits of Japanese warrants was shocking for Gary Norden when he was a teenager. As this volatile market was beginning its meltdown, Gary saw how easily star traders lost immense amounts of money as past overconfidence and sloppy risk control undid their previous gains. This impressed upon Gary the importance of a risk averse stance to keep himself in the game. Practicing Order Flow Trading, hundreds of times per week, gives Gary the edge in this lost art.

About Gary Norden:

Gary’s trading career ha...

James is the co-founder and Chief Investment Officer of Azoria Partners, a global macro investment firm. Prior to Azoria, he served as the Head of Macro at Greenlight Capital, a two-billion-dollar hedge fund led by David Einhorn. He is also the founder of Incubate Debate, America’s fastest-growing high school debate league. As a former national high school debate champion and volunteer debate coach, he launched Incubate in 2019.

James was fortunate to have the opportunity to display his talent and strategies to the well-known billionaire hedge fund manager David Einhorn, which also resulted in James getting exposed to...

Chat With Traders End of 2023 Message

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Growing up poor and living in violent neighborhoods didn’t stop Erik Smolinski from being motivated and curious. Erik only needed to hear a few words about investing including the power of compounding from his high school instructor to light the passion and determination to take ACTION. The discipline, responsibility, accountability, and patience he cultivated as a Marine Corp officer strengthened his ability to stick with his well thought out trading plans and persevere. His use of derivatives strategies help him to minimize painful drawdowns while creating consistent, long term market-beating returns.

About Erik

Erik is...

Experiencing the brutal bear market of 1973-74 impressed upon Tom the necessity to find ways to hedge risk. This began a multi year long quest to find the right combination of uncorrelated assets, technical indicators and adjust the weightings as needed to provide enough protection to fill in the potholes of equity drawdowns while retaining the bulk of upside potential. Having a sweet balance between risk and reward both in the financial markets and in his personal life has enabled Tom to maintain a serene disposition.

Tom Basso’s Background:

Tom Basso is an American he...

Every now and then, we like to switch things up and take a break from our usual program. Today, we present a special episode for that purpose. So, what keeps you in the trading game? The voices you hear in the podcast introduction belong to our listeners from all over the world. We share these voices with you because we believe you will be able to relate to them, just as we do. These voices mirror those of many traders like us who are on similar paths. They also serve as a reminder that we are not alone on t...

The shock of his first major losing year in 2004 as a discretionary trader, propelled Rob Hanna to find quantifiable statistical advantages that would help mitigate the fluctuations in his equity curves. Knowing the dangers of curve fitting, in trying to find that ‘perfect’ system, Rob zeroed in on simpler approaches that would combine seasonality, overbought, oversold and Federal Reserve days. The result is a system that helps minimize anxiety and drawdowns while keeping him invested for the bulk of bullish moves.

Rob Hanna’s Bio:

Rob is a Registered Investment Adviser Representative for Capital Advisors 360. He has...

Paying to take and pass the Series 7 license as a teenager in the 1980’s led Bryan Holdford into the high commission world of stocks and options without mentors or the internet. Starting with investment newspapers Bryan tried many trading ideas without any risk controls. Despite frequent and numerous losses, he was hooked on the game of trading. Obsessive determination drives him to stay in the game despite a boom bust performance. Recently he seems to have found the right balance.

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Stinging losses with mutual funds in 2008 drove Dan to become an active manager of his portfolio. Enticed by the legalization prospects of marijuana, he dived into learning the fundamentals and technicals of the sector. Learning how these stocks traded relative to each other, he cultivated an awareness of the correlations between these companies. These interrelationships would later be applied to large cap stocks, Commodities and Crypto across different time frames to give insights on when to participate in Bull and Bear runs, and when to back away.

Feeling the pain of big early profits evaporating over months...

An engineer at the core, Mark Bennell, a Private Trader who has been trading full-time for 15 years breaks down what it really means to “Treat Trading As a Business” and why this mindset was incredibly important in turning his trading around and why it has kept him in the game for this long.

About Mark Bennell

Mark Bennell is a Private Trader who has been trading for the last 18 years, 15 of those being as a full time trader. He holds a Diploma in Technical Analysis, a Diploma in Share Trading and Investment and the International Accr...

Seeing and feeling the intensity and chaos of the trading pits back in the 1980’s, Pete knew immediately that trading was the career he had to have. Starting as a floor runner making $5/hr to later trading full time for a living Pete discovered the importance of finding stocks with relative strength during the bear market of 2002. Pete uses a top down 3 step methodical process which helps him zero in on stocks to go long or short. From longs to shorts, conservative credit spreads, high leverage options to occasional Lotto trades, Pete fine tunes his versatile strategies to match cu...

Growing up poor in the Philippines, Gabriel sought a way to supplement his income. Dealing with the emotional challenges of giving up his profits in his long-term positions, he switched to trading to have a sense of greater control of the outcome. Starting out using many technical indicators, he later switched to just price action as it gave less false signals. After blowing up several accounts, he honed his skills to become the winner of the 21-Day Trading Challenge Contest inside the Chat with Traders Community and become a funded trader.

Learn...

Seeking financial opportunities overseas just before the Great Financial Crises, Andres Granger was motivated to learn how to trade after falling victim to a Ponzi-like trading scheme. He worked hard and diligently studied order flow and scalping while trading Futures in different markets. Later, he was introduced to crypto through a prop firm, where he honed his skills to exploit large market inefficiencies through market neutral trading. Emboldened by these incredible opportunities, Andres then went on to create a crypto strategy fund.

He’s the Co-founder and Head of Trade and Strategy Development at Active Digital Funds, on...

This is a special episode of a recording of a recent discussion that occurred within the Chat With Traders Community on a Zoom call. The discussion centers around Henrik Johansson, a beginner fellow trader, who embarked on a journey to obtain funding from a proprietary trading firm within a 60-day timeframe. Patrick Petersson leads the conversation with Henrik. If you recall, Patrick was a guest on episode 260. Patrick and Henrik traded together during this period with the goal of helping Henrik to achieve the goal of getting funded. They provide an overview of these 60 days for the CWT Community...

First seduced by advertisements of easy money, Shay a.k.a. Humbled Trader learned that she had to find her own way of trading. Taking the skills she learned as a special effects artist in Hollywood, she created the popular Youtube channel for traders to share her trading wisdoms in a humorous creative way. Join us in the story of how Shay was able to quit her full time job to trade full time.

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Growing up in a family and culture strongly critical of trading as a profession, Patrick Petersson opened his first trading account on his 18th birthday and risked his reputation and family money to follow a deep growing passion he had for years. After blowing up many accounts, he found himself homeless and rejected by all in his family despite fully paying them back. Passion, determination, and persuasion gave Patrick another chance as he started managing money for wealthy clients. Join us in this unusual and fascinating journey as we learn about his trading and intuitive Jedi skills to make...

Lacking education, mentors or money, Lukas Frohlich, known to many as The Short Bear, became fascinated with financial markets when only 13 years old. Saving everything he could from jobs, he started trading before he could even legally drive a car. He created Youtube and Twitter accounts to share strategies, victories and defeats to help fellow traders improve their game.

Obsessed with learning from mistakes, understanding gains and improving his process lead to outrageous gains in 2020 with his Agenda Trading strategy. Changing market conditions propelled Lukas into innovating new strategies quite different from what he started with. His...

Dedicating significant hours to books and market analysis, Alexander Moreno sought regular counsel from a seasoned trading mentor. After refining his abilities through months of paper trading, he ventured into live trading, reaping consistent profits as planned. This success bolstered his confidence to trade full-time as a livelihood. However, the unforeseen market turbulence in 2008 unleashed his psychological struggles, leading to impulsive trading and ultimately, homelessness. This harrowing experience granted Alexander invaluable insights that he now imparts to others.

This might be one of the most important episodes to listen to in a while when it comes to...

Deep in debt after finishing Architecture school, David Capablanca, originally from Miami and host of the Friendly Bear Podcast, desired an alternative career with independence, freedom and potential for high earnings. Naturally drawn to a contrarian psychology, he zeroed in on short selling. The challenge of uncovering scams through a deep dive into company fundamentals, history of founders and visiting company headquarters overseas on a quest to find clues were the things that energized David and brought his trading approach to a whole other level.

Let’s go on a “short” adventure with David today!

L...

After an accident ended her career as a professional athlete, Louisa Nicola became a Neurophysiologist and human performance coach, in order to understand and share what improves and degrades the brain’s short term performance and long term viability. Adopting certain habits, diets and supplementing with technology can give us traders the edge needed for peak performance and overall mental well-being.  

Bio

Neurophysiologist and human performance coach, Louisa Nicola is the founder and head performance advisor of Neuro Athletics - a consulting firm that boasts the best athletes in the world. By using science driven data...

As a former poker player, heavy gambler, and professor of statistics, and after having had a successful professional career in the movie industry in Hollywood, Vincent Bruzzese (aka Hari Seldon of Real Day Trading group) took his poker skills and expertise on statistical predictive modeling of human behavior and ventured into the world of trading with a goal of finding an edge. 

But, after blowing up his accounts multiple times, he had to go back to the drawing board and hone his trading skills, mindset, and discipline to become a high probability trader before putting in another d...

Growing up poor with kidney disease as an immigrant from Mexico, Christian Carreon’s trauma with health issues and family financial instability resulted in the drive and hunger for financial success and security through redemption in the markets. Despite suffering through physical and emotional pain from his condition, his spirit and determination remained strong. He dove deep into the markets and after trial and error, eventually honed down and refined his systematic approach to a “trading boxes” strategy, which he explains.

As an avid student of chart history, he gets comfortable with specific price setups which give him th...

Patrick is a finance professor, author, quant hedge fund manager and a connoisseur of financial history. As a young investor in Utility stocks, Patrick’s hunger to learn and apply the lessons of financial history helped him to maintain composure during the frenzied bubble market in the late 90’s and avoid most of the losses his colleagues suffered during the dot.com blowup.

His studiousness, and growing aptitude for finding opportunities, resulted in him making valuable connections with mentors and business partners. His desire to understand history by analyzing data led to building quantitative trading models and event...

Growing up poor with learning difficulties, Yvan Byejee’s early trading failures drove him to understand his own emotional turbulence and instability in the mind through deep inner work. With a heightened sense of mindfulness, he embraced uncertainty and became systematic in his trading to develop an edge.

Yvan discovered trading in the late 90s and has been trading for a living since 2006. He struggled and failed his way to eventual consistency and market success over time. He’s the man responsible for the creation of Trading Composure, where he generously shares with traders all over the world...

The FTX collapse, arrest of Sam Bankman Fried, and the subsequent collapse of the crypto market opened new opportunities for Kasper Vandeloock, as some players were forced to exit the market. Note: There are 2 parts to this interview. Part 1 was recorded prior to the collapse of the crypto market due to the downfall of FTX. Part 2 (listen right after Part 1) is a follow-up interview with Kasper to get his perspective on the impact of the collapse of FTX and how it impacted his strategies.

When Kasper was just 16 years old, he received his first Bitcoin as payment fo...

As a highly driven, methodical stock and futures day trader, Sunny Harris didn’t survive the four major market crashes, she thrived through them.

A strong believer of technical analysis, back testing, and systematic trading, this vivacious Southern California trader and entrepreneur leveraged her background and skills as a mathematician and programmer to develop and refine her own trading system that she has come to rely on throughout her trading career.

Listen to some enlightening and surprising perspectives from Sunny Harris, a mathematician, programmer, author, teacher, mentor, and veteran day trader who is very active in...

Starting out juggling multiple jobs as a valet driver, firefighter and entrepreneur, Jack Kellogg at 18 years of age about 6 years ago dreamed of financial freedom, became laser-focused on saving money and learned everything he could about the stock market before turning to penny stocks.

Jack's intense drive for success pushed his mental and physical health to unhealthy levels as he managed hundreds of trades, and at times in illiquid, unregulated securities that often saw hundreds of percent increases, quickly followed by spectacular collapses within just a few weeks.

This multifaceted discussion takes us inside Jack's...

From Electrical Engineer to Hedge Fund Manager, David Sun, previously on TastyTrade as a Rising Star guest went on to start his first hedge fund in 2018, and then went on to add a second one in 2021.

Learn about one of David's concepts applying a systematic approach to Options trading. It has to do with these 3 things; stop losses (which is not common in options trading), how he takes advantage of high implied volatility (IV) - but not in the way most options traders would think, and his approach on managing the win size: loss size ratio, all...

It's about time we have a discussion on Forex Trading, but this is not your average Forex Trading discussion.

Some Forex traders may be unaware of how stop loss hunting and market manipulation is done by the smart money. Like many Forex traders, ex-stockbroker Djamal Adib experienced early losses which compelled him to study the inner workings of Forex trading, and how stop loss orders are hunted by the smart money.  

Djamal spent four years pouring over thousands of charts patterns of different time periods and programmed his carefully back tested algorithms resulting in him wi...

Seeing the great potential and opportunities available in decentralized finance and the crypto currency universe, Uri Klarman left academia with a PHD in computer networks and later specialized in Blockchain research. He started a company that would help crypto traders avoid the front running flash traders which had plagued Wall Street for years.

Uri shares his contagious excitement and passion combined with his in depth knowledge about the history, technology and benefits of decentralized finance and crypto currencies which many feel that traditional markets cannot match.

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Jason Shapiro has been a trader for 30 years and was interviewed in the Unknown Market Wizards book by Jack Schwager.  From early on Jason was a rebel who avoided group think and sought out contrarian trading opportunities in overhyped, or deeply oversold stocks and commodities. 

Blessed by early trading successes, Jason retired to a beach in Thailand in the late 90’s and traded his account full time only to experience tragedy less than a year later.  The painful lessons he learned drove him to give up his opinions about markets and instead listen to what the market is sayi...

Ian Cox, new host from Seattle, Washington joins Tessa on Chat With Traders.

Trading and investing since the mid-90s, Ian eventually worked his way towards success which afforded him early retirement, financial and time freedom. Of course it wasn't all smooth sailing as you'll learn in this interview. It never is. Passionate about the financial markets, Ian continues to expand his horizons by continuing to stay curious, learn and grow, even as a veteran trader. He currently still trades stocks and options, but Crypto is what really captivates him these days.

Learn more about...

This episode won’t be for everyone…

It contains no chatter about how to read charts, how to pick the direction of stocks, or even, how to handle your trading psyche.

However, for some, this episode will spin minds and bend preconceived notions about trading. It shines a spotlight on what happens should you uncover a structural inefficiency that can be exploited, as was the case with today’s guest Moritz Seibert.

Many know of Moritz as a trend following guy and someone with vested interests in the crypto market, but (almost) no one kn...

Today, we’re talking volatility with Kris Sidial, Chief Investment Officer at The Ambrus Group. His funds’ primary objective is to make outsized returns in the event of a market crash, and it therefore serves as a portfolio hedge for investors with heavily weighted long exposure.

Kris tells of his prop trading roots, before going on to explain the long vol trade and positioning to profit from tail risk events. He also speaks to the other side of the equation; generating absolute returns in the meantime, via active trading strategies.

There’s a lot to unpack...

This episode consists of an extremely raw and unfiltered interview with veteran derivatives trader and self-proclaimed Merc Jerk, Jimmy Jude.

As we rewind to the early 90’s, Jimmy relives the rough 'n tumble of CME’s Eurodollar options pit. Telling of power struggles, immense risk taking, and wisdoms gained from his peers.

Jimmy also recounts some of the more notable—and chaotic—events he’s witnessed, such as; being front row to an $8-billion blow up in Nat Gas, when trading on the NYMEX floor.

Then to finish, I ask Jimmy a few things abo...

Returning guest and options veteran John Carter has become increasingly aggressive with his trading tactics, and as a result, has booked a multitude of large profits during the past few years.

In this sequel to the popular Episode 69, John speaks on having surpassed the career milestone of 30-years trading—and how it’s groomed him to maximize recent market opportunities that’ve been present.

More specifically, John recaps a mega options trade ahead of GOOGL earnings, then proceeds to address; trading psychology, taking a holistic approach, navigating markets in 2022, favoring tangible assets.

Lear...

For this fourth episode in the My First Year Trading Full-Time series, we speak to retail trader Nicholas Bradburn.

A few years ago, Nick innocently stumbled onto the infamous subreddit Wall Street Bets, which lead to the discovery of options and roaring cannabis stocks. After some meddling and a few hiccups (i.e. running out of money), Nick begun to take trading more seriously once the pandemic hit, the stimulus check hit, and his livelihood became uncertain.

Remarkably, Nick remains a still-standing member of 2020’s Retail Army and has since made a commitment to full-time trad...

What does the future hold for Chat With Traders podcast? An evolution is on the horizon. Full details revealed in this episode—featuring Aaron Fifield and Tessa Dao.

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Mary Childs—a financial journalist and co-host of NPR’s Planet Money—is author of The Bond King; a biography about industry titan, billionaire bond trader Bill Gross.

Bill co-founded Pacific Investment Management Co (Pimco) in 1974, where he would become the worlds’ largest bond trader and revolutionise the market. Heading up the firms’ Total Return fund, Bill served as managing director/chief investment officer, until a shock departure in 2014.

While Bill’s widely considered a market legend, beyond the surface, I had little understanding about his rise to fame and fortune; the primary reason I was motivated...

The promised and much-anticipated follow-up interview with Lance Breitstein…

Lance was formerly a Senior Trader at proprietary firm Trillium. He earned the rank as ‘Top Trader’ in 2020 and 2021 with consecutive 8-figure years, also setting the firms’ all-time PnL record.

While Lance appeared on the podcast only a few months back, the interview was recorded a few years back. However, this interview is very recent, it was recorded 13th June 2022—after Nasdaq declined 4% on the day, sparking initial comments about market context.

Our discussion primarily revolves around several core trading concepts that have greatly attributed...

Today, I bring you a man who’s truly seen it all: Chris Cady

Having surpassed 40-years as an equity index trader, Chris has lived through every type of market environment imaginable and reinvented himself several times over. But is experience all it’s hyped up to be? Well, that’s the opening line for our chat…

From there, Chris delves into some of the best/worst times throughout his career in futures markets—and shares a captivating story about the “radical” silver traders and infamous Hunt Brothers. Later, Chris lays out his trading philosophy of “structure...

While many are only hearing about prediction markets for the first time, for near a decade, anonymous trader Domer (@Domahhhh) has been at the frontier of profiting from outcomes of unknown future events.

Political and economic matters are Domer’s specialty, although he doesn’t shy away from the rather abstract events either—for example; trading on the outcome of Britney Spear’s conservatorship and the Suez Canal obstruction!

Now at a point where he’s netting PnL of several hundred thousand dollars a year (across multiple exchanges), much of Domer’s winnings are due to his abili...

This year I’ve brought you some truly phenomenal traders and it continues, right here…

Kenny Sharkness (aka Shark) is one of the greatest success stories to come out of proprietary trading firm SMB Capital. In the span of a decade, he’s gone from being clueless about bids/offers to having realised eight-figure years.

After reflecting on his first steps as an aspiring day trader, Kenny tells of a monumental loss that had a positively profound impact, and the ways in which he’s continually pushed boundaries to remain a top performing trader.

Nishant Porbanderwalla—a senior trader at proprietary firm Kershner Trading Group—is no stranger to the show. In his third appearance on Chat With Traders, Nish recaps how he booked an outsized six-figure profit trading meme-stock NASDAQ: DWAC (Digital World Acquisition Corp).

The date was 22nd October 2021, the day DWAC traded from $50 up to a high of $175, on news of a merger that would launch Donald Trump’s planned social media platform Truth.

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James Chen is an equities trader and a partner at Sydney-based fund BlueLake Partners. Furthermore, he’s a heavy-hitter who operates on a different level to most…

For well over a decade, James has been discovering edges and developing trades that the typical trader would consider as rather obscure. And for that reason, we’re fortunate to have James on the record—being able to learn about how his brain ticks.

Our interview starts with James telling how he cut his teeth trading retail, then how he exploited a loophole in an ASX trading competition, won and g...

It was early-2017, Oliver was nearing the end of his high school years, when he had discovered Ethereum—or more accurately, the self-described tech-head had strapped together 6x GPU's for the purpose of mining Ethereum.

Although the mining rig was only a mild success, it did plant the seed for what would become Proxima Capital—the crypto-focused trading firm Oliver co-founded in 2019, that almost exclusively dedicates its resources and capital into market-neutral strategies.

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Lance Breitstein was a Senior Trader at proprietary trading firm Trillium and Manager of the Chicago office. He has trained, mentored and refined dozens of top discretionary intraday traders, while arguably being Trillium’s best trader in the firm’s history.

This episode was recorded in 2019, prior to Lance going on to set the firm’s all-time PNL record, with landslide wins as ‘Top Trader’ in both 2020 and 2021 after consecutive 8-figure years. At the beginning of 2022, Lance resigned from Trillium to better focus on alternative growth opportunities and philanthropy.

In part two of our (two part) conv...

Lance Breitstein was a Senior Trader at proprietary trading firm Trillium and Manager of the Chicago office. He has trained, mentored and refined dozens of top discretionary intraday traders, while arguably being Trillium’s best trader in the firm’s history.

This episode was recorded in 2019, prior to Lance going on to set the firm’s all-time PNL record, with landslide wins as ‘Top Trader’ in both 2020 and 2021 after consecutive 8-figure years. At the beginning of 2022, Lance resigned from Trillium to better focus on alternative growth opportunities and philanthropy.

In part one of our (two part) conv...

Trade Recap episodes are a new format (in addition to regular episodes), with the purpose of analyzing each aspect of a guests’ trade: idea, execution, management.

Chase Galbraith is an Australian equities trader, with a firm foothold in small caps. The trade in focus today, Chase initiated and held between September – November 2021, in mineral exploration company Kingsrose Mining (ASX:KRM).

This trade could be categorized as a swing, largely driven by fundamental factors and speculation of an acquisition. Though it also combines elements of tape reading and price action, with regard to execution.

After having been a derivatives trader and lead desks for several top proprietary trading firms (in Hong Kong and Chicago), Bryn Solomon pivoted toward less developed markets, leveraging his experience to become a truly dominate force in crypto…

MGNR, the firm Bryn co-founded with a colleague, now consists of 12-team members, working remotely around the world. And as the team has grown, so have MGNR’s sources of alpha: quantitative trading/market making, DeFi/yield farming, and venture capital—making seed investments in early-stage crypto projects.

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Kyle Schultz is the managing director of Ravinia Investment Management, a registered CTA, operating since April 2019.

With an objective to diversify by market, strategy and timeframe, Kyle has developed multiple algorithmic strategies—for various futures products—that can be categorised into momentum and mean reversion, long and short, intraday and swing.

Through our conversation, Kyle expounds on the art and science of developing and managing automated trading systems, and his unique way of doing things...

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As an extension of the previous episode, I present to you the second installment for the ‘Best of Day Trading.’ This is a compilation of highlights from past interviews, all of which are applicable to active day trading—from technical intricacies and strategy insights, to trading tales and broader viewpoints.

Show notes + full episodes: https:chatwithtraders.com/224

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I’ve gone back over the years and gathered a variety of my favourite clips that relate to day trading (in one way or another). Some include conversation about technical nuances and unique edges, some are interesting stories, others may help you to better read the market and develop the skills that day trading demands…

Given the lengthy list of day traders I’ve had the pleasure of interviewing, there was zero chance I could pack everything into a single episode. So please enjoy this first instalment, and a massive part two will follow shortly!

Show n...

Returning to Chat With Traders podcast, Luke Cummings—CIO of Harvest Lane Asset Management—details his funds’ core strategy of trading mergers and acquisitions…

Step-by-step, Luke explains his methods of assessing a takeover bid when it first hits the market, initiating a position, monitoring news flow, and ultimately, booking a profit/loss when the change of control takes place (or the deal falls through!)

Show notes: https://chatwithtraders.com/222

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Matthew Dibb’s the Founder and CIO of Astronaut Capital, a cryptocurrency and digital asset fund—utilizing a thematic approach. Since attracting its first investors in 2019, the fund has gone on to report cumulative returns in excess of 1,200%.

In a life prior to crypto, Matt was a traditional finance guy, having held roles as a futures and FX trader for banks/institutions, while also doing a stint in VC too.

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Erik Swanson's the CEO of Simplex Trading...

While unknown to many, the Chicago-based trading firm is one of the top market makers in U.S. equity options—providing liquidity in (almost) every listed options contract, and in recent times, transacting upwards of 2-million contracts daily.

In our chat, Erik pulls back the curtain, giving a rare insight to how market makers operate; from quoting to hedging, and the complexities that take place in between.

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Edwin Dorsey’s an individual investor, passionate about exposing bad companies…

Since being one of the first to flag wrongdoing at Care.com (while a student at Stanford), Edwin has continued to gain credibility for his well-researched, off-the-beaten-path ideas.

Edwin’s analysis and reports—as well as insights to general activity within the short world—are shared in his popular newsletter: The Bear Cave

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Shaun Factor’s an Australian small cap trader, with 20+ years in the game. He’s also a co-founder of 180 Markets, a firm that provides investors with direct access to capital raises.

With a trading approach that’s heavily reliant on instinct and market experience, Shaun has come to be a substantially large trader of small cap companies. In this interview, he explains his ways, anticipating hot sectors, and how he moves in/out of stocks with size.

Shaun also shares deep knowledge surrounding capital raises—a topic that’s not previously been discussed on Chat With Trade...

Acclaimed mental game coach Jared Tendler returns to Chat With Traders, after his first appearance on Episode 86 (2016).

Jared has worked intensively with world champion poker players, PGA golfers, Team Liquid (esports organistion), and of course, active traders—sharing expertise in how mental game impacts performance and tactics to overpower emotional weaknesses.

Jared’s also the author of The Mental Game of Poker 1 & 2. And while many traders have found these books highly relevant, Jared has now delivered a book specifically for traders, with a system to resolve psychological problems: The Mental Game of Trading