Chat With Traders · Conversations With Talented Tradersin Stocks, Futures, Options, Forex And Crypto Markets.

I’ve received many requests for this weeks guest, in recent months. Maybe it’s because he’s a straight shooter who doesn’t mix his words, or maybe it’s because he’s bounced back from harsh failures, to become an exceptional trader. Whatever the reason may be, I know for certain, you’re going to appreciate the raw honesty and insight of this weeks guest – Dan Shapiro. Coming up from humble beginnings, Dan called on the neighborhood loan shark to fund his first trading account, which got him through the door to one of the largest prop firms at the time. This is where he rubbed shoulders with many phenomenal traders, who helped shape him into the trader he is today. This interview is ultimately focused on the mental and psychological aspects of trading. We discuss some of the darkest moments from Dan’s trading career, how to handle losses and grind through slumps, trading the setup and not your PnL, and why you should care more about trading right, rather than being right. Dan was great to talk to, and I trust y

This week I spoke with Luke Cummings, an Australian equities trader with 14 plus years of experience on his side. After making a last minute decision that journalism wasn’t a good fit, Luke went into a finance degree which lead him to become a stockbroker, which then lead him to become a trader. Now days Luke remains an active trader, and operates a hedge fund based in Sydney, as well as running The Long And Short Of It – a model portfolio service and trading blog. We keep things fresh in this interview, by discussing trading methods and strategies that haven’t been spoken about in previous episodes. And additionally, Luke shares some of the common traps that often catch entry-level traders, and how you may be able to avoid the avoidable with insight. Enjoy team! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week we’re taking it up a level… I had the honor of interviewing the legendary Market Wizard, Tom Basso, president of former money management firm, TrendStat. Tom started his working life as a chemical engineer, often discussing stocks and investing with colleagues. As he started to experiment with trading from a $2000 account, there was no beginners luck in sight. Tom consecutively lost money for the first few years before things started to turnaround. With a series of events that followed, Tom went from trading his own money, to forming TrendStat and managing other peoples money. At the peak of his career, TrendStat managed $600million dollars of capital. And while Tom’s now retired, he still actively studies the market and continues to trade. This interview covers many topics that range from trend following and systematic trading, to psychology and why you must never forget to ‘enjoy the ride’. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This weeks guest is Brian Shannon, who first and foremost is a professional trader, whose involvement with the market dates back well over 20 years.   He’s also the author of the highly regarded book, Technical Analysis Using Multiple Timeframes. And thirdly, Brian is the founder of AlphaTrends, an educational company focused on teaching traders how to navigate the market successfully.   For the most part Brian is a swing trader, with the occasional day trade in the mix. During the interview Brian discusses both approaches, and gives a few pointers that may help you to discover the right timeframe for your own trading.   We also talk about understanding the psychology of market participants within well-known patterns, the two indicators that Brian uses most often (one of them being VWAP – Volume Weighted Average Price), and Brian also walks us through the 4 stages of a market cycle: accumulation, markup, distribution & decline. So all in all, Brian hit on plenty of great topics, and I feel like you’re really

Attracted by the fact that traders can make money in both rising and falling markets, this weeks guest Andrew Falde, left a career in commercial real estate when the GFC hit in ’08 to focus his attention on becoming a trader. A few years on, Andrew has carved a profitable niche for himself; trading options and designing systems. Both topics which are covered in depth during this interview. Some of the highlights from this discussion, would be; the way in which Andrew avoids trying to predict the market, and instead thinks of trades as a series of ‘if – then scenarios’. Also, the purpose of why options markets exist is really interesting, as well as the important factors one should consider when designing a system, and how Andrew applies a blend of systematic and discretionary aspects to his own trading. GOT QUESTIONS? If there’s something you’re challenged with, or something you want to know more about, then take this opportunity to ask Andrew a question. Whether it’s in regards to trading options, designi

The chances are you're already very familiar with this weeks guest, and if you're not - then I'll have to presume you're new to the realm of trading. Jack Schwager is the author of a number of widely acclaimed financial books, including the timeless Market Wizards series - commonly referred to as all time favourites by many of our past guests. As well as a bestselling author, Jack is widely recognised as an industry expert on markets, hedge funds and trading advice. He's also the co-founder of FundSeeder; a platform designed to find undiscovered trading talent, and connect successful traders with capital from investors. During our interview we discuss Jack's lifetime involvement with markets, some of the key lessons he learnt firsthand from interviewing many of the worlds greatest traders, and so much more... I hope you enjoy this interview, as much as I enjoyed hosting it. It was an absolute honour to speak with Jack for almost 90 minutes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

At a young age some people want nothing more than to be a trader, well this weeks guest is one of those people… Brad Jelinek first started dabbling in stocks during his days in junior high, then from college he went straight into a Chicago prop firm. Thirteen years later, Brad is with the same firm and predominately trades futures. So during our conversation, I of course asked Brad a bunch of questions around prop trading, and futures related topics, which he responded with many outstanding answers. But the part I found to be really interesting, was listening to Brad talk about health ‘n wellbeing, and the emphasis he has on longevity in this business. So if you plan on sticking around, and really want to make something of your trading career, I suggest you pay extra close attention to this segment. Q + A: Brad is on standby and keen to answer any questions you may have about trading. To ask him something, just scroll to the bottom of this page and leave a comment! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit

This week I thought I’d change things up a little bit, and reverse the interview. So instead of firing questions at the guests like I normally do, I’m on the receiving end and giving the answers. If you’ve had the chance to listen to EP 001, then you may recall I gave a brief overview right at the beginning, explaining where I was at with my trading. Well things have gradually progressed since then, so I thought this would be a good milestone to update anyone who is curious to know. So to keep things interesting I brought on Zach Hurwtiz, who I’m sure you’ll remember from EP 011 of the podcast, and he’ll be the one asking questions. Zach’s a great friend of mine, and is continually guiding me along to becoming a better trader through regular coaching and mentoring, so I couldn’t think of anyone better for the job. Plus, Zach also expands on many of my responses with additional insight, so all in all I hope you find this episode to be valuable in its own unique way. And just before we get into it, if you h

On the show this week, my guest is Ivan Hoff! An equities trader of 10 years, who tackles the market with a swing trading approach to capture powerful, short-term gainers that may run anywhere between 3 - 10 days. While swing trading is his bread and butter, Ivan also allocates a portion of his capital to position trading, when he has reason to believe a trend will continue for the longer term. He's written several books including 'The 5 Secrets to Highly Profitable Swing Trading' and 'The Next Apple' which was a collaboration with Howard Lindzon (the co-founder and CEO of Stocktwits). Plus, Ivan is regularly featured in the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Yahoo Finance, Traders Magazine and he's a familiar face amongst the Stocktwits community. Now, continue listening to learn about Ivan's trading methodology, one of his high probability swing setups, the importance of following industry momentum, and a whole lot more... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I was fortunate enough to speak with David Bush, an extraordinary, seasoned trader with 20 years experience in financial markets. David comes from a non-traditional background, and what I mean by this; he has no formal education in the field of finance. In fact, he is a music graduate and performed as a professional musician for many years. But as you’re about to hear, David changed paths during his twenties to become a trader. After overcoming the initial challenges that all new market participants endure, David did well for himself as a discretionary trader for many years. But with an urge to optimize his trading approach he gradually transitioned into a quantitative trader and went searching for new ways to exploit opportunities within the market. From there David has gone on to take out the number one spot of BattleFin’s ‘Sharpe Ratio Shootout’ (an international quantitative finance tournament), with over 3000 competitors. During our interview David brings a really insightful take to topics such as th

This week I have great pleasure in saying, my guest on the show is Mike Bellafiore. Mike is the co-founder of SMB Capital, a proprietary trading firm in New York City, as well as SMB University which is the arm for trader education. He’s also the author of two very popular trading books ‘One Good Trade’ and ‘The Playbook’. Additionally, Mike is a regular contributor to Yahoo Finance, and often appears on CNBC’s Fast Money, CNN Money, Bloomberg, and Fox Business. But even with all of this going on Mike is still a very active, very successful trader. During our interview, Mike delivers some great insight about traders often confusing psychology for a lack of edge, and an overview for one of his favorite setups which has been labeled ‘The Money Trade’. Plus, he shares the development program new traders go through when joining SMB Capital, and a few top-level pointers on how to achieve a sustainable trading style. And I just want to point out this interview was recorded on the 20th of May, only reason I say this

Welcome to episode 21, with a very special guest; Adam Grimes. Adam is author of the very popular book titled, The Art and Science of Technical Analysis, which covers market structure, price action and trading strategies. He is also the Chief Investment Officer of Waverly Advisors, and host of the Market Life podcast. Adam’s career dates back almost 20 years, during that time he has traded a wide range of asset classes, both independently and along side a well-respected prop firm. Plus, he also did a stint on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX). Over the next hour or so Adam shares his interesting outlook on the market, and many aspects of trading. So as you could imagine this include plenty of discussion around technical analysis, but you’ll also pick up a number of great psychology tips to help you with the mental aspect. Enjoy team! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week I was thrilled to speak with a well respected, high-energy, and incredibly insightful trader. And who many of you probably already know as the head honcho at Bulls on Wall Street, his name is Kunal Desai. I’ve been trying to bring him on as a guest for quite sometime now, but it’s finally happened, so I’m glad to be sharing this with you! If you’re unfamiliar with Kunal, I’m gonna give you the super condensed intro, because we discuss his journey in great detail for the first part of our interview. So Kunal is essentially an intraday momentum trader. He’s been trading since his teens, and just like many of us, he really struggled for many years going into his twenties. Eventually persuading one of the few profitable traders he knew at the time to show him the ropes. This profitable trader was Paul Singh, who taught him how to actually work the market like a trader. From there, overall it’s been onwards and upwards. During our discussion we cover quite a range of topics, lost of interesting stuff, an

I’m not sure how it happened, but this interview somehow slipped through the cracks. I actually had the conversation with this weeks guest around November last year (2014), and it’s been tucked away in a folder ever since. But let me introduce you to this weeks guest – Stuart McPhee from Melbourne (Australia), he’s an equities and forex trader who has been involved with the markets for around about 20 years. And he is also the Author of ‘Trading in a Nutshell’. Our discussion was heavily based around trading plans, covering things like, what exactly is a trading plan, how to create one, and then the trickiest part of all – how to actually follow it with discipline. Actually, Stuart shares a very simple discipline hack that will help you to follow your plan for the long term, not just the next week or so. Even though it’s taken a while to surface, I’m pleased to finally share this interview with you. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This weeks guest is a little different to many of the guests I’ve had on in the past. Instead of giving very little weight to fundamentals and news releases, these two things actually form the foundation for his trading approach. In fact, he almost disregards charts altogether, and he relates the reason for this to his background in accounting and finance. John Welsh has been a full time trader for over 10 years and he’s racked up millions of dollars in profits along the way. His trading consists of both intraday and swing trading, and he concentrates mainly on Biotech stocks, making roughly 90% of his trades within this sector. Now that I’ve given you the 1,000 ft view on John’s trading journey, here he is to fill in the blanks, and give us a lot more depth around his approach. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Like many who get into trading, Jason had no formal education in the field. Actually, prior to trading full time he was waiting tables in a restaurant and bartending. This is where he began swing trading and to this day, Jason is still primarily a swing trader. Riding trends anywhere from a few days or a few weeks, sometimes it's even a matter of months when his aim is to take out a large chunk of the move. Ultimately the market environment dictates his holding time. This is somewhat similar to the way I like to trade, so I found many of the answers Jason gives out during this interview to be particularly interesting, and I'm sure you will too. Regardless of the time-frame you trade. Also, in the later part of this interview, Jason shares a story about the wildly successful independent traders he's met, and the one standout trait they all have in common. Which is again, really insightful. Q + A: If you would like to ask Jason a question and get a few pointers - drop a comment at the bottom of chatwithtraders.

It’s almost unfathomable to think that there was a time when it would take a couple minutes to execute an order. And now days we have traders taking extreme measures, just to get filled a nanosecond quicker than the next participant. But for this weeks guest Tim Biggam, that was the reality when he first entered the world of trading during 1985. And that entrance was straight onto the floor of the CBOE. Just a couple years into his journey, Tim experienced the full force of the infamous 1987 crash. While he survived, and was still in good shape to trade the following day, this gave him a true appreciation for the importance of correct position sizing, after seeing so many traders get wiped out. Tim really goes into the topic of position sizing and why it is absolutely vital to get it right during the later part of this interview, so make sure to stay tuned in. Additionally, Tim does a great job of explaining some of the terminology associated with options, how he uses scanning technology to generate trade i

Joel Kruger has been involved with foreign exchange since the very beginning of his career in investment banking as a currency strategist. This was after he came to the realization that he wasn’t cut out for law school. But now days Joel is in the trenches as a self funded Forex trader, who has pushed on through many failures and created a tremendous lifestyle for himself, and his family. Also it’s worth mentioning. Even if you’re not a Forex trader, Joel has a bunch of really good psychology tips that he shares throughout this interview. And a special thanks to the guys who submitted questions over Twitter before this interview, Joel does a great job of answering these. So hit the play button, and start listening… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With an involvement in trading since his early twenties, and a background in mathematics and computer programming, it was a natural progression that this weeks guest would adapt a completely algorithmic trading approach. My friends, I would like you to meet Ilan Azbel. Ilan joins us to discuss algorithmic trading, and share some insights on a side of trading that is unfamiliar territory to many, especially in the retail space. While we spoke for close to an hour, in the scheme of things, we only just managed to scratch the surface. But all in all, I think you'll find this really interesting and enough to get you curious (and maybe even excited) about the possibilities of algorithmic trading. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Let me introduce you to, Lance Beggs - a price action trader that is a little different to most... While he relies on technicals to a certain degree, his edge comes from the ability to adapt the mindset of other participants and gauge entries based on their fear. Lance refers to this as the metagame, which he breaks down in much greater detail during the interview. Lance also goes into how he controls tight stops, and uses an aggressive risk management strategy to trade without fear. Plus, this segment includes some great tips on how to nail the re-entry, that many traders struggle with, mainly due to psychology reasons. TAKE NOTE: Lance will be keeping a close eye on the comments - so go to chatwithtraders.com/lance and leave a question you would like him to answer! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices