Chat With Traders

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...

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 myt...

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 collab...

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 financ...

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 minim...

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....

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 vie...

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 pr...

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 personali...

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 c...

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 develop...

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...

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 t...

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 ma...

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 communit...

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...

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...

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 Vo...

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 professi...

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...

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 multip...

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, emphasizin...

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 ove...

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 movem...

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...