Chat With Traders

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...

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 prof...

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...

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 m...

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 fir...

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...

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...

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...

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...