The AlphaMind Podcast

The world of sports and high-performance offer so many great metaphors and analogies for trading, where the mind, and the noises in our head, can become the blocker to the potential people possess.  In this episode we talk with Simon Mundie, a leading sports journalist, radio and tv broadcaster, author, and coach. Simon hosted a superb podcast featured on the BBC, which looks at the lessons people...

Jacob is a young trader from Denmark who is still going through the relative early stages of his trading career. As you will hear in this interview, Jacob has a wise head on young shoulders.  Jacob discovered a passion for investing, then trading, in his mid-teens. He has since dived into trading with gusto learning the basics of trading, developing his trading skills, learning technical analysis,...

We're delighted to welcome back a friend of the show Jonathan Baird, an award-winning money manager and publisher of the Global Investment Letter , who speaks and writes about macro themes in markets based on this his many decades of experience in this area.  2022 was the year when having a handle on the macro-economic narrative was to prove hugely advantageous. Understanding the macro and bu...

Trading legend Marty Schwartz aka Pitbull said, " the most important change in my trading career occurred when I learned to divorce my ego from the trade ." The ego gets a bad wrap in trading, and often seen as the enemy. But is this the right way to look at it?  The ego is very much part of us, part of who we are, part of our nature, our soul. How can it be the enemy? That makes us the...

In this 2nd part of this outstanding chat with former Chicago pit trader Matt ‘Pax’ Kenah. Matt takes us to a deeper exploration of his story. We discuss Matt's personal battles, hiss loss caused by the collapse of MF global, the struggles with his self which followed this, and the rebuilding of his career. We look at the steps Matt took, and the foundation blocks he built to come back and bu...

Matt “Pax” Kenah: The Life of a Futures Trader – Part 1 Matt “Pax” Kenah is a passionate, straight shooting, former Chicago Floor Trader who still trades and now also mentor traders. In this fascinating interview ,he shares his story, his journey and experiences, his success and mistakes, his highs and lows. Matt opens up fully about the realities of trading, the emotional challenges, the steps he...

In this episode, we talk in-depth with Jeff Boccaccio about his journey from the non-trading world, to the world of trading his own money. Jeff was initially was an IT consultant. This a conversation which covers from a wide and varied range which will be hugely valuable and hopefully inspiring, to traders of all types. Jeff also shares valuable insights and advice about trading, the reality of ho...

Sven Fuhrman: Hedge Fund Manager and Energy Trader The dramatic context of the past couple of years, and the consequences of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, have awoken many traders and investors to the significance and importance of the Power and Energy Markets.  This corner of the international markets remains relatively obscure and poorly understood, despite them playing a far more tangible and s...

Tom Basso: Market Wizards Mr Serenity Tom Basso first came to prominence when he was featured in Jack Schwager’s second Market Wizards book “New Market Wizards”. His chapter is called Mr Serenity. In the introduction to the interview with Tom, Jack, made a point of saying, that “ although Tom’s results are significantly better than the industry average, they were ‘hardly extraordinary ’. And yet,...

Jason Shapiro returns to the AlphaMind podcast a year after his first episode proved to be one of our most popular to date. Jason featured in Jack Schwager’s brilliant ‘Unknown Market Wizard’ where he was known as ‘The Contrarian’, which tells all you need to know about his approach and style.  In this episode, Jason answers a series of questions submitted by AlphaMind Podcast listeners, and expan...

Tom Hougaard is a ‘high-stakes’ day trader, and author of a superb new book ‘ Best Loser Wins: Why Normal Thinking Never Wins the Trading Game ’, which focuses on the mental battle needed to succeed in trading and the challenge of getting your mind right.  Tom is someone who has faced his own battles to become a successful trader, and like many he has gone through that cycle of try, learn, fail, t...

Listening to Robert Carver will make you a wiser trader. Period. Robert Carver is a treasure trove of trading wisdom, knowledge, know-how and first-hand experience. He has a strong background in economics, has worked as a trader at a leading investment bank and at a $30 billion hedge fund where he ran a major chunk of their trading capital for several years. In addition, Robert has built his own t...

Trading is a job which tests everyone who participates in it to the max. Volatile markets, rapidly shifting trading environments, strong bull markets followed by violent bear markets, fortunes made over years then lost in hours. The markets toy with traders’ emotions and their sense of self-worth, as they come to terms with just how much skill and ability is needed to succeed over the long-term in...

What makes you feel uncomfortable? How do you cope with difficult situations which make you feel uncomfortable? Do you shy away from these situations or avoid making tough decisions because of your discomfort? Has it held you back in your trading, in life, and does it continue to hold you back?    Being able to cope with anxiety inducing situations that make us feel uncomfortable lies at the very...

Peter Castle started trading in 1995. Whilst going through the process of learning trading and listening to many of the great trainers and teachers of trading, he noticed how many of themes focused on lessons that had a spiritual component. He realised how trading the markets can push you to the edge of desperation, which then impacts you mentally and can lead you into downward spiral of negativit...

OIiver Kell won the 2020 US stock trading champion with an astonishing return of 941%, almost double the return of the second-place competitor. However, there is a lot more to Oliver than just great trading, his success is born of a deep humility and a huge respect for risk and the market. And as you listen to him, you may be surprised to notice how his process and success is built upon a foundati...

Linda Raschke is one of those traders who is quoted often by other traders. That gives you a sense of the respect and regard with which she is held in the trading world.  Linda started trading since the early 1980s, and after a tough introduction to the world of trading, went on to achieve great success and attained notoriety in the trading world after she was featured in one of the early Market W...

In this episode, we discuss with Garth Mackenzie, what he feels drives trading success, what drives his trading success, and what is it about his approach which has contributed to his success thus far. Garth has been trading for over 20 years, however Garth admits the journey was anything but smooth, and despite some early successes, he found that the market was as adept in taking away, as it was...

The trader and author of the book ‘Phantom of the Pit’ Art Simpson’s said of trading, ‘The Best Loser is the Long-Term Winner’.  Trading like poker, and many games entails losing and failing often, many of the greats of trading will tell how failure and being able to cope with failure, lie at the core to success. In this episode of the AlphaMind podcast, we discuss the 3 ‘Fs’ of Fear, Frustration...

For anyone 30 or younger, the world of DeFi (Decentralised Finance) is their world. Some in their 30s are clued up, but to most, DeFi and the world of Cryptocurrencies is something of a mystery. To those over 40, DeFi is largely an alien and murky world, difficult to navigate let alone to even comprehend.  In this episode of the AlphaMind podcast show hosts Mark Randell and Steven Goldstein, both...

Sam North both trades for himself and mentors’ other traders for eToro, the world’s largest social trading and multi-asset brokerage company, where he is their trading school lead.  In this great chat with the AlphaMind Podcast, Sam went deep into what it takes to succeed as a new trader, shared his reflections on patterns common to those he sees who succeed, and opens up about mistakes he witness...

When it comes to trading, finding your trading edge and learning how to sharpen your trading edge, are what ultimately define whether you succeed or fail.   We believe there are 3 main sources of edge for traders, and that these 3 edges support each other to make each edge more potent and powerful. Developing trading mastery however requires the combining of the edges into one singular sustainable...

Contrary to common belief, it is not market knowledge, analytical skills, or some special system or secret indicator that are the key differentiators of success in financial markets. The true differentiator is the ability to ‘Let Go’, and the capability to sustain a ‘Letting Go’ mindset at all times.    This week, Tom Canfield, a veteran US based Retail Trader, returns to the AlphaMind Podcast to...

Mike Bellafiore is co-founder of SMB Capital , one of the world's leading Proprietary Trading firms, based in New York City.  Mike has  authored two outstanding and highly popular trading books, One Good Trade: Inside the Highly Competitive World of Proprietary Trading and the The Playbook: An Inside Look at How to Think Like a Professional Trader. For many new and aspiring traders, the chanc...

Your Brain and your mind are your greatest asset as a trader, together they are most powerful weapon in your arsenal. But are you using them effectively, optimally, and to their fullest effect?  Your capital, your systems, your processes are the warheads you deploy in the markets, but it’s your brain which is the system that deploys them, and your mind is tool that observes, senses and then makes...