Trading with @chicagosean

Brian Lund Won't Tolerate Our BS by Sean McLaughlin & Steve Strazza

If there is one thing that stands out from any conversation with Brian Shannon about the trading process, it is this: For discretionary traders, there are no rules. Instead, there are “guidelines.” And because Brian is human, he occasionally breaks his guidelines and suffers the same consequences as anyone else. Everyone gets what they deserve. Even a trader of 30+ years like Brian Shannon. If a trader buys the dip or sells the rip without a plan to control her risk then she, too, will get what she deserves. Eventually. The market is always on the hunt for our weaknesses. This is one of the things I love about my friend Brian. He doesn't tolerate nonsense. He tells it like it is. Tough love. It's what a trader needs. And he's adamant about tuning out the noise and focusing on his strengths. For instance, he no longer pays any attention to financial TV. “It makes me emotional. TV is just theatrics. If it doesn't help me make money, I completely ignore it.” He knows what he's good at, says no to everything else, and makes the best use of his time by focusing his energies on profitable pursuits. Shouldn't we all live and trade like that? He's had to learn the hard way that things like global macro, or Fed policy, or foreign affairs just confuse him. And certainly don't add any alpha to his trades. Instead, he focuses on a “bottoms-up” approach to stock trading where each individual setup is measured on its own merits. Each potential trade speaks for itself. After more than 30 years in this business, Brian's engagement with it has varied between addiction, obsession, and passion. But one thing he knows to be true is much of what we need to do in order to be successful cannot be learned in a book. It has to be experienced. He has observed that too many inexperienced traders want to simply copy successful traders instead of learning the “why” behind any trade. This is the type of thing that experience teaches you. One important thing Brian has learned is that most times when he takes on 20+ swing trade positions and his account is fully leveraged, that would usually be a signal that the stock market is ripe for a meaningful pullback. Do you think he learned that in a textbook? Or did he learn it the hard way via experience? I think you know the answer. Please enjoy this wonderful episode of Off The Charts with our friend Brian Shannon.

Nobody is having more fun than Kenny Glick. He's found the perfect outlet for combining his myriad passions of risk-taking, education, and entertainment to the benefit of anyone who gets caught in his orbit. Kenny's unorthodox path to Wall Street is proof. In the early 1990s, Kenny was plying his craft as a fledgling standup comedian when he was spotted by a stockbroker who was impressed with his ability to “sling bullshit” onstage. The stockbroker offered him a job on the spot at his firm. Turns out, the “firm” was a stereotypical Boiler Room that soured Kenny's opinions of the interworking of investing, which was the early drive to turn him into a self-proclaimed “permabear.” When one of the senior brokers at the firm told Kenny his nickname was “Mushroom” because he's kept in the dark and fed shit, he realized he needed to find something better to do. That something better came while attending a Pearl Jam concert where he met another gentleman who introduced Kenny to the world of day trading NASDAQ stocks. His life would never be the same again. In our chat, we get into the painful rollercoaster from then until now and why Kenny firmly believes “the market has taught me EVERYthing.” Please enjoy mine and Steve Strazza's wide-ranging chat with The Warlock, The Mensch of Mentions, The Edutainer, our friend and soon-to-be yours, Kenny Glick.

In the first episode of our new podcast interview series, Off the Charts, my co-host Steve Strazza and I interviewed one of our favorite people on Wall Street, Jay Woods. But he's not just our favorites, he is a favorite of many. I would argue he's the most popular man on Wall Street! One thing I've heard repeatedly over the years is some version of: “Have you gotten the Jay Woods tour of the New York Stock Exchange?” Gratefully, I can say I have. And the breadth and depth of Jay's NYSE history is quite literally off the charts. Steve and I are both incredibly grateful to call Jay a friend. In this hour-long chat, Jay talks about the first chart he ever created (by hand). His uncle (famed market technician Ralph Acampora) purchased two shares of IBM for a young Jay as a gift and encouraged him to do so to track his first investment. We then fast-forward to his days as a Wall Street intern where his job description might best have been: ‘Lunch ticket order taker.' The unspoken silver lining of that experience was the skills he learned in this process that translated into the ability to multi-task and eventually thrive in a fast-paced role as a Specialist making markets in several stocks at once. In his younger days, Jay considered himself to be a bit shy and reserved. But soon after becoming a full-fledged Specialist on the floor of the NYSE, Jay acquired a wonderful sense of humor and quick wit that has earned him the respect and admiration of nearly everyone he now meets. But it was not just an affable personality that Jay won on the floor, he also learned the hard way that having a short memory helped him stay sane and move on from tough lessons metered out by an often unforgiving market, angry stakeholders, and plans gone awry. And while Jay won't admit to “seeing it all,” he's seen a lot — from the dot-com bubble to literally being just 3 blocks from Ground Zero during 9/11, to the Great Financial Crisis, to navigating the ever-changing shifting corporate sands and trends that have completely changed the role Specialists now play on the Floor of the NYSE. Grab a snack, settle in, and enjoy this delightful conversation with the amazing Jay Woods!

Bringing this episode back from the archives to celebrate my late friend Jon Boorman who sadly passed away from a bout with glioblastoma (brain cancer) on October 21, 2020. Recorded in August of 2015 (long before his diagnosis), Jon and I discussed his background, his experiences working for big banks, and his approach to trading the markets when he struck out on his own. Many of the lessons from his career and life that he shares in this conversation are even more poignant today.

I learn by doing. And that costs money.

The losing trades suck. But they aren't what hurt the most.

There is no sure thing. We Traders know this in our bones.

Get outside and do your best strategizing.

It's all about getting "the math" to work.

Are you mentally prepared to handle what it takes to ride big winning trades?

Sean & Michael Nauss (@bonpara) discuss the new Trade Ideas live youtube stream where users get live support every trading day. Learn how to find it, use it, and profit.

In 2016, I interviewed stock trader Dan Zanger where we discussed the meteoric rise of his trading profits in the dotcom bubble of the late 1990's. The response to this interview was phenomenal and I've had numerous requests for me to post this talk up again since it was taken down from its old location. So here it is, remixed, but with all its original glory. Enjoy.

The path to Wall Street is neither straight nor narrow. After studying psychology and music in college, midwesterner David Keller somehow landed himself a job at Bloomberg in NYC, Learn about Bloomberg’s foresight and good fortune to land a guy like David, and how this entry to the street served as a springboard to launch a career in research and ultimately to the founding of his own research firm rooted in the study of behavioral finance and consistency of best practices.

Meet the RedDog, Scott Redler of proprietary trading firm T3. Learn how Scott danced his way through Bar Mitzvahs, into event and concert promoting, and eventually to trading -- exercising a work ethic first observed in his immigrant Grandparents. These lessons, as well as ones learned through painful losses in deals gone bad and trades gone worse, have molded Redler into the disciplined dynamo risk manager he is today.

Kunal brings high energy into every pursuit, whether it be trading, entrepreneurship, travel, or life. And it's infectious. Learn how he struggled to learn trading while still in college (doing poorly at both), but leveraged a determination and a willingness to seek knowledge and inspiration from wherever he could find it to continue moving toward his version of "freedom." We learn about Kunal's upbringing, his early trading struggles, his mentors, and his journey in building a very successful online business that serves the trading community.

Michael Nauss represents the future of active trading. No longer a hunter, Michael spends his trading day letting machines find him trades with edge, while he sits back and just manages his open positions. He's found a way to minimize or completely eliminate the opportunity for his "trading demons" to effect his P/L.

When markets and facts change, we have to change with them. We have to stay nimble. In this episode, I chat about the shifting sands in the markets and how I'm adapting my strategies.

The Paradox of Successful Trading (a phrase I coined) describes the frustrating truth that there are only a handful of ways that most traders lose, while there is a seemingly infinite amount of ways to succeed...yet so many fail. Why? Don Hensley posits that the issue is rooted in the fact that to succeed, we need to be, act, and behave in the markets in uncommon ways. We need to operate individually -- not only from the herd (the majority of losers), but from the winners as well (we need to have our own unique edge).

Strip the complexity down to its most simple parts. That's where the real hard work begins. Meet Jason Leavitt, a trader for nearly 20 years who brings a calm demeanor and an athlete's dogged persistence to bear as he tackles the market daily, both from his home in Colorado and abroad while traveling with his family. We talk about some early inspiration in his career, the challenges of being self taught, how skills learned on the baseball diamond have transferred to his trading, and the mindset of new and experienced traders. We also get into a hard truth that we can't just rest on our "experience" and hope that it alone with carry us forward with its own inertia. We need to maintain proper awareness of our own limitations, the early warning signs of their appearances, and a gameplan for overcoming. Otherwise, our experience gained will be for naught.

Don't trade your emotions about the news and the latest breaking headline that is designed to scare you out of your pants. Turn off the TV, stop reading the front page of the newspaper, and start sticking to your plan. Your account equity depends on it. Also, I get into a discussion on some rules of thumb that have served me well as an Options Trader that you too can easily implement and see immediate performance results.

In options trading, risk management starts with defined risk and ends with position sizing. "Stop Losses" -- if used at all -- center around price action of the underlying and give zero weight to the value of the option(s) itself. As an options trader, nothing makes me cringe more than hearing about people "protecting" their open options positions with Stop Loss orders. In this episode, I discuss the proper way to manage your risk in new trades and why stop loss orders (and by extension market orders) are a TERRIBLE idea in options trading.

I learned another painful lesson recently on the importance of holding my winners and I discuss ways I'm addressing this weak part of my game. I also discuss tools I use to help me source swing trade ideas and manage my existing positions.

My friend and colleague Jamie Hodge (@quantbot) and I chat about how the public has been disenfranchised from the market after 2002 and 2008 gutted their portfolios, and how just recently we've been starting to notice signs of public participants starting to wade back into markets in a meaningful way -- partly due to the power in their pockets (smartphones). If we're reading the tea leaves correctly, it spells good news for traders who are honing their craft now, as many more profitable opportunities will soon be coming down the road! We're excited!

In case you missed my interview with JC Parets (@allstarcharts) on the All Star Charts podcast, I've simulcast the interview here for this feed. JC interviews me, and we talk a little bit about my options trading process, about where we find inspirations, great books we've read, and great stuff we're working on together for the benefit of all listeners.

This is an audio follow up to a recent blog post I published discussing the 20th Anniversary of my career in Trading. I discuss the importance of your WHY and some tips on discovering it yourself. And it's a pep talk to myself that you call can benefit from.

Having trouble with your trading? Do you need guidance, mentorship, and access to tools and support? If you're good on the above, then are you struggling with gaining access to capital to size up your game in a meaningful way? If so, then you may enjoy listening to Conor. His firm TopstepTrader solves these problems for aspiring market mavens. And the insight he's gained along the way in working with traders on the rise is incredibly valuable. In this episode, we get into many of the important things Conor has learned over the years while supporting, working with, and seeing traders succeed (and fail!).

Cryptocurrencies get all the headlines, but it's really the Blockchain that is changing the world. Meet Raffi Bagdasarian, a Los Angeles-based entrepreneur operating in the brave new world, figuring out ways to leverage this game changing technology into new business applications. If you are like me, this whole crypto/blockchain world is way over your head. Raffi helps to explain what's happening in plain English to me (the idiot) and this talk will be a great launch point for you to get motivated to learn more about the space as well. Traders, Investors, and Entrepreneurs will all find value in this wide-ranging talk.

There's nothing like living through a disaster that gets one laser focused on only a handful of things in life that truly matter. Charlie lived through the twin hurricane disasters in Puerto Rico and came out the other said a better man. Learn about "location independence", tax arbitrage, socionomics, elliottwave, and more.

The Headlines fooled you again. This is why your process trumps whatever is in the news. Plus, learn how I leverage #AI for purposes of Swing Trading. And a nice tease for an upcoming episode with @MarzBonfire.

Meet options trader Mike DiBari, a musician who yields to the pull of the mountains. Learn about what keeps him grounded, how he got started in the markets, and how he uses volume as the key determinant in executing a trading strategy only utilizing naked long call options.

Couldn't be more excited to be back to podcasting. Here's what we have to look forward to coming up: Interviews, insights, laughs, tough love, and everything else modern trader experience in a computer driven world.