The AlphaMind Podcast

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 the choices when to launch, manages the battle, and the allocation and timing of resource utilisation in that battle. But all too often, traders, are worn down in that battle, their mind becomes sub-optimal, and their brain slowly switches off. You can do something about it, and you should be aware that you can do something about it, otherwise you end up becoming the victim, and not the victor. But it is incredibly hard to do yourself.  In this week’s AlphaMind podcast, the usual co-host Mark Randall, is interviewed about ‘Weaponizing of the Traders Mind’. AlphaMind: Powering Performance in Global MarketsAlphaMind brings powerful change, growth and development to people and businesses within global markets. Driven by a deep understanding of how markets work, and how people and businesses function within them, we partner with clients to create personal performance improvements that elevate returns across their trading activities. Go to the AlphaMind website to know more.

Welcome to the first Bitesize episode of the AlphaMind podcast, limited to 15 minutes, which is a chat between the hosts, Steven Goldstein and Mark Randall, about one of the biggest challenges all traders face, the emotional aspects to trading. This episode calls upon the help of a couple of excerpts taken from interviews with 2 of our most popular guests Merritt Black and Tom Canfield. You can learn more about this episode in the show notes on our blog page, where you can also find links tot he two episodes referenced in this podcast. The link for this blog page is https://alphamindblog.blogspot.com/2021/12/Emotions Bitesize.htmlAlphaMind: Powering Performance in Global MarketsAlphaMind brings powerful change, growth and development to people and businesses within global markets. Driven by a deep understanding of how markets work, and how people and businesses function within them, we partner with clients to create personal performance improvements that elevate returns across their trading activities. Go to the AlphaMind website to know more.

Whilst the reality is that we all have to learn by our own experiences, we can fast-track that learning by hearing of the experiences of others and making adaptions to how we work quicker than would, by recognizing their experiences in ourselves. In this episode we chat with Richard Matthews, a near 50-year veteran of the markets, who has some great experiences to share. Richard started as a trainee broker in 1973. That is a lot of experience, lot of knowledge, a lot of wisdom, and we are delighted to be able to capture that and share it with you in this week’s AlphaMind podcast.In this episode Richard takes us on a little history of the markets, comparing how it was then to how it is now, what aspects of it have changed and how, and what aspects of it are exactly the same. Richard also shares what he considers are the biggest errors he has seen people make, and that they continue to make,   Charitable Venture.   We also want to mention of a great and worthwhile charitable venture Richard is involved in, which he talks about towards the end of the podcast.  The charity is called ‘First Workings’ which aims to help people from underprivileged backgrounds in the New York City area to acquire the Social Capital that those from more privileged backgrounds naturally acquire. There is extensive research which shows that a paid internship drastically increases a college graduate’s likelihood of securing a job offer upon graduation. For young people of colour, young people coming from low-income backgrounds, or those who are first generation college students, connections to paid internships are more difficult to secure without social capital. ‘First Workings’ go into schools and the community to help build social capital through:Workplace Readiness Skills TrainingPlacement in a Paid Summer InternshipMatching students with a professional in the industry they hope to pursue in college and beyond for a virtual mentorship if in-person internships are not feasibleAlumni programming including networking opportunities and career access training workshopsComprehensive supportEfforts to foster professional experiencesThis experience provides students that come from underrepresented or underserved communities with tools and resources they wouldn’t ordinarily have access to.Richard is connected to first workings in NY and is setting up a similar charity here in the UK to work in schools in some of London’s more challenged areas. To know more about First Workings, their website is https://firstworkings.org/We will update this when the webpage for the UK charity is set-up. In the meantime, if you would like to contact Richard about his charity project, you can message his twitter handle https://twitter.com/dickiematthews5AlphaMind: Powering Performance in Global MarketsAlphaMind brings powerful change, growth and development to people and businesses within global markets. Driven by a deep understanding of how markets work, and how people and businesses function within them, we partner with clients to create personal performance improvements that elevate returns across their trading activities. Go to the AlphaMind website to know more.

True Grit: Dr Doug Mackaman and Dr Paul Stolz on Grit and Adversity as the Bedrock of SuccessThe ability to cope with setbacks, deal with adversity and have the grit to battle through the difficult times, is the very bedrock which trading success is built upon. In this episode we talk with two of the world’s leading experts on these themes. Dr Doug Mackaman is a distinguished professor of European History and Global Affairs,  at the university of Wisconsin, has studied the history of burnout and is passionate about regeneration and escalation of talent. Dr. Paul G. Stoltz is considered the world’s leading authority on the integration and application of grit and resilience. He is author of five international bestselling books on the subject, was voted by HR Magazine as “One of the Top 10 most influential global thinkers,” and by Executive Excellence as “One of the 100 Most Influential Thinkers of Our Time.” . He has given a wonderful Ted Talk on adversity and has also been a regular guest on the Oprah Winfrey show talking about these themes.   In this episode, Doug and Paul talk about how the importance of developing and nurturing these attributes in the face of the stresses of the modern world, the challenges and demands put upon people to produce and lead, and pressures to perform to and the expectations put upon people by others and themselves.  We also hear about their venture called Sabatigo, which is a novel twist on the concepts of sabbaticals. Sabatigo is designed to help business leaders, stressed out managers and high net worth individuals regenerate from burnout whilst escalating their leadership profiles and enterprise-level wisdom. The purpose is to help these people to become more empathic, resilient, and innovative in how they solve problems and resolve the issues and challenges their businesses and people face.You can learn more about Sabatigo at this link https://www.sabatigo.com/You can also learn more about:Dr Doug Mackaman and his work here https://www.linkedin.com/in/doug-mackaman-ph-d-05429a34/And Dr Paul Stolz and his work here https://www.peaklearning.com/dr-paul-g-stoltz/AlphaMind: Powering Performance in Global MarketsAlphaMind brings powerful change, growth and development to people and businesses within global markets. Driven by a deep understanding of how markets work, and how people and businesses function within them, we partner with clients to create personal performance improvements that elevate returns across their trading activities. Go to the AlphaMind website to know more.

Blake Morrow has been a retail trader and a prop trader for over 2 decades. He also runs a Trading community, provides market commentary and detailed analysis for retail traders. He also co-founded Forex Analytix, which provides commentary and market analysis for retail traders working in the Foreign Exchange markets, as well in others market sectors including crypto and stocks. He also co-founded Traders Summit, which runs and hosts trading events and brings outstanding and informative content and education on markets to the retail trading sector. Blake has experienced many up and downs as a trader in his long career, and has faced serious battles with both the market, and himself along his journey. Before that, Blake served in the US marines, which provided him with a background that meant he was perhaps better prepared than many to stand the wild, frenetic and uncertain world of trading. This is a terrific chat, where we get down to the inner battles of being a retail trader and explore the unsanitized realities which the glossy broker adverts do not tell you about. You can find out more about Blake and his businesses at: Forex Analytix: https://www.forexanalytix.com/blog/author/bmorrow/ Traders Summit https://tradersummit.net/contributors/blake-morrow/You also follow Blake on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/PipCzarAlphaMind: Powering Performance in Global MarketsAlphaMind brings powerful change, growth and development to people and businesses within global markets. Driven by a deep understanding of how markets work, and how people and businesses function within them, we partner with clients to create personal performance improvements that elevate returns across their trading activities. Go to the AlphaMind website to know more.

Brent Donnelly has been in and around trading for close to 3 decades and has held major trading roles at investment banks and hedge funds with a strong emphasis on the FX and Global Macro, where he has been involved in both market-making and proprietary roles. Brent started trading in 1995 and has worked at several illustrious firms in the markets, including Citibank, Merrill Lynch, Royal bank of Canada, Lehman Brothers, Graham Capital, Nomura Bank and HSBC. Since 2004 Brent has been writing a brilliant free daily newsletter on the markets called AM/FX – This newsletter is read widely by professional traders across the world inside Investment banks, Hedge Funds, Asset Management Firms, and Even Central banks. Brent has also authored two books: The Art of Currency Trading and his most recent book, Alpha Trader: The Mindset, Methodology and Mathematics of Professional Trading. In this interview Brent tells us about AlphaTrader and talks extensively about trading, markets and what he believes it takes to be a successful trader. This interview pulls back the curtain somewhat on what it’s like to be a professional trader, and some of the challenges pro-traders face as they seek to battle the markets within a high pressured trading room environment. You can find out more about Brent on his personal website: http://brentdonnelly.comAlso visit Brent’s new venture Spectra Markets, where you can sign up for his free AM/FX Newsletter: https://www.spectramarkets.comYou also follow Brent on Twitter at https://twitter.com/donnelly_brentAlphaMind: Powering Performance in Global MarketsAlphaMind brings powerful change, growth and development to people and businesses within global markets. Driven by a deep understanding of how markets work, and how people and businesses function within them, we partner with clients to create personal performance improvements that elevate returns across their trading activities. Go to the AlphaMind website to know more.

Narrative for WebsiteIn this episode we spoke with legendary trading psychologist Dr Van K Tharp. Dr Tharp has been coaching traders for almost 4 decades and came to prominence when he was featured in Jack Schwager’s very first Market Wizard’s book back in 1989. As you can imagine, with someone with that level of experience and knowledge, this chat goes beneath the surface of trading and into the inner realms of human performance, touching on areas of 'who we are', 'how we are', and 'how we be’, that are rarely discussed with such depth when talking about trading. Some of the themes we would like to emphasise include Ø  Our different modalities when engaged in trading, these include a hierarchy of different states.·       Things happen to me. > Becoming the Victim – Owned and liable to go into tilt.  ·       Things happen by me > Becoming a Non-Victim – Starting to Own Your Results. ·       Things happen through me. > Awakening and Becoming at One with the Market·       Being at One with the Market > May fleetingly or periodically be here but it’s impossible to remain here permanently. Ø  Science Thinking versus System Thinking:Science thinking believes we can identify causation, and then use that to identify possible futures. Systems thinking accepts the complexity and uncertainty of the world and holds a light view of possible causation and holds the polarity of trying to identify possible futures, whilst accepting one cannot possibly identify with any high degree of certainty the possible future. Ø  Alignments between you and your system, method, or approach. The importance of matching approaches to the market, with who and how you are naturally.Ø  How we hold beliefs about ourselves and how they influence our trading and how our negative emotions hold those beliefs into place. Ø  How we store negative beliefs in our body which then drive our decision-making behaviours. Ø  How these aspect conspire to put someone into victim mode. Ø  Modelling People who do trading well and the key ingredients needed to being able to model these, including being able to align yourself with their Signal, Feeling, Action sequence. You can find out more about Dr Van Tharp and his work at the Van Tharp Institute at https://www.vantharp.comAccess to his YouTube channel can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/c/vantharpHis Twitter handle is: https://twitter.com/vantharpAlphaMind: Powering Performance in Global MarketsAlphaMind brings powerful change, growth and development to people and businesses within global markets. Driven by a deep understanding of how markets work, and how people and businesses function within them, we partner with clients to create personal performance improvements that elevate returns across their trading activities. Go to the AlphaMind website to know more.

In this episode Steven and Mark focus on what they consider as three key guiding principles which are vital for success in business, in life, and of course in trading and financial markets. These key guiding principles provide a solid foundation for a robust trading practice but are equally as applicable in other areas of work and life. This episode provides a deep exploration into these principles and looks at these key aspects and how they apply to traders in their work in a big picture sense and at a micro level day-in, day-out. AlphaMind: Powering Performance in Global MarketsAlphaMind brings powerful change, growth and development to people and businesses within global markets. Driven by a deep understanding of how markets work, and how people and businesses function within them, we partner with clients to create personal performance improvements that elevate returns across their trading activities. Go to the AlphaMind website to know more.

Journaling is one of the most useful activities a trader can engage in to help them become better traders, power their development, and help them refine their trading practice. However, it is also one of those activities that people think is a great idea but is something they think they’ll do another day, or they do a half-hearted effort. The exceptions are usually ‘exceptional people’. People who are willing to go that extra mile, put in the hard yards, take the time to learn about themselves and reflect on their trading. Our guests today are Steve Ward and Simon Cotterill. Together they have conceived, constructed, and published an outstanding new book/journal called the ‘Trader’s Mind Journal’. Steve Ward will be familiar to AlphaMind listeners and traders more widely. Steven has worked in the field of High Performance over many decades, he worked with Olympic Athletes, High Stakes Poker Players, Leaders in Business and with Traders and Investors in the Financial Markets. Steve realised the similarities between high performance sports and the trading world and developed a performance practice which has helped many traders make lasting improvements. Steven wrote his first book, High Performance Trading, a few years ago. It became an instant hit amongst traders and has seen his reputation in this world soar. Last year he released Bulletproof Trader to great acclaim. Simon Coterill came to trading after successfully running a printing company for many years. He started trading in 2010 and since 2014 has been day trading for his full-time career.Simon focused initially on technical analysis but increasingly recognised the importance of Developing his psychology around trading. The Traders Mind Journal started as a project to develop a personal trading journal for his own use, however coming from a printing background, he started to explore the possibility of creating a more formal trading journal structure to use.  Steve and Simon have been working together over the past couple of years to design, construct and produce the Traders Mind Journal. The journal is a fantastic product which will be hugely useful and valuable to traders as a personal reflection and development tool. The Traders Mind Journal is the best ‘published trading journal’ we have come across. We are delighted to announce that listeners of the AlphaMind Podcast can obtain a 15% discount off the face value price of the Trader’s Mind Journal by inputting the code AMP15 when they order the book direct from Trader’s Mind Journal on the website https://www.tradersmindjournal.com/You can also follow them on twitter https://twitter.com/mind_tradersAlphaMind: Powering Performance in Global MarketsAlphaMind brings powerful change, growth and development to people and businesses within global markets. Driven by a deep understanding of how markets work, and how people and businesses function within them, we partner with clients to create personal performance improvements that elevate returns across their trading activities. Go to the AlphaMind website to know more.

Successful trading and investment has never been an easy task, with only very few able to encounter and navigate the turbulent waters of financial markets and remain standing nearly 4 decades later. This week’s guest is one of those few. Jonathan Baird is a Money Manager and writer of the outstanding Global Investment Letter. In his long career (managing primarily international/global equity mutual funds) Jonathan managed three different #1 ranked funds, and has won a prestigious Lipper Award for the best global equity fund in Canada.   Jonathan subscribes to the view that the challenge is the market, but that we ourselves are the real enemy. This underlines his work, with a strong focus on being self-aware, challenging himself, managing himself,  ensuring he aligns his work, his purpose and his personality in a way which is the most productive and effective for himself. Jonathan’s also believes that a high-quality source of independent analysis and opinion can make the process more efficient and lead to better-informed decisions. This has led Jonathan to start and distribute his own outstanding monthly newsletter, the Global Investment Letter, which has become essential reading for thousands of professional investors and money managers. The Global Investment NewsletterWe were attracted to  invite Jonathan as a guest by The Global Investment Newsletter and the outstanding and thought-provoking analysis that he regularly posts on his social media feeds on Linkedin and Twitter.The Global Investment Newsletter is a monthly journal that comments on capital markets around the world. It looks holistically at all aspects of the investment process. This includes providing views on geopolitical trends and their potential impact on markets. In addition, it includes insights on various other topics that may aid investors, such as investment philosophy, risk approach, and book reviews  that are included periodically. It is written in a style that is simple and straight-forward making its content accessible for both the experienced pro and the enthusiastic novice. You can learn more about the letter at this link: https://www.globalinvestmentletter.com/Jonathan also published great content to his social media feeds on LinkedIn and Twitter. These can be found here: Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanbaird88Twitter: https://twitter.com/JonathanBaird88AlphaMind: Powering Performance in Global MarketsAlphaMind brings powerful change, growth and development to people and businesses within global markets. Driven by a deep understanding of how markets work, and how people and businesses function within them, we partner with clients to create personal performance improvements that elevate returns across their trading activities. Go to the AlphaMind website to know more.