Blog

My blog hasn’t been very active in recent weeks, but we’ve been hard at work behind the scenes… and I have a few big announcements and some exciting things coming in the future.

The first big announcement is that I will be launching a new educational service at the end of the coming month. One of the things I’ve always known about myself is that I love teaching–both the “backend” process of organizing information into teachable units, but then also the process of leading a learner from novice to expert. Seeing someone go through that transformation, and being a part of the process… well, it’s hard to put it into words, but it’s pure magic. I’ve done this in a few disciplines, and I’ve worked one on one with quite a few traders along the way. This work has been immensely rewarding and, frankly, I want to do more of it!

To do this, we will be launching a new website that will start out with just the essential functionality, but will quickly grow to have a lot of bells and whistles and deep resources for many different styles of trading. Though I’ve toyed with this idea over the years, I’ve hesitated to pull the trigger because of the many abuses in the “educational space.” I want to do this right. Let me share a few quick bullets here:

• Too many teachers focus on one style of trading, and defend it as being superior to everything else. (Trend followers are probably the worst offenders in this category.) The problem is that, of course, no one style ultimate answer–most traders touch on different styles, assimilate things from different disciplines, and put together their own approach from many pieces. I do believe that some styles of trading are not applicable in today’s markets (scalping and reading the order book would be examples), so we aren’t going to cover everything. Rather, we’re going to cover the styles that I understand intimately and have found value in. However, it’s not a short list:
  • We will cover stocks, currencies, and options. We will discuss futures in some contexts, but I believe that these other assets are probably better as educational vehicles.
  • We will focus on timeframes from short-term multi-day swings to long-term portfolio construction. There will be some work on daytrading, but I believe that most learners find better success by stepping back a timeframe.
  • We will cover basic directional patterns and trades, how to develop the skills you need to read the market, and how to understand data and statistics–in essence, the whole process of going from a trading idea to an actionable plan to putting that plan into action.
  • Eventually, we will also cover fundamental analysis. We’ll learn how to tear financial statements apart, model a company, and figure out how to put all of this into action.
  • For options, we will cover both directional and non-directional trades, i.e., both selling and buying premium. You can choose both what kind of trader you want to be, but also which might be more appropriate for the particular market.
• I want to be able to build a constructive community of learners and traders helping other traders along, with some guidance and course correction. This was one of my dreams for the free trading course I put out starting in 2013, but I was not able to maintain the community aspect for a free service.
• We will have several different tiers of service and ways that I can interact with and work with traders. At first, the doors will be wide open and everything will be accessible, but we’ll figure this out as we go along.
• Speaking of the free trading course, this course will be completely updated, redone, and expanded. When I launched this course, I promised that I would always be free, and it will be. Though parts of the educational service will live behind a paywall eventually, there will be at least as much freely available material as there is now. (I’ve also learned a thing or two about online education and I will reshoot all the videos and modules–two hour video units are not the best way to teach!)
• All of this will fit into a bigger “lifestyle design” package. We will address issues of personal finance and how to plan for a career as a trader, health (both physical and mental), and diet. In fact, I’ll be launching a supporting food blog that will cover healthy eating, and will probably launch with a heavy focus on low-card/keto diets.
• The overarching, guiding principle is that this will be a real and realistic view of trading. No “bro marketing” with rented sportscars, private jets, and models in swimming pools. No “crush the freakin’ markets” macho nonsense. No get rich quick. Rather, develop the skills to grow securely rich and to build a lifetime of successful interactions with the market, however you define success. You want to be an active trader? Check. Long-term investor? Check. Write some calls against stocks you own? Check. Anyone can make a few trades and have fun trading, but it’s a very different thing to build a professional, enduring mindset.

There’s a lot more going on here; in fact, too much to tell you about in one post. I have some new thoughts on trading system and design, learning pattern recognition, the psychology of risk management, developing skills for peak performance, my own return to serious classical music, food, cooking, life, wine, healthy eating, and how to make all this trading stuff fit together into a healthy lifestyle. Look for more information in the next few days, and we expect to be live at the end of the month.

If you’ve been having trouble accessing the course or the meditation content on my blog, please be patient. We’re in the process of moving some things to a new home so some links are broken. Nothing is going away, and nothing that you’ve had to date will go behind a paywall. In fact, I’ll be producing TONS of content and a lot of that will be available for everyone. Everything will be accessible just as before, but in a new place and format–better than ever before. 🙂