The AlphaMind Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

In this week's episode of the AlphaMind Podcast, we welcome Pradeep Bonde of StockBee, a highly regarded trader in the retail trading community. Pradeep entered the trading world later in his career after a successful tenure as the head of marketing for DHL and FedEx in India. His passion for trading was ignited when he spent time alongside a colleague who actively traded the markets. Captivated by his colleague’s approach, Pradeep embarked on a love affair with trading, but the journey to success was anything but smooth.

In the early stages of his trading career, Pradeep experienced the classic rollercoaster ride that many new traders face, marked by significant wins followed by devastating losses. Although he had a strong appetite for risk, the emotional toll of this tumultuous trading style began to negatively impact his mental well-being. Recognizing the need for a change, Pradeep drew on his robust background in business and logistics to restructure his trading approach. He developed favoured setups and adopted a strategy of taking partial profits, and hitting singles, which involves compounding multiple small wins. 

In this insightful episode, Pradeep shares his journey and the wisdom he’s gained along the way. He discusses the classic mistakes that many traders make, such as failing to establish a clear trading process and falling victim to the ‘island mentality’ whereby they focus on getting rich quickly with dreams of an island home and luxury cars, instead of mastering the more mundane yet essential art of consistently making money.

Join us for this enlightening discussion filled with valuable lessons from Pradeep Bonde, as he offers practical advice to help traders navigate their own journeys in the ever-evolving trading landscape.

To know more about Pradeep and Stockbee, visit: https://stockbee.biz/
You can also follow Pradeep on X at @PradeepBonde

AlphaMind: Powering Performance in Global Markets
AlphaMind 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.

Join us for an enlightening episode of the AlphaMind Podcast, where we delve into the transformative world of performance coaching for traders. Hosted by AlphaMind's own Randall and Steven Goldstein, this engaging discussion features Kim Ann Curtin, famously known as The Wall Street Coach. 

In this dynamic conversation, we explore how performance coaching serves as a vital catalyst for traders, empowering them to unlock substantial improvements in their trading performance. Kim-Ann shares with us the critical role of coaching in enhancing self-awareness and facilitating personal discovery, helping traders achieve their fullest potential while navigating the complexities of the financial markets.

We'll also confront a pressing issue—the hesitation many traders and trading firms feel when it comes to seeking coaching and performance enhancement. As we compare this mindset to the culture in other high-performance arenas, particularly elite sports, we highlight a stark contrast. In sports, engaging with coaches is the norm, while many in trading continue to struggle with the belief that they must not seek additional help.

This episode further examines the self-sabotaging attitudes that often prevail, especially among men, who may dismiss the idea of asking for help. Despite compelling evidence from research showing the transformative impact and impressive return on investment of performance coaching—the median ROI is around 700%, though in almost a fifth of cases it was around 5000%*—the trading industry has yet to foster a robust culture of continuous improvement.

Discover invaluable insights and perspectives that challenge the status quo and encourage both traders and firms to embrace performance coaching as a powerful avenue for growth and success. Tune in now to learn how investing in coaching can lead to profound and transformative outcomes!

*link to research article mentioned:  

Featured Guest: Kim Ann Curtin

·       Website: thewallstreetcoach.com 

·       Social-media handles @kimanncurtin on all social media platforms (X, LI, FB, Instagram & TikTok) 

·       Executive Coaching: TheWallStreetCoach.com

·       Discord Room: TraderHeroJourney.com

·       Kim’s book: Transforming Wall Street

·       Kim’s retreats: The Ho'omana

·       Kim’s Podcast: iTunes or YouTube

AlphaMind: Powering Performance in Global Markets
AlphaMind 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 we dive deep into the world of trading with Mohammad Ali, a seasoned trader with a rich background in financial markets. 

As the former Head of Global FX Trading at TD Securities, Mohammad brings a wealth of experience to the table. In this captivating episode, he shares invaluable insights and knowledge that will challenge and inspire traders of all levels.

Drawing from his extensive experience, Mohammad discusses the profound impact of macroeconomic events on trading decisions, coupled with his nuanced understanding of liquidity, sentiment, and market dynamics at the micro level.

We explore a myriad of topics, from Mohammad's reflections on his trading journey to his candid perspectives on navigating the financial markets. He offers frank insights into his career trajectory, reflecting on how experience has shaped his approach and what he would do differently given the chance.

Moreover, Mohammad's expertise extends beyond trading floors. He now curates a remarkable newsletter, collaborating with leading traders from investment banks to hedge funds. From his base in Canada, he extends this valuable resource to both institutional and retail traders alike, bridging the gap between professional insights and private trading communities.

Tune in to this episode and uncover the secrets of successful trading with Mohammad Ali.

You can subscribe for Mohammad's Purity Macro Newsletter at : https://puritymacro.substack.com/

You can follow Mohammad on
Twitter at this link: https://twitter.com/macroali1
Linkedin at this link: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mohammad-h-ali-cfa-340751a

AlphaMind: Powering Performance in Global Markets
AlphaMind 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.

25 years ago this week, Barings Bank, founded in 1763, was brought down by the calamitous and illegal trading activities of one of its futures traders, Nick Leeson. Working from their Singapore office, Lesson’s accumulated trading losses amounted to over £800 billion or close to $1.4 billion at the time. 

Leeson had been hiding trading losses for the previous 2 1/2 years in a false account he had created, the now infamous 88888 account. For a while these losses were of a size that was concealable, however in January 1995, the losses started to spiral out of control. Leeson had been placing a series of huge bets which relied on the Japanese Stock Market remaining relatively stable. However, the market was rocked when a huge earthquake struck the Japanese city of Kobe. 

As the losses started to mount, Leeson upped the ante, placing even larger bets, effectively doubling up, but the recovery never came, and the losses started to increase exponentially. Eventually, with no hope of recovering the losses, Leeson left a note which simply said, "I'm sorry" and he fled Singapore. An international manhunt followed, gripping the world’s media.

After a few days, Leeson handed himself in to the German authorities, and was later extradited to Singapore where he was jailed for over 6 years alongside some of Asia’s most notorious triad gang members. 

Leeson was released a couple of years early in 1999 on health grounds after being found with colon cancer with a prognosis which was not favourable. 

In this frank and honest interview Leeson talks with AlphaMind podcast co-hosts Mark and Steve about his trading activities. He talks about his failings and those of the system around him. He tells of living with the stigma of being the world’s most infamous rogue trader. He talks about his time in prison, the mental challenges he faced, and how he rebuilt his life following his recovery from cancer and release from prison. Leeson also shares some lighter moments, including how he was hounded by tabloid journalists convinced he had hidden the lost money somewhere.

Listeners may gain a new and somewhat surprising respect for Leeson after listening to this fascinating interview. 

AlphaMind: Powering Performance in Global Markets
AlphaMind 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.

Anthony Crudele started as a trader on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) in the late 1990s. He was one of the youngest members of the CME, originally trading the S&P e-mini futures. Anthony was surrounded by some of the most influential traders and brokers in the financial markets and gained huge knowledge, experience and know-how which helped him develop his own successful trading processes which he then adapted to screen based electronic trading. 

Having struggled and then finally built a successful trading career and practice, and just when everything seemed to have fallen into place, Anthony’s world was brought to a shuddering halt when he suffered a heart attack at the age of 36. Despite being physically healthy in every way, Anthony believes the stresses and anxieties connected to the job played a key role in this near-death experience. 

Anthony recovered and was able to continue trading and to rebuild his career. A large part of this was developing the ability to manage and cope with stress by using powerful mindfulness-based techniques and meditation practices which help him to deal better with the stress and anxiety of life as a trader. 

Anthony also hosts the hugely popular Futures Radio Show, a weekly podcast show where he shares his extensive experience as a futures trader, provide insights into what's happening in the markets, and interviews guests from the world of trading. 

AlphaMind: Powering Performance in Global Markets
AlphaMind 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.

Don't let the title of this episode de-motivate you. The more you know about your brain and how it functions, the greater the likelihood you can make positive adjustments which can drive superior trading and investment performance. 

In this week’s episode we are in conversation with Dr Daniel Crosby. Daniel is a Behavioural Finance author who has written several best-selling books and is one of the leading authorities on the practical application of Behavioural Finance in the Financial Market's world.

In this excellent chat with Steven and Mark, Daniel explains how our brain's role and function so often works against us rather than for us when engaged in our activities in the financial markets.  

One of the key topics Daniel talks about is meta-knowledge, the ability to know what we don’t know. Daniel describes how the development of skills connected to Meta Knowledge are so vital in driving successful performance in trading and investment roles. He also explains how, paradoxically, the more fallible we realise we are the more likely we are to make adjustment and thus succeed. 

Among some of the outstanding books Daniel has written or co-authored are:

• You're Not That Great
• The Laws of Wealth: Psychology and the Secret to Investing Success
• The Behavioral Investor

Daniels has featured in 3 outstanding Ted Talks, has appeared in the Huffington Post and Risk Management Magazine, and writes monthly columns for WealthManagement.com and Investment News. Daniel was named one of the "12 Thinkers to Watch" by Monster.com, a "Financial Blogger You Should Be Reading" by AARP and in the "Top 40 Under 40" by Investment News. 

AlphaMind: Powering Performance in Global Markets
AlphaMind 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 week’s episode we are in conversation with Paul Wallace. Paul is a private UK based trader, who taught himself trading after getting attracted to internet stocks in the early 2000s. 

Prior to that Paul was a fighter controller in the Royal Air Force, and today, as well as working as a trader, and training and coaching other traders, Paul also runs a programme called The Veterans’ Trader Project (VTP) which provides introductory training for ex-forces personnel looking to move into a new career. 

Paul brought with him some fascinating insights and perspectives. And this conversation veered into some surprising directions, including touching upon themes about:

• What is needed to succeed as a trader.
• The delusion many traders suffer about how easy it is to be a trader. 
• Embracing the pain of losing traders to allow you to grow as a trader. 
• The mistaken belief of new traders, that trading systems are a form of ATM. 
• Data Scientist v Traders as system builders.   
• How operating under ambiguity is a shared skill-set of military personnel and great traders
• Preparing mentally for the battle of trading. 
• Improving and developing exceptional performance. 
• Decision-making under uncertainty. 
• Learning from your trains. 
• Being a fear-based trader. 
• Process, Discipline and Self-awareness. 
• The art and science of trading and getting into flow. 
• Building a trading checklist. 

And many other topics and themes.

AlphaMind: Powering Performance in Global Markets
AlphaMind 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 week’s episode we are in conversation with David Keller. This is an episode we can only describe as 'Rich': Rich in insight, rich in wisdom, rich in depth, and rich in meaningful dialogue and discussion.  

David is someone who comes with a huge dose of wisdom, knowhow, knowledge and experience about how markets work, and how people in markets function and think.
 
David came to markets from an alternative route to many having studied as a classically trained musician and student of psychology. David found himself mesmerised by markets and technical analysis in particular which seemed to capture the harmony of markets and to open a window into the way humans behave within them.
 
These days, David runs his own boutique investment research firm Sierra Alpha Research LLC, where he focuses on managing risk through market awareness. He combines the strengths of technical analysis, behavioural finance, and data visualization to identify investment opportunities and enrich relationships between advisors and clients.
 
David is also Chief Market Strategist at StockCharts.com, where he helps investors minimize behavioural biases through technical analysis. Previously David was Managing Director of Research for Fidelity Investments in Boston, where he managed the Technical Research Department as well as the legendary Fidelity Chart Room. 

Until recently David was president of the Chartered Market Technician (CMT) Association and is also a member of the Technical Securities Analysts Association San Francisco and the International Federation of Technical Analysts. He has lectured extensively on technical analysis and behavioural finance as an Adjunct Professor at the Brandeis University International Business School in Waltham, Mass.

Prior to that David was a Technical Analysis Application Specialist with Bloomberg LP in New York and was a regular contributor to Bloomberg Markets magazine. 

AlphaMind: Powering Performance in Global Markets
AlphaMind 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.

This podcast episode will fascinate all those who work in trading and investing roles. In this excellent interview with co-hosts Steve and Mark, their guest Simon Garcia bares his soul, describes his experience, and shares his views about trading, dealing with the mental and emotional challenges of trading and describing some of the pressures the job entails. 

This podcast episode will also be of interest to those curious about mental health in the workplace. It highlights how the pressures placed on people in traumatic workplace environments can lead to detachment from family and loved ones, as well as to one's core values. It also emphasises how this can in turn impact well-being and lead to impaired mental health, with serious consequences for the individual and heightened business risks for the firm.    

The guest, Simon Garcia, is someone who has won, lost, and won again, the mental battle of trading. Simon has experienced the highs, the big highs, the lows, the deepest of all lows, and then come back to win again. 

By the early 2000s, Simon achieved great success as a bond trader working at Natwest Markets and Deutsche Bank, before moving to Lehman Brothers where he was running a Convertible Bond trading team. Then one day the strains and stresses of trading hit him and hit him hard. 

For Simon, the lights went out. Simon had suffered a mental breakdown.  

At this point in his life, Simon was achieving great success, was earning big money, had a good marriage and a wonderful young family. To the outside world Simon had everything. But inside, he felt like he had nothing. He was at the point where life had become so painful and traumatic that he was contemplating ending it.

In the financial markets this is an all to familiar story. Simon was fortunate however. The firm, through their HR team, came through for him. He got the support and the help he needed and made a full recovery.  

Simon was able to continue as a trader after a break and went to achieve great success for another decade at Nomura and then Societe Generale. 

Simon's story didn't end there though. Following his experience, and whilst working as a trader, Simon started studying to be a psychotherapist. To get his hours of practice and training, Simon spent his evenings and weekends, working in hospitals and for local charities. Last year, after almost 3 decades, Simon left the markets to set-up his own private therapy practice.  He is now helping others. 

I hope listening to this episode will give people pause to think about how they approach their work and how they can ensure they create the psychological safety which ensures they care for themselves, and those around them. 

_______________________________________________________________________

You can find out more about the AlphaMind podcast and the show’s co-hosts Steven Goldstein and Mark Randall on the AlphaMind podcast website https://alpha-mind.net.

You can also follow them on twitter https://twitter.com/AlphaMind101 or visit their blog page https://alphamindblog.blogspot.com/

If you are interested in AlphaMind Trader Performance Coaching you can find out more at  https://alphamindblog.blogspot.com/p/the-alphamind-private

AlphaMind: Powering Performance in Global Markets
AlphaMind 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.

Jim Simons is the most successful trader of the last 3 decades by a country mile. Simons founded the Renaissance Technologies the secretive Hedge Fund which employs some of the world’s most brilliant mathematical geniuses. Their flagship Medallion fund has returned a staggering 66% annually, before fees, since 1988.

In November 2019, Wall Street journalist and author Greg Zuckerman published his book which lifted the veil on Jim Simons and Renaissance. ‘The Man Who Solved the Market: How Jim Simons Launched the Quant Revolution’ tells the story of Simons, his early years, his influences, his prolific rise as a mathematician, and his career as a code-breaker for the US government. It explores Simon’s initial ventures into the world of investing and trading, how Simons vision shaped the direction his firm took, his search for methods and models which could unlock the potential to profit in the markets and how he accumulated a team of world renowned Mathematicians to form Renaissance Technologies.  

This brilliant book also tells the story of the Renaissance through some of the individuals which were leading figures within the firm, how they found and improved the model which still runs today as the Medallion Fund, and how they launched other highly successful funds. The book also digs below the surface to reveal some of the dramas which occurred within the firm, the battles between personalities, and finally the how the wealth created by one partner, Robert Mercer, was to have a huge influence on the world we live in today, and which without, we may not have had Donald Trump or Brexit. 

The book is a brilliant read, and in this interview with Zuckerman, we explore his inner thoughts on the book, Simons and Renaissance and discover a little more about what lies behind their extraordinary success. 

You can find out more about the AlphaMind podcast and the show’s co-hosts Steven Goldstein and Mark Randall on the AlphaMind podcast website https://alpha-mind.net.

You can also follow them on twitter https://twitter.com/AlphaMind101 or visit their blog page https://alphamindblog.blogspot.com/

If you are interested in the AlphaMind Trader Performance Coaching you can find out more at  https://alphamindblog.blogspot.com/p/the-alphamind-private-trader.html

AlphaMind: Powering Performance in Global Markets
AlphaMind 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.