James Clear dishes out life-changing insights like they’re T-shirts on a college campus. He is the author of the bestselling book, Atomic Habits. Interview is courtesy of our friends at Morning Brew.
We tried not to bite our nails as we asked James all about building (and breaking) habits.
What is one of your ideas that most resonates with your audience?
There are probably two. The first is the idea of systems over goals, or rather than worrying about the outcome, focusing on the process and building better habits each day. The line that people bring up a lot from the book is, “You don’t rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems.”
The other one that has gone over well is what I call “identity-based habits.” Rather than worrying about the results you want, focus on becoming the type of person who could achieve those results. So instead of worrying about losing 40 pounds, focus on being the kind of person who doesn’t miss workouts. Or rather than worrying about finishing the novel, focus on being the kind of person who writes every day.
Many people have been working from home for 18 months. Do you think that’s made it more difficult to develop habits?
One of the things that makes it hard to stick to a habit is if you’re trying to do multiple habits in the same context. Say your couch is the place where you watch Netflix at 7pm, but you want to get in the habit of journaling each night. If you try to journal at 7pm on the couch you have this unconscious bias toward turning on the TV, because that’s what usually happens there.
One of the benefits of going into an office is that you have a defined space for work habits to live. You can utilize that idea in a practical way, by trying to create defined spaces for certain habits. If you want to get into the habit of reading, you could have a reading chair in the corner of the room. And the only thing that happens there is when you sit there you read a book. And you gradually start to associate that behavior with that context. The more explicit you can be about where the habit occurs, and it always occurs in the same place in the same way, the more likely it is that the behavior will stick.
What did you learn about habit formation from being a college baseball pitcher?
I learned a lot about the importance of pregame routines. Before every start in college I went through the same sequence about 40 minutes before the start of the game.
What ends up happening is that a switch flips in your mind and says, “Remember, it’s time to play now.” I think that helps not just with the physical part of the task—it helps with the mental part of the task. It helps get you in the right mindset to perform.
Translating that to what I do now, since Atomic Habits has blown up I’ve been asked to do a lot of keynote speeches. And I have a pregame routine before I walk out on stage.
What do you do?
It usually starts with me getting a glass of water. I take a drink of water, go through the first minute of the talk in my head, and then I put my head down and have quiet time for 10 seconds or so. Then I get up, take a deep breath, and I’m ready to go.
Each of your newsletters contains two quotes. Do you have a favorite quote?
I’m going to pick two but I do just want to say I have like 100.
One is from my friend Morgan Housel: “Your personal experiences make up maybe 0.00000001% of what’s happened in the world but maybe 80% of how you think the world works. We’re all biased to our own personal history.”
The second one is from the investor Josh Wolfe, who said that the most useful advice he ever got was from James Watson, the scientist who helped discover DNA. Watson said three words with two meanings: “Avoid boring people.” I like that a lot because it means a) don’t hang out with boring people and b) don’t be boring yourself. Be interesting, be fascinating, do compelling things.
In the inauguration of Beyond The Trades “Sit Down” Meeting, Beyond The Trades Steve questions- often tough ones- the Confession Of A Market Maker duo all things life & their backgrounds: How did they met, where they grew up, is JJ remorseful for his past & plenty more questions the people wanted answered!
QUESTION - Thank you for taking the time to participate in the Q & A session. Would you like to share with everyone who you are, your background (current and previous career, education, etc).
I appreciate you taking in interest in who I am and what I am doing. My name is Brent Phillips and shortly after I left the Army, I decided that I wanted to pursue my passion for software engineering.
Shortly, after I completed my Computer Science degree and started working. I then became really interested in trading. First is was stocks and then I discovered futures.
One thing that kept happening to me over and over was that I would constantly think I knew better that the major players in the market. Short story, I did not! This was a costly mistake on my part.
So, I decided to build a tool that would help keep me on the right side of the Bias throughout the day. This is how biasoftheday.com was formed.
QUESTION – For our readers who may not know. What exactly your company and app does, could you explain. Bias of The Day : Website https://bit.ly/3lVrhoY
When it comes to investing there is a term called Bias. This has several different factors to it but what I focused on the most was the three major indices. The Nasdaq 100 which is composed of 100 stocks, the S&P 500 which is composed of 500 stocks and the Dowjones 30 which is composed of 30 stocks. What my tool does is goes over all the stocks in each index and then does some calculations based on an algorithm and returns a bias percentage. In simple terms, it tells you what is happening to all those stocks in nice and easy way. For example, if the majority of the stocks in the Nasdaq 100 are selling off then it might not be a good time to buy.
QUESTION – Can you explain the need for the everyday trader to have the information your app provides (and at such a low cost I might add)
If you constantly buy or sell a stock/future and you are absolutely certain that its going to go your way only to watch it quickly reverse then you need this tool.
It’s not a silver bullet. It is just a nice and easy way to see the “mood” or “bias” of the market. It saves you the time and hassle of trying to figure all of that out on your own.
If used with good trading strategies and proper risk management it can help you trade with the trend and not against it.
QUESTION– Now some non trading questions. What personal or professional failure/setback have you experienced in your life that has set you up for this success?
Before I joined the Army I always believed that I wasn’t smart enough to become a software engineer. I have had the fortune of growing up with the internet and I was there
when it became widely available. However, the Army taught me to believe in myself and to have the confidence and discipline to make it. I have failed so many times that I no longer count. To me it is part of the process.
QUESTION : This is becoming a favorite question for many – plus readers get some good gift ideas from it. What purchase of less than $100 have you made in the past year that you simply could not live without now?
A New Headset! I have so many meeting throughout the day that I need a nice headset!
QUESTION – If you could choose three dinner guests dead or alive, who would they be and why?
Bill Gates – I just want to ask so many questions about how he thinks and approaches problems
Sylvester Stallone – I really need to hear “Yo Adrian” in person.
Any Founding Father – Just curious what they might think about America today.
QUESTION – Can you explain the markets today versus the markets from years ago, decade ago, etc. And where do you see it five years from now?
I haven’t traded the markets for that long. I have noticed that there are more and more trading bots for sale though. I see them everywhere and they always promise to make you a ton of money but they won’t. The future of trading to me is going to be the people versus the bots. Mostly it will be bots but I dont think people will ever stop trading.
QUESTION – What advice would you give to your younger self and to someone just coming out of school (college or high school)
Don’t second guess yourself!
QUESTION – What are your thoughts on cryptocurrency and will your app have any role in them down the road?
Crypto seems to be a hot topic at the moment. I don’t think it is going anywhere. I am not sure if I will add Crypto to biasoftheday or not.
QUESTION – If you could have a big billboard with your favorite saying or message on it, what would it be.
“Think twice, code once”
QUESTION- Thank you for taking the time for this interview. How can our readers contact you, including on social media.
QUESTION: Thank you for taking the time to participate in the Q & A session. Would you like to share with everyone who you are, your background as you have an absolutely amazing story to tell?
It was very well written and I still read it and can not believe I lived this life. This isn’t even my Army story which is pretty crazy in the details as well. I just thought this was always normal and when I discovered it wasn’t it just made me value my friendship and people more. I won’t go over a lot of it but the gist of it is below
I was born in 1984. Ask me where, and I’m not so certain. Dallas, Texas, most likely. My parents were travelers, I was told, but I have no memory of them. I entered Maryland’s foster care system when I was 2 or 3. The only knowledge of life before then came later from foster parents and counselors.
“They said they found me in an old shack,” I remembered. “They were feeding me beer instead of milk because they couldn’t afford both.”
I don’t know who my father is. My biological mother is dead. A grandmother who took in my half-sister couldn’t take in both of us. So I entered the foster system alone and remained that way the rest of my childhood.
The early years were spent bouncing “from foster home to foster home to foster home.” Parents came and went. Foster siblings came and went. Usually after giving me something to remember them by.
“I (got) into a lot of fights with other foster kids,” This was a constant thing.”
It was the older ones that liked to pin me against walls, I remembered.
“Those boys tortured me,”
For an escape, I often turned to a world where people lifted each other up. Where they counted on each other. Where leaders were born.
I used to play a lot of backyard imaginary sports games, like football, basketball, pretending I was on a team playing a championship.
Jordan and Shaq often showed up to play in my imagination. The scenarios, like for so many other young fans, borrowed from big games on TV. Exposure to television, however, was not common for me then. I was drawn to sports.
That was the only thing I ever watched, I picked it because it was a team effort. As a young kid, that is what I lacked in life…In foster care, nobody (was) a leader. Nobody (was on) a team.”
I was 13 when I lived with a foster family outside Washington D.C. My foster parents provided a place to sleep and three meals, but required me to be out of the house otherwise. The door was locked, and I was not allowed in.
I was allowed to use public transit, but I wasn’t allowed to use the phone or watch TV. I found family elsewhere the best I could. Sometimes it was with friends. Often it was not. I liked discovering things. A weird-looking tree in the woods. An old, rusted-out car. Things like him. Alone in the world.
“Even though I had a rough childhood, I still saw value in people, and places, and things, I still had an appreciation for life. Because of this I was able to persevere through any adversity I might have faced.
QUESTION: We understand you are very active with a mission to help returning veterans protect and grow their money the proper way. What are your goals and objectives here. And how is the EquitiesETC/Microefutures Trading Community helping you here?
MICKEY: First and foremost HUGE Shout out to the team at EquitiesETC/Microefutures trading community. There are so many people offering courses and signals for thousands of dollars. Most of the time they don’t work and honestly are a pretty toxic way to protect your capital. Choice the hard right over the easy wrong. With the EquitiesETC/Microefutures trading community they teach you how to fish so when the piranhas are coming to you, you can have the mental resilience and emotional intelligence to respond with critical thinking. They do this at a price that only covers the equipment they need to run the room. They make their income through the trades that they take. This speaks volumes on the characters that run these rooms. As my Soldiers and I would deploy to Iraq/Afghanistan and any other exotic places across the big pond. I would see these barrel chested freedom fighters do some of the most amazing things. Their ability to micro focus and push all adrenaline and emotions aside while dealing with any variable that was thrown at them was a science/process that came with experience. EquitiesETC/Microefutures trading community has the experience in the room to teach us how to do the same in the trading arena. Now as these amazing Soldiers would come back home, they would have a good savings account of 5k to 20k sometimes more. I would watch the responsible ones that were good stewards of their funds try and do the right thing and not blow their funds on useless items and try to invest it in ways they thought was right. Within months, weeks, and sometimes days their money would get wiped out by the market. This did not settle with me right, I knew their small savings account had blood, sweat and tears on each dollar. I know this because I was right next to them. They didn’t get paid enough to throw their money away and we didn’t have the network to be taught the profession correctly. So we would read hundreds of fluff to get to 10-20 pages of applicable information. We would spend thousands of dollars through credit cards to take course that taught us RSI, MACD and blah,blah,blah. By this point I was left standing there alone. I told myself I would go out there and figure this out. While my Soldiers went on and worked however they did. I told myself that I would find a way to teach veterans how to trade for an income and seek financial freedom. I would teach them the profession. This way Soldiers could focus on the profession they were passionate about, or that they had the freedom to deal with any demons they might have brought back to America. I knew the last thing I wanted them to worry about was money.
QUESTION: Tell us what person(s) played such a key pivotal role in your life (both good and bad) and why?
There isn’t one person and it would be unfair to single one person out. Weather I was a new bulldawg team leader kicking in doors with my men in Talifar Iraq, a overconfident Platoon Sergeant in R.C East Afghanistan, a degenerate Drill Sergeant, University Instructor, Logistic or human resource leader and all of the other roles I played in the Army, I always had good and toxic leaders that taught me how to be the leader and not a boss that I currently am now. We all have toxic traits and professional characteristics. As I saw the same displayed in others, I would focus on what I liked in the good leaders and get rid of the traits I didn’t like in the bad leader.
QUESTION: This is becoming a favorite question for many – plus readers get some good gift ideas from it. What purchase of less than $100 have you made in the past year that you simple could not live without now?
MICKEY: WOW This is my favorite question too. My favorite hundred dollars that taught me the most in life went like this. No shit there I was. It was February at 04ish in the morning. I was heading into work and stopped at a gas station. This homeless bum approached me and I thought well here we go. He asked for any spare change. Just like most people out there I question his intentions with my 45 cents of spare change. He said honestly dude it has been a cold night and I haven’t ate, I just want to buy beer and numb myself from my bad life decision. I melted like the wicked witch when water was poured on her. A light bulb went off and this single experience changed my life and taught me empathy, humility and the importance of being transparent. Not only did I buy him a case of beer and a crapload of food/cigarettes I gave him 100 bucks. If I could comfort this dude during this trying time in his life then I did my work for the day. This man just like many got trapped and squeezed in life. He had already paid the price with lost relationships, missed opportunities, and not even having a house to sleep under. Who was I to judge and how dare I do anything to make his life suck anymore. From that moment I vowed to not judge and be part of the problem but to help others. I always have enjoyed seeing others succeed. That is all I want to do with veterans. Help them pay their credit cards off and get that financial freedom while I deal with still paying mine off. Haha it sounds weird and I can’t understand why I am wired this way.
QUESTION: What personal or professional failure/setback have you experienced in your life that has set you up for this success?
MICKEY: I went through a couple of DARK days in my life probably more than not in my first 30 years on this earth. My last 10 have been bomb thought and made up for the crappy ones. As we would return from deployments, my Soldiers would get out of the service. Months and years later I noticed a spike of times when my old bosses like Christopher Mcmillian would call me up and say bad news bud this guy killed himself. I would go into a deep depression that stirred up lots of hate and rage. It wasn’t bad enough we left loved friends in unspeakable ways overseas. Now I had to deal with this. I had to get helped and all of my buddies I would reach out to would typically say stuff like I am dealing with my own demons, I am not qualified or stop being weak. So I finally had to swallow my pride and ego to give my wife and daughter the man they deserved, not the raging jerk I had become. I signed up with counseling and the pressure of my kettlepot decompressed. This was much needed. If you are dealing with anything no matter what that makes you think about suicide call me serious.
QUESTION: If you could choose three dinner guests dead or alive, who would they be and why?
MICKEY: Hmmmm, easy question my three amagios that are good hearted dudes that actually care about people and think like me. JJ, Steve and Ray. That is my wish haha. Why? Because they are trying to change people’s paths in life for the good. They are building legends with their life work and experiences. They see a problem and aren’t waiting for others to fix it but are spending their days doing so with their rooms. This isn’t going to just change people’s lives but their grandkids’ lives and I think that is pretty cool. I know teacher suck up.
QUESTION: What advice would you give to your younger self or someone young who may have lost all hope?
MICKEY: Pick yourself up, don’t feel sorry for yourself, walk it off and rub some dirt on it. You learn alot of awesome lessons from being knock down. The first one is as you are on the ground seeing stars, identify what you did wrong so when you get back up you don’t get knocked back down. Once you are up and walking it off, this is when you are learning new traits that will make you better and not fall for what knocked you down to begin with, then you rub dirty on it which is to always remember what it felt like to be knocked down and the pros and cons that came out of that blow. Improve but don’t forget the emotions and feelings as you laid on the ground initially when you got knocked down.
QUESTION: We understand you and Steve (BeyondTheTrades founder) have discussed ideas to help veterans, what can your picture five years from now this looking like?
MICKEY: I want to see a self-sustaining organization that is ran off off values teaching veterans and people to trade for base hits not home runs. Although homeruns make life easy to get freedom from debt it is more realistic to lose more money. I don’t know how to do what I am trying to do or where to begin. I am just trying to figure how to trade or get a job outside the Army myself. I am in dream phase. I will be the best return on interest Steve, JJ, and Ray ever had in a student.
QUESTION: If you could have a big billboard with your favorite saying or message on it, what would it be?
MICKEY: Embrace the suck, invite it in for tea, become friends with the suck because at the end of the day it will buff out in one way or another, it always does.
QUESTION: Thank you for taking the time for this interview. How can our readers contact you, including on social media. And is there anything else you like for our readers to know about you?
MICKEY: Sure find me on linkedin at Matthew Mickey I am the handsome one according to my daughter. If you guys have any ideas how to find a 40 year old man his grown up job
NOTE – We apologize for some formatting errors that may be appearing in this interview – technical difficulties
QUESTION – Thank you for taking the time to participate in the Q & A session. Would you like to share with everyone who you are, your background and why you have the title, “most photographed person on Wall Street”?
Hi guys thank you for the opportunity to share my story. My name is Peter Tuchman and I am a trader on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. I’m commonly known as the Einstein of Wall Street and or the most photographed man on Wall Street. I enjoy my titles. I’ve used my notoriety and fame to create a brand to promote, inspire, and motivate young people to get involved in finance, trading, and Wall Street
Wallstreet and Trading are my passion. Education and motivation are my mission. I’ve been down on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange since 1985. After a wonderful childhood growing up in New York City, I spent my formative years studying agriculture, finance, marketing, and business. They led me to numerous endeavors in the entrepreneur world–record store owner, music and artist management, owning record label Krona records. I spent a while trading commodities in early 1980’s as well.
I went on to work in west Africa for a Norwegian oil company (Saga Petroleum) doing accounting for a year before coming back to New York 1985. I started my career at Cowen and Company on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange as a Teletypist and over the next 2 1/2 years went on to become a broker….the top of the world.
While I’ve worked for a number of firms over the years trading, equities, convertible arbitrage, and the S&P 500, I’ve maintained a presence on the floor for the last 35 years as a broker. The title of the Most Photographed Person on Wall Street was given to me many years ago in an article done by BuzzFeed as the 2007 financial crisis hit the stock market and the New York Stock Exchange; The presence of the media on the floor had become a daily event and my boisterous, wild, Einstein, adrenaline filled personality became a magnet for a lot of the media photographs. Over the last 14 years my face and emotional expressions have been noted on front pages on magazines, on television interviews, and billboards throughout the world –thus, the title.
For me I love the attention, I love the forum, I love the platform, I love the brand, I love the opportunity to use my title, my face, my emotionality, and my name to inspire others to get interested in the world to finance and Wall Street.
QUESTION - We understand you are very active to this day in teaching the younger generation on the positive and negatives of investing and trading. Care to elaborate for our readers?
Over the last year we’ve seen an incredible movement towards the democratization of trading and investing throughout the world partly due to the pandemic, partly the new trading apps, partly the barriers to entry coming down of underserved peoples getting access to trading the markets–all of which are great things in my opinion. We have also seen the crossroads of wild volatile markets and social media butting heads over the last year –not necessarily a good thing. The jury is still out on that. So where does this leave us ??? The analogy I like to use is if I wanted to become a pilot and fly planes across oceans, I wouldn’t just ask the airport to give me a set of keys and just hop in the cockpit and fly. I also would not just read a book about flying and then hop in the cockpit and fly. I would do whatever necessary to learn the game because it’s a life and death experience. I would want to study, take courses, hire a teacher, get flying hours, and copilot a plane long before I would ever get in the driver seat and fly a plane alone across the Atlantic Ocean. So while money and trading are not life and death experiences they do affect our standard of living and our future. If done correctly and or incorrectly the results are quite different. Therefore, I’ve taken it upon myself as one of my most recent missions to try and address the platform of education when it comes to this new generation of millions of new traders and investors in the marketplace…. www.wallstreetglobaltradingacademy.com. Wallstreet “ stock market” 2020 and 2021 are a brand new breed of markets. We are in the midst of a perfect storm. A failing economy, a very volatile stock market, a new generation of traders, social media, fundamental analysis, technical analysis, and the thought that Wall Street is a get rich quick scheme, people without an education in trading getting involved slinging around dollars and losing millions are all pieces of a dangerous puzzle when happening at the same time. Granted some people are making $ as well, but not for the most part. We just don’t hear about them !!!! However, where we are historically, economically, and financially in the market, we find that the only defense against a volatile market, in my opinion, is in fact “technical analysis.” A lot of the old rules, standards, and practices for trading and investing can be thrown out the door.
Yes , we are hearing about some crypto millionaires, some game stop and reddit millionaires, but we’re not hearing about the thousands and thousands of small accounts that got blown up because people think, “ hope and wishing” are a strategy of trading, and that following the social media mob is a strategy of trading, but they are NOT !!!!! You may win once, you make win twice, but eventually without the tools of technical analysis your account will be blown up, guaranteed.
So as someone who’s mission in life is to get people to love trading and investing, to love finance, marketing and branding, to get people who are consumers to get excited about the stock market, my biggest fear would be that someone finally when the barriers of entry are gone and they get involved in the market and have a couple of good days trading suddenly lose it all. That’s my biggest fear and there is a solution to this problem and it is “education “ www.wallstreetglobaltradingacademy.com
My path has introduced me to incredibly bright, smart people, educators, investors, hedge fund managers, and media marvels. And along the way, 35 years ago I met a man named David Green. He was first the clerk, then a market maker for Goldman Sachs, and then went on to make it his mission to educate people on day trading and technical analysis. Not everyone can be a good teacher, not everyone can be selfless enough to make it their life’s mission to help people understand markets, understand trading, and understand technical analysis. Mr. Green has been that person. As recently as two months ago, I partnered with Mr. Green as the host and moderator in chief of the Wall Street Global Trading Academy www.wallstreetglobaltradingacademy.com, an online day training seminar on technical analysis– seven sections 21 videos from A-to-Z day trading 101–“language of the stock market”, “risk and money management”, “chart set ups”, and “technical analysis trades”. We also offer fun, interactive banter and tales of Wall Street all wrapped up in a beautiful package. Technical analysis is the only defense against wild, volatile markets. Our hope is that people before they open up and start trading this market, which we call “new rules 2021” with percentage moves up and down of 10% on a moment to moment basis, where fortunes can be made and fortunes can be lost instantly at the drop of a hat without having the tools to know what to do, will see the course we offer online. We do live trading videos, we do Q&A‘s every Thursday for those who buy the course. We’ve made it our mission to try and help educate this new generation of traders, to learn technical analysis, which we feel is imperative in order to trade this market.
The opportunities that are out there now are generational. With the volatility in the movement of this market, as we see it, to trade without these tools, it is a “field full of landmines”. With technical analysis, we are offering the probability of winning more times than loosing and finding some financial independence and enjoying it along the way. The course is available online and we are available as mentors. We’re excited to help educate the new generation of traders out in the marketplace.
QUESTION - Tell us the main differences and similarities you see between "old school Wall Street" and the current "new school Wall Street".
I’ve kind of addressed this question a little bit in the differences and similarities between Old Wall Street and New wall Street in the question above but I will go over it. While markets often trade predictively due to historical data, in my opinion, the playing field has changed a lot over the last couple of years, particularly during the pandemic. The democratization and the barriers to entry to a large generation of new investors have changed the flora of the market. The health crisis, the global magnitude of the crisis, and social media’s involvement in the marketplace all have changed the flora Of this ocean. It has changed the way we do business, it has changed the nature of finance, investing, trading, and analyzing fundamentals. Everything has changed. I won’t say for the better or the worse, but I will say it’s opened incredible new doors for millions of new people to trade and invest in the market. It has made the volatility, something that I believe will be here to stay. The generational moves in stocks that we’re seeing now are incredible opportunities to make money and to lose money. All the more reason to promote education as the best defense against this new storm.
QUESTION- What personal or professional failure/setback have you experienced in your life that has set you up for this success?
After pondering my 35-year career on Wall Street and a wonderful childhood with the normal trials and tribulations of growing up, I ended up circling back to the last year of my life. On March 17, 2020, I contracted Covid, tested positive on 23 March and proceeded to be incredibly sick for the next four months with acute fevers and the illness basically ravaged my whole spiritual and physical being.... lung damage,
Meningitis, and brain swelling. To be perfectly honest they were not sure whether I was going to survive. I was home alone in quarantine for 3 months before I finally tested negative for Covid and positive for antibodies. Well I was hoping at this point that I would get my life back, that turned out not to be my destiny. In July I started suffering from insane headaches, neuropathy throughout my body, brain fog with unbearable neck pain and loss of use of my left arm. After multiple MRIs it turned out that my cervical spine had collapsed due to dehydration of the disks from Covid and it was necessary for me do you have a four level fusion of my cervical spine.
I’ve been in the neck brace for more than six months and I am now suffering from acute long term Covid symptoms that are too long to describe. I say all this to say that my physical, spiritual, and emotional being has been rocked into the fourth dimension by this ruthless, deadly virus that has changed the course of my life for the last year and probably will for the rest of my life. While throughout this illness I’ve had incredible support from my family and friends, from social media, and people at work the isolation the trauma, the pain, the uncertainty and the outlook on the future have really tested my resilience as a human being and my spirit. There is no playbook for this virus and for me personally there’s no playbook for these challenges. I’m still deep in it, I’m suffering on a daily basis, and while I get up, I get dressed and I go to work, fatigue ravages my body and pain persists on a daily basis. What does one do when this happens? What does one do when doctors do not know how to help you with your complaints? What does one do when your spirit is broken, your body is in pain, your mind plays tricks on you and the future is uncertain? At numerous times throughout this year I found myself in a state of deep trauma and in a spiritual conundrum. I have a beautiful family, a wife and two children, and an amazing job. I have a great career, lots of friends and a year ago was on the top of the world, and a level of success in my career that I could never have imagined. Now a year later while I am suffering through all of these challenges when there are days where my get up and go has got up and left, I reflect on the last year and the resilience of the human spirit. I reflect on the challenges that I’ve overcome to be sitting here today on April 3, 2021 once again at the top of my career, closer than ever with my family and friends, and spending my life trying to motivate and inspire others to find something they love to do. How did I get here? How did I navigate through all the darkness? My parents were eastern European Jews who spent four years in concentration camps in Germany after having their families decimated by the Nazis. They spent four years starved, beaten, freezing cold and uncertain when and what day they would die. They shared their experience with me regularly throughout my life so that I would understand the resilience of the human spirit and what it takes to survive this life when it throws unimaginable challenges at you. I drew from their pain, I drew from their experience, I drew from the resilience of their human spirit, of their desire to survive as I navigated my way on a daily basis through the past year of my life.
They are no longer here with me but they lived beautiful long lives into their late 90s. What they taught me was perseverance, inner strength, spirituality, downright stubbornness, and that survival was the best revenge against any challenge that we sustain as humans. I was forced to confront what is really important—the things I need to live and go forward with, things I want, what things I can’t live without, and what is meaningful in my life. When one is confronted by a physical and spiritual bottom, two scenarios happen, either the bottom falls out of the bottom or one harnesses their deep inner strength and starts climbing out of the darkness and into the light. They climb out with a zest for life, and with the grace of God and every ounce and iota of power they have in their physical body and spiritual body with a will to survive. It’s happened since the beginning of time and my trials and tribulations don’t compare to those of my parents, though for me they were deeply traumatic. But the bigger picture is we are all a product of our past. My parents’ journey and the fact that they shared it with me on a very personal level helped me in so many ways to harness the deep pain and challenges, and turn them into opportunities to be of service and help others. And that’s where I am today with smile in my heart, a hop in my step, and, no matter what. grateful to be alive.
QUESTION: This is becoming a favorite question for many - plus readers get some good gift ideas from it. What purchase of less than $100 have you made in the past year that you simple could not live without now?
So what purchase of less than $100 have I made in the past year that I could not live without??? I’m a foodie, I love to eat and I love to cook. I used to be in the food business, so I love new products that are exciting and different. Janiebakes.com
JannieBakes is a new company that makes piecrust cookies….chocolate, pecan, triple berry…they are like “heaven in a cookie”. The dough is flaky and delicious, the insides are just spectacular, and the different variety of flavors are wonderful. You can heat them up and have them as ice cream or you can just eat them as a cookie. They are delicious!! Janie is a friend of mine. She is a wonderful young entrepreneur who is taking her business to the next level. She will be soon opening up a brick and mortar in New York City on the Upper West Side
They make great gifts and they are available online. Everyone, I guarantee you, will go crazy for them.
Next up OliveOiljones.com
Steve Jenkins well known cheese monger.
Former partner at Fairway recently opened up a Artisanal olive oil and vinegar company. They have vintage olive oils from around the world with “choice” vinegars as well as some other beautiful products that make great gifts with great flavor. I use them every day. Who doesn’t like amazing olive oils, great vinegars, and fun gourmet foods. It’s a must for every kitchen and every cook… great gift.
QUESTION - If you could choose three dinner guests dead or alive, who would they be and why?
Choose three dinner guests alive or dead who you would like to dine with….. Great question and after much pondering I came up with three that I think would be exciting.
First of all Alexander Hamilton the founder of our banking system has an extraordinary bright personality, is a big thinker, workaholic, and an adrenaline junkie. He is a great writer, great orator, fighter, and businessman man on a mission. I love history and obviously his history and mine up to a certain extent, so that would be fun for me. These are all qualities which I respect.
Next up Sean Connery — James Bond … Bond , James Bond In my opinion the coolest guy ever. I always wanted to be a secret agent. My uncle was a spy during World War II and I always kind of was intrigued by the job. As you will see if you ever Google me, I’ve met tons of celebrities and wonderful people in my world on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange and for me the coolest of all was Sean Connery. In person, he was a humble, sweet, awesome guy. James bond himself was the ultimate of cool. I love the way he dressed, the way he spoke, the way he acted, he was the king of cool.
Next up, Shaquille O’Neal. Once again someone who I’ve met. If you Google “Shaq kisses tiny trader” you’ll see a great video of him and I. He is an incredibly, humble, nice man, super bright but for me his expertise as a branding and marketing gangster is what intrigues me the most. He’s taking his talents, his name, his face to a whole new level in the branding and marketing advertising world. Once again qualities which I respect and aspire to.
Now if you could imagine the dining room table with Alexander Hamilton, Sean Connery, Shaquille O’Neal and I, that would be a heck of a dinner!
QUESTION - What are some of your hobbies? How do you escape from the real world during these crazy times with Covid the past year?
What are my hobbies and how did I escape from the madness of covid over the last year??? I would say it in three easy words…it would be ART, MUSIC, and FOOD. Those are my three go to’s for relaxation. I can sit in my home or drive in my car and listen to soul music, R&B, opera, classical music, and jazz all day long, super loud, scream and yell and dance around makes me happy. I love art. I love street art. I love collectible toys I follow and mentor a lot of young artists through Instagram and other platforms. Art makes me smile, colors make me happy, and creativity is a great inspiration for me. I’m actually coming out with a collectible toy of my Einstein of Wall Street character and that makes me happy.
And finally, FOOD. I love food even though I must say that for the last year during Covid I have lost my taste buds but it still has not squashed my love for cooking and cooking for others, which makes me happy. I’ve studied cooking and have been cooking since I was a young guy. It’s a wonderful family activity, though I prefer to cook by myself, for others. In the 80’s, I created a hot sauce named Johnny Wishbone Secret Sauce. It was a super fun condiment to help as a cooking aid. I love flavors, I love different textures in food, and I love plating beautiful well-made dinners. These are things that occupy my mind, they relax me and make me happy.
QUESTION – Do you have any mentors now or when you first got started in your career?
To be honest, mentors in my field of work not so much, but mentors in my life I would say are my parents.
My parents grew up in Eastern Europe. They were incarcerated in concentration camps during the war. They spent four years in Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen and lost a majority of their family to the Nazi occupation. They fell in love in a displaced person camp after the war. They married and came to America and found their dream and followed their dream. They were inspirational, they had great humanity, their characters were impeccable, they were kind, they were loving, and they were empowering. Having experienced what they had, the total in humanity and to have survived it and to have come out of it not angry or bitter but kind, loving, and empowering for me has been my greatest inspiration.
Anger resentment and bitterness are not constructive qualities for a productive life. Looking and living while you stare into the rearview mirror, nah…it’s not the best way to drive down the highway or live your life. Being positive, carrying an inspirational message, always coming from a loving place, finding kindness in your heart, being a survivor, persevering, following your dream are the mentorship qualities I got from my parents and that have carried me through my journey. They lived to be late into their 90s, their love affair never ended, they were married for 66 years, and they were happy, joyous, and free. That’s how I live my life!!
QUESTION - We understand you know someone we interviewed last year, "The VOZ".. Care to share any funny moments with her from the floor of the stock exchange?
Do I care to share any funny moments about “the Voz” If I share any funny moments about “the Voz”, I’ll just have to kill you…. let’s leave it at that. The Voz is da best. We’ve known each other for many years. We had a wonderful weekly show called Wall Street Wisdom that we did from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. She’s fun, she’s bright, she’s boisterous, she’s shattered the ceiling on women in finance and media and she’s a good person.
QUESTION - If you could have a big billboard with your favorite saying or message on it, what would it be?
The billboard…I love it!!
“If you find something you love to do, you’ll never work a day in your life.”
It’s my motto.
And
“If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything.”
And finally, something which is important to me, which you could kind of just put on my grave stone, “He who dies having affected the most people in a positive way is the winner!!!”…”Toys don’t mean shit”
They are not my sayings…they’re just great sayings and I live my life that way.
QUESTION- Thank you for taking the time for this interview. How can our readers contact you, including on social media. And is there anything else you like for our readers to know about you?
Thanks for the opportunity to share with you guys. What a wonderful interview. Again, thank you.
QUESTION - Thank you for taking the time to participate in the Q & A session. Would you like to share with everyone who you are, your background as you have had an amazing career as an actress, WWE wrestler, model and now trader!
My pleasure. Thanks for the opportunity to reach your community. My name is Bobbi Billard and I am a model, actress, and former professional wrestler for WWE & WOW Women of Wrestling. I grew up in Southern California. I built my following online, through hard work, choosing to avoid the nightclub/party scene that most of my friends were preoccupied with, while we were in our early 20s and instead replacing that with working long days/nights on the computer, opting to promote my career aspirations, an investment that ended up paying off.
I have worn many hats in my life and have always tried to cross-promote myself in as many different ways as possible. As a result, my career took off and I landed a television role playing Summer of the Beach Patrol on WOW Women of Wrestling, as well as a Super Bowl commercial for Diet Dr. Pepper, and numerous other TV, music video, and movie roles.
While modeling and acting was a fun and exciting career to have been a part of, I've gradually moved on to pursuing other interests. Particularly ones that revolve more around using my brain, versus using my brawn. So the evolution has come about and these days, I'm a published author, designer, artist and real estate, stock, and crypto investor with a background and degree in interior design.
I currently live in Las Vegas, Nevada but I'm often visiting California, as a lot of my friends and family still reside there.
QUESTION - You do not have to answer, but you were involved prior to trading in a major class action lawsuit against the WWE. Can you describe what caused this - and the outcome.
Years ago, I was hired to wrestle for WWE. I ended up getting injured and had to have surgery on my neck. I pursued claims along with 74 other former WWE wrestlers for unfair and dangerous employment conditions in wrestling. We had hoped to get help for all the wrestlers that cannot get properly diagnosed and treated for neurological diseases that are a consequence of their careers. The cases were dismissed but the class action lawsuit for everyone was recently filed at the US Supreme Court. For more information on the pending case, you can visit:
https://wweconcussionlawsuitnews.com/
Highly recommend the stocks trading room and community at www.equitiesetc.com/
QUESTION - Tell us you decided to get involved in trading. And do you trade stocks, cryptocurrency. What challenges and successes have you enjoyed in trading. And why trading to begin with?
My father taught me about investing at a young age. My dad let me choose a few stocks that I wanted to invest in. Then he purchased them and we'd track them together on a chart. He told me to pick out companies that I was interested in. At that time, I liked playing with Barbie, so we bought shares in Mattel. We ended up doing well on these little joint ventures we had together. Good times!
My father was a very smart man. He taught me how important it was to invest your money and save for your future, so I never forgot that lesson that he instilled upon me.
For most of my life I have been a saver. Unlike many of the women I met while working in the entertainment industry who seemed to invest their money in expensive designer shoes and purses that don't usually appreciate in value, I purchased real estate and invested the majority of my income into my home. I made a good amount of money investing in real estate over the years. I played around with stocks some, but I mostly held mutual funds for long-term positions. The majority of my portfolio, at the time, was managed by stock brokers / investment advisors. Today, while I continue to use some of these same advisors to help me manage my portfolio, I have increasingly taken on more of these responsibilities myself, while saving myself money on management fees.
In 2014, I went back to school and earned my degree in interior design. I started flipping homes, then the pandemic hit. The uncertainty of that situation caused me to hit pause on my current project and I started investing more in stocks. I made some smart investment choices and was averaging about +43% yield throughout 2020.
I fell in love with trading and am convinced that I stumbled upon a new passion of mine. I know this because I always hated waking up early for as long as I could remember. I was always the girl who would choose a shoot at sundown over sunrise, given the choice. I loved my beauty sleep! You couldn't get me out of bed early for anything. When I started becoming more active with trading, I found myself voluntarily waking up before the crack of dawn, without an alarm, energized, ready to plan my next moves for that day, and excited for the opening bell to ring.
I'm kind of a homebody, which is another reason why I like trading so much. It allows me to be where I am most comfortable, spending time with my friends, family, dogs, and loved ones.
My bread and butter is as a momentum trader. No margin, no options. Heavy in genomics and technology but lately I have been hoarding cash with plans to adjust some of my positions in order to reflect our new political environment.
And I am proud to say that I was the fool who bought a bunch of crypto close to its 52 week high at the end of 2017. But, I’m not such a fool anymore. I HODL'd and turned that investment into quite a hefty profit. I've since split those aces and I now play entirely with house money, which is my favorite thing to do, whether it be with trading stocks or investing in crypto.
I've recently expanded beyond trading only BTC, Ethereum, & LiteCoin. Some of my other favorite altcoins that I'm most bullish on include Algorand (ALGO), Basic Attention Token (BAT), and Cardano (ADA).
More recently, I started creating and selling my own NFT's. This, to me, is the future for artists and creators. It is the perfect blend of my artistic side and high interest in blockchain technologies. Also, I have always been an early adopter of social media and all things internet since way back in the MySpace days and before that Yahoo! Groups. Becoming an early adopter in the NFT space seemed to be a natural fit. Here is my collection: https://opensea.io/collection/bobbi-billard-art. And I'm excited to announce that I just sold my very first two pieces.
If anyone is interested in purchasing any of my NFTs, you can make an account here:https://opensea.io?ref=0x3987a56fd21097fa7d911b97ad4184d917ee0b25
My profile is located here: https://opensea.io/accounts/bobbibillard
As for challenges, life is not always easy and can be filled with as many professional and personal disappointments, just as it can be the exact opposite, like the stars aligned and things are being presented to you on a silver platter. Truth be told, my greatest disappointments have led me to my greatest joy and love. If not for this road I have traveled on, I would never truly know happiness. As they say, you've gotta roll with the punches and take the good with the bad. As a former professional wrestler, I know this far too well.
QUESTION- What personal or professional failure/setback have you experienced in your life that has set you up for this success?
Nothing in my life has been handed to me. I have had to work hard for everything that I have accomplished. My basic strategy has always been to work harder than anyone else is willing to work, which has usually guaranteed me success in everything I've wanted to accomplish. I keep putting myself out there no matter what, unbothered by Monday morning armchair quarterback critics, that sometimes come out and try to project their misery onto me.
QUESTION : This is becoming a favorite question for many - plus readers get some good gift ideas from it. What purchase of less than $100 have you made in the past year that you simply could not live without now?
This may sound strange but hear me out. I discovered that I love Mike's Hot Honey on pizza. I used to use red pepper flakes to kick the spiciness up a notch but now I just use this instead. It really seems to bring out the flavor and sweetness in the tomatoes, all while giving it an extra kick. So delicious! Highly recommended. Mike's Hot Honey can be a bit hard to find depending on where you live, so I usually buy mine on Amazon:
I recently found the coolest iPad cover and I always get so many compliments on it. I think it's great because it's completely incognito. I can leave it in my car and not have to worry that someone will break in and try to steal it as it literally looks like it's a notebook.
Lastly, since I love spending time at home, my favorite purchase has been various lighting devices from Philips Hue. I have this lighting throughout many rooms of my home and it allows you to choose different colors of light in order to set a mood/vibe. You can even upload a picture in which it will mimic the colors in said picture. It has rapidly become one of my favorite inexpensive upgrades that I've done to my house which seemingly has accomplished more than many of my more costly upgrades have. Here's a quick kit that can help you transform your home, you can thank me later. *wink* It's a little bit pricier than $100 but since this kit includes multiple lights and devices that you don't have to buy all at once, I figured it was worth a mention.
My father, who passed away from pancreatic cancer, because I was only 19 when that happened and I miss him a lot! There's so much to catch up on! I think he would be proud of me that I'm investing the way that I am now. I'd gladly forego the other two just to have him back for a single second.
QUESTION - What are some of your hobbies? We see you live in Las Vegas. Give our readers the good and the bad of living in Vegas!
I love living in Vegas! I used to live in California but I grew sick of the traffic and high cost of living. Las Vegas was a good alternative, as it is just a hop, skip, and a jump away. I can easily access the freeway from where I live and get back on the road to visit my friends and family by simply taking a short 3.5 - 4 hour road trip. And to be honest, with the way traffic in Cali has gotten to be, it's not too much longer than the time you'd expect to spend, waiting in rush hour traffic, while traveling from South Orange County to the Valley.
Vegas is a popular tourist destination, so I still get to see a lot of my friends that live in other states about as often as I might while we were both residing in the same state. One, or more of them, are often out here visiting for one reason or another, whether it be a work convention, a wedding, or a show they came out to see. There isn't nightmarish traffic like there is in LA and you can afford to live a way better lifestyle out in Las Vegas. I currently live in my dream home, which was super affordable when I purchased it back in 2012. I have a large backyard with a pool and room to breathe. I don't think you could build my house from the ground up for what I paid. I practically stole the thing! I am 15 minutes from the airport and I don't miss paying city and state taxes one bit. There are many world class chefs who have left their jobs on the strip, to go off on their own and start their own restaurants, so supporting some of these business ventures keeps a foodie like me quite satisfied. Another thing is that Las Vegas definitely takes care of their locals. There are often local discounts offered. There's also great shopping and always something to do 24-7-365. It is a pretty damn good quality of life, if I do say so myself.
The bad thing about living in Las Vegas is that when people come out, they often want to let loose because Vegas is known for being the crazy party capital of the US, if not the entire world. And as much as I love the fact that people flock to Vegas for that very reason and I'm not hatin', I personally can't spend my life partying like it's 1999, being hungover all day every day. People assume that Vegas life must be equivalent to a scene from the movie 'The Hangover' but I can't live my life that way. I'd accomplish absolutely nothing and I've got stocks to trade and money to make so I can buy my own private island. 😜
QUESTION - Do you have any mentors now in trading or even life?
I love Cathie Woods from Arkk Invest. She's my girl crush and I love her taste in stocks! Apparently, she likes mine too as she has gotten into a few that I have invested in after I was already an investor.
QUESTION - Name three books you would recommend to a friend as having an impact on your life (and why if possible)
The Secret by Rhonda Byrne because it retrained my way of thinking and taught me about the power of positivity, manifestation, and to discard negative thoughts that serve me no benefit.
When Bad Things Happen to Good People by Harold Kushner because it helped me come to terms with the untimely death of my father due to pancreatic cancer at 54 years of age.
The Art of Seduction by Robert Greene because it is always good to know that evil exists everywhere and this book helps you recognize it right away if it happens to cross your path so that you don't waste any of your precious time.
QUESTION - If you could have a big billboard with your favorite saying or message on it, what would it be.
It costs $O.OO to be a kind human being.
QUESTION- Thank you for taking the time for this interview. How can our readers contact you, including on social media. And is there anything else you like for our readers to know about you?
Thanks so much for the opportunity to do this interview. I look forward to getting to know you and your community. I'm @bobbibillard everywhere (including Clubhouse) so feel free to add me at any of the sites I am on and when I see it, I'll follow you back. Here's a list of some of the ones I use the most frequently:
QUESTION: Thank you for taking the time to participate in the Q & A session. Would you like to share with everyone who you are, your background and what you do career wise today.
Thanks for the opportunity. I’m Jared Tendler, mental game coach and author. My job is to help traders, investors, athletes, PGA Tour players, poker players and other professionals remove the emotions that negatively affect decision-making and performance. I have clients in 45 countries, including some of the top professionals in their field. I’m also the former head of sport psychology for the e-sport organization Team Liquid, where I was an integral part of recent championships across many of their teams.
I got into the field from my own experience as an aspiring professional golfer. In college, I was a 3-time All-American and won nine tournaments, but was continually choking in major national events. I didn’t find answers from sport or golf psychology, and as is common with a lot of entrepreneurs, my career was born from believing there had to be a better way. I got a master’s degree in counseling psychology and spent 3200 hours of supervised practice to get licensed as a therapist, but never with the intent to be a therapist — instead, I wanted to understand how to better solve performance issues in golf. In 2005, I started working with golfers and quickly built up a roster that included players on the PGA, LPGA, and Korn Ferry Tour, as well as top ranked juniors.
My success there has since led to work with poker players, traders, pool players, sports betters, lawyers, and entrepreneurs.
QUESTION: We understand you were very active (and still may be) in the professional poker world, prior to your current involvement into the trading/investing community. Can you share your journey?
I am still very active and continue to work with some of the best players in the world, including many who have won WSOP bracelets. I got started in poker in 2007, when on a golf trip to Bandon Dunes in Oregon a mutual friend introduced me to an online poker player named Dusty Schmidt. When he and I met, Dusty was making around $30k playing 10 tables at one time. But he had a major anger problem that was costing him – not just in broken computer equipment. Four months after we started coaching, not only was his anger issue gone, he had made $600k in that time as a result of playing better, longer and more tables at once. After this significant success, Dusty connected me to an online poker training site and I began creating content for the membership. Over the next few years, I learned the intricacies of online and live poker and how to adapt my material from golf.
In 2011, I wrote The Mental Game of Poker, which tackled problems with anger, fear, motivation and confidence. A few years later, I started hearing about traders who picked up the book and said the concepts applied easily to them. That led to an uptick of 1:1 trading clients, workshops with trading groups, and coaching with an institutional firm. I’ve been working with traders for eight years now.
Three years ago I started writing The Mental Game of Trading, and am excited to release it at the end of March. It’s not just a rehash of the poker book, it’s a completely new book. I’ve learned a lot in the last 10 years as a coach that allowed the framework of the book to be significantly better. Plus, it’s tailored to traders and focuses on solving problems with greed, fear, anger, confidence and discipline. It’ll be out at the end of March!
QUESTION: Tell us the main differences and similarities you see between the poker and traders mindset. Do you feel poker players thus make for good traders (and vice versa)?
The mentality to be the best in any field is very similar, not just between poker and trading. But variance is a factor that most professionals don’t have to deal with so significantly, especially athletes. As a result, learning how to develop an edge as a poker player or trader is significantly more complex because of the false feedback that you get. Anyone could sit down today with the best poker players in the world and win. Anyone could deposit money in a brokerage account and make money in the markets today. But to do that consistently over the long-term is a different story and you must be able to handle variance. Poker players make good traders because they’ve endured those bad runs that sometimes last for months. And they’ve also had to control the other side too when running hot, to not get overconfident and burn money.
QUESTION: What personal or professional failure/setback have you experienced in your life that has set you up for this success?
I failed to fulfill my dream of being a professional golfer because of my mentality and inability to handle the pressure. For me, the natural selection of competition weeded me out and that has driven me to create a system that can teach/train people to fix their weaknesses. Back then, if I had what I have now, I’m not saying that I’d be on the PGA Tour, but I would have had a legit shot. I love the career that I’ve created. I get to help people who may not have made it a chance to get over the hump and achieve their goals. It’s incredibly fulfilling.
QUESTION: This is becoming a favorite question for many – plus readers get some good gift ideas from it. What purchase of less than $100 have you made in the past year that you simple could not live without now?
I take fitness and health seriously, and 6 bucks will get you a lacrosse ball. It’s the perfect thing to use to work knots out of your muscles.
QUESTION: What advice would you give to your younger self? And where do you see yourself in 10 years?
Growing up, I tended towards overconfidence, and that led me to be too dismissive of advice from my elders, and to rely too much on finding my own answers. That’s part of why I’ve been successful, but it was also inefficient. I needed that balance where I could get a lot of advice, or learn from other professionals, while still making my own path. It led to a lot more ups/down than would be ideal.
In 10 years? Well, as a good entrepreneur I’m going to keep those cards hidden. But professionally, my goal at that point is to have been successful enough that I’ve had an opportunity to take large chunks of time off from coaching each year to expand my skill set in ways that the normal day-to-day doesn’t allow for. And have time to get my golf game up to a level again where I can get back to competing at a national level.
QUESTION – What are some of your hobbies? How do you escape from the real world during these crazy times with Covid?
Golf was a great one before the cold and snow hit the northeast. Since then, I love making fires and relaxing with my family and spending time outdoors. I’ve also recently started doing puzzles. I just finished a 2000 piece puzzle and it actually gave me some insight into the process of completing large projects – like my new book.
QUESTION: Do you have any mentors now or when you first got started in your career?
When I first started out coaching golfers, I moved to Arizona, knew no one, and cold called my way around the golf courses looking for a place to set-up shop. Tyler Kirkendoll was a golf coach who was ahead of his time. He brought me to his operation and became a great friend and mentor. He’s one of those guys who just “gets it” and doesn’t command any fanfare.
QUESTION: When you have lost your mojo or focus, what do you do to get back on track?
At this point, I know myself well enough that if I lose my focus, it’s because I’m not clear on exactly what I’m working on or trying to accomplish, so I just take a step back to nail that down. Lost mojo, that hasn’t happened for years, but if it does again, or if I’m struggling with something – annoyed, confused, etc. – writing is a great tool for me to figure things out.
QUESTION: If you could have a big billboard with your favorite saying or message on it, what would it be.
“Be a detective, not a dick.” For context, people are often critical of their mental and emotional problems. But to solve them you need to understand the cause. Every time you greedily move your target, force entry into a mediocre trade out of anger, or size too small because you fear losing, there are clues or signals that will help you understand the nature of the problem. You can’t just wish or will those problems away. To solve them, you need to be a detective and gather the clues, examine them, and identify the flaws. That’s a much more effective way of solving problems than being a dick, and assuming that you’re just being irrational.
QUESTION: Thank you for taking the time for this interview. How can our readers contact you, including on social media. And is there anythingelse you like for our readers to know about you?
You can contact me through my website: www.jaredtendler.com and on Twitter: @jaredtendler. And if you want to sign-up to be among the first notified when The Mental Game of Trading is out (I’m aiming for March 31st) you can sign up here: https://jaredtendler.com/thementalgameoftrading/
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QUESTION – Thank you for taking the time to participate in the Q & A session. Would you like to share with everyone who you are – and what exactly is your company providing the trading community?
My name is Tom Abruzzo and I’m the owner of Swaggy Dad Hats, LLC aka Stock Market Hats. I’m providing funny and stylish merch to the trading community. I try my best to be a brand with a personality. I feel like many companies lack a personality these days.
QUESTION – What personal or professional failure/setback have you experienced in your life that has set you up for this success?
I have made about 7 different websites in the past (blogs and affiliate marketing sites) and failed every time. Each failure taught me what not to do. I have learned that your greatest mistake is fearing you’ll make one.
QUESTION– We see you are actively on Twitter. Any special accounts or individuals you follow and why?
Yes, here is a list of accounts that have helped me out by promoting me, supporting my business, and giving me some design ideas. This list is a mix of real people and parody accounts that I enjoy following:
QUESTION – How did you build up a twitter following of 13k in 8 months?
I don’t take myself too seriously and I appreciate all of the love and the hate I receive. I try to build relationships with others and I try to provide the best customer service that I possibly can!
QUESTION : This is becoming a favorite question for many – plus readers get some good gift ideas from it. What purchase of less than $100 have you made in the past year that you simply could not live without now?
Pizza… pizza is the only correct answer to this question.
QUESTION – What advice would you give to your younger self? And where do you see yourself in 10 years?
I don’t have any advice for my younger self. I’m currently 26 and I’m honestly just taking things one step at a time. I don’t know where I see myself in 10 years to be honest.
QUESTION – What are some of your hobbies? How do you escape from the real world during these crazy times in the markets.
Ice hockey, working out, and golf are my 3 escapes currently. I’m awful at golf but for some reason I’m in love with it.
QUESTION – Do you have any mentors in life, including also the trading community.
I look up to Kris Krohn and Monica Lewinsky (very thankful for her retweet)
QUESTION – When you have lost your mojo or focus, what do you do to get back on track?
I look for a sativa stain of marijuana.
QUESTION- Thank you for taking the time for this interview. How can our readers contact you, including on social media. And is there anything else you like for our readers to know about you?
I donate some of my profits to a cancer foundation. This business was made in honor of my aunt Andrea who I lost to cancer unfortunately. She was one of the only people in my life who told me to never give up on my internet entrepreneurial ideas and supported me 100%
DON’T buy any hats from me!!! (Discount code “brrr” for 10% off your order. Won’t work with Apple Pay or Google Pay)
QUESTION – Thank you for taking the time to participate in the Q & A session. Before we start in detail. Would you like to share with everyone who you are, what you do & where you live?
NICHOLAS: My name is Nicholas Maggiulli and I am an investor, writer, and data scientist. I am currently the Chief Operating Officer at Ritholtz Wealth Management and the author of Of Dollars And Data, a data-focused personal finance blog. I currently reside in New York City but I am originally from Southern California.
QUESTION – Can you explain your educational and professional career journey to get where you are now.
NICHOLAS: I got my Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Stanford University and went into economics/litigation consulting immediately after graduation. During that time I fell in love with programming (specifically data programming) and eventually transitioned into a data science role within the industry. However, my heart wasn’t in consulting because I knew I wanted to do something in the investment space. As a result, I started blogging at Of Dollars And Data back at the beginning of 2017 for fun but also to see if I could use it to transition into the industry. The blog helped me grow my network in the financial space and led me to Ritholtz Wealth Management where I started as a data scientist in mid-2018. I have since taken on more responsibility at the firm and was promoted to COO in mid 2020.
QUESTION – What personal or professional failure/setback have you experienced in your life or professional career that has set you up for later success?
NICHOLAS: I moved across the country for an ex-girlfriend that didn’t work out. It’s embarrassing, but had I not moved I probably wouldn’t have started Of Dollars And Data and I definitely wouldn’t be working in finance right now. Sometimes you lose something you care about to gain something better in the long run.
QUESTION– Can you explain in more details OfDollarsAndData.com and how possibly our readers can learn more.
NICHOLAS: Of Dollars And Data is a data-focused personal finance website whose primary goal is to help you live a smarter, richer life. I want you to make financial decisions using the best information available. If you are new to the blog, I recommend reading through my Popular Posts page to get a better feel for what I write about and how I can help you improve your finances.
QUESTION : This is becoming a favorite question for many – plus readers get some good gift ideas from it. What purchase of less than $100 have you made in the past year that you simply could not live without now?
NICHOLAS: My Victoria Cast Iron Skillet. It’s $20, I cook meat on it every day, and it will last forever, with proper care. If you have ever bought a cast iron skillet, you probably have gotten a Lodge before, but I prefer Victoria because of the higher quality and better pre-seasoning on the pan. I could do an entire blog post on seasoning cast iron pans, but I won’t bore you with that now. Teflon doesn’t get the same sear, so invest in quality cookware.
QUESTION – What advice would you give to your younger self – and what advice would you give to a young high school or college graduate?
NICHOLAS: I’d give the same advice to a young high school or college graduate (male or female). Having good health is a foundation that you can build everything else around. You can always earn more money, make new friendships, and fall in love again, but health is something that is hard to get back if you’ve neglected it for far too long.
QUESTION – What are some of your hobbies? How do you escape from the real world during these crazy times that we have been experiencing in 2020/21?
NICHOLAS: I play guitar and read a fair bit. In 2020 I have done far less reading than in years prior, but I have done far more guitar playing. Guitar is a great escape because it is both challenging and entertaining at the same time. In addition, I have spent far more time on social media in 2020 to connect with people (since I can’t do it in person due to Covid).
QUESTION – How has the Covid situation effected you both professionally and personally. And did any positive come out of it for you?
NICHOLAS: The only positive thing to come out of 2020 was living through and experiencing a market crash. March 2020 taught me more about investing (and myself) than in the 8 years prior. As Fred Schwed once stated, “Like all of life’s rich emotional experiences, the full flavor of losing money cannot be conveyed by literature.”
Professionally I haven’t been impacted by it much since our firm was built to be remote. Personally I have been fortunate that only a few friends and family have gotten Covid without any negative long-term outcomes. Of course it sucks not being able to see many people you care about, but it’s something that all of us have had to deal with.
QUESTION – When you have lost your mojo or focus , what do you do to get back on track?
NICHOLAS: I honestly don’t lose focus too much and when I do I my mind naturally guilts me into getting back on track. I wish I had a more helpful answer, but this is probably just a personality trait of mine.
QUESTION – If you could have a big billboard with your favorite saying or message on it, what would it be.
NICHOLAS: “Fear has a greater grasp on human action than does the impressive weight of historical evidence.” -Jeremy Siegel
QUESTION– Thank you for taking the time for this interview. How can our readers contact you, including on social media. And is there anything else you like for our readers to know about you?
NICHOLAS: If you have any questions, feel free to contact me via Twitter DM or email me at ofdollarsanddata@gmail.com.
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QUESTION – Thank you for taking the time to participate in the Q & A session. Before we start in detail. Would you like to share with everyone who you are, what you do & where you live?
DeAndree: Hi! First of all – thank you very much for inviting me to the interview! In the trading world, I go by the name of DeAndree. I come from a small country in Northern Europe.
For the past 10 years, I’ve been a full-stack software developer (mostly JavaScript, Node and React), but for the past 2+ years, I’ve been transitioning to the world of Crypto – trading, writing, and building apps for traders. I’ve always been interested in finance, so when I heard about Crypto, I knew instantly that it’s a perfect mix of the things that I’m excited about – money, tech, software development, game theory, probabilities, statistics, etc. Initially, I started as an algotrader. I wasted a lot of time searching for perfect indicators and overcomplicating systems. I tried neural networks, reinforcement learning, collecting tick data, and using orderbook imbalances only to eventually settle for some of the simplest systems you can imagine. Simple works, and often it’s the best as far as effort vs reward vs robustness is considered. Recently, I’ve been learning and practicing manual trading (Price Action style) to complement my skills and eventually improve my algo strategies.
QUESTION – We understand you have been a frequent poster in the trading community on Medium. Can you shed some light on what you typical post. And do you have a blog site that our readers can visit?
DeAndree: the main theme of my posts has been dealing with common misconceptions in Crypto trading by backtesting strategies and analyzing results.
It all started when I began my algotrading journey by picking Gekko as my strategy platform and joining their Discord. It was a super popular open-source platform at that time (mid-2018). I saw a lot of overfitted and unrealistic backtest results being thrown around in Discord, a lot of hype about neural network strategies without understanding what they were doing, a lot of questions about which strategies to use, etc.
I wanted to bring some clarity. I wanted to show that you can’t just pick a single basic indicator and hope to be profitable, that neural networks are not a magic silver bullet that somehow predicts the future, that Buy&Hold is not the best strategy. I wanted to show what happens when you backtest for a significant time period, not just 3 months. That simple works, and sometimes works the best.
Over everything else, I wanted to show that whatever you do – you absolutely have to backtest before running it live!99% of ideas will be thrown out right after the test without ever losing a cent.
QUESTION – What personal or professional failure/setback have you experienced in your life or professional career that has set you up for later success? (any since your last interview worth noting)
DeAndree: The worst personal setback I’ve had was tearing my ACL (a ligament in the knee). It’s one of the worst injuries as an athlete. I was an avid football player driven by huge competitiveness – I was living to play. I had the surgery, but unfortunately, the recovery didn’t go too well – I was never able to return to 100%. And if I can’t play 100%, I’d rather not play at all.
The thing is, I was not a pro player. I was an amateur and quite average even for “Sunday league” standards. The blessing in disguise here was that I was forced out of the activity that I was mediocre at. That competitive energy had to go somewhere else the next logical choice was to go all-in with my professional career – software development.
Development can be extremely competitive with the mental and intellectual battles, competing who comes up with the best, fastest, and most efficient solution.
But soon that wasn’t enough. I wanted something even more competitive with more direct money involvement and more comparable results. I wanted to play the ultimate sport as Mark Cuban put it.
My newfound interest in Crypto mixed with my deep-rooted interest in finance/money led me into trading. That’s my game for now.
QUESTION- We understand you have developed a very interesting trading app. Would love to know more about it and how our readers can download.
DeAndree: While I originally started as an algotrader, at one point I wanted to fill a void in my trading skills – learning how to trade manually Price Action style.
I was looking for an app that would help me practice trading, something that could replay historical candles and trade on them at a point in time, kind of like a trading simulator. I couldn’t find anything that really suited my needs. I wanted something super quick to start with (no install etc), has super easy UI/UX, and throws you into random asset/time and hides them, so your lookahead bias is reduced. I asked around and realized that many others would be interested in this kind of app too.
So, I created TradingGYM (https://tradinggym.app). It’s a WebApp, so no need to download or install – you can get started in seconds. When you open the app, it selects and shows you a chart of random asset at a random point in time (real data from exchanges), and you know neither one of them.
You make trades and fast-forward time to see how it played out, making your feedback/learning loop many times faster compared to paper trading. What’s also super important is that your lookahead bias is reduced, because you don’t know which asset/time you are trading.
For now, all the assets included are Crypto, since I already had the data, and that’s the asset class I’m most familiar with. I’m open to adding other data sources (Stocks/Forex) if there will be enough demand.
I’m building a community, so if you want to follow the development and discuss/suggest new features, you are very welcome to join our Discord – https://discord.com/invite/aqRFcb2pME We launched the app just over a month ago, so we are in the early stages. Many exciting features coming up, like indicators and challenge/1vs1 mode.
QUESTION : This is becoming a favorite question for many – plus readers get some good gift ideas from it. What purchase of less than $100 haveyou made in the past year that you simple could not live without now?
DeAndree: I just realized I almost haven’t bought anything this year. There is one thing though – The Razer Deathadder V2 mouse.It’s the next version of one of the best and most legendary mouses there is (esports gamers will know what I’m talking about). Not only is it super light (81g), it also has a great ergonomic shape and the coolest braided cable.
QUESTION – What advice would you give to your younger self – and what advice would you give to a young high school or college graduate?
DeAndree: Myself (life general)
Take more calculated risks.
More shots taken = more opportunities = more luck.
Focus more on what you want and what excites you.
Care less of what others want from you.
Trust the process. Focus on the next step, don’t get overwhelmed by the mountain of tasks ahead of you.
Stop caring too much about the things that you can’t control. Focus on taking the action, not the outcome.
Cut scope (your to-do list) relentlessly. Focus on the essential.
Less reading, more action.
Start before you are ready because you will never be ready.
Don’t wait for the sunny days. Embrace the rain.
Myself (trading)
Start with the basics. Learn price action trading.
Stop looking for the perfect indicator. It doesn’t exist.
Go with statistics and probability. Learn how to calculate edge. Learn what is positive expectancy. Risk/Reward and Win%.
Stop overcomplicating your trading.
Run your algo/system live ASAP. You’ll learn 10x faster from there.
Graduate (assuming it’s career-related) – understand where the money comes from and why employers pay you anything. Adjust your career accordingly. Following your dreams is totally fine as long as you realize there is a chance of being a starving artist. The world doesn’t owe you anything.
QUESTION – What are some of your hobbies? How do you escape from the real world during these crazy times that we have been experiencing in 2020?
DeAndree: Doing sports – going to the gym, playing football, running, biking.Going to concerts and festivals.Watching really good movies (think Inception).Watching sports, mainly football (Champions League) and basketball (NBA).Listening to music at way too high volume.ESports gaming – CS, Overwatch, FIFA.
QUESTION – How has the Covid situation effected you both professionally and personally. And did any positive come out of it for you?
DeAndree: Once I realized the severity of Covid and that there will be lockdowns and restrictions for a considerable amount of time, I decided to move from the city to my hometown.
With all the restrictions, this has been a perfect time for me to focus on myself, work on my trading, work on my projects, and be with my family. Fewer distractions and temptation to do other stuff, because there’s not much to do – just work work work. Hard to call any of this positive, but at least I’m using this unusual time as efficiently as possible.
QUESTION – When you have lost your mojo or focus , what do you do to get back on track?
DeAndree: First of all, when you’re feeling off, it’s very important to ask yourself – am I having a breakdown or a breakthrough. Sometimes you need to push through. Often, action creates motivation and must come first, not the other way around. If there really is a problem, the fix depends on severity.
Here are some quick fixes for me:
Contrast showers.
Power Naps. An amazing way to restart your day when it’s not going your way.
Doing something physical – go to the gym, run, bike.
Watch a movie from my best-of list – Inception, Dark Knight, Matrix, etc.
Meditation and breathing exercises.
When it’s more severe, I’m forced to take time off and do some deep self-reflection. I go back to my notes of core lessons of life that I’ve learned, remember why I’m doing all this and what I want to accomplish.
And when it’s an absolute low – sometimes you have to realize that the old you is no longer serving the path that’s ahead. Then you rebuild.
QUESTION – If you could have a big billboard with your favorite saying or message on it, what would it be.
DeAndree: There is no spoon.– The Matrix
QUESTION- Thank you for taking the time for this interview. How can our readers contact you, including on social media. And is there anything else you like for our readers to know about you?
DeAndree: Thank you very much for the interview, these were some great questions!
Best way to follow me and keep up is on Twitter https://twitter.com/___deandreeI started there just recently, but this will be my main place for posting in the future.
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