With GLD up 40-something percent since early 2024, I’ve been thinking about gold’s place in a risk premia harvesting portfolio. It’s a fascinating rabbit hole and there’s plenty of disagreement. Let’s break this down from two perspectives – the academic one (yawn) and the practical one (which is what actually matters if you want to …
Here’s something that might shock you: Engineers make the worst traders. I’m speaking from experience here. As an engineer who transitioned to trading, it wasn’t until I stopped thinking like an engineer that I started to make progress. You can read all about this in my case study, by the way. Engineers like me are …
What’s a Fallen Angel Bond? It’s a bond that’s been kicked out of investment-grade paradise. Once upon a time, it was rubbing shoulders with the blue-chip elite. But then something happened – maybe the company took on too much debt, or the industry hit a rough patch – and next minute, the bond gets downgraded …
With the recent sell-off in pretty much everything, it’s a good time to talk about managing your expectations of trading. The essential thing is to understand and embrace the mayhem of the markets. And to understand what you can control and can’t control so that you don’t send yourself crazy worrying about things that there …
It was my absolute pleasure to chat with Kris Abdelmessih about markets and life. Kris was an options market maker who started out in the trading pits of New York and later flipped the script to set up the commodity options business for hedge fund Parallax Advisory. Today, Kris writes the Moontower newsletter on Substack …
Data analysis plays a central role in making sense of financial markets. But how can you verify the conclusions others draw, or better yet, uncover your own insights? Microsoft Excel remains one of the most powerful and accessible tools for financial data analysis, allowing anyone—from beginners to seasoned analysts—to explore data, test hypotheses, and make …
People often ask me for book recommendations. But here’s a better question: What’s going to help you make money today? Reading a book probably isn’t the answer. I’m not saying books aren’t useful. They absolutely are. But you’re not preparing for a PhD defence – you’re trying to turn money into more money through trading. …
I’ve noticed that beginners are often attracted to market making. To the uninitiated, it sounds like easy money and constant action. The reality, of course, is that market making isn’t the goldmine many think it is, especially not for beginners. In this article, I’ll explore why. Back in the early days of crypto, you could’ve …
Someone recently asked me if obsessing over FOMC announcements, Non-Farm Payrolls reports, geopolitics and other macro news is important for traders. My answer might surprise you: unless you’re actually a dedicated macro trader – which is highly unlikely if you’re reading my stuff – it almost certainly won’t help your trading. Let’s start with what …
A lot of my advice boils down to trading is hard, so go after the easiest stuff you can find first. Some call this defeatist. I call it realistic and practical. A big part of trading is not screwing up. So, at the start, learning skills, defining processes, and building confidence are important. A question …
