When I was a kid my mother had made something called Swiss Chard, a dark green leafy vegetable. To me, as a kid, it was disgusting, I could barely swallow it without initiating a gag reflex.

One night while we were eating dinner I was attempting to gag down another mouthful of that and my dad, who was tired of watching me wrench in pain said, "Ok, enough, you don't have to eat anymore of it!". And with that I promptly spit out what was in my mouth. To which my dad retorted, "I didn't mean for you to spit out what you were already eating!!". But I was relieved!

I'm looking at Bitcoin...who isn't!!? And there are two sides to that coin; there is an irresistible pull to jump in on the ever-higher price and try to get some of that for yourself. And then, there is the other side, which might initiate a gag reflex; with no regulation, or history of funding illegal activity, and so forth.

I prefer a two-sided market where there are opportunities to participate in such great trends. After years of working with investments I find it unsettling to buy on the high! But, the notion of the decentralized crypto-currencies is very cool and has some promise of impacting our banking system and many other industries.

So, what do you do?

I have been looking at some Bitcoin-correlated instruments that have some of the upside potential without some of the less-favorable characteristics of Bitcoin. For example, GBTC, the Bitcoin Investment Trust has some volatility that can prove valuable; however, there are no options so you are working with the instrument directly.

Of course there are other crypto-currencies such as Litecoin and Ethereum. If you are going to jump in to these then make sure you are using funds that you are willing to expose to a high amount of risk.

In the meantime, while I really like the crypto-currency opportunities, I keep my portfolio well diversified. This means I continue to look for good ETF and Stock opportunities. For the ETFs I am usually tracking SPY, DIA, QQQ, and the Spyder ETFs life XLF and others.

My algorithms identify high-probability opportunities on Dow Jones stocks and ETFs; and I track these in my Signal Reports...you can see an example on FinancialInvestingRadio.com (see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PriK5_gokKM).

Luckily my parents found some vegetables that were still good for me, but didn't have some of the downside issues. In our investing, we need to do the same; pick those instruments that help us PROTECT OUR INVESTMENT CAPITAL while growing at a reasonable rate.

Until next time, Trade with your Brain!

Some years ago I was backpacking with my sons in Colorado. In our party was a young man who was preparing for a mountain race; he was in particularly good shape. As we hiked I noticed his walk was casual and non-strenuous; often times walking with his hands in his pockets. At the end of a particularly long day of hiking on this trip I asked him about his apparent ease of walking while the rest of us were gasping for air. He stated that part of his "secret" was the weight of his pack. I tried it out...it was only 10 pounds, while the rest of us were carrying 40 - 50 pound packs. He smiled and walked away.

Using technology to our advantage for investing can lighten our investment packs, so to speak. Of particular interest is using algorithms and block chain. Block Chain of course is being used in crypto currencies like Bitcoin, which we wont' go into here.

Multiple firms are testing out algorithmic trading with Block Chain.

I recently read a scenario from a Deloitte article, which I will reference here. It states: "Picture a trade floor five years in the future. The robotic trader managing one of the gas desks is about to execute a physical natural gas trade with an industrial customer. One of the robot’s trading algorithms scans available market interest and optimises its search for the best deal to meet the customer’s volume and tenor requirements for a given period. Once the robot’s proposed deal terms are approved by the customer, the trade is executed and recorded on the blockchain. The deal terms are automatically confirmed and nomination information is recorded on the blockchain and available to the pipeline shipping the gas. As gas flows throughout the month, physical settlement occurs daily with payment initiated immediately. All activity added to the blockchain is readily available to the seller, buyer, pipeline and bank. Physical title of the gas is also conveyed directly via the blockchain." [https://www2.deloitte.com/uk/en/pages/energy-and-resources/articles/blockchain-applications-in-energy-trading.html]

And another article, from the Financial Times states: "Blockchain, a distributed ledger — the underlying technology for virtual currencies such as bitcoin — is a useful ‘middleware’ for slashing such bureaucracy. It records transactions in sequential blocks, creating encrypted data that can be shared between several parties through the supply chain, updating them instantly without risk of fraud.

"Start-ups and small firms are also experimenting. London-based Everledger uses blockchain to ‘track and protect’ valuable assets like diamonds across the life cycle, creating a digital thumbprint used by participants along the supply chain to verify authenticity, while BlockVerify is tackling counterfeiting in industries including pharmaceuticals and electronics." https://www.ft.com/content/a36399fa-a927-11e7-ab66-21cc87a2edde

That article also went further to discussed how IBM is working with companies to apply block chain in international distributed goods trading as well.

So, what does that mean to you and to me? Much of this is experimental; but we need to be apprised. I believe that with our focus should be on making investment decisions in a manner that protects our capital rather than focusing on how much we are going to make.

By nature if we do that, it means we do all that we can to identify the highest probability opportunities; which reduces the risk.

An auditable ledger like Blockchain reduces the risk for these organizations.

One of the things that reduced the risk for this experienced back-packer is that he had loaded the lightest weight essentials into his backpack.

So, get rid of the mental baggage that you are searching for big, fast money and rather focus on creating a list of the market conditions that MUST exist in order for you to make an investment decision.

Thanks for joining...until next time...trade with your Brain!

I was doing some math homework the other night with one of my children and was showing how we did math in the old days.

"That's not the way my teacher showed me how to do it!", was the response.

It's funny how things change over time, and yet, how other things seem to be constant.

In my previous podcast I spoke with Jeff Crystal regarding how the world of investing and trading can be impacted by technologies such as BlockChain.

As you may know, this is a technology that provides a visible and audit-able ledger for business transactions. Listen to that podcast for a further discussion on that.

Going back to my conversation with my child the other night, it reminded me of how things change, and what else is changing to affect investing.

One of those is algorithms. These are techniques where patterns are automated in software to influence market direction or perhaps to help an organization establish a position.

My background is in software, and I have worked to use that to help me identify key opportunities.

What chance do we have against the big market movers that use sophisticated algorithms and have massive accounts to push their positions?

Well, I believe we have a lot of chance and high-probability...you don't need to be a computer whiz to do this.

What you need is the ability to recognize patterns and to be aware of the overall market context.

Or, said another way...line up WITH the direction of the big movers. How do you do that? We will be addressing that in a future podcast.

For now, suffice it to say, the best computer of all is your brain, which can see multiple market conditions. Practice watching related markets, the index or sub-index of what you trade/invest, market structure, price movement at multiple time-frames, and dates & times when your particular market moves.

The next day after helping my child with the math, I received a notice that from now on, parents can use their old-school techniques to teach their children math at home, it is no longer a sin to do that.

So - what I thought was out of vogue, was now acceptable.

Algorithmic trading will certainly be here to stay; but using our brain is still in vogue - and you have that working for you!

Check out my ETF and Stock Signal reports at financialinvestingsecrets.com or you can reach out to me directly at [email protected].

Until next time...trade with your brain!

Jeff Crystal discusses how trading is changing and gives tips to traders to operate in the new world of BlockChain and other technologies.

Hi Everybody, this is Grant!

Since talking recently with one of my mentors it caused me to reflect on the roadmap for my investing journey that I started over five years ago. Some parts of my journey have been intentional, and some have been opportunistic...call it fate or whatever you want to meet the right people at the right time.

At other points in the journey insights are discovered that add the next piece to the puzzle in your journey.

There are 5 simple steps on the roadmap to high-probability financial control that I want to discuss today. 1. Assess 2. Set A Goal 3. Remove Non-Essential Elements 4. Save & Invest 5. Reduce Debt, Achieve Goals

1. Assess Determine & grow your knowledge level of investing Investor Knowledge Quiz Examine your budget, debts, income Create a budget, there are some easy to use online tools such as: Mint Personal Capital Quicken Yodlee

2. Set A Goal Now that you have looked at where you are in terms of your budget, income, and debts it is time to set a goal and create a plan to get there First, set goals that are meaningful, for example: Reducing short term debt, like credit cards Saving for a home down payment Building savings for retirement Keep your goal(s) in front of you constantly Goal setting tips from Tony Robbins

3. Remove Non-Essential Elements: Budget Now review your budget with your goal(s) and identify the non-essential elements in your budget that can be removed, and remove them Prepare a debt elimination plan, be sure to update your budget; there are several tools to choose from Ready For Zero Slateboard The Balance

Examine how and where you are spending your time and remove those items that are not progressing you toward your goal(s) Use Stephen Covey’s time management grid to categorize your “TO DO” items; be sure to categorize your goal(s) that you set in the previous step Stephen Covey’s Time Management Grid

4. Save & Invest With the non-essential elements removed put in place a saving plan; setting aside the first 10% is a powerful strategy, read the book below Richest Man in Babylon Learn about investment strategies Financial Investing Radio Financial Investing Secrets Establish a trading account and invest in high probability asset classes, stocks SAVE To INVEST, INVEST To ACHIEVE Goals A. Study Investing Strategies B. Virtual Trade Strategies C. Select Strategies Which - Align With Your Goals - Have Been Successful For You D. Invest Small From Savings E. Track Progress F. Refine Investment Strategies

5. Reduce Debt, Achieve Goal(s) Apply investment strategies to reduce debt and achieve goals As debts are reduced and goals are achieved, refine - Your Goals - Your Investment Strategies

That's it for now, until next time, Trade Safe!

I've been watching the recent rise in oil futures and thought we should take a look at how the Market Engine and the Market Effectiveness Chart provides signals. Let's take a look at the two charts that I've put on financialinvestingradio.com.

Go down to the Podcast Charts & Video section and open the charts for FIR #24.

On each of the charts I have placed corresponding numbers that are mapped to gear shifts.

Now, let's take a look at each one of them.

GEAR SHIFT 1: Remember, these gear shifts occur on the Market Effectiveness Chart; but they don't represent a trade entry. A gear shift on this chart is when the red line on the Correlation study spikes down and hits the 0 line or lower. Which is where I have placed the numbers on the Market Effectiveness Chart.

We look for trade entries based on the bias of the Market Effectiveness Chart and trend line breaks on the Trading Chart.

Before we look at the Trading Chart, look at one more thing on the Market Effectiveness Chart...what is the bias of the Market Effectiveness Chart? This is seen by looking at the direction of the bars on the chart...which way are they going? Up!

So, a great bullish setup is when: 1. there's been a gear shift on the Market Effectiveness Chart 2. the bars on the Mkt Eff Chart continue to rise even though price is falling on the Trading Chart 3. when price breaks the trendline on the pullback, go long

So that is the trade set up for this gear shift.

GEAR SHIFT 2: On this Gear Shift the set up is similar. 1. there's been a gear shift on the Market Effectiveness Chart 2. the bars on the Mkt Eff Chart continue to rise even though price is falling on the Trading Chart 3. when price breaks the trendline on the pullback, go long

GEAR SHIFT 3: On this Gear Shift the set up is similar. 1. there's been a gear shift on the Market Effectiveness Chart 2. the bars on the Mkt Eff Chart continue to rise even though price is falling on the Trading Chart 3. when price breaks the trendline on the pullback, go long

GEAR SHIFT 4: This Gear Shift is different, price is chopping sideways and up, and the Market Engine Indicator is at the top and is showing a divergence down. When the price breaks down, the trade is bearish.

But this fast drop sets up something very interesting, look at what is happening to the bars on the Market Effectiveness Chart as price falls. The bars don't close below the green 8 EMA line. This mis-alignment sets up the most powerful Gear Shift in this morning trade, #5.

GEAR SHIFT 5: 1. there's been a gear shift on the Market Effectiveness Chart; with a very fast price drop, 2. the bars on the Mkt Eff Chart continue to rise even though price is falling on the Trading Chart 3. when price breaks the trendline on the pullback, go long

GEAR SHIFT 6: On this Gear Shift the price has been falling in the previous 4-5 bars on the Trading Chart. The Mkt Eff Chart continues to rise. As the price chart breaks the trend line, go long.

GEAR SHIFT 7: This Gear Shift is similar to the previous one, and you would trade it the same way.

The Market Engine and Market Effectiveness Chart provide a foundation for consistent setups and signals.

The key is to get to know very well a small number of instruments to trade and invest. Get to know their personality, the general pattern of the Market Effectiveness chart and the Market Engine signals.

Paper trade or virtual trade them for a while, and then go to live trading very small.

Thanks for joining, until next time, Trade Safe!

Hi everybody, this is Grant! I am very excited today because I have one of my mentors with me today, his name is Anthony Drager.

I met Anthony almost 4 years ago; I was impressed with his ability to read current market conditions. He mentored me through his work with Market Delta...and is a strong, disciplined trader.

Anthony runs a trading group still today. I reached out to Anthony and asked him to join me today...thanks for doing that?

I have some questions for you!! Is that ok if I start going through some of those?

As part of introducing yourself, will you talk about how you got started trading? You started in a Prop Firm right? Can you share your back story?

Where did you first get introduced to trading?

After all the years of trading; what are the consistent, reliable pieces of information you use to make trading decisions?

How would you describe your trading strategy?

What tools do you use?

How do you prepare for each day of trading?

What is one lesson, albeit a painful one, that changed your trading?

Are there certain days where you DON'T TRADE?

If someone was new to investing and trading, what tips would you share with them?

Hi Everybody this is Grant, it's early July 2017.

I will be doing a WebClass on July 8, 2017 @ 12pm Pacific Time - discussing how to get started on the investing & trading journey. You can register at www.financialinvestingsecrets.com.

The E-mini futures and also the SPY have been chopping around the last couple weeks after making highs. The Nasdaq futures have retraced and touched the 89 EMA. And Oil futures (CL) did a large bounce up starting about 6 days ago. Meanwhile Apple (AAPL) dropped about 2 weeks ago and is also sitting on its 89 EMA.

So, which way is the market going? I am interested in your thoughts...email me at: [email protected].

Recently I had the opportunity to interview one of my mentors, check out episode 21. This caused me to think through the process of selecting a mentor. There are several things to consider when selecting a mentor, including:

1. Plan your roadmap to financial control (I will cover this in an upcoming podcast) 2. As part of your roadmap set goals 3. Identify the investment strategies that align with your goals 4. Look for mentors that align with the investment strategies

1. Plan your roadmap to financial control (I will cover this in the next podcast) Next podcast

2. As part of your roadmap set goals Financial goals align better with some investment strategies than others. For example, consistent cash flow to help achieve goals such as debt reduction.

3. Identify the investment strategies that align with your goals Generally this includes learning about various investment strategies first. After that you need to practice with those strategies in a safe manner to learn which strategies fit your personality and you use well.

This is a key part of selecting a mentor, you will need to be clear on what investing styles work well for you and your personality.

4. Look for mentors that align with the investment strategies This process is iterative. I have had several mentors throughout my time trading. Each mentor added a critical piece to the overall picture for me.

The mentor I had on my podcast yesterday understands the overall markets very well, he excels as cash flow strategies for options, and the need for each investor or trader to determine what system they will use or create. He looks at each step you take as part of your overall journey.

For example, for my personality I discovered that I needed a two-pronged approach to my investing. The first was I needed to establish cash flow; this was critical to monthly cash income, which aids monthly bills.

I also knew that on top of that I needed to have a portion of my portfolio that was focused on growth and higher returns. What I discovered was the need to find high-probability GROWTH opportunities. That required more study on my part. I found a mentor who excelled in that area; and hopefully one day I can get him on my podcast as well.

It is super critical to understand yourself, your goals, and where you are on the journey to help you pick the proper mentor.

Without some kind of roadmap, then your investing and trading journey will be like Alice In Wonderland, who when she was at a fork in the road did not know way to go; and without a plan, then ANY ROAD may be OK --- but NOT NECESSARILY the best thing for your goals.

So take the time to be intentional and start working on your roadmap.

Stay tuned for the next podcast, where I will introduce a roadmap for you to build on.

Until next time, Trade Safe!

Tim, you were a big influence on me with trading when I was getting started. I wanted to re-connect with you and first thank you for the impact you had on my trading.

I remember about 5 years ago when I started, I was doing a strangle on an earnings report...you probably don't remember; but I didn't set my positions out far enough, I think it was on NFLX...and I got thumped!!

- how long have you been trading

- what got you started

- what are your tips for someone just getting started

- what are your favorite techniques for trading (or setups)

- market engine/mkt effectiveness: how do you determine probabilities?

- I have learned over the years that my consistency is driven by hitting base hits; any time I try to: - set really wide targets - get too close to risk - pull the trigger before my confirmations I GET THUMPED

Today I trade with a blended strategy; that was first inspired by you with options trading. My general strategy is a two-pronged approach - options - futures

Options: use of credit spreads, I generally avoid making directional trades with options, however, I still make directional decisions, but only to help me determine the how far out of the money I should go with my trade Mostly verticals, out of the money, and let theta do its job...so I'll be in a an options position for 3 to 10 days typically.

I knew I needed the cash flow capabilities of selling options that were improbable. - Market Engine & Market Effectiveness Chart

Futures: I trade those directionally, again I use - Market Engine & Market Effectiveness Chart

For all trades I use 3 charts: 1. Trading Chart (Market Engine - shows effort to move price of a particular instrument) [ES: 1 min; AAPL: day] 2. Market Effectiveness Chart - shows how effective the Big Market Engine is doing at moving price (there are many elements that go into this...) [Typically 2 to 3 times, the amount of time of the Trading Chart] 3. Context Chart (this is where I take time OUT of the picture and focus on market structure)

1- On my trading chart, let's say it for AAPL, I have the Market Engine; which is tuned for a particular exchange; NYSE or the NASDAQ and it deals with level of effort. It gives a real time read on the effect of buying and selling on the exchange and maps it to price; and I've discovered some patterns on it.

2- The signal typically starts with the Mkt Eff Chart...because on there is a correlation, and it begins when there is a Gear Shift

I spent some time living in England many years ago. For a while I drove a Mini...it was a very small car with excellent handling. You could handle the small country roads quite well and cornering was a snap...it was a peppy car!!

Sometimes the NASDAQ futures reminds me of that car...zippy!

In this podcast we are looking at the NQ futures Market Effectiveness Chart and the price chart. Many of the same characteristics apply as what you see in the E-mini futures charts.

We are taking a look at June 26, 2017; and we start with the Market Effectiveness chart...as you know..we are looking for a gear shift to let us know about the opportunities for a trade.

Go to financialinvestingradio.com, look for FIR #20 and you will find charts and videos there which accompany this podcast.

I am going to illustrate 6 opportunities that are associated with the gear shift during the first two hours of trading.

As you open the charts take a look at points A and B on both charts. Price had initially been going up at the open, but had just started to go down. The mis-alignment is clearly that price is pushing down while the market elements are trying to push things up. The alignment comes just after point B where the two are correlated and you have the strong sell off.

Let's look at point C... As you look at the price chart ask the question, what has price just been doing, "going down" is the answer. So in this case the trade for C is a contrarian trade, to the upside. Which is quickly followed by gear shift "D". Again, ask yourself, what has price just been doing? "Going Up" is the answer, so you draw a trendline going up, and look for the break to the downside. When that occurs and when you see the Correlation on the Market Effectiveness chart align..then you have a high probability trade, in this case to the downside.

Gear shifts on E and F have some similarities. In both cases on the price chart, the price has been going down just before the gear shifts, so we look for a price break to the upside. The other thing to point out is the very large & noticeable divergence between price and the market engine indicator. This adds to the probability of trades to the bullish side, remember to wait for the break.

In all cases the "gear shift" does not mean you enter the trade. Be sure to look at other factors like market structure and other context.

Remember to wear your helmet when driving a zippy car like the Nasdaq...sometimes the slippage can be a little painful!!

Until next time, Trade Safe!