The AlphaMind Podcast

In this episode co-hosts Steven and Mark talk to Futures Trader Adam Nash.
 
 Adam has achieved extraordinary success in a trading career lasting almost 3 decades. At one-point Adam was the 3rd largest Euribor trader by volume on the London Futures markets.
 
 In this excellent interview Adam discusses his journey from working in a bank middle-office in the 1980s, to becoming a bank trader, to moving to trade futures on the LIFFE (London International Financial Futures Exchange) floor, and finally moving to screen-based trading. 
 
Adam shares his experiences, his up and downs, and the lessons he has learned along the way. He also talks about some of the learnings he picked up backing and mentoring young traders and some of the mistakes he sees them consistently make. 
 
This is an interview has so much richness and learning for traders of all types and levels of experience and age. Adam is someone who has been there, had the knocks, bounced back, and gone on to achieve extraordinary success, all whilst remaining humble and grounded. 
 
Please enjoy this lively hour-long episode. 
 
 
 

AlphaMind: Powering Performance in Global Markets
AlphaMind brings powerful change, growth and development to people and businesses within global markets.

Driven by a deep understanding of how markets work, and how people and businesses function within them, we partner with clients to create personal performance improvements that elevate returns across their trading activities.

Go to the AlphaMind website to know more.

Mark Hutchinson is an outstanding FX Trader who has achieved great success over the past few years. 
 
In this excellent interview, Mark shares his journey into trading with AlphaMind co-hosts Steven Goldstein and Mark Randall.

Mark talks about the struggle of the early years, the trial and error processes, his dyslexia, and the learning process he went through over 4 ½ years before finally starting to succeed.

Mark’s passion for trading shines through in this interview, a passion he has also turned into a very successful mentoring and training business, Falcon FX, with over a thousand members across the world. 

This interview is a great discussion on topics to vital to trading success, including: 

• The importance of having a great process. 
• Minimising the impact of money and how money creates limiting beliefs.
• The importance of forecasting and scenario planning around these forecasts.
• How Mark's engineering background and mindset support his trading. 
• The role of randomness in trading and managing within sequential randomness. 
• Walking away from bad situations and resetting.  
• Characteristic of those who become successful.
• The importance of having the right mindset.
• The error of rushing to make money too quickly.
• How ego can kill performance. 
• Learning to see trading as a probability game. 
• How Growth Mindset plays out in trading. 
• The importance of Self-Management. 
• Dealing with losses and setback. 
• Retail trading versus institutional trading, and analyst v trader. 
• Developing a bulletproof mindset.
• The role of the subconscious in trading. 

AlphaMind: Powering Performance in Global Markets
AlphaMind brings powerful change, growth and development to people and businesses within global markets.

Driven by a deep understanding of how markets work, and how people and businesses function within them, we partner with clients to create personal performance improvements that elevate returns across their trading activities.

Go to the AlphaMind website to know more.

This week’s episode of the AlphaMind Podcast sees co-host Steven Goldstein musing over a webinar he gave to a group of Students from some of China’s Top universities. 

The students are preparing their applications for US graduate programmes and were keen to explore more about the world of Interest Rate Trading, 

Originally, we were aiming to record the webinar and release it directly as a podcast. Unfortunately, the sound quality was not strong enough. Instead in this episode, Steven shares his responses to the questions from the students. These covered a wide range of topics which will be of interest to new as well as seasoned traders.

Questions asked include: 

• What is the difference between a Market-Maker and a Proprietary Trader? 
• Do traders at hedge funds also do Market-Making?
• Do Market-Makers just make Bid-Offer spread, or do they also take risk?
• What is the role of a Salesperson? Why can’t Market-Makers act as Salespeople? 
• What criteria do clients consider, before deciding to trade with a Bank?
• If clients get good prices from traders, does that mean they will find it harder to make money?
• What are the different Trading styles used by traders?
• Is being in an analyst or research role dull?
• Is there too much Maths in investment banks?
• How do traders stay within the rules needed to execute effectively?
• What is the career path like for traders? Do you have any advice to students going for interviews?

Thank you to Jing Liu for arranging the webinar. Jing coaches college students in china through the graduate application process. 

AlphaMind: Powering Performance in Global Markets
AlphaMind brings powerful change, growth and development to people and businesses within global markets.

Driven by a deep understanding of how markets work, and how people and businesses function within them, we partner with clients to create personal performance improvements that elevate returns across their trading activities.

Go to the AlphaMind website to know more.

Steven Goldstein, one of the world’s leading trader performance coaches is interviewed by the podcast Co-Host Mark Randall

In this podcast Steven shares his journey from his early days Trading Rates and FX in a Japanese banks in London in the mid-80s, to his time working on the proprietary trading desk at Credit Suisse and later Commerzbank and American Express, before opting to start a career as a Performance coach working with Traders and Investment Professionals.

Steven shares his philosophy on how he helps traders to break past the self-imposed barriers we put which hold us back. 

In this interview Steven discusses: 

How coaching had helped him make a mid-career leap in trading performance. 

What is ‘Inner Game’ performance coaching.

How does it differ from conventional forms of coaching? 

How Non-Directive coaching powers performance. 

Working with teams

How the more successful traders are more likely to ask for coaching. 

Coaching as a tool to develop Growth Mindset.  

Understanding the Systemic context of traders. 

The limits of learning trading Psychology, versus working in your own personal Psychology. 

How he helped traders recover from negative mindsets.  

How Relationships, Belonging, Ego. 

Why Mindset is everything and developing and Mindset for Alpha is vital. 

Lessons from sports. – British cycling and micro improvements. 

Embracing the complex.

To know more contact Steven – [email protected]

AlphaMind: Powering Performance in Global Markets
AlphaMind brings powerful change, growth and development to people and businesses within global markets.

Driven by a deep understanding of how markets work, and how people and businesses function within them, we partner with clients to create personal performance improvements that elevate returns across their trading activities.

Go to the AlphaMind website to know more.

In this episode Steven Goldstein interviews co-host Mark Randall. 

Mark is a Mindulness practitioner and veteran of the Financial Markets. 

Mark calls his approach ‘Mindfitness’. He describes it as 'Military Grade' mindfulness, basing it on the same principles of Mindfulness used by the US Special forces to help them be optimum when in training and on active service. 

Mark is a former Futures and Options broker who use to run Natwest and Greenwich Capital Futures. His broking career lasted more than 3 decades and he was present on Day 1 of the London International Financial Futures Exchange (LIFFE) in 1982.
Mark learned about Mindfulness decades before it become fashionable having been taught its basics by his martial arts teacher. He used this to be able to perform optimally in the extremely stressful environments he worked in.

Having left broking a few years ago, Mark developed his Mindfulness practice to help others, including leaders and managers in blue-chip corporations, and traders and investors in the financial markets, His programmes help them develop their own mindfulness skills to be able to perform at optimal levels in their work, to be more focused and resilient, and to be able to destress and gain clarity and calmness. 

In this interview I explore Mark’s approach to Mindfulness and how people can use it to improve their working performance to be optimal in their trading and investing performance.
Themes which this conversation explores include:

• How Mindfitness helps people be more effective in their work.
• How Mindfitness develops resilience and improves decision-making and self-control.
• Mark’s journey from Broker to Mindfulness Coach and Facilitator.
• Mindfitness and recovery, sleeps, relaxation, health and nutrition.
• Emotional Intelligence: Improving Mental bandwidth and personal latency.
• Getting past mindfulness and meditation as a fad.
• Seeing the benefits of Mindfitness to Positive Performance.
• Reducing Stress
• Exploring Present Moment Awareness.
• Calming internal negative self-talk.
• Making space for clear thinking, creativity and seeing opportunity not threat.
• Gaining Clarity.If you are interested to know more about Mark's services. 

You can email Mark at [email protected]

AlphaMind: Powering Performance in Global Markets
AlphaMind brings powerful change, growth and development to people and businesses within global markets.

Driven by a deep understanding of how markets work, and how people and businesses function within them, we partner with clients to create personal performance improvements that elevate returns across their trading activities.

Go to the AlphaMind website to know more.

June 24, 2019

Steven Goldstein & Mark Randall

This episode of the AlphaMind podcast jointly explores the subject of 'Trading Mindset' through the lens of Carol Dweck's Growth Mindset philosophy.  

This conversation covers a broad swathe of themes around the subject of 'Mindset' in trading, including:

• How 'Growth Mindset' is linked to Success and Positive Psychology.  
• The 2 Mindsets, Growth and Fixed and how they playout in Trading.
• How Successful traders demonstrate 'Growth Mindset's'.
• Developing your Potential, Improving, growing as a risk-taker.
• How Financial Markets tip people into Fixed Mindsets. 
• Becoming 'Stuck in a ruck' and moving out of that. 
• The Mindset needed for new traders, and the danger of chasing success. 
• Dealing with Setbacks. 
• Managing Self and Mindset through drawdowns and barren spells. 
• How you can help yourself develop and cultivate a Growth Mindset. 
• Examples of Traders in a Growth Mindset. 
• Fixed Mindset, Growth Mindset and Ego. 
• Setting your environment for a Growth Mindset. 

 So much great wisdom shared in this conversation. We think you will really enjoy it.

AlphaMind: Powering Performance in Global Markets
AlphaMind brings powerful change, growth and development to people and businesses within global markets.

Driven by a deep understanding of how markets work, and how people and businesses function within them, we partner with clients to create personal performance improvements that elevate returns across their trading activities.

Go to the AlphaMind website to know more.

In this episode we jointly explore the subject of 'Mental Edge'. 
 
This conversation covers a broad swathe of themes around the subject of 'Mental Edge' in trading, including:

• Risk Intelligence and how thinking about 'edge' in terms of positive expectancy. 
• Poker, trading and having an 'edge'. 
• Walking away and getting 'closure', as an 'edge'.
• Resetting and refreshing 'Self'. as an 'edge'.
• The 'Trading Turtles', and 'Psychological Edge'. 
• Physical aspects of Performance: Sleep, Alcohol, Caffeine. 
• How caffeine increases anxiety, and alcohol dulls performance, to create a negative edge.
• Time of day trading, decision-making and performance. 
• Military and Mindfulness 'mindfitness' to enhance decision-making, focus and attention.  
• 'Mindfitness' as a tool for developing laser-like focus and greater presence. 
• Trading and the personal battle with 'self and ego'.

If you want to elevate your trading psychology, there is so much great wisdom shared in this conversation. We think you will really enjoy it.

AlphaMind: Powering Performance in Global Markets
AlphaMind brings powerful change, growth and development to people and businesses within global markets.

Driven by a deep understanding of how markets work, and how people and businesses function within them, we partner with clients to create personal performance improvements that elevate returns across their trading activities.

Go to the AlphaMind website to know more.

The first episode of the AlphaMind podcast is co-hosted by Steven Goldstein and Mark Randall. 

Steven and Mark are market veterans with over 7 decades of experiences between them:
 
Steven works as a coach helping traders and portfolio managers develop and enhance the 'Inner Game' aspects of risk performance.  Before becoming a coach in 2009, Steven worked as a trader in market-making and proprietary trading roles at investment banks such as Credit Suisse, Commerzbank and American Express Bank. 
 
 Mark has worked as an oil derivatives broker since the early 1980s, starting on the original LIFFE floor, and spending over 30 years working for Natwest, Greenwich Capital and RBS. Mark was an early adopter and instigator of Mindfulness techniques to help improve and optimise performance in high pressure environments. 

In this inaugural episode, Mark and Steven jointly discuss and explore:

• The concept of AlphaMind and how people need to work on developing the vital behavioural, psychological, and mental aspects of risk performance. 
• The idea of Self and Presence when working in Financial Market roles.  
• The development of 'Mind' skills to help increase productivity and improve performance. What role intuition plays in making big decisions and when it should be minimized
• 'Inner Game', and how we can become more optimal to improve how we are when engaged in trading. 
• Aspects of 'Financial Market' behaviour and introduce the concept of 'Financial Market 'Murmuration'.
• The connection of mindset, inner game and performance through the context of elite sports performance. 
• The battle between yourself and your ego, and the tendency to 'beat-up' upon yourself and how this undermines performance. 
• How alcohol, caffeine, and poor sleep can impact the quality of performance.  
• Time of day factors and our ability to make optimal decisions.  

and many other aspects. 

AlphaMind: Powering Performance in Global Markets
AlphaMind brings powerful change, growth and development to people and businesses within global markets.

Driven by a deep understanding of how markets work, and how people and businesses function within them, we partner with clients to create personal performance improvements that elevate returns across their trading activities.

Go to the AlphaMind website to know more.