Norton Reamer is the former Chief Investment Officer and CEO of Putnam Investments. He also founded and ran United Asset Management for 20 years. He has 50 years of experience on Wall Street. Today, Michael and Norton talk about his new book, “Investment: A History.” It is a detailed anthology on investment.

Norton stresses that everyone has a responsibility to understand their investments and to educate themselves to know what they are getting themselves into. Most people seem daunted by the challenges of investing. Real ownership, seeking a value, the role of leverage, and resource allocation are four key points of investment that Norton lays out in his book. When someone makes an investment, they need to really own that investment. It isn’t just a piece of paper.

Michael moves the conversation to economic bubbles and asks, “What are some of the timeless lessons that can be learned from bubbles you have witnessed in your lifetime?” Norton’s favorite bubble to have witnessed in his 80+ years is the latest bubble that popped in 2008. It was the way in which the bubble was created that fascinated him. He relates it to the great depression and discusses the similarities in recovering from it.

Next, Norton gives his perspective on efficient markets vs. the behavioral school. He says that it is a conundrum that has not yet been solved. Survivorship bias is the next controversial topic. They discuss the success of Warren Buffett and the “survivorship bias” argument that has been attached to him. Buffett has been around for many decades and both men agree that there is much that can be learned from Buffett. On the other side of the spectrum is Bernie Madoff. Norton explains how an operation like Madoff would be almost impossible to pull off in today’s markets. He also agrees with Michael in saying, “I would be deeply skeptical of someone producing 1% returns every month. You need risk to have returns like that.”

Michael brings up tail risk next. Norton describes tail risk as, “A one in a one hundred year event.” Things can be rare and unlikely but it is not the same as saying something is impossible. Conditions can always get extreme and produce “a one in a one hundred year event” and wipe you out. Norton uses Long Term Capital Management as a great example. Michael and Norton finish the podcast stressing that people can never be too cautious when investing in the markets. Educate yourself and prepare for risk adequately.

In this episode of Trend Following Radio:

• Personal responsibility in the stock market
• The role of financial leverage
• Resource allocation
• The suspension of diligence during economic booms
• Efficient markets vs. Behavioral markets
• Warren Buffett and survivorship bias
• Tail risk
• Quant and momentum style trading
• Practicing caution in the markets
• What impact does interest rates have on the value of assets

David Stockman is on the podcast today for his second appearance. He is a former United States congressman, who also served as the Director of The Office of Management and Budget under president Ronald Reagan. His books include, “The Great Deformation”, and “Trumped: A Nation on the Brink of Ruin… And How to Bring it Back”.

Michael and David start off discussing the recent news of Larry Summers suggesting that the Fed should start buying common stocks. David says that this is an act of sheer desperation and that any economist, 20 years ago, would have never come up with such an idea. What has happened is that policy makers have been led into a dead end path. “Madness” is how David describes the Fed right now. The mentality people have today, with Janet Yellen, is that intervention is necessary and without it, the whole system will fall apart. This mentality was not present prior to the year 2000 or maybe even 2008. Wall Street and Washington applaud the policy only because the market continues to go up.

Michael turns the conversation to the present election and asks David how he perceives the rise of Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders. “What does it say about America’s present state of mind?” David says it shows that America has had enough. The public is responding to Trump because he isn’t part of the system. Regardless of Trump’s stance on issues he will probably get a large part of Sanders supporters because they both have an “against the grain” political stance. David refers to Hillary Clinton as “the class president of a failed generation”. He gives examples back to 1991 when Bill Clinton was president, pointing out the senseless wars and damage that has been done to the economy due to policy. Clinton is “A survivor of what has been a 30 year consolidation of bad policy” says David. Hillary Clinton was the survivor who happened to be in the right place at the right time.

Next, David goes into his stance on Glass Steagall and how he would reinstate it in a way that would re-stabilize the financial system. Michael then has David elaborate on Deutsche Bank and some of the other problems the European banking system is facing. Michael asks, “What will happen if there is another 50% decrease on the S&P? What will the authorities do next?” David believes they are out of options. Going to negative interest rates will create a firestorm that they can’t take on. It will induce the sensible people in America to riot. A real correction will not happen until the market is able to stay down and correct from the damage that happened in the propping up in 2008. Michael and David finish up the podcast discussing the Chinese economy. David believes their economy is just as unsustainable as the United States. They are a “huge financial accident waiting to happen”.

In this episode of Trend Following Radio:

• Glass Steagall
• Clinton and Trump campaigns
• Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders supporters
• Deutsche Bank
• European banking system
• Sub-zero interest rates
• Chinese economy
• 2016 Election as a turning point in America

Michael Covel interviews Milton Friedman. Of course, Friedman is dead. Such the conundrum.

In this episode of Trend Following Radio:

• Free lunch myth
• Robin Hood myth
• Collectivism
• Case against equal pay for equal work

Michael talks with Ted Parkhill. Ted has over 25 years of management experience in the investment business. He is a founding partner of systematic macro investment manager Incline Investment Management (IIM). He is also serves as an Assistant Professor of business at Sierra Nevada College in Incline Village, NV.

Prior to IIM he was the director of marketing for Zazove Associates a multi-billion dollar quantitative convertible securities manager. He was a senior marketing executive at John W. Henry & Company one of the original Commodity Trading Advisors.

In this episode of Trend Following Radio:

• It is possible to consistently generate profitable returns through systematic trading
• Markets are inefficient and therefore trends materialize
• Trends last longer than people think
• Prices reflect the sum of the knowledge of all market participants

Today, Michael dives into the fight for liberty. No show notes. Listen or not, your choice.

Michael welcomes Adam Khoo to the podcast.

Khoo is a Singaporean serial entrepreneur, author, trainer and a professional stock and FX trader. Khoo became a self-made millionaire at the age of 26, making him one of the youngest millionaires in Singapore.

Khoo is the Executive chairman and Chief Master Trainer of Adam Khoo Learning Technologies Group, one of Asia’s largest private educational institutions, which runs educational seminars for over 80,000 people annually in 7 countries.

From Neuro-linguistic programming to trend following, Adam and Michael cover the key topics.

In this episode of Trend Following Radio:

• Neuro-linguistic programming
• Technical analysis
• Finding the edge
• Trend following
• Market Wizards

Michael provides a FREE chapter from his audio book versions of The Complete TurtleTrader and Trend Commandments.

Mentions & Resources:

• The Complete TurtleTrader
• Trend Commandments

Brian Christian, co-author of “Algorithms to Live By: The Computer Science of Human Decisions,” is on today’s podcast. The book shows how common algorithms relate to our everyday lives.

Brian starts off giving a historical explanation of an “algorithm”. Algorithms do not just relate to computers or mathematical procedures. A cooking recipe can be described as an algorithm or you could use an algorithm to solve the question, “How do you know when your best opportunity is?” Brian says you use an algorithm known as “optimal stopping” to solve this question. He explains the algorithm that provides the best probability of the best outcome.

Probability is the next. Is it worth exploring a new business possibility? Or is it better to hone in your skills and continue on with what you are doing? There is a formal framework or algorithm to help make these decisions. Brian explains the “win stay, lose shift” approach. If a restaurant is good, go back. If you don’t have a good experience, don’t go back. It may not be the optimal approach but it is a good approach and easy to live by.

Michael jumps to an example with Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon. Brian tells Jeff’s story of Amazon and how he left his successful job at the time to start up this “online bookstore”. He ultimately used a “regret minimization framework” to make his decision. There was a possibility Jeff may not have been successful starting Amazon, but had he not tried it, he would have regretted not trying for the rest of his life. Brian also gives other examples of regret minimization algorithms.

Michael and Brian discuss threading next. Lastly, Michael brings up the “searching vs. sorting conundrum” that Brian discusses thoroughly in his book. Brian gives examples about sorting through information on the computer. He says that people should ask themselves “Should you be sorting at all?” Brian explains why “messy” is sometimes better.

In this episode of Trend Following Radio:

• Optimal stopping
• What is an algorithm
• Process vs. Outcome
• The explore, exploit trade off
• The multi-arm bandit problem
• Win stay, lose shift
• Regret minimization framework
• Frequency and intensity of mistakes related to age
• Upper confidence bound algorithm
• Threading

Michael dives into Donald Trump and the Fed. Listen at your peril!

Mentions & Resources:

• Donald Trump
• Janet Yellen
• The Fed