Michael Covel speaks with Sophia Roosth on today’s podcast. Roosth is a Harvard professor that Covel first heard quoted on DNA privacy from Davos. Roosth’s research focuses on the twentieth and twenty-first century life sciences. Her first book, based on four years of ethnographic fieldwork, examines how the life sciences are changing at a moment when researchers build new biological systems in order to investigate how biology works. In this work, Roosth asks what happens to “life” as a conceptual category when experimentation and fabrication converge. Covel and Roosth discuss the Davos event; what becomes of privacy in a moment of internet surveillance; having more information out there as a way to control privacy; biological privacy, and whether our DNA is going down a path where it’s a lot more public; discrimination based on genome; genetic McCarthyism; somatic transfer and cloning; the story of Chance the bull; the idea of de-extinction; the ethics of cloning; molecular gastronomy and world hunger. Want a free trend following DVD? Go to trendfollowing.com/win.

Michael Covel speaks with Dr. Michael Lardon on today’s podcast. Lardon is one of the premier mental performance coaches in the world, with clients in more than a dozen professional and Olympic sports. His athletes have won major golf championships, Olympic gold medals, Super Bowls and World Series titles, among other achievements. He is an Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of California San Diego and a Consulting Psychiatrist to the United States Olympic Teams at the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, CA. However, Lardon and Covel's conversation is applicable to everyone, not just certain athletes. They talk about Lardon’s early experiences playing professional table tennis; the “slowing down of time” and how it affects performance; the importance of mental performance in sports; Phil Mickelson’s loss at the 2013 Open and his win at the British Open a month later, and how Lardon was assisting him during this period; “the yips”, and what is going on in the mind when someone can no longer perform a simple activity they used to accomplish easily; neurological vs. psychological “yips”; Lardon’s opinion on what’s happening with Tiger Woods currently; narrow, intense focus vs. dropping the intense expenditure of energy when you don’t need it (ie. what do you do with your downtime?); the process of desensitization; the deliberate plan for improvement and the importance of writing things down. For more information on Dr. Michael Lardon, visit drlardon.com. Want a free trend following DVD? Go to trendfollowing.com/win.

Interview with Michael Covel on Trend Following Radio.

Michael Covel speaks with Salem Abraham on today’s podcast. Abraham is the President of Abraham Trading Company with a 27-year track record (with much trend following success). Over the years, Abraham has been kind enough to offer Covel fantastic insights. Abraham also appeared in Covel’s film, Broke, and is the last chapter of The Complete TurtleTrader. Today, Covel and Abraham cover some topical market moves--the Swiss Franc and Crude Oil among them. Covel and Abraham also discuss living in Asia and Asian economics; a market lesson Abraham first learned in 1987; the recent action of the Swiss Franc; artificially priced markets and the analogy of a dam; Crude Oil as a trend; speculation at the core of Abraham’s business and its effect on markets generally; the effect of Abraham’s grandfather on his work; the influences on Abraham’s thinking and business decisions; location independence; the importance of a link to the outside world; avoiding disaster; and being agnostic to the market. More: www.abrahamtrading.com. Want a free trend following DVD? Go to trendfollowing.com/win.

Michael Covel speaks with Christopher Chabris on today’s podcast. Chabris is an American research psychologist, currently Associate Professor of Psychology and co-director of the Neuroscience Program at Union College in Schenectady, New York, Adjunct Assistant Professor of Neurology at Albany Medical College and a Research Affiliate at the MIT Center for Collective Intelligence. He is best known as the co-author (with Daniel Simons) of the popular science book The Invisible Gorilla, which presents the results of research into attention and other cognitive illusions. Chabris offers a wide take on what’s going on in our minds. Covel and Chabris discuss witnesses, memory, and the legal system; expert witness testimony; “the play that changed poker”; mastery in any field; the connection between chess and memory; Chabris’ interaction with Neil deGrasse Tyson, and how memory affects our outlook; the stock market, prediction, and forecasting; the importance of confidence with regard to predictions; simple rules vs. complex rules; Oprah Winfrey, Malcolm Gladwell, and intuition; and memory and the influx of information coming at us. Want a free trend following DVD? Go to trendfollowing.com/win.

Michael Covel speaks with Peter Shankman on today’s episode. Shankman is the classic entrepreneur: he is the author of Nice Companies Finish First and the founder of Help a Reporter Out (HARO), the largest free source repository for journalists in the world. His new book, Zombie Loyalists: Using Great Service to Create Rabid Fans is out now. First, Covel offers up a monologue. Topics include the end of geography and the importance of globalization; gadgets, software, hacks, and websites as the magic elixir; the importance of dedication, commitment, and alone time; exercise; being able to walk away when negotiating; getting off the sidelines; happiness as a choice; and the necessity of having a niche. Covel and Shankman discuss skydiving and the lessons of preparation and mitigating risk; social media compared to the dotcom bubble; and the importance of creating a good product and customer service despite advances in technology. Ending? Covel summons Alan Watts for good measure. For more information on Peter Shankman, visit shankman.com. Want a free trend following DVD? Go to trendfollowing.com/win.

Michael Covel interviews Gary Antonacci on today’s podcast. Antonacci focuses on two issues in the quant world: relative strength price momentum with trend following absolute momentum. He’s developed a strategy where he believes it’s best to combine both. His new book is called Dual Momentum Investing. Today, Antonacci makes the case for this strategy. Covel and Antonacci discuss momentum vs. trend; relative strength momentum, cross sectional momentum, absolute momentum, and time series momentum; trend following vs. managed futures as terms; Antonacci’s early history and how he found his way into the career he has today; three legendary traders that crossed paths with Antonacci early on; the efficient market hypothesis as a less-than-solid foundation; buying higher highs; Ray Dalio and risk parity strategies; academic perspectives on momentum; the interaction and correlation between the two momentum strategies (relative and absolute). For more information on Gary Antonacci, visit optimalmomentum.com. Want a free trend following DVD? Go to trendfollowing.com/win.

Michael Covel speaks with Michael Mauboussin today on his second visit to the podcast. Mauboussin is an author ("More Than You Know", "Think Twice: Harnessing the Power of Counterintuition"), investment strategist in the financial services industry, professor at the Columbia Graduate School of Business, and serves on the board of trustees at the Sante Fe Institute (an independent, nonprofit theoretical research institute). He is managing director and head of Global Financial Strategies at Credit Suisse, where he advises clients on valuation and portfolio positioning, capital markets theory, competitive strategy analysis, and decision making. Covel and Mauboussin discuss multi-disciplinary thinking and its influence on Covel; looking at larger reference classes; the Swiss Franc; Mauboussin’s personal take on the recent oil move; fundamentals and expectation; luck or skill when it comes to trading profits; the paradox of skill, absolute, and relative skill; whether scientific principles of luck exist; defining luck; outcome bias; and the general public perception of behavioral economics. For more information on Michael Mauboussin, visit michaelmauboussin.com. Want a free trend following DVD? Go to trendfollowing.com/win.