Martin Kronicle

Jim Rogers always says how he is the ‘world’s worst market timer’ and is essentially a fundamental trader. I am a huge fan of his and I know you are too. However, isn’t the development of any strong conviction about a fundamental idea dangerous to a price action technical trader with a rigorous money management system in place?

No, IMHO you should develop both. When they both line up, you’re probably onto a big trade. But don’t fall in love with your ideas. If you’re fundamental idea(s) are wrong, let your technical stops take you out. PTJ said “Price moves first, and the fundamentals follow.”

Jim Rogers seems to imply he takes a position and holds it, and does even add to it if the fundamentals become even more skewed even when it moves against him, which is effectively ‘averaging a loser’! Is he under playing his market timing ability or does his approach unworkable for my more technical traders with rigorous money management in place?

I think Jim has impeccable money management skills, but might actually be telling the truth about his market timing skills. One way that this can be true, is that his position sizes are tiny. Another possibility is that he annuls the effect of leverage buy making sure he has the full notional value of what he’s buying put aside as collateral.

That way, if a trader’s timing is the worst, s/he would be able to stay with the position for quite some time and not end up sweatin’ out your position.

As it happens, I will be speaking with him this week so I’m going to pose your question to him on your behalf.

Want to make more money in 2010 than last year? Learn the art of the follow-up.

When you get an email from someone asking for some advice or something they need or want from you, how long do you take to get back to them? What is your defined process for follow-up?

A simple one could be, “I return all phone calls within 24 hours” or “I return all calls by EOD.”

I am in a position where I’m going to have to express to business acquaintances that they need to step up. The world is moving too fast anymore. Next time :O your blackberry goes down, go to Twitter Search and watch how fast the Tweets come flying in. Frankly, you need to be on it to survive – especially in this environment.

For context, these aren’t “cold call” emails. My emails are going to folks with whom I have a relationship and the end results will be beneficial to both of us. [If you care to know, when approaching someone for the first time, I always ask if it's ok to email them x or y and get their PERMISSION first.]

More times than not, I end up having to instigate a second email to get a response – after a week!

“But Michael, I’m really busy watching my 1-minute bars.” I know…they are beautiful, but I have to believe that a lot of business opportunities get lost or missed altogether because emails are left on the perimeter of the dance floor. My guess is that you’d capture more business leads with a massively fast follow-up process for all communications: email, phone calls, Tweets, IMs, and BB Messages. Here’s the real deal though:

I’m really impressed with people when they get back to me quickly. It makes a good first impression when meeting face-to-face is not or was not possible.

Here’s another tip: If I get an email from someone where the content or the person are really important, I always touch back immediately and say, “Got the email. Slammed now. I’ll be back to you by {defined period of time}” or something to that degree. Now you look like a pro and most importantly, you’re managing their expectations.

Schonfeld and Shaw. No, they are not a law firm. They are probably run better and more efficiently than most law firms.

I got a few emails from both students and managers of the type of prop firm where you need your own money. Needless to say, the latter were not so happy with my letter of the law language. I hold fast to my definition of a prop trading firm: they have all the money you’ll need…

Read through Schonfeld Group and D.E. Shaw & Co’s websites and see for yourself how the differ in their language from other firms that claim to be prop trading firms.

I haven’t been this shocked since Clay Aiken came out as a gay.