Ep. 56: Steve Brechtel Interview with Michael Covel on Trend Following Radio

My guest today is Steve Brechtel. Over the past 20 years Brechtel has worked as a trader for three of the top 100 hedge funds in the world: Trout Trading (now Tewksbury Capital) in Chicago and Bermuda, Crabel Capital in Milwaukee, and now Two Sigma in NYC (a $10 billion fund) -- all short-term systematic funds.

The topic is trading.

In this episode of Trend Following Radio we discuss:

• Brechtel's history, from his beginnings roughing it as a Pizza Hut manager while working an insurance job, to finding his way to Monroe Trout, to working at Crabel, to his career at Two Sigma today
• History in Virginia
• Why he was hired at Monroe Trout in the first place as a new trader and the advantages of having a beginner's mind
• The difference between the short term/systematic traders that Brechtel worked for and the longer term trend following Covel talks about
• The six strategies Brechtel learned trading the pits
• What's changed and what's the same now that technology has evolved
• Ayn Rand, objectivism, and Trout
• Brechtel's transition from Trout to Crabel, and the differences between these two firms
• His work at Two Sigma today
• Brechtel's screenplay ("Unhedged") using hedge funds and high finance as its backdrop
• Writing the script, how his movie differs from other Wall Street movies
• Covel talks with him about his experience in making his own documentary, "Broke: The New American Dream"

Jump in!

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I'm MICHAEL COVEL, the host of TREND FOLLOWING RADIO, and I'm proud to have delivered 10+ million podcast listens since 2012. Investments, economics, psychology, politics, decision-making, human behavior, entrepreneurship and trend following are all passionately explored and debated on my show.

To start? I'd like to give you a great piece of advice you can use in your life and trading journey… cut your losses! You will find much more about that philosophy here: https://www.trendfollowing.com/trend/

You can watch a free video here: https://www.trendfollowing.com/video/

Can't get enough of this episode? You can choose from my thousand plus episodes here: https://www.trendfollowing.com/podcast

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Hope you enjoy my never-ending podcast conversation!