Introducing Inside the Mind of a Trader

September 9, 2024Beginner
Schwab's video series Inside the Mind of a Trader examines the brain activity and thought processes of top traders to uncover what it means to trade brilliantly.

Schwab's new video series Inside the Mind of a Trader looks at how brilliant traders are wired. Dr. Indre Viskontas, a professor of psychology at the University of San Francisco, interviewed the best in the business to find out how they play the mental game of trading. From inside of Chicago's storied Steppenwolf Theatre, these traders give perspectives that may help you think through your trading strategies and learn how to refine your approach.

Episode 1, Kathy Lien, BK Asset Management

Kathy Lien is a co-founder and foreign exchange trader at BK Asset Management. Her strategy relies on having a strong trading plan to guide buy and sell decisions. She said that instinct is simply experience over time, and that leads to brilliant trading. 

Lien learned to manage both risk and emotion through careful processes. She trades only at the open of the U.S. and Asian markets, and she avoids the fear of missing out by focusing on her goal, which is to place winning trades. If she is sticking to her trading plan, she doesn't agonize about profits she might've missed.

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Episode 2, Stinson Dean, Deacon Lumber Company

Stinson Dean trades lumber, a key commodity in the construction business. He learned to analyze patterns and probabilities while playing quarterback in college. He applies this skill to understanding what could happen to lumber prices as each variable in the market changes. 

While many people think of memory as the ability to recall things that happened in the past, Dr. Viskontas explained that stored memories tend to be inaccurate. Instead, they're better used to simulate possible future events and inform decisions. Dean applies his past experiences to trade brilliantly.

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Episode 3, Matt Andresen, Headlands Technologies

Matt Andresen knows electronic trading. He's currently co-chairman of Headlands Technologies, a proprietary trading firm. He previously worked as an executive at Citadel Derivatives Group and was the President and CEO of Island ECN. He believes that programs can remove cognitive biases from trading, but he also thinks that brilliant programmers bring the human intuition needed to understand longer-term market trends. Combining both quantitative and intuitive trading makes for a stronger algorithm, he believes. Andresen was a varsity athlete in college, and he brings that mindset to trading.

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