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

Michael Covel's Trend Following

Michael Covel

Business, Investing

4.6 • 732 Ratings

🗓️ 7 September 2012

⏱️ 63 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

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

My social media platforms:
Twitter: @covel
Facebook: @trendfollowing
LinkedIn: @covel
Instagram: @mikecovel

Hope you enjoy my never-ending podcast conversation!

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is Trend Following Radio, where great thinking comes alive.
0:10.9	Nobel Prize winners, legendary traders, bestselling authors, and the pros that know what drive us irrational human beings.
0:21.2	I am your host, Michael Covel, not filtered, raw, honest.
0:27.4	That's my passion.
0:33.4	So today on the show I have Steve Brechtel, and Steve and I met through another podcast that I did with Brad Rathie.
0:41.9	And Brad, a really cool conversation with Brad.
0:44.3	And Brad had seen quite a bit over the years in the industry.
0:48.3	And so Steve and I connected up through Brad.
0:51.9	And Steve has got a really interesting background.
0:55.2	And it's 20 years as a derivatives trader for three of the top largest funds, frankly,
1:02.4	the top 100 funds.
1:03.6	And we're ranging from Tewksbury Capital, which used to be Trout trading, Monroe Trout,
1:09.3	the New Market Wizard's book.
1:11.1	I think people recognize that.
1:12.9	Crable Capital,
1:14.0	and 2 Sigma.
1:17.0	And I actually spent some time with Toby Crable down in the Virgin Islands years back,
1:22.8	had a chance to spend an afternoon with him.
1:24.7	So really interesting.
1:26.4	Steve,
1:27.3	thank you for joining me. Thank you. Thanks for having me.
1:30.5	So let's jump right into the most important thing. You went to William and Mary.
	...

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