Ep. 73: Peter Brandt Interview with Michael Covel on Trend Following Radio
Michael Covel's Trend Following
Michael Covel
4.6 • 732 Ratings
🗓️ 25 October 2012
⏱️ 55 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
My guest today is Peter Brandt, a trader who has been in the commodity trading space since 1976. He's traded his own proprietary account from the late 1970s until today and is currently entering the hedge fund world by running a multi-CTA fund-of-funds. Brandt got his start in Chicago trading commodities and working at the Chicago Board of Trade for Continental Grain Company.
The topic is his book Diary of a Professional Commodity Trader: Lessons from 21 Weeks of Real Trading.
In this episode of Trend Following Radio we discuss:
- How the accident influenced his trading and how great lessons can be learned through adversity
- The idea of trading a five-minute chart pattern vs. a weekly chart pattern
- The biggest mistakes you can make as a novice trader
- Averaging a loser
- Risk management and the right amount to risk on any trade
- Upside volatility and the fantasy of a straight line up of profit growth
- The importance of reducing the incessant head chatter and living in the moment now
Jump in!
---
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
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 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. |
| 0:24.0 | Not filtered, raw, honest. |
| 0:27.3 | That's my passion. |
| 0:33.5 | So today on the show I have Peter Brandt, |
| 0:35.7 | and Peter has been in the commodity trading space for a while. |
| 0:39.5 | Good experience back to 1976 starting with Conti Commodity Services, the Division of Continental Grain Company. |
| 0:45.9 | He's been trading his own account for a long time. |
| 0:48.6 | I think we're going to find out that Peter's got a lot of different experiences in the space and is going to be a really a great insight. His book |
| 0:55.7 | that came out a few years ago, Diary of a Professional Commodity Trader, Lessons from 21 Weeks of Real |
| 1:01.1 | Trading by Peter L. Brandt. The number one thing about this book, at least from my perspective, |
| 1:07.4 | I don't know how a first time author got such a great cover. |
| 1:14.5 | Peter, thanks for joining me today. |
| 1:17.9 | So let's jump right in, Peter. |
| 1:26.5 | Why don't you go ahead and give people out there, you know, they hear, okay, you know, you've been in the space, you've been trading your own account, going back to 1976. |
| 1:28.6 | You were in Chicago for a long time. |
| 1:29.8 | Where are you today, Peter? |
| 1:31.1 | Physically, where are you at today? |
| 1:34.2 | Well, I mean, physically, I'm in Colorado. |
| 1:41.5 | Having moved from Chicago to northern Minnesota, and then deciding that I wanted to live there in the mountains. So physically, that's where I am. |
| 1:45.1 | Professionally, I'm trading my proprietary account, as I have been, pretty much uninterrupted, |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Michael Covel, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Michael Covel and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.

