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Top Traders Unplugged

TTU72: Adding Value to Your System ft. Mike Shell of Shell Capital Management – 2of2

Top Traders Unplugged

Niels Kaastrup-Larsen

Investing, Business News, News, Business

4.8712 Ratings

🗓️ 12 February 2015

⏱️ 72 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In the second part of our talk with Mike Shell, we delve into the specifics of his program and why most of his clients have 100% of their investments with his firm. He discusses backtesting, risk management, and the differences between purely systematic systems and systems with a discretionary element. Listen in for an inside look at this fascinating firm.

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50 YEARS OF TREND FOLLOWING BOOK AND BEHIND-THE-SCENES VIDEO FOR ACCREDITED INVESTORS - CLICK HERE

In This Episode, You’ll Learn:

  • How people should look at Mike’s 10 year track record and how his models have evolved over that time.
  • How much of the strategy is machine run and how much is human run.
  • What he does when he backtest a system.
  • How he started out as a chartist in the 1990s.
  • What is it that he can’t systematize.
  • The difference between a trader that is purely systematic and one that has a discretionary element, however small.
  • How his investors use his program.
  • What his approach to risk management is and how it plays out with his program.
  • Why he doesn’t take on much short exposure.
  • What’s the biggest challenge with his business right now.
  • How to expand the customer base to investment advisors.
  • What books Mike would recommend.
  • What he’d do differently if he had to start all over today.

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Resources & Links Mentioned in this Episode


Follow Niels on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube or via the TTU website.

IT’s TRUE ? – most CIO’s read 50+ books each year – get your FREE copy of the Ultimate Guide to the Best Investment Books ever written here.

And you can get a free copy of my latest book “Ten Reasons to Add Trend Following to Your Portfoliohere.

Learn more about the Trend Barometer here.

Send your questions to info@toptradersunplugged.com

And please share this episode with a like-minded friend and leave an honest Rating & Review on iTunes or Spotify so more people can discover the podcast.

Follow Mike Shell on Linkedin.

Copyright © 2025 – CMC AG – All Rights Reserved

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PLUS: Whenever you're ready... here are 3 ways I can help you in your investment Journey:

1. eBooks that cover key topics that you need to know about

In my eBooks, I put together some key discoveries and things I have learnt during the more than 3 decades I have worked in the Trend Following industry, which I hope you will find useful. Click Here

2. Daily Trend Barometer and Market Score

One of the things I’m really proud of, is the fact that I have managed to published the Trend Barometer and Market Score each day for more than a decade...as these tools are really good at describing the environment for trend following managers as well as giving insights into the general positioning of a trend following strategy! Click Here

3. Other Resources that can help you

And if you are hungry for more useful resources from the trend following world...check out some precious resources that I have found over the years to be really valuable. Click Here

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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

The asymmetry managed account was created for some specific people.

0:07.0

And we sat down and we answer two big questions.

0:10.0

Number one, how much decline in your account are you willing to tolerate?

0:15.0

Most people, and again, remember, we're managing all their money most of the time,

0:20.0

this is usually the entirety of their portfolio.

0:23.6

If they're a physician, they have $5 million in all their accounts, I mean, I'm managing

0:28.6

all in this one portfolio.

0:30.6

So we're saying, how much can this $5 million or $1,000 or whatever, $100,000,

0:36.6

whatever it may be, how much can that decline

0:39.4

before you tap out or before you cry uncle or before you call us and say you're afraid or, you know,

0:44.7

what's your uncle point? Where are you going to tap out? Welcome back to Top Traders Unplugged,

0:49.8

where the best traders in the world come to share their experiences, their successes,

0:53.7

and their failures.

0:55.4

Let's rejoin the conversation with your host, veteran hedge fund manager, Niels Kastrop Larson.

1:00.1

It's been a very strong trend up.

1:14.8

So its interest rate is down, you know, like 2%.

1:17.5

So interest rates are going down, bond prices are going up on treasuries, and that's all

1:23.2

interconnected to global deflation.

1:25.6

See, I understand that.

1:26.7

And there's not, I think that, you know,

1:28.7

there's not a whole lot of people that I know. And I know I communicate fairly regularly with about

1:33.4

100 people that do this stuff. And there's not a whole lot of people that truly understand what's

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