The next interview in the series is with Anne-Marie Baiynd, a long time trader, coach, and author of The Trading Book (Amazon link). I haven’t yet met Anne-Marie in person but we’ve interacted on social media quite a bit and I think her Twitter presence is great. I know several folks in the trading industry that have met her in person and have nothing but good things to say about her.
Her bio tells me she’s had a wide range of experiences before planting her trading roots: neuroscience, mathematics, econometrics, and recruiting – plus she’s started several companies along the way.
Here are her responses:
What is the most overrated trading advice?
“You’ve got to take the emotion out of trading”
Though people are becoming more sensible about this, I remember when I started almost two decades ago, this was all the rage. The fact is that trading should be disciplined but humans cannot operate without emotion, so people end up trying to stifle their emotions only to see them explode in other aspects of their lives or their trading accounts. Emotion has to be managed – but it cannot be squelched in the trading environment.
What is the most underrated trading advice?
“Learn to paper trade strategies properly before you trade in the live environment”
Everyone wants to be in on the action before they actually know what to do. Myself included. Granted there are things you learn in the live trading space that can only be assessed there, but jumping in with real money before you establish proper risk protocol and strategy execution is like putting on slalom skis for the first time and getting dropped off atop an Olympic ski jump….with almost as disastrous results. Learn to trade before you actually trade.
What’s a non-trading related book that’s influenced you recently?
“Thinking Fast and Slow” by Daniel Kahneman
An excellent study of the decision systems we have and how we war with them in the realms of our personal biases. It helped so much in the understanding of the thought process that goes into the decision-making business of trading.
Questions for Anne-Marie?
Ask her in the comments below or ask her on Twitter. Thanks Anne-Marie!
Do you know someone who you think would make a good interviewee? Contact me!
