The legendary Market Wizard, Tom Basso is the for president of money management firm TrendStat.
He started his career as a chemical engineer and was usually talking about stocks and investing with colleagues. When he experimented with trading from a $2000 account, there was no such thing as beginner’s luck for him. Tom kept losing money during the first few years before things started to turn around.
Tom went from trading his own money to managing other people’s money when formed TrendStat. The company managed $600 million dollars at its peak.
Even though Tom’s retired, he still actively studies the market and continues to trade and actively studies the market.
What’s Covered in This Interview:
- Why Tom felt like a fish out of water when he made his first trade and he lost money for 5 years straight.
- Why Tom kept persevering and ways he could have shortened his learning curve.
- How his ‘ah-ha’ moment changed the way he looked at markets.
- How TrendStat went from a few people operating an investment club to having $600 million to manage at its peak.
- How risk controls and volatility increased Tom’s performance, and the formula traders can use to calculate both.
- Why Tim likes a systemic approach.
- Why Tom likes a trend following strategy and how it fits into his busy lifestyle.
- Why traders need to top predicting, and why psychology is the most important part of trading, even those who have an automated strategy.
- Why you should never forget to enjoy trading.
- Why traders need to accept responsibility in every facet of their lives, and to stop blaming.
Links and Resources:
- Interactive Brokers –Tom suggests this brokerage for new traders who want to practice with a demo account.
- Panic-Proof Investing – Tom wrote this book to help his clients and other investors to make better trading choices.
- The New Market Wizards –Tom is one of the legendary traders Jack Schwager’s interviewed for the infamous Market Wizards series.
- Facebook – Follow Tom on Facebook.
- @Basso_Tom – Follow Tom on Twitter
