Larry Williams: I Blew Up More Accounts Than You've Ever Traded. Here's What I Learned.
By Titans Of Tomorrow
Summary
## Key takeaways - **Technical Analysis is for Trends, Not Predictions**: Technical analysis is best for identifying trends and trend changes, but relying on it to predict future market movements is a false premise. Charts show where the market has been, not necessarily where it's going. [03:40], [04:13] - **Markets Driven by Conditions, Not Charts**: Markets are driven by underlying conditions like supply/demand imbalances or panic, not just charts. Chart patterns are merely the emotional reactions of traders to these conditions. [04:37], [04:50] - **Low Accuracy, High Reward Strategies Win**: Strategies with the lowest percentage of accuracy often generate the most money. High accuracy can lead to small wins and significant losses, whereas low accuracy with good risk-to-reward can overcome more frequent losses. [11:20], [12:38] - **COT Report: Commercials Hedge, Not Time Markets**: The Commitment of Traders report shows commercials hedging for business purposes, not timing the market. They accumulate positions when prices are low because their cost of production is lower, which is not a direct signal for market timing. [13:53], [14:35] - **Risk Tolerance is Personal, Not Optimal**: The optimal amount of money to risk on a trade is irrelevant; what matters is the risk you can personally handle emotionally. If you can't sleep at night, you're risking too much. [26:41], [26:53] - **Confidence vs. Ego in Trading**: Successful traders need confidence but must avoid overconfidence and ego. Egotistical traders often face financial or regulatory trouble, while humble, cautious traders tend to fare better. [47:12], [48:24]
Topics Covered
- Charts show where the market has been, not where it's going.
- Commercials are accumulators, not market timers: a contrarian COT view.
- The best market to trade is the one set up most.
- Risk what allows you to sleep at night.
- Great traders are humble, not overconfident: the ego paradox.
Full Transcript
In this monumental episode, we have the
all-time record holder for the World Cup
Trading Championship, a record that has
lasted 38 years where the top three
global traders achieve between 200 and
400%. This trader has achieved over
11,000% in a single year.
>> The main reason traders fail is cuz they
don't have the correct knowledge. They
fall for something on the internet they
think is a winning strategy cuz the guy
shows himself with a picture of a fancy
car, fancy girl or something. You have
to have something that works. Then you
have to bring that in and you have to
work it.
>> Introducing the trading titan and
industry legend Larry Williams. A father
figure in the industry with 60 years of
trading experience being an author of 11
trading books and mentoring and guiding
generations of traders after him. In
this episode, Larry reveals exactly the
strategy that he used to take $10,000 to
over $1.1 million, but also deeply
exploring what it takes to make a
profitable strategy that stands the test
of time. And most importantly, Larry
shares the trading secrets needed to
break his world record performance.
>> People didn't believe. They thought that
there was a bogus account that I put the
winning trades in one account, losing
trades in another account. The
government came in and audited
everything at the brokerage firm, my
records. Oh, he's cheating. No, I wasn't
cheating. And the proof is
what's the favorite market? What market
you like to trade? What's the best
market to trade? Here's the best market
to trade. The one that's set up the most
right now, today. It might be gold now.
It might be silver next week. It might
be potato chips. Who knows? I'm looking
for a market that has cycles, seasonals,
commitment of trade report, accumulation
going on. I go through all the markets.
I make a list every Saturday. These
markets are set up to rally. These
markets set up to decline. Then I go to
the daily chart and say, "Okay, where
are we trendwise? Can I get a trend
change here? Significant trend change.
Where would that be?" Then I can place a
trade. I'm going to regret not asking
you this question, so I'm going to ask
it anyway. Whenever I scroll an X,
everybody's mentioning your name
constantly, always in reference to the
World Cup and how people want to
dethrone you. And there's a key figure
that is ICT. There was a viral tweet
that went around where he personally
emailed you letting you know kindly that
he's going to dethrone you.
>> Everybody wants to beat Larry Wil. You
know what?
I rarely get nervous for an episode, and
this one was an absolute honor because
not only is he a dream guest of the
show, he's actually one of those trading
legends that I've been hearing about
since I started trading over a decade
ago. because in the end he is the
all-time World Cup trading champion and
most impressively he achieved his record
in a market crash where everybody was
losing money. He's taught millions. He's
traded live for six decades where most
traders have given up. And when I got to
sit down with Larry, I was blown away by
his generosity of what he was sharing a
trading blueprint from the ground up
with the foundations of how to
understand market cycles all the way
through to finding an entry and then on
top of that money management and
psychology. So this conversation is not
just another episode. It's an absolute
trading masterclass from a verified
trading legend. And with that being
said, let's get into this episode.
Ladies and gents, we have the honor and
privilege. Larry, I I I really want to
express first of all gratitude. When we
first started the show 2 years ago, I
had a list of names that I thought would
be dream guests and and I'm I'm really
honored to be here.
when I scrolled Twitter in the beginning
uh years of my trading career, your name
would always come up obviously through
your success in your career and and you
you've left a legacy with the 11,000%
achievement that you had. You've
probably spoken about it a million
times, so we'll leave that towards the
end. Uh but getting into learning about
you, your your strategy and everything
that you believe in, something that
stood out to me is you used to be a
mechanical trader uh around technicals
and I guess that was your lawyer
background that if this then that. And
as you've evolved in your career, you've
moved away from technicals. So what is
your stance on on utilizing technicals
as a whole?
>> Well, I think there's a place for
technical analysis, but it's a it's a
well- definfined place. And to me,
technical analysis is best for
identifying the trend and a change in
trend. Uh, and there are certain
patterns that repeat that are really
consistent that can be used for shorter
term trading. But to think that
technical analysis will always predict
what's going to happen, I think is is
false, I think charts show where the
market has been, not necessarily where
the market's going to go. They're like
chicken scratches. What price did, but
what's price going to do tomorrow,
that's what I need to know. Do you use
price action in in a way of what is
happening at the moment as an execution
entry point or do you use the historical
price points to tell you a story of how
we arrived here?
>> Well, that that's a great
differentiator. A lot of people don't
see that. Um
I think markets are driven by
conditions, not charts.
>> So these conditions exist, an over
supply, under supply or a panic or
whatever the condition is, that's what
causes markets to move. The action on
the chart technical stuff is just the
emotions of the day. So to read a chart,
you need to look at the chart and say
what were the emotions today.
>> Oh, it was really bullish. Well, if it
doesn't continue that bullish tomorrow,
that's that's hey, you got the
information you need to know.
>> So I look at charts as the emotional
picture of traders
>> and looking for trend changes, of
course. So when you say emotions, are
you utilizing price to then understand
where is max pain, max greed, max fear?
Is is it related to these things? AB:
>> Absolutely. If a market closes on its
high, it's probably not going to
continue going up tomorrow. I like to
see markets, if you look at any major
market low,
>> Mhm.
>> stock or commodity, most always they
close on the low.
And at major market highs, they close on
the high.
>> But everybody's bullied. It's like, oh,
great day. I'm long. Everybody's happy.
H then it collapsed the next day that
why? Well, there were too many buyers.
>> So, it's really interesting. There's a
cycle, not a time cycle. But where that
close is in the relationship to the
range every day. The lower down you
close, the more bullish the next day
will be.
>> The higher up you close, because you're
extended, the more bearish or the
opportunity for a decline tomorrow will
be. So where the close is within the
range, if you measure that over time
periods, you'll see there's actually a
cycle. They go, "Oh, we have a lot of
low closes. Now we're going to have high
close." The mic market goes from low
closes to high closes. That's a an an
internal cycle of the market.
>> Do you believe in the traditional
schools of thought within technical
whether it's Woff theory, Elliot wave
theory, the pattern traders, there's
many there's an abundance of strategies
and they're always evolving and and new
ones coming about and you've probably in
your time seen them all. any of them
that stood out to you as worthwhile?
>> Well, you're right. There's when I was
lucky, when I started, there were only
like three theories in the market. Now,
everybody's got a computer. Everybody's
got a theory, right? So, I don't know.
Um,
the best way to prove a theory is with
trading results.
>> So, show me trading results of GAN,
>> Elliot Wave, u whatever the theory is,
show me some results. Somebody's
actually doing it. I can't find it. Mhm.
>> So the the other part is I have friends
that are lightweight people and they
swear by it. They love it. Whatever. I
don't get it. Now that doesn't mean it
doesn't work. It means it doesn't work
for me. I couldn't play basketball. I
played football in college. I could
never play basketball. I didn't have the
skills to do that. So some people's
minds
process information differently.
>> But I look at Elliot wave and I go all
this stuff. my mind. I I'm I'm not that
smart. I I I was so lucky that I didn't
take business classes. I I was always
like not the smartest guy in the room,
which means I never overthink things. I
can't overthink things. All my
intelligent friends that try to trade,
they overthink everything and they make
it wrong. So, it's it's really good not
to be too smart because you don't
overthink anything. It's like it's right
in front of you. That's what it is.
>> They're always overthinking everything.
There's kind of two sides of the
spectrum here where one side would be
every strategy works. You just have to
make it work. And then the other side
that I see is every strategy works
sometimes. And that's the key where
let's say you have a broken clock at
6:00 is correct. 6:00 a.m. 6 p.m. the
rest of the day it's not correct. And
and and people say that a lot of these
strategies work sometime to get people
involved in the market and and ever
losing. Do do you believe it's one side
or the other? No, I think you just have
to respond to what's going on. The
markets are imperfect and people try to
think it is perfect. That's the problem.
Uh I've had a lot of people with deep
mathematical backgrounds come to the
market and totally blow up. They're
trying to use math which is perfect on
an imperfect thing. And you can't make
what's imperfect perfect. Another really
good analogy. I played football in
college as I mentioned. Well, every play
in American football is designed to
score. If this guy blocks this guy, this
guy blocks that guy, the guy with the
ball will score, but they don't score in
every play, right? That's reality.
Somebody else changes the perfect play.
And that's kind of like the market.
Every trade I I put on should be a big
winner. It isn't.
>> So I, you know, I bet it like Mike Tyson
said it best.
>> He said, "Everybody has a game plan till
they get punched in the face." And it's
like the market's going to punch you in
the face a lot more than Mike Tyson
will. Going off this uh sports analogy,
you you know at the start of the game
you have a play in mind and maybe it's
going well and it's going well and then
something happens that you couldn't
forecast. And I see this with the
markets where today I make a decision
based on all the information I have
technical and fundamental. And then as
weeks go on, things change and now what
was once correct is no longer correct.
kind of linking here to time horizons
where the longer you hold a trade, the
more things that can happen in between
and therefore the degree of certainty
could go down compared to someone who's
holding a trade for an hour or two. What
is your beliefs? Because I know you are
a swing trader or a long-term hold. With
this degree of uncertainty, why not
choose to be on the on the intraday time
frames?
>> The problem with inday time trading is
purely mathematical.
You stop think about all profits in the
market are the basis of trend. If we
don't have a trend, you're not going to
make any money. Doesn't matter if it's
real estate or stocks, what it doesn't
matter. You have to have trend. So
what's the function of trend? Time.
So a day trader can be in a trade for
four hours. He can't catch any big trend
move. I can be in a trade for 10 days,
12 days, a month, six months. I can
catch a huge trend move. So I have time
is on my side as an ally. I can capture
trend moves.
>> The only way to when I did a lot of
short-term trade, if I want to make a
lot of money in a day, I had to risk a
lot.
If I want to make $10,000 in a trade
today, I've got to have on, I don't
know, five, six, seven contracts. So, if
you risk a lot, you can lose a lot.
Whereas, um, my trading, if I have a
small position and catch a big move, I
can have a lot of little losses and
still catch that one big move. I'm way
ahead of the game. So, it's it's really
there's an interesting report I just saw
over the weekend of all the successful
strategies that are around the in
real-time performance. The ones that
made the most money had the lowest
percent of accuracy.
>> The ones that made that had the least
gains had the highest percentage of
accuracy. They got every what everybody
wants like I won. I won. But you didn't
win very much. where you lost you lost a
lot. So really a tremendous insight
there into the markets.
>> Let's take a moment to talk about a
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toot. Would you therefore say your win
rate or accuracy rate is not as
important as your risk-to-reward per
trade?
>> Well, clearly I I'm sure you have a
system that wins 95% of the time and
loses money.
>> Mhm.
>> Because you had 95 winning trades, looks
great, and then you have five trades
that blow up and lose everything that
you had. So, yeah, winning is important
because we all like to be stroked and
feel like I'm doing something good here.
>> It's hard to be right 30% of the time,
>> which a lot of the trend followers are.
I want to be more correct than that for
myself, but we all we're hardwired to be
right.
>> Mhm.
>> Dead right, unfortunately. Usually,
>> I think that gets into ego and and other
things which I want to touch on later. I
I want to bring this to the coot report
and and probably you were one of the
first people utilizing the coot.
>> I was the first
>> actually
>> the very first
>> before it was a digital thing that we
could all access. It was probably
shipped to your house and so forth and a
completely different process.
Nonetheless, I've spoken to a lot of
traders now that are utilizing the COT
report as their primary source of
information and the general consensus
that people use it with is understanding
what the big players are doing to
identify a trend and then become trend
followers and bringing in this belief of
self-fulfilling that if the big players
are all buying with serious money, the
market must go up. It seems your
approach is more contrarian to this. So,
first of all, this premise that most
people follow, would you would you agree
with it?
>> Well, let's go back to the very
beginning. Most people don't understand
the coot report. It's a report that's
issued uh every week through Tuesday. So
we know through Tuesday's action what
three players in the market did. The
small traders, little people if you
will, the institutional, the funds, fund
managers, and finally the commercial.
Well, what's a commercial? That's the
critical point. A commercial is defined
as a user or producer, a hedger. Mhm.
>> So the hedggers are not buying the
commodity, they're hedging it for their
business purposes. So you'll see a big
decline in the market and the commercial
steadily increase their long position.
But they're doing that because they're
going to take this product in demand,
take it and make buy a lot of sugar.
thing by sugar lower now than yesterday
and lower next week than today. Uh their
candy bar, which will still sell for $5
a candy bar, their cost of production is
a lot lower. So they will buy a lot of
weakness because they're actually taking
the sugar, cocoa, gold, whatever it is,
their cost of production is lower. So
they'll they'll accumulate. So you need
to think that they are accumulators.
They're not trying to time the market.
So
COT is not a timing mechanism.
>> It's a condition that says, "Oh, these
guys are heavily long or these guys are
heavily short. We're probably in the
area of a rally or decline. Doesn't mean
it's going to happen today. That's when
technical analysis comes in, but it's a
setup. And you need to really look at
these three parties. And in some
markets, as we mentioned, like in hogs
and cattle, the small traders are really
good. They're as good as the
commercials. In fact, they almost
parallel what the commercials are doing.
So,
>> you need to understand the markets as
well.
>> Is the appropriate use of the CO2 report
to use it as almost a leading indicator
to forecast what should happen?
>> Uh, I'd say a suggestive indicator that
when when and it's not the only
condition that I use, but if I have
three or four conditions, I like
valuation, I like commitment traders, I
like seasonality, I like cycles, I like
accumulation. If I had a bunch of things
then markets I got a lot better chance
of market rallying. So I would never
rely and say this one indicator is it.
There's no there's no one path to heaven
and and so it's one of the tools that I
use. It's a good tool but not a beall
end all tool.
>> So of course a lot of people use the CO2
report and I've spoken to a bunch of
them but I don't think anybody is
utilizing open positions in uh alongside
whereas it seems like that was a
cornerstone of what you did. Can you
explain the relationships of the two and
how you benefited by using both?
>> Well, there's a we talked about the
three me elements of the market.
Short-term traders, fund managers, and
commercial. There's another aspect which
is total open interest. That's all the
contracts that are open today. So, if
there's a lot of contracts open,
somebody's been doing a lot of buying or
selling. What what's been going on? So,
and if you just look at any chart, you
don't take my word for this stuff. Look,
let the charts teach you. Whenever open
interest is really high, we're most
always at a significant high point in
the market because there's a lot of
interest. Everybody's in the market.
>> And when everybody's in the market,
there's nobody left to buy, right? So
the markets come down.
>> So I want to look and see who drove open
interest up.
>> If the open the big increase in open
interest is caused by the commercials,
well that's bullish. But if the big
increase in open interest is called by
the small speculators who are usually
wrong, well that's very bearish. So open
interest is really helpful. I kind of
pull it apart and say who's driving this
market now? Who's causing the action? I
love to see open interest going way up
public way up there buying and
commercials are getting out of the
market. That's what's happening in gold
right now. Gold's going to come in start
to come down.
>> There's a condition here. The
commercials ultimately are going to be
the winners. It might take time though
why you need to use technical analysis.
So here here it seems that you're
utilizing a few confluences together to
then be not the trend is your friend and
go with the the big moves. It's rather
wait for the big move to happen and then
look for a catalyst to then get the mean
reversion.
>> Yeah. The way I sum that up the best
people whenever I lectures what's the
favorite market? What market you like to
trade? What's the best market to trade?
Like man if I if I got a dollar for
every time I heard that I would have to
trade. Here's the best market to trade.
the one that's set up the most right now
today. It's It might be gold now. It
might be silver next week. It might be
potato chips. Who knows? But I don't
have a love affair with any market. I'm
looking for a market that's that has
cycles, seasonals, commitment of trade
report, accumulation going on, a little
bit of trend change in it. That's the
market I want to trade. There's no no be
all one market. There no beall one
indicator. So I'm I'm shopping every
weekend. Uh my most my trading time is
my research time is on Saturday morning.
I go through all the markets. I make a
list every Saturday. These markets are
set up to rally. These markets set up to
decline. Then on a weekly chart, then I
go to the daily chart and say, okay, uh
where are we trendwise? Can I get a
trend change here? Significant trend
change. Where would that be? Then I can
place a trade.
So building these things together, I
just want to bounce off you what you
repeat what you've said. We're looking
for outsiz opportunities, riskreward
potential. So you will then use the coot
and open positions to find a crowded
market where everybody is on one side
and you just need a catalyst to then go
the other way. And then you're bringing
in accumulation, which is your you're
sensing this behavior shifting. How do
you read or define an accumulation?
>> Well, I would bring in accumulation.
commercials buy and sell stocks or
commodities different than the public
does.
>> Okay.
>> So years ago, maybe 35 years ago, after
I said I was the first guy to use a
trader report, I started to realize the
buying pattern of these people. So by
analyzing their 18 relationship between
today's open, high, low, close, and
tomorrow's open, high, low, close. I can
analyze those relationships and pick out
what the commercials were most likely
doing. So I have a synthetic index that
will measure when they're accumulating
in the market. But that's just one tool
again.
>> Uh but I still would want to bring in
valuation. My valuation model is like
it's it's not a timing tool. But boy
markets get overvalued and undervalued
and that's when you really want to step
in if the commercials are there and
accumulations there. I mean it's kind of
boring. You have to wait for all this
stuff.
>> Everyone's buy sell you know. You know I
want to sit back. I've had I don't know
how many millions of trades in my life.
I don't need more trades. I want a good
trade. I want a big trade. And that's
patience.
>> So here we're not actually referring to
accumulation through a technical
perspective. Let's say a woff
perspective of a zone of consolidation
before a market expansion. Are you
referring it to more these?
>> Well, you could use that if you had a
market that was conditionally set up.
Let's say fundamentally set up.
Then you can bring in woff or waves or
you astrology or you know just throw a
dart on a dart board whatever then you
could do any of that stuff but again
this is my core belief could be wrong
but my core belief is markers move for
reasons
>> they go from here to here because of a
reason so I've got to have the reasoner
then you can bring in Ouija boards if
you want to
>> to do your timing in the marketplace but
it to me it's the markets are so
conditional that I want to start was a
condition that I probably should rally.
>> They then bring in all the mumbo jumbo
of technical analysis.
>> Why do you think that at least in my
generation of traders, everybody looks
towards technicals pretty much only and
all the resources and spend all their
time on technicals whereas for you it
seems like a a bit of an afterthought.
It's just for execution and anyone will
do it. It's more about the positioning
in the market and and the setup first
and then execution later.
Oh, I remember when I was young once and
had those same thoughts. It was all
technical analysis and that it was just
like, well, think it through. Just think
about it. Markets move because of
charts. No, charts don't move markets.
There's got to be a reason why these
things move. So, and the other reason
why when I was young, I was really into
charts and young people are now. Young
people 100 years from now will be as
well. It's easy. I was like, "Oh, I can
read a chart. Well, I you know, I can't
read Hebrew. I can read English a little
bit, but it's a whole new language.
There is a way to read charts. My friend
Todd Demarc has done a great job of
breaking that down into structure. And
and charts are readable, but they don't
tell you the magnitude of the move
that's going to come. They just say
we're at a high or a low.
>> So, the magnitude again, I think comes
from conditions. Some of those
fundamental conditions, some are
technical conditions, but the market's
got to be conditional
um for me to really want to get involved
in a big way.
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get back to the episode. So naturally
when you are looking for these outsiz
returns and you're going against the
majority consensus
it all makes sense in theory but the
first alarm bell that rings in my mind
is how do you stop getting bulldozed or
catching a falling knife because of that
famous saying of the markets can remain
uh irrational longer than you can remain
solvent. Do you not fear that you're
picking tops and bottoms here?
>> Oh I don't try to pick tops and bottoms.
I'll leave that for the younger people
to do. I just want to try to get a chunk
out of the markets. You know, maybe I'll
be close to a low. Um I don't know how
many trades I've had in my life. 10
million. I think I got the low markets
twice. Just throwing darts. I should
have done better than that. So, it's an
impossibility. I'm not going to try to
catch the low. And people who say they
do, they maybe got one, they'll brag
about it, but there's no consistency in
that.
>> There's no truth in that. So, um I just
want to try to get a move in the
marketplace and uh precise timing. I I I
don't know how to do it. I'm just not
smart enough to do that.
>> It seems your beliefs on risk are pretty
different. Um, I want to sp first speak
about the World Cup performance and how
you risk there and then in general in in
your career how you risk. But what is
your relationship like to risk and and
is it something that would be one of the
more important factors considering win
rates is probably not that important.
>> Well, without risk there's no reward. So
the greater the reward, the greater the
risk. And the problem with that is if
you're going to have that high exposure
risk, you got to be really accurate.
And if you're not really accurate,
you're going to blow up in a hurry. So
if you're going to maximize your risk,
and there is a Ralph Vince has written
about the optimal F, there's an optimal
risk that you should have, but you're so
close to disaster that probably isn't
good for most people. And
there's also the emotional aspect of it
is that yeah, I can lose 30% of my
account in one trade. Most people can't
do that. They can't emotionally handle
listen losing a third of their wealth in
one trade. I Yeah, I'm not smart enough
to worry about it. I guess uh being
Norwegian helps a lot. Sometimes they're
a little slow, but um
you have to find your risk point where
you can risk that and still not go
crazy. As I mentioned, I've had six
friends commit suicide in this business.
Mhm.
>> One of them, the last one, didn't risk
all that much money, but to him it was.
And he had a success of losing trades,
he thought he just couldn't handle the
losses. And the last one was in a
soybean trade. He hadn't lost all that
much money, but he found a shotgun. So,
while there's an optimal amount of money
you should risk on a trade, it's
irrelevant.
>> What can you what risk can you handle?
At which point can you go to sleep, wake
up once or twice during the night,
that's fine. But if you can't sleep at
night, then you're risking too much.
>> Would you say this is a factor of um
nature or nurture, the tolerance to
risk?
>> Well, I don't know. But I Some people
can handle more risk. Some people are
more emotional than other people. So
that's where you have to kind of plum
the depth of your soul and find out at
what point can I really handle this
stuff.
>> Were you someone that was always headon
towards risk and could stomach it or is
this a muscle you've trained?
>> Well, I don't know if it's like you can
stomach it. It's like some of us
have so much belief in that things will
work out.
>> Optimism,
>> optimism, God will prevail, whatevers.
I've been a lot of problems in my life,
but I never worried about it. I'll get
out of this.
>> So, uh, so, but some people, they worry
about everything. Oh, I it's going to
rain today. Well, no, it's a beautiful
day. Well, it could rain today. I can't
go out today. They worry about
everything. Well, they're not going to
be very good traders. They're too
emotional. So, there's some balance
point in there where you go, I never I
always thought my life would work out.
Um, I grew up in Montana and I learned
to live off the land. I mean, I could
walk out in Montana and live the rest of
my life in a cave someplace. I know how
to survive living off the land. So,
ultimately, I don't have any fear of
life. There's no fear of, oh, I die,
whatever. Okay. But I can survive. A
country boy can survive. And so, so why
not risk something? Let's see what
happens here.
>> There's beauty in the irony that the
more willing you are to go back to zero,
the the more likely it works out because
then you can actually stomach the risk
and and see and hold trades for long
enough to see them to their potential.
>> Yeah. I think as I've gotten older now
that I'm 83, I don't risk as much as I
used to. I don't have to risk as much as
I used to, and I don't have the energy.
I saw Frank Sinatra's last concert. He
wasn't that good. I saw Muhammad Ali's
last fight. It wasn't that good. I saw
Tom Brady's last football game. I saw
Bob Dylan at a horrible concert now. So,
I know at some point just because of my
age, I have to say, you know, wait a
minute, think of Frank Sinatra. He was
way off key. People loved him. He was
great, but you know, he didn't sing real
well.
>> Are you alluding here to ending your
training career whilst you're on on top?
>> Well, I don't know if I ever been on
top. I know I have friends that have
been really on top, but uh yeah, you
want to walk off the stage ahead and
still do some things publicly. If you
can control the event at my age, that
probably will work. But to just keep
trying to just pedal to the metal all
the time, I don't have the fire. I don't
have the burn anymore. I You got a real
burn to do this stuff.
>> The reason I say this is because I
watched an inter interview of yours
about a year ago with Jason Shapiro and
you were mentioning that maybe this is
the year that you will uh retire. trying
to retire for a long time. I first tried
when I was 30. I made a million dollars
trade. Oh, great. Tried to retire after
about four weeks. I had a nice cabin in
Montana. I went out fishing every day.
Finally got the fish go. Oh, you caught
me yesterday. Put me back. It was like,
okay, catch a fish, put it back. I was
like, I got bored. I got what else am I
going to do?
>> And kind of now, I pulled way back. I
was like, well, I, you know, I don't
garden. I don't build things. All I know
is how to trade. So I I still need some
involvement in it. But the the
pressures,
you know, from 1962 forward, every day
of my life has been about the markets up
down and their pressures to that.
>> Is this a now intellectual thing or a
challenge or is it still the monetary
side?
>> Well, money always matters. You never
have enough money. I was flying back
from uh London one time with uh a lady
who was a housekeeper for the Roshchilds
and we were talking. We're first class
of course and she said Ross Child said,
"Oh, wow." Cuz I know they are all
political conspiracies and everything.
She said, "Oh, they hate politicians."
They said, and I said, "What's it like?
Great food?" Oh, look, the the
refrigerator hardly ever has anything in
it. People don't realize how they live.
I like Oh, that was a wakeup call. I'm
going to have a friend who's very
incredibly wealthy, multi
multi-billionaire. He's still trying to
make money at some point. I said, you
know what? I'm happy where I am,
>> and I don't want to build anymore.
>> That's for people that have more energy.
I I my desires right now, figure out
more about how the markets really work
in terms of cycles and maybe some trend
stuff I'm working on. So I still do a
lot of research which and still trading
>> but hopefully
somebody's going to crack this nut of
the market. You know we all try to maybe
I won't but it's heck of a challenge.
>> What do you mean by cycles? Are we
talking just accumulation expansion or
seasonality?
>> Well there's a lot of cycles in the
market. There's the cycle we mentioned
closing on lows closing on highs. That's
your natural cycle. Another natural
cycle a lot of people don't see is that
we go from large ranges to small ranges
and then we have large range, we have
small ranges. So I like to see a lot of
small ranges because then we'll have
large ranges. Large ranges where the
money's made.
>> Mhm.
>> So that's a cycle how prices trade. Then
there's a time cycle high here, low
here, high 18 days, 33 days, whatever.
So time cycles as well. And I think for
on a very long-term basis, there is some
predetermined time cycles in the market
that will have been here we know 100
years now. The the three and a half year
cycle that uh Ed Lawrence Smith wrote
about almost 100 years ago still
operates in the marketplace. So trying
to crack that code is that's a real
challenge.
>> So I have the time to do it now. that
side of things gets a little bit freaky
and also like we're entering a weird
arena numerology and astrology in the
markets. My initial reaction when I
first came across these things was like
hell no that that can't be real. And
then as I speak to more uh elder traders
specifically they are more into this
belief. I remember sharing the story
with you previously on um a guy that I
know in Dubai who's one of the
wealthiest guys there. He has one of the
most expensive houses in a private
island in Dubai. And he made his money
in textiles and then has been trading
for like 8 9 years. And his strategy is
he he has his eight gurus um from his
religion and if they all give an
alignment based on astrology, he will
then take a trade. And I had a million
and one questions for him. And
eventually he was like, "Son, I don't
know why it works, but I've got a 8-year
track record and I beat the market every
year and this is what I do. astrology,
numerology and and kind of predetermined
as you said. Can you can you hazard a
guess of what do you think is going on
here?
>> Well, I have a similar experience when I
first went to India. Somebody said, I
got introduced to the largest private
trader in India. He said, how's he
doing? He said, well, I don't know, but
he changed his ring cuz the rings had
diamond
not jewels on them. And if your luck is
good, I guess you move your ring around.
If it's not good, you So, he had moved
his ring. The jewels were in a different
position. And uh uh you have to find the
shoe that fits you. Some people can use
astrology, some people can use Elliot
wave, some people can use point and
figure, some you know I don't know some
people use maybe the committee trader
report but you have to find what fits
you and that's interesting point because
if you're looking for a good teacher
don't go to necessarily the best guy or
girl. Go to the person who you
understand you oh immediately get his
concept. That's your guru, if you will.
If you say, "Oh, well, I don't
understand this stuff." Well, don't let
him teach you. You're not going to learn
from him because you don't immediately
grasp his message.
>> So, you need to find somebody whose work
is, "Oh, yeah. I see the sense of this.
I see the logic in the way this person
thinks."
>> So, that's significant. But I I do think
that there's
there are emotional cycles of humanity
whether they're caused by the moon or
Saturn or there's a paper by the
University of Michigan and one by the
Federal Reserve system that shows
there's clearly a lunar influence stock
prices.
>> Now it's not large enough to be make any
money trading it but the and throughout
the world all major stock markets in the
world have a lunar influence but it's
very nominal. Now, maybe somebody's a
really great astrologer can take that to
another level or a a lunar person or
whatever that I don't know. But, um, you
know, the way I look at this is like
when I used to fight, when I used to
box, you go in the ring and you're going
to throw any punch you can. You're going
to use any advantage you have. And
that's in the markets. I mean, you know,
I'm in trades right now and and I
probably did some things that are
rational, but they're based on things in
my mind that I may not even recognize.
But this is a fight in there. You're
going to protect yourself at all times.
Like what you know what's going on here.
So whatever works for you works.
A lot of these strategies they seem
they're built on correlations. For
example, let's say a basic Fibonacci
where you have if you were to measure a
thousand impulses and pullbacks and you
you measure the depth of every pullback,
some of them would be a 99% pullback.
Some of them would be a very shallow 1%
pullback, but the majority would be
around the midline and you'll get a
normal distribution. And therefore, it's
not that the market is reversing because
of the Fibonacci. Rather, the Fibonacci
showcases a probabilistic zone. And you
could do that with patterns. You could
do that with a wave count. You could do
that with pretty much every technical
strategy. Is therefore looking for
correlations an appropriate approach or
should we be looking for some truth and
some causation in the market? Well,
first of all, I did the studies where we
measured all the pullbacks in the Dow
Jones Industrial Average for like
seven-year time period to see which
percentage hit was hit the most, 50%,
38%, 62%. And the highest number was
none of the Fibonacci numbers.
>> So, I think you're yeah, you have a
bell-shaped curve. You're going to have
enough there's going to be distribution
of the data. So, there's no magic
number. 50% retracement sometimes works,
sometimes it doesn't work. It's just
luck of the draw really. It is a very
random process of what markets do. And
if if you got to keep that in mind
there's a lot of randomness because news
comes in.
>> So and the other point is it correlation
or causation?
>> Yes.
>> And that's my point. I think conditions
cause markets to move. I think there is
causation. If there is a premium in
wheat, there's only one reason that
premium exists. That market is bullish.
So that's causation not correlation.
>> I want to move towards now the
experience you had with the world cup.
How how many times have you have you
participated? First of all
>> in the world cup one time.
>> Oh you have participated one time and
you achieved a world record with
11,000%. Talk me through you know
looking back what was the key takeaways
of what contributed to such a large
performance that no one has come close
towards?
>> Well my daughter came pretty close. She
took 10,000 to 110,000. She's the second
largest gain. Some of my students have
done consistently three, four, 500% a
year.
>> So, the fact that I had a great year in
the market, you know, I was an ugly year
for people around me. I think I was so
focused in the market that I probably
wasn't a very nice person to be around.
I was just like in the market.
Um, and I had high risk on every trade,
close to 30% on every trade I took.
>> So, you know, it was it was a good year
and it was a bad year. People didn't
believe. They thought that there was a
bogus account that I put the winning
trades in one account, losing trades in
another account. The government came in
and audited everything at the brokerage
firm, my records to because everybody
said, "Oh, he's cheating." No, I wasn't
cheating. And the proof is at one point
the account went to $2.2 million.
And then in the crash of 1987, it came
down to $750,000
and I traded back up to $1.1 million. So
if you just look at the records and all
the trades are someplace in the internet
they have all the trades you see I had
big winners I had big losers I you know
this is this is trading this is this is
hand to hand fighting
>> so it's it's funny to know that everyone
remembers or knows about the 11,000%
which is the 1.5 that you ended on but
your peak was about 20,000% when you
were at 2.5 million.
>> Yeah. My wife said I should have quit
there. She said that's year I lost a
million dollars cuz I went from 2.2 to
1.1. So what happened to that period?
>> It's all perspective. Well, we had the
crash of 87 and we were u short bonds or
long I can't remember which we're at a
big position in the bond market. I was
in Africa on a safari and the markets
gapped way up and we had to get out of
the bonds
>> and it was it was a huge loss and I was
a big loss but we have losses in this
business.
>> Did the monetary side hurt you or were
you more in competition mode
>> to to lose a million dollar?
>> Money.
>> Okay.
The money is like, "No, we got to get
back and trade." I mean, you can't
you can't let the market hurt you
because then you become emotional. I
have trades. I have losses, but my
losses don't have me. I see people carry
around losses on their back like a girl,
oh, I lost all this money. Yeah, forget
it. Move on. It's easier to make new
money than try to reclaim old money. I
see people suing one another over
whatever. It's a waste of money.
>> You go make more money. You made the
money. That's an optimistic um uh
positive thing to do. Trying to recover
money. It's it's a lot easier to go make
money.
>> There's that famous Ray Dalio saying
actually he's a buddy of yours which I
came to learn, but this idea that if you
lose 50% of your account, you have to
gain 100% just to get back to where you
were. when you're doing a 30% risk per
trade, two or three losses, and and
you're in such a deep hole that the
recovery might be extremely challenging.
What I want to focus on here is the idea
that let's say I have a 50% win rate. I
would love if it was win, loss, win,
loss, win, loss in a nice way that I can
absorb. The reality is there's going to
be a random distribution where I take 10
trades, five will be losses, five in a
row, and then five wins in a row. Still
50%. The distribution made it very
difficult emotionally. When you're doing
30% risk though, the chance of having
two or three losses in a row is probably
very high and therefore the risk of
blowing up the account is very high. How
did you protect yourself across a year
and many trades to not encounter a
complete blow up period?
>> Don't be wrong.
>> Elaborate, please.
If you're trading at that
that speed, if you will, that much
pressure, you can't be wrong. You got to
be really certain you have to have a
great advantage in the market which I
had at that time. The advantage doesn't
exist anymore was pit session markets
and we push it to the max. I don't know
if I risked 30% on every trade but was a
I mean you look at the contract size I
had on it was large risk and you can't
let the numbers bother you. Uh it and it
was a competition that the interesting
another side of that during that same
time I was managing money and we took an
account for a lady named Susan B.
Kringle. I'll never forget her name. She
had $60,000 in her account. She closed
it out with about half a million dollar
vaguely maybe a little bit more than
that. And then she sued me for $53
million saying that her account should
have duplicated my trading championship
account. Though her account was traded
at a different brokerage firm, da da da
da. But that was where I said, you know
what, I'm I'm not a fund manager and I
don't want this exposure. I don't know
about you, but you lose a couple $53
million lawsuits. That can hurt.
Eventually, the judge threw it out.
Said, "You can't sue for speculative
damage you made. How do I get in touch
with Williams? She made a lot of money
here."
>> But I was like, you know,
I, you know, I I fortunately have known
some of the great traders, money
managers, and they put together great
trading rooms and vehicles and raise
money. All I ever wanted to do is beat
the market. I didn't want to not a
business person. I don't know how to run
a business.
>> Um those guys do. Paul Tudtor Jones,
great trader, but a great businessman.
Thanks to Peter Borch, he captured money
management. And I think Peter's the
major reason he's been so successful.
The Campbell brothers who started out
with the same mentor I did, Bill Mian,
they they're business people. I just,
you know, I started in school as an art
major. I'm an artist. I just like to
maximize this stuff. Running a business
is never and that's it never really
that's not my strength. My strength is
looking at the markets.
>> You mentioned earlier that every trader
they're kind of taught trading 101 risk
1% per trade. You mentioned off camera
that the optimal place a trader should
be doing is 4% risk per trade. Why is
that?
>> Well, because of what you touched on
earlier. If uh let's say I have a
$100,000 account, I lose three trades in
a row at 4%. I've lost 12% of my money.
Most people can handle losing 12% of
their money and still be ready for that
fourth trade and you still get a maximum
return. At a 1% or 2%, well, you're
going to have a lot of losing trades,
but it's a long way coming back up.
>> So, if you get much over that, five 6%
you got three four losing trades, you're
blown out. Most people don't want that.
So, the optimal wealth producing number
is about 20%.
Oh,
>> but you know at that bell-shaped curve,
you're over here and your your risk of
rune is right in front of you. If you're
on this side of the bell-shaped curve,
you your risk of rune is way over here.
So somewhere, I think 4% is the optimum
for
>> maximal losses in a row that you can
live emotionally through. I've spoken to
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Tomorrow. A lot of traders that I've
spoken to will do dynamic sizing where
you have a high conviction play, they'll
size up and during a draw down period,
they'll size down. This side makes sense
to me that you have a high conviction
play, you want to get more out of it.
It's not something I do myself, but I
can see the wisdom in it. But the idea
of uh sizing down on a losing period for
me just screams and the reason I don't
do it is let's say I'm 10% down and now
I'm doing half a percent risk per trade.
Now I got to get so many more wins just
to get back to where I was. And
prolonged draw down is probably just as
much of a psychological burden. What is
your uh philosophy in draw down or just
modulating risk?
>> Well, so what does that tell me about
you? What you just said?
>> Probably that I can stomach risk.
>> You have confidence that you'll come
back.
>> Mhm.
>> So I know mathematically you're supposed
to cut back just like you increase as
you go up. But if you cut back at that
same rate, your point is well taken.
It's going to take a long time to get
back. So, I don't cut back like you
because I believe in the future. I
believe in Larry Williams. I I've been
through a lot of of you can't believe
the number of draw downs I've been
through in my life. Some huge ones, but
I come back. So, I go, well, I'll cut
back, but not mathematically correct
because I have confidence in me as a
trader. I'll come back.
>> So, I don't cut back as rapidly as ma a
mathematician would.
Confidence can also be heavily tied to
or trip over into ego. Is ego a serving
force in the market?
>> Is ego what?
>> A serving force is something that can
assist you if if harnessed or is it
something that is going to bring
overzealous and and blow up behavior?
>> Well, you have to have an ego to do what
we do. Um,
you have to think you can do this stuff,
but you
don't think that you're the best,
smartest, brightest guy around. Um, you
have to have something to drive you,
whatever that is, to do this. Um, but
you have to be
humble. You have to
be cautious.
Um the egotists that I know in the
marketplace always get in trouble.
They're always going to
>> either regulatory trouble or financial
trouble. Uh they promise more than they
can deliver and they lose clients
because they think they're the greatest
that there is. The the great traders, as
I mentioned earlier, my son is a
psychiatrist, trains at Johns Hopkins.
He did an interview with successful
traders. All the research before had
been done with losing traders. Jason, I
introduced him to the major guys that
are billionaires and he did personality
profiles of them. And what he found is
they one of the most interesting thing
they all had a uh a lack of
self-confidence. They had confidence but
they they were never overconfident.
They were they were humble and the
traders are buy New York, sell Chicago,
the guys blow up.
So balancing you need drive that's ego
but you also need to have some fear of
yourself.
>> Would you therefore say that a lot of
people do whatever they do in life from
a place of motivation. I have a goal I
want to achieve it. Would you say that
the highest achievers rather instead of
motivation it's running away from
something? A sense of anxiety or sense
of want to make my parents proud. An
anxiety force. Well, I think that we
need to have
what causes greatness in people is
they're upset about something and they
have to prove to the world that they're
the fastest, the smartest, the richest
or whatever. It's interesting because
maybe you should raise your kids the
wrong way. So, they all have a lot of
angst. So, they'll go out and do stuff
that, oh, Johnny, come home. You're such
a wonderful kid. Oh, that macra piece
you did is marvelous. Did it amaz shut
up, Johnny. go to your room that makes
kids want to do stuff. So, you know, and
some people are just born with angst.
They're just there.
>> Mhm.
>> But you have to be driven to do
anything, any greatness, whether it's
politics or business or medicine or
research. You've got to have some
internal drive, really want to do this.
>> And where that comes from,
sometimes from your environment.
>> It could be a breakup. It could be uh
encountering a big loss
>> or just the way you're born.
>> Mhm.
>> You know, so but you need to have that
and they need of course to have some
control over it.
>> So So you mentioned five uh points that
your son studied in successful traders.
One of them being this sense of willing
to do more and greatness is doing what
others will not. So I can see that one.
I I also read a similar study where
there was three reasons uh or common
traits amongst top CEOs and top
performers. So I'm going to mention them
and see if they correlate to the other
four that your son found. One of them
was a crippling sense of insufficiency
that they're not good enough that
they'll never be good enough and that
drives them to keep going. Another one
was a superiority complex that they
deserve more that they are better and
and I guess that pushes them to achieve
and then an extremely high stress
tolerance that and I get keeps them
pushing. Are any of these three also
common in the study you found? I think
the third one is the most important as a
trader. You have to be able to handle
emotional swings of greatness. Uh
because you're going to have days where
you make a lot of money in a day. For
whatever a lot is different for
everybody. For some people $1,000 is a
huge amount. For some people it's
nothing. But whatever that is a massive
amount of money for you. That's your
emotional quotient. And you need to be
able to not get too happy when you make
that or too sad when you lose that. So
your emotions can't fluctuate wildly,
which is that third point I think that
the the study was referencing. And
that's just so critical that you you
have to Yeah. losing trades, get a lot
of money. I lost a lot of money.
>> Do you remember anything else that stood
out from your son's study of the five
traits uh to focus on
>> all the traders were really good with
details,
>> which is my weakness. I am just
miserable. The worst detail guy in the
world. So you mentioned um the main
reason traders fail is because they
don't have patience and because you were
risking high amounts and going for high
riskreward positions. I guess the
hardest part also for you would be
amplified.
>> Well, let's let's back up. The main
reason traders fail is because they
don't have the correct knowledge.
>> Okay. Lack of edge.
>> Yeah. Lack lack of a of a winning
strategy. they they fall for something
on the internet they think as a winning
strategy because the guy shows himself
with a picture of a fancy car, fancy
girl or something. That doesn't mean the
strategy is going to work, guys. Means
nothing. So, you have to have something
that works. Then you have to bring that
in and you have to work it. Like you you
see these race car drivers, they all
have great cars. They're all, you know,
winning cars, but the driver has to be
able to drive it better than the other
driver. Mhm.
>> So, you have to have a strategy, a car
that really runs well, then you have to
try to maximize that car.
>> How have you developed the skill of
patience over time?
>> Well, I think my dad taught me patience.
Growing up in Montana, we we didn't have
a lot of stuff, so we hunted. We'd get
four or five deer every year, a couple
analopee, and we lived off the land. So,
if you want to to shoot a deer, you got
to be patient. You have to wait for him
to walk in front. Maybe we'll flush deer
down here and one guy is there. You got
to wait. A lot of waiting and just
waiting and waiting. And I noticed early
on I would rush into trades. And I think
that's probably the number one failure
of traders. They all think this is it.
This is a big trade. They got to get in.
So we get in too early. I still do that.
Am I getting the trend hasn't changed
yet? But on my trend, your mind creates
the future instead of like, well, wait a
minute. It has. Look at the chart. It's
there. But because we want to be
rewarded immediately, we try to create
the future.
>> I want to speak about this idea of
imposter syndrome. So on this US tour,
I've spoken to a lot of traders that
have 10, 20, 30, 40 years of experience.
I think you have the most uh market
experience. I'm going to ask to you
because they've all said that the
feeling of imposttor syndrome that this
will all this was all luck. This is all
going to change at some point. They said
it never goes away. Did it ever go away
for you?
the ability to trade.
>> No, this idea of like um an imposter
syndrome that everything that I've done,
even if it's a 10 years or 30 years or
50 years, that is going to come to an
end. I've been on a hot streak. This is
all luck.
>> No, it's not luck. If it was luck,
there's no way that my students would
have consistently won trading
championships.
>> Uh that that the fact I won a trading
championships immaterial in my mind, but
it doesn't prove somebody got lucky.
That's all it proves at the most maybe.
But the fact that usually the trading
championships are won by my students
means this stuff is teachable, it's
learnable, that people can do it. And I
know some people can do it better than
others. People that have trouble that
are lawyers and doctors because they
think they're so damn smart. They could
they can override the system and and
they want to argue and you can't argue
with the market. The market's going to
win that argument. Um, so some people
are more adaptable to this and there are
some doctors and lawyers that trade
well, but they have a they have a
different mindset.
>> Um, so the fact that there's consistency
of these winning people have a similar
background shows that it's not just
luck.
>> I mean, clearly was my 63rd year, 64th
year of doing this now, uh, that's a
long streak to call it luck.
>> Yes. And and I've had enough bad things
happen in my life. That's not luck. I've
had some really unlucky things, too. So,
it's it's like a like uh the guy with
McDonald's. Is that just lucky that
McDonald's has so many hamburger stands
or Starbucks has so many coffee shops?
No. They put together something.
Sometimes they do well, sometimes they
don't do as well. But there if if
there's a successful strategy, it
persists. Well, 60some years persisted.
I'm going to regret not asking you this
question, so I'm going to ask it anyway.
Um, there's a lot of you, you've created
a legacy, first of all, and with legacy
comes a lot of naysayers and a lot of
people that would use your name uh for
their own benefit. And whenever I scroll
an X, you everybody's mentioning your
name constantly. For years, I've been
seeing it always in reference to the
World Cup and how people want to
dethrone you. And there's a key figure
that is uh looking to dethrone you and
he has for many years. A gentleman named
ICT. Are you familiar with the name
first of all?
>> ITT.
>> ICT.
>> Well, there was a company here in ITT,
but I don't not that was a major
company.
>> Fair enough. He he's one of the largest
trading influencers in the world and he
uh always speaks about how he's going to
make 11,000% and and then never does.
And I think this year or last year he he
entered a 90% draw down. But there was a
viral tweet that went around where he
personally emailed you letting you know
kindly that he's going to dethrone you.
I guess that never made it to your
attention. Well, I get a lot of emails.
I'm going to beat your record. I hope I
hope you do. Congratulations. You know,
I'll shake your hand. I'll be the first
guy to welcome you because records are
made to be broken, you know. So, more
power. Everybody wants to beat Larry
Williams. You know what that what you
should do is try to make some money in
the market. Don't don't get fixed on
Larry, you know? That's an that's it's a
trading championship. Get fixed on doing
a good job yourself. But yeah, there's
when we live in Australia, there's a
great phrase there, the tall poppy
syndrome.
>> The tallest poppy in the field gets cut
off. So if you win trading
championships, you got a lot of
negative. Oh, he didn't do it. He's an
old man. He's washed up. He's 83 now. He
can't see. Can't hear very well. You
know, there's always negative stuff out
there. You can't let it bother you. It's
going to be there. Mhm.
>> The the thing that does bother me is a
number of people that say they're Larry
Williams and they're not. I've literally
had a lady call and say, "I want to
check. I've got Larry Williams wants me
to open up an account with him and and I
just wanted to check." And I said,
"Well, this is the real Larry Williams
and I don't know who you're talking to,
but it's not me. There's a lot of people
that use my name and um we try to stop
it as much as we can, but if you you
can't catch all the replies. Yeah,
>> buzzing around the hunting.
>> Looking back at your 60 plus year
career, obviously the the the milestone
that everyone sees and celebrates is the
11,000%. But I'm curious, looking back
yourself on your own career, was that
your most impressive feat or something
you're most proud of?
>> Uh not the most proud of. No. Uh I'm
most proud of my children. you know that
I'm most proud of the friends I have uh
from the markets my good friend Ralph
Vince Tom Demar Richard Joseph a
non-market friend I'm much more you know
if I look at well what have I what
little have I done with my life I' I've
been able to see the world I've been
able to get some great strong
friendships and and that happened
because I was decent at some at a skill
I have some skill level but the markets
are like a business and I did okay with
it. I could have done a lot better
frankly. But um
yeah,
I guess the of of the market stuff what
I'm pleased with, not proud of, but
pleased with is I wrote books, which
means I'll live forever.
>> Those books will be around a hundred
years from now. What did Larry really
do? You know, like Gan, what was he what
did he meant when he had a comma on that
page? You know, they're trying to
decipher messages. There's no hidden
messages in my work. Yes.
>> But but you know that's a nice thing
about writing a book. You'll you'll live
forever in that sense.
that I contributed something that I won
the Charles Dao award for uh the market
technician association paper of the year
the futures magazine honorary you know a
lot of things I've been given IFA
honorary achievement awards from most of
all the major uh technical firms have
have acknowledged my career
>> and so I'm I'm really pleased with that
that I have respect from uh people
within the industry
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futures trader. So this episode, as I
mentioned at the beginning, was
something that I was looking forward to
once I since I started the podcast. And
I really wanted to create this
environment of 60 years of experience
passing the torch down to someone that
has one year of experience and going
down the generations. And because you
mentioned that you've had students that
have had success, even your daughter had
great success. Uh you you clearly have
understood not only the art itself but
also teaching the art. If you were to
give some advice on where the first
place to begin or the biggest piece of
advice, what would that look like
>> for somebody starting out? Well, again,
find somebody who you your mind is in
sync with. Maybe you understand
astrology, maybe you understand elite
wave, maybe you understand fundamentals
and and Warren Buffett, whatever you
might say. Ah, yeah, I got that. You
have that aha experience, then that's
the person you should follow. Uh, and
then you better check your own emotions
and see what your emotional point is,
how risk, how you can handle losses and
and how you can handle rewards because I
remember times I've made a lot of money
and I didn't handle that very well. I I
was too much of a jerk about that. Um,
so
and some of that comes with age. When
you're a kid, you're a jerk. I was a
jerk. I was a great jerk. Even in my old
age, I was a jerk. Um, so you have to
deal with yourself.
>> I want to now touch upon longevity. And
I've spoken to a bunch of traders, but
it's very rare to find someone who's had
30 years of experience or 40 or even 50.
Why do you think people don't last that
long in this in this game?
>> Because they lose.
You know, the their strategy didn't work
or the the emotions are so difficult.
stress.
>> There's a lot of stress to this, but
everybody has stress. I have a friend
who's he's not married, doesn't have
children, has a dog. He's under stress
all the time. I go, you got no stress.
You have no positions on.
>> Mhm.
>> But he does. And so, you have to be able
to handle stress because stress is a
killer,
>> a a physical killer. And so that's the
nice thing about not being able to
overthink things is I the stress doesn't
bother me. I I get stressed out, but not
to to the point that it's like what I
got going to do. It's like
>> you got to be able to handle stress.
>> Would you say longevity in your trading
career was just linked to overall
longevity in terms of health and
wellness?
>> Well, I think that's been part of it.
I've been able to maintain a healthy
body. I've been really careful about
that. Uh starting when I was just
turning 30, I read Adele Davis. Oh, and
I was out of shape. I'd been in great
shape and in football and when I rode
rodeo, I was in pretty pretty good
athlete. Well, marginally good athlete
and then I realized I was way out of
shape. I got to do something. And so I
started to be pay more attention to my
health and uh and have because I've seen
a lot of people that get so out of shape
or physically or mentally they can't
pull it back and I didn't want that to
happen. So I still still try to as hard
as you get older. Oh my gosh, I ran
yesterday. It's tough. I have to say
that the as I've got to know you and the
things you tell me about yourself is is
just phenomen the amount of marathons
you've done even now running 5ks or 3
miles is stuff that I challenged myself
to do and barely can. So
>> I used to run marathon pace 8 minute
pace if you put a gun to my head I
couldn't run 8minute mile now I was like
16 minutes is pretty comfortable right
now twice what I used to run full 26.2
two miles at as part of getting old and
trying to handle this getting old
because my mind thinks I'm young. I
should be running like a eight minute
pace. I can't do it.
>> So, it's a lot of frustration. Every
time I come back from running, I talk to
Louis, God, I can't believe I can't run.
But
>> that's the natural discourse of life.
But
>> what about and you accept it?
>> What about the mental side where just
like the body will um not be as it was
when it was youthful, what about the
mind or how what have you done to keep
your mind sharp? because I've spoken to
guys in their late 50s who are traders
and and you can see their sharpness has
gone.
>> Who are you? Where are we?
>> Unfortunately, I had a guest very
similar to this that unfortunately won't
be uploaded, but he he was a big fund
manager managing a huge amount of
capital. I think he must have been in
his early 60s and you could see memory
loss or short-term memory loss was
already there which is very sad to see.
But it seems like you've kept yourself
very sharp uh mentally.
>> Well, I was never very sharp to begin
with. I just maintain that same level I
think. But I think staying healthy
obviously the more oxygen you get to
your brain the the longer your brain is
going to hold up. That's pretty basic
science. So so that helps and and not
carrying this baggage of the past on
your shoulders. So people get into that
leading healthy lifestyle. You know I I
I've tried to lead a pretty good
lifestyle and it catches up with you. M
>> um I mean I have my friends that I see
and like yeah I wish but I can't tell
them they're not going to do anything
about it.
>> I want to wrap up the episode uh asking
for some fatherly advice. Uh I always
like to ask people that have had a full
life of experience and the things you
shared with me off camera of of the
crazy stories in different countries I'm
not even going to get into. But the
point here being you've lived life from
multiple angles and you've probably
experienced it all. my age and the
things that I'm chasing are probably
very similar to the audience as well.
And I'm just about to turn 30. Uh and
and I'm just crossed the 10 year mark in
my training career. But I felt hungrier
than I ever have. And I'm in go mode.
I'm in chase mode. I want to do it all.
And probably at my age, you were
similar. And now looking back, what are
the things that you wish you didn't do
or wish you would have done more of?
>> I wish I would have been a nicer person
uh when I was younger. Uh, I wish I
would have spent more time with my
family when I was younger. I didn't do a
very good job of that. Um, I was too um
too proud of myself. So, I thought that
was better than I was. I could have done
better research then. I did a lot of
research back then. We didn't have
computers. It was hard to do re real
research, but I could have done a better
job. Um, I failed at a lot of things and
and um, you just have to work through it
and you're going to have failures and
um, the big thing my father always told
me, it meant so much to me. I didn't
understand it for quite a while. He
said, Larry, you only get out of life
what you put into it. And I finally, oh,
I now I know what he means. If you
really put a lot into trading, you'll
get a lot out of trading. If you really
put a lot into learning to do whatever
it is, you're going to become a good
architect lawyer doctor plumber
welder, whatever it, if you really put a
lot into it, you're going to get a lot
out of it. And and
that meant so much to me. And I've tried
to pass that on to my children as well.
That's how to have a good life. And the
other thing we talked about a great
lesson to me. It's a lot easier to ride
the horse in the direction he's going
than
>> trying to get the horse to go where he's
not. So you guys have really knocked it
out of the park with Titans of Traders.
This horse is going in a direction. So
ride the horse there. Don't suddenly
say, "Well, we want now we want to do a
cooking show. We're so successful with
Titans of Traders. We're going to do
Titans of Cooking." No. Stay with what
you're doing. And if if the horse is
he's a good ride, stay on the horse.
>> There you go, Larry. Truly an honor.
This this was um a peak moment for our
podcasting career. Something that I look
forward to since we first started. So, I
really want to thank you for your time
and the opportunity.
>> Well, my pleasure. I hope that it means
something to somebody out there.
Everybody, good luck and good trading.
>> There we go. Barry
>> Hanada, thank you very
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