Line Your Own Pockets

Dave Mabe and Michael Nauss
  • 4.9 (16)
  • Investing
  • Updated Weekly

A weekly show for systematic traders who want to make more money from their trading strategies.

  1. 5d ago

    Close To Quitting Trading? This One's For You

    In this week's episode of Line Your Own Pockets, we discuss a question I received from a reader named Sridhar. He recently went live with 8 automated trading strategies - and none of them are performing well. In his words (used with permission, excerpted for clarity): Sridhar: Hi Dave, I'm struggling at the moment, and you're the person whose judgement I trust most on this. In less than 2 months, I found up to 8 intraday strategies, each with >1.5 PF, each researched to a locked backtest. The results don't match the effort. I'm down about $16.8k net of commissions since mid-July, and I've been red on 22 of 35 trading days. I hope things can turn around, but honestly, I'm losing spirit a bit. The process and the engineering are strong, and I'm still losing money. I'd really value your perspective. We discuss this in detail in this episode, with concrete steps to improve and identify the mistakes. Topics include: Start with 1-2 strategies rather than 8Trade tiny at first - you can learn a lot with minuscule size, so you can avoid "paying tuition" to the marketHow to plan for drawdowns before they happenDon't "build the pedestal" - use established backtesting software and focus on the important thing: the strategiesOnly scale after the market has given you concrete feedback that your process is soundAnd much more... --- Before you go! The next time you find yourself in a drawdown, I want you to stop what you're doing and head on over to betterbacktesting.com to sign up for my free backtesting email course. I hope to see you there!

  2. Sep 21

    Backtesting a Swing Trading Strategy

    In this week's episode of Line Your Own Pockets, Michael and I have a heated discussion on swing trading versus day trading. It starts innocently enough with a question about how to backtest a swing trading strategy with a "trail forever" component. But then it quickly turns into a swing trading versus day trading cage match. We do finally end up agreeing on the fundamental approach to backtesting a swing trading strategy - barely. Topics discussed: The differences between backtesting a day trading and a swing trading strategyOpen-ended trailing exits make backtesting more complicated, and how to handle this in your testHow outliers can affect your backtest and how the trailing-exit component can magnify themOverlapping positions suck up buying power, creating an overnight choke-pointAnd much more... --- Before you go! The next time you find yourself in a drawdown, I want you to stop what you're doing and head on over to betterbacktesting.com to sign up for my free backtesting email course. I hope to see you there!

  3. Sep 14

    Common Mistakes Advanced Traders Make

    Line Your Own Pockets

  4. Sep 7

    Common Mistakes Beginning Traders Make

    Line Your Own Pockets

  5. Aug 31

    How To Use Candle Patterns In Your Strategy

    In this week's episode of Line Your Own Pockets, we explain how to use candle patterns in your trading strategy. Topics covered: Candle patterns aren't magical signals, but that doesn't mean they have no valueInstead of "when does pattern A work?", ask yourself "when does pattern A help my strategy?"Don't get stuck on the exact definition of a pattern (e.g., a hammer) - it's arbitraryThe MabeKit Dojiness column as a good example of a continuous versus binary variable in a backtestAnd much more... --- Before you go! The next time you find yourself in a drawdown, I want you to stop what you're doing and head on over to betterbacktesting.com to sign up for my free backtesting email course. I hope to see you there!

  6. Aug 24

    How Strong Should Your Signal Be?

    In this week's episode of Line Your Own Pockets, we discuss a question submitted by long-time list member, Matt H., about signal strength. How strong should your signal be when creating a trading strategy? It depends... Topics include: Stronger signals make strategy development easierA weaker signal can be viable, but in this case the filters do more of the workThe more filters contribute towards the edge, the more curve-fitting riskMy favorite strategies are those where the signal is "hiding in plain sight"And much more... No matter where you are in your strategy creation process, you'll get something out of this episode. --- Before you go! The next time you find yourself in a drawdown, I want you to stop what you're doing and head on over to betterbacktesting.com to sign up for my free backtesting email course. I hope to see you there!

  7. Aug 17

    Small Changes for Big Results

    In this week's episode of Line Your Own Pockets, we discuss how small changes to your routine can have big impacts on your trading. Topics include: Beware of doing something simply because "that's how you've always done it"Find the most arbitrary assumption in your trading strategy and challenge itHow I recently changed a strategy I've traded for 20 years using this approachIt's good to "get your teeth kicked in" every once in a whileAnd much more... --- Before you go! The next time you find yourself in a drawdown, I want you to stop what you're doing and head on over to betterbacktesting.com to sign up for my free backtesting email course. I hope to see you there!

  8. Aug 10

    All About Volatility Halts

    Line Your Own Pockets

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4.9
out of 5
16 Ratings

About

A weekly show for systematic traders who want to make more money from their trading strategies.

Information

  • Creator
    Dave Mabe and Michael Nauss
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2026
  • Episodes
    112
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Dave Mabe and Michael Nauss
  • Show Website
    Line Your Own Pockets

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