The 6 math formulas every trader needs to know (explained simply):

1. Expected value The backbone of trading.

Positive EV is what you're after if you want to succeed in trading.

You will want to calculate this for every strategy.

Direct Market data can cost $34,000 a year.

But you can get it for free.

Here are 6 data providers you should know (it'll save you $34,000): 1. yfinance

The classic choice for newcomers to financial data.

It's the lazy go to and easiest way to pull daily data.

It covers equities, forex and crypto.

However data quality can be spotty, so be sure to double check.

Five years in the markets taught me some brutal truths about trading:

1. Read all the psychology books you want - It's impossible to beat the market with that alone 2. Your ego is the most expensive position.
3. Past performance is the best predictor of success we have.
4. Your win rate means nothing on its own - It could be 10% or 90%.
5. Your first profitable strategy is often only the start.

The biggest scam in the trading industry:

"You just need ONE perfect strategy."

It's marketed to retail traders as the key to profitability,

But hedge funds make BILLIONS doing the opposite.

Here's what they're not telling you (the "holy grail"): 1. The myth of the perfect strategy.

Most traders waste years looking for a single strategy that works in all market conditions.

This doesn't exist.

The real edge comes from a different approach entirely.

I'm 5 years into trading.

I used to lose money on candle stick patterns, thinking success was from intuition.

Then I discovered "The Man Who Solved the Market", and it changed my trading forever.

6 lessons from the man who beat the market for 30 years using data: Context:

Jim Simons wasn't always a quant.

He started with pure discretionary trading like most of us.

His first trading venture actually worked for a while.

But it was gut-wrenching and inconsistent.

I'm from the UK.

12 months ago at 23, I moved to Dubai.

• Zero capital gains
• $20 for soap

Is it worth it? Here's my honest breakdown as a trader in Dubai: 1. Zero capital gains tax.

This isn't just a minor benefit - it's a complete game-changer for traders.

Compounding works exponentially faster when you're not giving away 20% to 50% of your profits every year.

What would take 10 years elsewhere happens in 5 to 7 years here.

Meet Salem Abraham.

He created a multimillion-dollar trading career from a tiny Texas town.

All because he bumped into a legendary Turtle Trader,

That completely changed his life.

Here are his lessons from being consistent for over 31 years: Salem Abraham was studying at Notre Dame, looking for how he was going to make a living,

When he met Turtle Trader Jerry Parker at a family wedding in 1987.

That conversation changed his life.

Abraham abandoned his original plans and decided to become a trader.

Out of 3,700,000 daily YouTube videos uploaded,

Here are 9 trading videos that deserve your attention: 1. Systematic Trading and Trend Following 101

If you don't have rock-solid data, you'll never be able to find and test an edge.

Here's everything I use in 20 seconds: First, the non-negotiables for any data you use in systematic trading:

• Clean, survivorship-bias-free historical data
• Point-in-time data that doesn't include look-ahead bias
• Adjustment for dividends, splits, etc

And we need a lot of it.

I just finished backtesting 3 of the most popular volatility indicators over the past 6 years.

The results were unexpected...

Here is what I found summarized in 3 minutes: Before we start,

Each indicator addresses unique parts in strategy implementation.

I will cover their basic application and provide a simple historical backtest.

However, more advanced testing techniques are crucial for thorough validation of the results.

In 2 days it will be 2025.

Making it almost 6 years since I started trading.

Here are 17 lessons from this year: 1. Don't confuse luck with skill.

In a year when AI went mainstream and many started using "AI" to find an edge,

The most successful traders I know this year achieved their gains through traditional, established strategies.

This is Jeff Yan.

He is the co-founder of Hyper Liquid, doing $10B in daily volume.

He went from being a quant at Hudson River Trading to running one of the largest decentralized exchanges in crypto.

Here's what you need to know: Context:

After graduating from Harvard with degrees in computer science and math.

Jeff started his career at Hudson River Trading, one of the biggest market makers in the world.

In 2018, he left HRT after becoming fascinated by Ethereum's smart contracts.

Learning trading is incredibly difficult.

Becoming profitable is even harder.

But books have been a crucial part of my journey, accelerating my progress to above 6 figures.

Here are 5 lessons from one book you need to read: Context:

The book is called:
"Leveraged Trading: A professional approach to trading FX, stocks on margin, CFDs, spread bets and futures for all traders"

It is one of the four books Rober Carver (former institutional trader) has written.

I recommend you check them out.

$287,565 in historical profits, with a 48.26% win rate.

All by using 3 parameters.

But does it hold up under more scrutiny?

Let's find out in 60 seconds: Strategy logic:

• Uses a fast Hull Moving Average crossing over/under a slow Hull Moving Average for trade signals.
• Only takes trades if ADX value is above X.
• Long trades when fast HMA crosses above slow HMA
• Vice versa for shorts.

Super simple, but does it hold up?

This is Laurens Bensdorp.

He has developed over 50 trading systems that he trades simultaneously.

His systematic approach has allowed him to trade profitably in bull, bear, and even sideways markets.

Here are 6 lessons from his recent interviews: 1. The two main questions you need to ask before backtesting.

This is Bruce Kovner.

He is worth $8.6 billion and ran a successful hedge fund for 28 years,

Returning 21% on average each year.

But it all started with his first trade using $3,000 borrowed on his credit card.

Here are 6 lessons from him: Context:

Bruce Kovner's path to trading began as an NYC cab driver in 1977, when he was writing his PHD while at Harvard.

With $3,000 borrowed on his MasterCard, he made his first trade in soybean futures.

The position grew to $40,000 before dropping to $23,000.

I've built 1000s of trading strategies over the past 5 years,

95% of them failed miserably,

But the last 5% have led me to profit over 6 figures.

Here are 7 key principles you need to build winning strategies: 1. Keep it simple but not simplistic.

Complex strategies with many parameters are prone to overfitting. Focus on simple, theoretically sound approaches.

The best strategies often have just a few key parameters and clear logic behind them.

Robust is better than fancy.

This is Nassim Nicholas Taleb.

He's a Distinguished Professor, who predicted and profited from both the 1987 and 2008 market crashes.

He is also the author of one of the most influential books on market probability.

Here's how you can learn directly from him for free: Taleb is a mathematical statistician, former option trader, and risk analyst.

He is a fountain of knowledge regarding probability and statistics,

And you can find most of his "mini-lectures" on these topics for free online.

Here are 5 clips from the best ones:

David Harding (billionaire quant hedge fund manager) once said:

“Anyone who's complacent in my business is waiting to have their head handed to them”

Here are 7 things I learned from him: 1. "We trade everything using trend following systems, and it works. By simulation, you come up with ideas and hypotheses, and you test those. Over the years, what we’ve done, essentially, is conduct experiments."

How to create automated trading strategies that work (without overfitting):

(A thread) 1. Keep systems simple.

Focus on simple strategies built around core strategy types.

Simple systems are less prone to overfitting, easier to understand and maintain, and often perform better out-of-sample.

Just don't confuse simple with easy to do.

4 probability concepts you need to understand as a trader to improve.

1. The power of large sample size. As sample size increases, results tend to converge to the expected value.

This is known as the Law of Large Numbers (LLN).

This is important to know as it plays a huge role in probability and expected value.

If you have too small of a sample size it is harder to trust.