Chat With Traders

In this episode, Ian sits down with John Assaraf, entrepreneur, behavioral neuroscience educator, and founder of NeuroGym, for a conversation about the invisible forces that shape performance — long after planning, analysis, and good intentions are in place.

John shares his personal journey from a turbulent upbringing to building multiple multimillion-dollar businesses, and the pivotal moment at age 19 that reframed how he thought about success, identity, and commitment. From there, the discussion moves into the neuroscience behind habits, automatic behavior, fear, and why people often snap back to familiar results — even when they know what to do.

This is not a trading tactics episode. It’s a conversation about execution, follow-through, and the human side of performance — in trading, business, health, and life.

About the guest:

John Assaraf is a serial entrepreneur who has built multiple multimillion-dollar companies, including helping scale a real estate organization to over $4 billion in annual sales and co-founding a technology company that later went public on the NASDAQ. He is the founder
and CEO of NeuroGym, where he focuses on applying neuroscience to
performance, habits, and behavior change. John is also the author of several New York Times bestselling books, translated into dozens of languages, and has been featured in films such as The Secret, where many people were first introduced to his work.

 

Links + Resources:

 Free eBook: The
Power of Visualization

 

 Sponsor of Chat With Traders Podcast:

 Trade The Pool:  http://www.tradethepool.com

 

Time Stamps:

Please note: Exact times will vary depending
on current ads.

 

00:00   Intro and Background

11:16   Mindset Shift: Interested vs. Committed

11:46   Behavioral Neuroscience and Goal Achievement

16:17   Conscious vs. Subconscious Mind

17:12   Creating Permanent Behavioral Changes

21:22   Emotional Regulation and Decision Making

25:30   Overcoming Self-Sabotage

35:20   AddressingFear in Decision Making

42:37   Inner Size: Exercising the Mind

44:27   Self-Sabotage and Financial Set Points

48:21   The Science of Goal Setting

50:17   Visualizing and Embodying Goals

54:40   How to reach John

 

Trading Disclaimer:

Trading in the financial markets involves a risk of loss. Podcast episodes and other content produced by Chat With Traders are for informational or educational purposes only and do not constitute trading or investment recommendations or advice.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Over the years, we’ve recorded hundreds of conversations with traders across different markets, strategies, and generations. And while no two
trading paths look the same, certain moments tend to repeat — not moments of big wins or dramatic calls, but quieter turning points. The moments where something shifts internally. Where progress depends less on the market… and more on how the trader evolves. In this special
episode of Chat With Traders, we revisit excerpts from past
conversations with traders who reached those inflection points — moments that reshaped how they thought about risk, discipline, accountability, and longevity. It’s a collection of turning points — the decisions, realizations, and hard lessons that changed the trajectory of a trading career.

Links + Resources:

Episode039     Tom Dante      Episode236     Lance BreitsteinEpisode249     Jack KelloggEpisode036     Peter BrandtEpisode255     Vincent BruzzeseEpisode212     Kristjan KullamägiEpisode286     Jason ShapiroEpisode260     Patrick PeterssonEpisode259     Lukas Frölich (The Short Bear)Episode163     John “Rambo” MoultonEpisode250     Sunny Harris

Time Stamps:

Please note: Exact times will vary depending on current ads.

 00:00 – Intro and Background

01:10 — Tom Dante - A moment of accountability that forced change — and lit a competitive fire.02:35 — Lance Breitstein - Why the best traders bet exponentially when
the odds are truly skewed.04:00 — Jack Kellogg - The cost of obsession, burnout, and relearning how to live after the grind.05:25 — Peter Brandt - Market tuition, mistakes, and committing fully to a
process (Featured in Jack Schwager’s Market Wizards)06:55 — Vincent Bruzzese - How wealth mindset — not strategy — shapes risk and decision-making08:25 — Kristjan Kullamägi - Scaling up, earning the right to push risk, and
long-term conviction
09:55 — Jason Shapiro - Contrarian trading, positioning over prediction, and embracing discomfort (Featured in Unknown Market Wizards)11:25 — Patrick Petersson - The lesson learned at absolute rock bottom — and the cost of not cutting losses.12:55 — Lukas Frölich (The Short Bear) - Running trading like a business — and how progress compounds quietly.14:25 — John “Rambo” Moulton - Detaching from money to trade with clarity and consistency15:55 — Sunny Harris - Taking control after realizing professionals can lose,
too.17:30 — Closing reflections20:20 — Outro / End

Sponsor of Chat With Traders Podcast:

     Trade The Pool:  http://www.tradethepool.com

Trading Disclaimer: 

Trading in the financial markets involves a risk of loss. Podcast episodes and other content produced by Chat With Traders are for informational or educational purposes only and do not constitute trading or investment recommendations or advice.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We’re joined by Jamaal Ghauri, a trader and fund manager who began his journey unusually early — first exposed to crypto markets as a teenager during Bitcoin’s early adoption phase, before moving into stocks and eventually options.

Jamal walks through the full arc of his development as a trader: early overconfidence, aggressive options bets, a rapid run-up followed by a major drawdown, and the hard lessons that ultimately forced him to rethink risk, position sizing, and process. From there, he explains how he rebuilt by focusing on more structured setups, volatility awareness, and consistency over time.

We discuss the evolution of his core strategies — including swing trades, breakout-style setups, and short-term options structures — and how those approaches are now applied within a multi-strategy fund he launched in 2025. Jamal also shares how he thinks about trade distribution, win rates versus loss severity, and why discipline and risk management ultimately mattered more than finding the “perfect” setup.

As always, this conversation is about understanding how a trader thinks, how strategies evolve over time, and how real-world risk shows up differently than it does on paper.

Links + Resources:


Connect with Jamaal on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamaal-ghauri-282947172/

Time Stamps:

Please note: Exact times will vary depending on current ads.

00:00 – Intro and Background

02:37 – Early Interest in Financial Markets

07:08 – Transition to Stock Trading

08:46 – Early Stock Trading Experiences

09:37 – Shift to Options Trading

10:32 – Learning Options Trading

11:22 – Developing a Trading Strategy

14:51 – First Successful Trades

19:04 – Account Growth and Setbacks

21:00 – Impact of the COVID Crash

32:06 – New Trading Strategies Post-Crash

37:24 – Becoming Profitable

38:22 – Performance in 2022 and 2023

41:07 – Establishing a Hedge Fund

44:40 – Hedge Fund Strategies

50:34 – Current Challenges and Advice

Sponsor of Chat With Traders Podcast:

Trade The Pool:  ⁠http://www.tradethepool.com⁠

Trading Disclaimer:

Trading in the financial markets involves a risk of loss. Podcast episodes and other content produced by Chat With Traders are for informational or educational purposes only and do not constitute trading or investment recommendations or advice.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A quiet, end-of-year reflection on the middle stage of trading — where progress is subtle, patterns are familiar, and the real work happens internally.

Sponsor of Chat With Traders Podcast:

●       Trade The Pool:  ⁠⁠⁠http://www.tradethepool.com⁠⁠

Trading Disclaimer:

 Trading in the financial markets involves a risk of loss. Podcast episodes and other content produced by Chat With Traders are for informational or educational purposes only and do not constitute trading or investment recommendations or advice.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, we examine what actually happens when crypto markets break — how leverage builds beneath the surface, liquidity disappears, and liquidation cascades turn volatility into systemic failure.

Doug Colkitt, a quantitative trader and DeFi builder whose experience spans both traditional finance and crypto market structure. Doug began his career on Wall Street at Citigroup before moving into high-frequency trading at Citadel during the 2008 financial crisis. He later built and traded his own systems across futures, volatility products, and international equities, including running a major market-making operation in Turkish stocks.

Today, Doug focuses on crypto and DeFi infrastructure, working with perpetual futures, liquidation mechanics, and exchange design. We discuss why traders still get wiped out when they think they’re hedged, how liquidation cascades accelerate, and what recent market failures reveal about leverage and market structure under stress.

Links +Resources:

Ambient Finance on X (Twitter): @AmbientFinance

Website: https://ambient.finance

Sponsor of Chat With Traders Podcast:

●       Trade The Pool:  ⁠⁠http://www.tradethepool.com⁠⁠

 

 Time Stamps:

Please note: Exact times will vary depending on current ads.


00:00:00  Intro and Background


00:03:43  Starting Individual Trading and High Frequency Systems


00:04:09  Focus on Index Futures and Competitive Markets


00:06:15  Michael Lewis's 'Flash Boys' and HFT Accuracy


00:07:00  Impact of HFT on Smaller Traders


00:09:13  Market Makers and Price Competition


00:09:37  HFT Evolution and Market Dynamics


00:11:24  Trading VIX Futures and Market Inefficiencies


00:13:08  Transitioning to Medium Frequency Trading


00:13:34  Trading Turkish Equities and Market Makings


00:15:35  Exploring Cryptocurrency Trading


00:18:32  Diving into Decentralized Finance (DeFi)


00:20:06  Arbitrage Opportunities in Crypto Markets


00:22:00  Flash Loans and Risk-Free Trading


00:22:48  Adjustments to Trading Bots Over Time


00:25:11  Criteria for Trusting Decentralized Exchanges


00:28:46  Liquidity Providing and Yield Opportunities


00:29:16  Volatility and Risks in Liquidity Provisioning


00:31:47  Understanding Perpetual Contracts in Crypto


00:36:04  October 10, 2025 Crypto Massacre Overview


00:37:36  Leverage and Market Dynamics


00:41:23  Impact of Liquidations on Market Sentiment


00:41:43  Market Maker Behavior During Crises


00:43:45  Liquidity Issues in Centralized Exchanges


00:44:53 Hyper Liquid Vault and Liquidation Dynamics


00:45:55 Market Making Strategies and Risk Management


00:49:15 Insurance Fund Models in DeFi


00:51:43 Ambient Finance Project Overview


00:53:08 Separation of Exchange and Clearinghouse


00:54:14 Innovations in Perpetual Trading


00:55:46 Takeaways from the October 10th Massacre


00:57:03 Future Plans for Insurance Fund Integration


00:58:28 Real World Assets and Crypto Integration

Trading Disclaimer:

 Trading in the financial markets involves a risk of loss. Podcast episodes and other content produced by Chat With Traders are for informational or educational purposes only and do not constitute trading or investment recommendations or advice.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices