Pod Insights Michael Covel's Trend Following Ep. 1336: Enough with Michael Covel on Trend Following Radio About this episode Please enjoy my monologue Enough with Michael Covel on Trend Following Radio. This episode may also include great outside guests from my archive. --- I’m MICHAEL COVEL, the host of TREND FOLLOWING RADIO, and I’m proud to have delivered 10+ million podcast listens since 2012. Investments, economics, psychology, politics, decision-making, human behavior, entrepreneurship and trend following are all passionately explored and debated on my show. To start? I’d like to give you a great piece of advice you can use in your life and trading journey… cut your losses! You will find much more about that philosophy here: https://www.trendfollowing.com/trend/ You can watch a free video here: https://www.trendfollowing.com/video/ Can’t get enough of this episode? You can choose from my thousand plus episodes here: https://www.trendfollowing.com/podcast My social media platforms: Twitter: @covel Facebook: @trendfollowing LinkedIn: @covel Instagram: @mikecovel Hope you enjoy my never-ending podcast conversation!
Transcript 0:00 Speaker 00 In the world of investments, trading, there's a concept called zero sum. Essentially, especially in the futures markets, if you win, someone else loses. If you lose, someone else wins. That's the game. Now, it can be slightly different for equity markets. But by and large, that is how it works. And if you lose, depending on your motivations for being in the market, for example, you might be a hedger, it's not necessarily a bad thing. Because markets are not necessarily only for just getting rich. They serve multiple purposes. But we need the markets.
0:46 Speaker 00 No markets, we're back to sticks and clubs and bullets and wars. And that is where it appears we are heading. Look, the last thing I want to do is imagine World War III. Imagine major chaos.
1:06 Speaker 00 But for all those people out there, many of them my friends, that despise the current President of the United States of America, I ask you, where were you for the last four decades?
1:22 Speaker 00 Where were you?
1:24 Speaker 00 You allowed this current situation to become where we are. You can't just sit back and say, "The orange man is bad."
1:36 Speaker 00 When you have sat there, and I'm talking to boomers in many instances, because they have the power and the wealth. But when you just sit there for the last four decades and allow so much of what I'm going to discuss today to happen, don't you understand? You broke the fucking trust.
1:59 Speaker 00 Let me take it back to the 90s. A war in Iraq. Why?
2:05 Speaker 00 Why was there a war in Iraq?
2:08 Speaker 00 The dot com bubble. How did that happen exactly? And why do we bail out the dot com bubble with a fake real estate boom in the early 2000s? Which then, as we all know, became the Great Recession, the big short film? And for all you people that hate the current president of the United States? Where were you when Goldman Sachs was bailed out in 08? Morgan Stanley was bailed out. Other banks were bailed out. Where were you when the system was abused by Bernie Madoff? Where were you when the system was abused by Jeffrey Epstein? Does anyone think we really know the full details of so many of these situations?
2:52 Speaker 00 And then we went into Iraq again? And Afghanistan? And Syria and Libya and Ukraine? But you're going to sit around on X all day long complaining about the current president of America? Back to the top of this episode. We need markets. Markets allow good people to buy and sell, to trade, to invest. But if you're in a position to fuck over civilization, to fuck over culture? And you do it nonstop for decades? And then someone comes along? And I'm not saying that someone that comes along is perfect. But if someone comes along with a different message?
3:36 Speaker 00 To clean up? How the hell do you expect anyone to listen to you? It doesn't take rocket science to look around at major cities around the world, excluding Asia? Excluding East Asia? But it doesn't take rocket science to look around the world? And see that most major Western cities are gross? Disgusting? Crime-filled? And it's been allowed to happen? I throw my arms up the air and I say, why? Why has London and New York City and Paris? Been allowed to become shitholes?
4:19 Speaker 00 Now, you might be sitting back, living in one of these cities? And telling me, oh, you can't say that, you can't say that. Oh, come on, man, give me a fucking break. Everyone knows? It's devolved.
4:33 Speaker 00 And if things keep devolving, back to my big picture point of the markets, how do you expect to have markets? What we are facing right now is a trust problem. The people that have had the power have blown the trust. The people who have had the power have fucked over everyone in the name of equity, the name of gender, the name of racial harmony. Someone posted something the other day, "What's the biggest problem in modern society?" I said, "Lies." We're not allowed to say that one culture is better than another, or that one race is better than another,
5:17 Speaker 00 or that one group of people is smarter than another. Even though all of the data shows that, says that, proves that, we are such a fragile current civilization that we have to pretend that the gangbangers, we have to pretend that the violent criminals are our equals. And if not but for one little advantage that they did not have, they would otherwise be a surgeon. This is the bullshit that we are all having to hear.
5:54 Speaker 00 And guess what? It comes to a head at some point in time. And when it comes to a head, where's your wealth? Where's your money? Where are markets? How many of these wars for the last 40 years have been wars of choice for no reason that a quote "average American like me" could support? I mean, yes, of course, like most Americans after 9/11, I thought, "Well, go start a war anywhere, whatever." Of course, if you go down the rabbit hole, that leaves you questioning how we even got to 9/11.
6:29 Speaker 00 And before somebody calls me a conspiracy nut, we still don't have all the damn files on JFK. The internet has been great for a primary reason: transparency. It lets the sunlight in. There are only so many ways you can disguise the truth before the truth comes out. It's like a fucking zit. Keep hiding it, keep pressing down on it. But when it comes out, all of the people who have been in power and been in control, they're just surprised. "We lied to you about the wars. We lied to you about the assorted financial crisis.
7:12 Speaker 00 We lied to you about this bank, we lied to you about that bank. Oh, but now, trust us." I watched part of this interview with Douglas Murray on Joe Rogan. Murray's argument was essentially, "Trust me. And if you've not been to the war zone, then you can't know." "Oh, fuck you, Douglas Murray. Fuck you and the goddamn horse you rode in on. No one gives a shit about you. Go to the front lines if you want to fight in the fucking war." You see, you can't separate this stuff. You can't have functional, healthy markets with the opportunity to be a trend-following trader.
7:54 Speaker 00 If society breaks down, if society falls apart, if civilization starts to crack, you can't have a situation where some countries have had tremendous success, other countries have not. And those other countries who have not had the success then send their people to the countries with success, not with the intent to become doctors and attorneys and surgeons, but with the intent to get on the social welfare programs. And then asking the people in those countries who didn't ask the people that came to pay for it all.
8:36 Speaker 00 And then expect markets and civilization to function properly. Everyone with a pulse knows, this doesn't last. This isn't tenable. Now, of course, from a trend-following perspective, you can trade it. It might not be pretty, it might be volatile, but you can trade it. But if everything breaks down, how the hell do you trade that? If I take it a step further, I was a guy that grew up with the idea that there was two sexes. And there are still two sexes.
9:16 Speaker 00 But as a civilization, we have wasted so much energy, so much mind power on the debate that there might be 31 genders, or 100 genders. This has an effect. And if this stuff is promoted by the people that own the media, the people that own the films, and they push this garbage on society, and you keep pushing people against the wall, eventually, there is a correction, a break in society. Now, nothing I'm saying today is not rooted in data. We can look at the crime statistics across the world.
10:00 Speaker 00 We can look at the education statistics across the world. Then we can pretend there are no patterns. It's all random. We can look at the relationship between men and women, especially in the West, and pretend there's no divergence.
10:20 Speaker 00 Look at the statistics for young, white women in the West. They are losing their marbles over the idea of Trump being president. Now, why is this? Did they wake up one day and just say, "We are going to have a divergence between men and women that is greater than any point in time in the last half-century"?
10:49 Speaker 00 And that happened in a spontaneous, natural way? Of course not. These young women are at the universities. They are being fed the media, and they are being pushed into a certain direction. What's the end goal? I have no idea.
11:08 Speaker 00 But you people out there, if you are part of the you people crowd, you've had the power for a long time. You've created these systems of giving people money for doing nothing, giving people positions of power and influence for doing nothing other than the color of their skin.
11:29 Speaker 00 Wasn't this the whole point of Martin Luther King Jr.? The color of the skin was not important? We're in 2025 and the color of skin appears to be the only important issue for a significant part of the global population. Take it further in a place like America. Jury nullification, race-based jury nullification.
11:52 Speaker 00 Can a society survive that?
11:55 Speaker 00 If our goal is no longer the truth, but our goal is to look for excuses and look for rationalizations and explanations as to why some young person stabbed another young person for no reason? We're in trouble. And even if there is a situation where, quote, "markets calm down," whatever that means, these societal pressures are not calming down. And every intelligent person with a pulse knows I speak the truth. The data is clear. Think about how they actually do the civilization meltdown.
12:41 Speaker 00 Zero interest rate policy. Okay, if you're a trader, yeah, you don't have to know about the fundamentals. Just follow the markets. But we are all more than traders. We are all people living in society. And to tell people, the golden rule, save your money. But then you create zero interest rate policy or negative interest rate policy designed to kill savers. Why would you do this?
13:13 Speaker 00 You do this for one reason, because significant portions of the population cannot carry their weight. So with all the debts, the deficits, the leverage in the system is all being used to support people in groups who can't carry their weight. It's untenable. We're gonna have more and more conflict until we reach a point.
13:42 Speaker 00 And everyone who has studied history knows those points come. And when they come, there's an explosion. Now, maybe some people have a different truth than me. Fair enough. But that usually means war.
13:59 Speaker 00 I'm very consistent on this podcast. I'm very consistent in my life. I'm very consistent in my books. I'm very consistent in my messaging. The way to navigate everything that I'm talking about today is with something called trend following. Those uncertain markets, ambiguous markets, volatile markets. This is where this amazing strategy, trend following, comes into play. It takes care of everything that I've talked about today. But there is a problem. If society falls apart, if markets cease to function, if trust is completely gone, if we lose all of the norms that built
14:43 Speaker 00 so many great civilizations across this planet, if we lose those norms, nothing's gonna help us. We will go through a period of conflict, war, and restarting and rebuilding.
14:59 Speaker 00 So I make the challenge to so many boomers who have been in power. Are we better off? Are we better off with Western nations and unrestricted immigration? Are we better off with cities filled with crime? Random events that just make you sick? I've seen so many videos, so many stories, I want to scream every time I see them. I actually feel like I can imagine it was my family member and it never ends. And why does it never end? It doesn't end because at this moment in history, some cultures act better.
15:43 Speaker 00 I know this, I've lived in Asia for a long time. What do you do about it? Not my problem. You know what I want to do about it? Stop it. And that's where a lot of men are at today. A lot of men don't want to debate these issues anymore. They want these issues stopped. They don't want any more pointless wars that make no sense. They don't want any more bailouts across Wall Street. They don't want any more lies about gender and race and all this other nonsense out there that we've been fed for eons. We just want it to stop. And we want it to stop because we know if it doesn't stop, everything falls apart.
16:27 Speaker 00 I often don't know where I want to go on a particular episode when I start.
16:33 Speaker 00 But living in 2025 with nonstop global lies is frustrating. Especially when there's a media system that works overdrive every damn day to push an agenda. I don't know exactly who these media operations work for, but they're not honest actors. They're not journalists. They are pushing something.
16:58 Speaker 00 As far as I can tell, they are pushing to the breaking point. Look, maybe both sides think that when we get the break, we get the war, they will get the power they want. It's a dangerous game to play. So until I talk to you again next week, keep the trend following going. It's about the only way to navigate this. But don't fool yourself. We're at an edge when it comes to civilization. And there are people responsible for it. So sure as hell, don't point a finger and tell me that the only problem is in the White House in America right now, today. Because the problem started with the Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley bailout.
17:41 Speaker 00 It started with Madoff and Epstein and Zirp and gender and racial this and racial that and Middle East wars. It didn't just start now. See you again next week.
17:59 Speaker 00 I see a time when those awake will understand how to make money in up, down, and surprise markets. Whether new trader or experienced, college student or financial advisor, protecting against a crash or just trying to make a lot of money. Trend following offers everyone an answer in uncertain times. To get started immediately, send me an email, [email protected] . I will send you the right trend following steps to take along with my free video. But if you want to buy and hold, trust the government and trust Wall Street. This is absolutely not for you.
Previous Ep. 1335: Thinking for a Living with Michael Covel on Trend Following Radio Next Ep. 1337: The Only Way Is Through with Michael Covel on Trend Following Radio Page updated November 7, 2026 · transcript and summary are machine-generated
