What podcasts say about Tom Basso

Every statement, with the speaker, the exact quote and the moment it was said.

What Tom Basso has said on podcasts

37 statements · 23 positive · 9 negative · 1 mixed · 4 neutral

on Crude oil and bond futuresPositiveOct 21, 2026· Investing With IBD
Short crude oil or bond futures can profit when prices fall or interest rates rise.
“there's been markets like crude oil, for instance, or bonds to the downside, where you could trade the futures contract on the ultra bonds, for instance, go short. Interest rates keep climbing, and you're short, you're making money.”
Listen at 2:24
Open the episode · How Market Wizard Caps Risk And Neutralizes Drawdowns
on Trend-following breakout strategyPositiveOct 21, 2026· Investing With IBD
Trend followers should enter breakouts and manage risk with volatility-based stops.
“I go long. I don't question it. I jump on board, and I manage my risk by putting a stop behind it.”
Listen at 5:09
Open the episode · How Market Wizard Caps Risk And Neutralizes Drawdowns
on Position sizingPositiveOct 21, 2026· Investing With IBD
Position size should be based on account equity.
“I base that on my equity. If I have a larger account, I'm going to buy more shares. If it's a smaller account, I'm going to buy, you know, smaller number of shares.”
Listen at 5:54
Open the episode · How Market Wizard Caps Risk And Neutralizes Drawdowns
on Volatile securitiesNegativeOct 21, 2026· Investing With IBD
Highly volatile positions should receive smaller allocations.
“if a situation is very volatile, then I'm not going to own much of it.”
Listen at 6:43
Open the episode · How Market Wizard Caps Risk And Neutralizes Drawdowns
on Volatility-based position sizingPositiveOct 21, 2026· Investing With IBD
Investors should build larger positions during low volatility and reduce exposure during high volatility.
“it's just logical to try to build your big positions in quiet periods where there's low volatility. And when things get exciting, either pare back your position, take some profits, or, you know, just basically, if you're putting on a new position, buy less of it.”
Listen at 7:02
Open the episode · How Market Wizard Caps Risk And Neutralizes Drawdowns
on Volatility-adjusted position sizingPositiveOct 21, 2026· Investing With IBD
Volatility-adjusted sizing reduces leverage and risk of ruin.
“that just does so much to help you be underleveraged, takes away more of the risk of ruin”
Listen at 7:19
Open the episode · How Market Wizard Caps Risk And Neutralizes Drawdowns
on Complete trading strategyPositiveOct 21, 2026· Investing With IBD
A complete strategy covering entry, exit, protection, and sizing improves trading outcomes.
“you've got a complete trading strategy. You're going to be a whole lot better off than having one of those pieces missing.”
Listen at 7:54
Open the episode · How Market Wizard Caps Risk And Neutralizes Drawdowns
on Position sizingPositiveOct 21, 2026· Investing With IBD
Traders should size positions according to calculated risk requirements.
“size your position according to what it should be.”
Listen at 8:46
Open the episode · How Market Wizard Caps Risk And Neutralizes Drawdowns
on Portfolio diversificationPositiveOct 21, 2026· Investing With IBD
Extreme diversification across non-correlated return streams spreads portfolio risk.
“I like extreme diversification. So, to me, that just makes sense to me. It spreads my bets across a lot of non-correlated return streams.”
Listen at 10:59
Open the episode · How Market Wizard Caps Risk And Neutralizes Drawdowns
on Portfolio exposureNeutralOct 21, 2026· Investing With IBD
Basso generally maintains portfolio exposure near 100%.
“I run right around 100%”
Listen at 12:06
Open the episode · How Market Wizard Caps Risk And Neutralizes Drawdowns
on Portfolio margin exposureNegativeOct 21, 2026· Investing With IBD
Basso avoids portfolio exposure near 200% through margin.
“I'm nowhere near 200 in fully all out in margin.”
Listen at 12:48
Open the episode · How Market Wizard Caps Risk And Neutralizes Drawdowns
on Trading strategy evaluationPositiveOct 21, 2026· Investing With IBD
Basso evaluates trading strategies using a 1,000-trade dataset.
“I'm looking at trying to put together a database of 1,000 trades.”
Listen at 15:00
Open the episode · How Market Wizard Caps Risk And Neutralizes Drawdowns
on Trading disciplinePositiveOct 21, 2026· Investing With IBD
A successful trading day is defined by following the strategy, not profit or loss.
“A good day is not whether you made money or lost money. A good day is a day you followed your strategy.”
Listen at 16:26
Open the episode · How Market Wizard Caps Risk And Neutralizes Drawdowns
on Portfolio balancePositiveOct 21, 2026· Investing With IBD
Portfolios should maintain balance rather than rely on one dominant position.
“You want to have balance”
Listen at 17:57
Open the episode · How Market Wizard Caps Risk And Neutralizes Drawdowns
on Return-to-risk investingPositiveOct 21, 2026· Investing With IBD
Basso prioritizes maximizing returns for minimal risk.
“I'm a return-to-risk guy, and I always have been from the beginning. So I want a minimal amount of risk, and I want a maximum amount of return for that amount of risk.”
Listen at 22:18
Open the episode · How Market Wizard Caps Risk And Neutralizes Drawdowns
on Sharpe ratioNegativeOct 21, 2026· Investing With IBD
Basso considers the Sharpe ratio an unhelpful performance measure.
“I don't think that's a useful measurement of anything”
Listen at 22:33
Open the episode · How Market Wizard Caps Risk And Neutralizes Drawdowns
on Investment drawdownsNeutralOct 21, 2026· Investing With IBD
Drawdowns below 5% for one or two months may remain psychologically tolerable.
“If you go down a little bit for a short amount of time, say less than 5%, maybe for a month or two, you can tolerate that.”
Listen at 23:04
Open the episode · How Market Wizard Caps Risk And Neutralizes Drawdowns
on Investment drawdownsNegativeOct 21, 2026· Investing With IBD
Drawdowns beyond 5% or 100 days begin causing psychological discomfort.
“I start getting past 5% down, maybe beyond 100 days of drawdown, and then you start thinking, well, I wonder how long it's going to take me to get out of this hole.”
Listen at 23:17
Open the episode · How Market Wizard Caps Risk And Neutralizes Drawdowns
on Return-to-risk ratioPositiveOct 21, 2026· Investing With IBD
Halving risk substantially improves the return-to-risk ratio.
“if you could cut your risk in half, for instance, you're going to really jack up your return-to-risk ratio.”
Listen at 27:36
Open the episode · How Market Wizard Caps Risk And Neutralizes Drawdowns
on Trend-following drawdownsNeutralOct 21, 2026· Investing With IBD
Trend-following drawdowns consist of two distinct phases.
“there's really 2 parts to a drawdown in a trend-following sense of things.”
Listen at 27:45
Open the episode · How Market Wizard Caps Risk And Neutralizes Drawdowns
on Position risk allocationNeutralOct 21, 2026· Investing With IBD
Basso initially allocates 0.5% of equity risk to a position.
“let's say I get into a position, and it's 0.5% of my equity allocated to risk.”
Listen at 29:32
Open the episode · How Market Wizard Caps Risk And Neutralizes Drawdowns
on Per-position equity riskNegativeOct 21, 2026· Investing With IBD
Basso caps each position’s equity risk at approximately 1%.
“I'm willing to let every position get to 1%, but if it gets over 1%, now it's starting to get a little too much of my equity in terms of what's at risk”
Listen at 30:25
Open the episode · How Market Wizard Caps Risk And Neutralizes Drawdowns
on Per-position equity riskNegativeOct 21, 2026· Investing With IBD
Positions exceeding 1% risk should be trimmed back to 1%.
“if it gets to 1.1%, I would sell off enough of that position and shares or contracts in the futures area or whatever to get back down to the 1%.”
Listen at 30:37
Open the episode · How Market Wizard Caps Risk And Neutralizes Drawdowns
on Position-risk capsMixedOct 21, 2026· Investing With IBD
Position-risk caps reduce but do not eliminate drawdowns.
“It will not eliminate your drawdown. It'll just help you a little bit.”
Listen at 31:18
Open the episode · How Market Wizard Caps Risk And Neutralizes Drawdowns
on Winning positionsPositiveOct 21, 2026· Investing With IBD
Winning positions should be allowed to run with proper sizing and rising stops.
“You let it run. You keep your position sized properly. Move your stops up when you can, and just run the strategy.”
Listen at 33:57
Open the episode · How Market Wizard Caps Risk And Neutralizes Drawdowns
on Stock correlationsNegativeOct 21, 2026· Investing With IBD
Stock correlations have increased over Basso’s lifetime.
“The correlations in stocks have gone up since I've been alive.”
Listen at 36:14
Open the episode · How Market Wizard Caps Risk And Neutralizes Drawdowns
on Average U.S. stock correlationNegativeOct 21, 2026· Investing With IBD
Recent research places average U.S. stock correlation in the high 0.80s.
“Some recent work on that same number would put it up in the high 80s now.”
Listen at 36:34
Open the episode · How Market Wizard Caps Risk And Neutralizes Drawdowns
on Portfolio diversificationNegativeOct 21, 2026· Investing With IBD
Achieving meaningful diversification has become more difficult.
“you have to really work hard to get diversification anymore.”
Listen at 37:43
Open the episode · How Market Wizard Caps Risk And Neutralizes Drawdowns
on Lean hogs and S&P 500PositiveOct 21, 2026· Investing With IBD
Commodity markets such as lean hogs can provide diversification from the S&P 500.
“the S&P 500 doesn't care what lean hogs is doing today, and lean hogs doesn't care what the S&P 500 is doing today. So you have true diversification in some of those markets”
Listen at 38:09
Open the episode · How Market Wizard Caps Risk And Neutralizes Drawdowns
on Multi-timeframe trading strategiesPositiveOct 21, 2026· Investing With IBD
Combining long-term and scalping strategies provides time-frame diversification.
“you could have a long-term strategy, for instance, that might be based on 21 days or something, and then you could have another one that's scalping.”
Listen at 40:54
Open the episode · How Market Wizard Caps Risk And Neutralizes Drawdowns

Statements are attributed to the speaker as said on the episode and reflect their view at the time, not PodLume's. They are not advice.