Ayesha interviews Anne-Marie Baiynd about her journey into trading, including her fascinating past and the many gems of wisdom she learned along the way.

What the video covers

Anne-Marie Baiynd's route into trading was indirect. She began as a neuroscience researcher, loved the math but earned terrible pay, then spent 14 years running a recruiting company for technical staff, working 20-hour days until she was burned out. That work taught her a lot about behavior—why people say yes or no to a job and what they fear. Combined with her math background, she thought trading would be easy after hearing a speaker discuss stocks, so she stepped in with savings from her career and lost much of it quickly. She learned that trading needs more than rigid "if this, then this" rules; it demands flexibility and a read on how people feel.

Baiynd says being a woman helped her look at candlesticks differently, asking how people feel at a certain price instead of relying on technical jargon. She wrote her book over about 18 months while raising five teenagers, often writing before or after the market, and a McGraw Hill editor reached out unexpectedly—a break she admits is not the normal path. The practical lesson she offers is to treat the market as a crowd of people, embrace the learning and the failures, and improve a little each day, because relearning the same lesson repeatedly is a bad sign. That nuance matters: her entry came with savings from a long career and an unsolicited book offer, so it is not a quick template for beginners.

Three things to remember

  • Baiynd moved from neuroscience research and 14 years running a recruiting company into trading, and says the behavioral insight from recruiting helped her read markets.
  • She reads candlesticks by asking how people feel at a given price rather than relying on technical jargon, an approach she credits partly to being a woman.
  • She wrote her book over roughly 18 months while raising five teenagers, often before or after market hours, after a McGraw Hill editor contacted her out of the blue.

Check out Anne-Marie's book here .