One Good Trade: Inside the Highly Competitive World of Proprietary Trading

BellaMike Bellafiore's (Bella's) Blogs14 Comments

Thank you all for your suggestions for my book title.  There is so much more that goes into writing a book than writing the book.  Choosing the best title is one such example.  BTW if anyone has not figured out my title yet see the blog title above.

The working title had been The Way of the Prop Trader: Tools and Techniques of a Proprietary Trading Firm.  I actually really liked this title.  But I was encouraged to keep thinking.  With the input of Roy Davis, Alexander James, Steve Spencer, GMan, Barry Lyons, Chris Gillick (brilliant ghost writer), Phil Pearlman from StockTwits, Dr. Steenbarger, @AnneMarie2006, @wallstCS, Corey Rosenbloom, editors at Wiley, traders on our desk, and blog readers we found the best title for my book.

Trading is about skill development and discipline.  There is no secret sauce.   To become good takes work.  Successful traders master trading fundamentals. They do the thousand little things everyday mandated by Mother Market.  Over my twelve year trading career the market has taught me what is truly important.  I meet way too many traders who have never heard of Reading the Tape or know how to select a Stock In Play.  I receive far too many emails from underperforming traders who believe trading is about bold predictions, loading up, and holding their trades for the entire move.

On my desk we teach (preach?) One Good Trade.  These are our trading fundamentals.  We do not use our P&L to determine if we are trading well.  We make One Good Trade and then One Good Trade and then One Good Trade.  We cannot control the results.  We have complete command of our process.

To make One Good Trade requires following these seven fundamentals:

1) Proper Preparation

2) Hard Work

3) Patience

4) A Detailed Trading Plan for Every Trade

5) Discipline

6) Communication

7) Replaying your Important Trades

If you have made a trade and followed every one of these fundamentals then you have made One Good Trade.  The result of the trade is irrelevant.

My adherence to this philosophy has enabled me to survive many difficult markets.  It is the core of everything that I teach.  If you sit on my desk you will hear me utter this phrase every day.

Also One Good Trade is a metaphor.  Many trade a job boring to them for trading.  I traded the law for trading.  And then I traded just trading for building a proprietary trading firm.  For me each was One Good Trade.

So this is my title.  You will meet those who have succeeded and failed as proprietary traders and why. You will get an inside look at what it really takes to succeed at a proprietary trading firm.  When the time is right I will provide a more in depth summary of what you can expect from One Good Trade.

But I wanted to explain why I choose this title.  And thank all of you who contributed to this selection.

And by the way I also loved the title: It’s Called Trading! (maybe a bit too snarky?)

Enjoy your weekend!

14 Comments on “One Good Trade: Inside the Highly Competitive World of Proprietary Trading”

  5. Charlie G. [“The Sellout”] better watch his back. If @stocktwits hosts the “One Good Trade” book party @ NASDAQ please put me on the invite list.

    BTW: I have this taped above my trading monitor: “WWGD?” = What Would G-man Do?

    Yesterday I traded APAC and, based on WWGD, set my sell-stop @ .01 below the support level of the day before. Sure enough, it repeatedly found support .01 above my stop, and I made “One Good Trade”. Thanks G-man and SMBCapital.

  6. Charlie G. [“The Sellout”] better watch his back. If @stocktwits hosts the “One Good Trade” book party @ NASDAQ please put me on the invite list.

    BTW: I have this taped above my trading monitor: “WWGD?” = What Would G-man Do?

    Yesterday I traded APAC and, based on WWGD, set my sell-stop @ .01 below the support level of the day before. Sure enough, it repeatedly found support .01 above my stop, and I made “One Good Trade”. Thanks G-man and SMBCapital.

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