Last night, I was reading the review of one of our traders, Trader A, who wrote, “I just need to stick to my plays that make me money (ETRM, TWTO, GLYC) and just faze out those ehhh ehh trades, I will become very consistent and very profitable.” To Trader A, I responded, ” When u say get rid of ehh … Read More
Traders Rave About “One Good Trade”: How It Transformed Their Options Trading
One of the great rewards from writing One Good Trade are the positive unintended consequences. One of those is how much the book has helped traders other than equities day traders. Let me offer two examples. Today at lunch, I sat with an income options trader, who shared his trading breakthrough was reading One Good Trade. This trader had … Read More
The power of Team Trading
Last night Team SWang, a collection of traders with unique skill sets that trade for firm, met for drinks and food to discuss ways that they could improve. They are one of the top teams at our firm, based on PnL and improvement. Their team leader, SWang, encapsulated how Team Trading can help traders: “I didn’t know a team … Read More
The trading exit is not what you want but rather what it should be
A trader read yesterday’s post Expectations poison good trading and remarked: I would like to focus on this savvy reader’s observation: “I’ve sometimes used the standard of what I WANT the market to do. (how ridiculous is that!)” Well…. from my seat it is not too ridiculous at all. I have been guilty of this. I have seen profitable traders … Read More
It’s hard knowing the right trading process to follow
I had lunch with a candidate for our September training class, who asked a really good question: “How did your past in sports and law influence your path as a trader?” Answer: Process To become successful in the past, I needed to follow and trust the process. To be successful as a new, developing and even experienced trader you … Read More
Build trades around the direction of the real trade
In a monthly review, a promising trader found an important area of improvement: build trades around the direction of the real trade. The trader in his monthly review wrote: Before the Open yesterday, our top trader was fielding trade ideas from junior traders on his desk. One junior trader offered an idea that was dismissed by the top trader. He … Read More
5 trading lessons from monthly reviews
At the end of each month, firm traders are encouraged to complete a monthly review of their trading. While reading firm reviews for April, 5 lessons stood out. Let’s discuss them. 1.Don’t turn bad days into worse One developing trader is working on limiting losses on his bad days. The thought is every extra dollar not lost on his bad … Read More
I want my business judged on MY trades!
I have been mentoring a futures trader recently. In a daily review (below), he provided feedback that mentoring encouraging him to focus on his best trades was powerful. I am working with a developing equities trader, who is very profitable when he focuses on his trade. He can tell you what it is. He writes in his reviews that … Read More