You get hired for June on a trading desk. You take The Foundation, a 6 week course. You learn everything you didn’t learn in school, the internet, blogs, cable TV (just kidding), your uncle, and/or trading gurus about the markets necessary to place professional trades. Then it’s on to Trader Development where for the next 6 months you experiment with … Read More
Boring old habits
Ray Allen, former NBA basketball great and UConn alumn, penned a letter to his younger self with the advice: stick to your boring old habits. He wrote movingly: You’ll win a championship in Boston. You’ll win another in Miami. The personalities on those two teams will be different, but both teams will have the same thing in common: habits. Boring … Read More
I trade well when…..
In The PlayBook, my thesis was for traders to study their best trades and build from them, trading these setups more often and bigger. The feedback I have received is that this has helped many traders. If you are not actively studying your strengths, consider doing so. Yesterday, during our SMB Options Tribe webinar, special guest, trading author, and trading … Read More
Why this special trader failed to hit his stride with us
One of our special developing traders failed to hit his stride with us. He worked as hard as anyone at the firm. Everyday he sent me his in-depth daily trading review to my inbox. His reviews set the standard for Junior traders. He worked on his trading game in college, before he arrived at SMB. I have strongly advocated for … Read More
Trading bigger is much easier than trading with edge
Trading bigger is much easier than trading with edge. I am working with a developing trader, nearing 15 months of live trading. He is starting to trade with edge. I am seeing 3/5 days of trading profitably. I am noticing in his reviews a specificity of setups that he is trading. He is not trading for stocks to finish higher … Read More
16 trading lessons live from Traders4ACause
This weekend some trading colleagues and I attended Traders4ACause, a charity event in Las Vegas. The conference is packed with live lessons for traders from traders and raises money for the charities, such as, GiveWell, BCRF, and three square. Here are 16 trading lessons learned live from Las Vegas: 1. BCRF: 50 percent of cancer can be reduced thru lifestyle- … Read More
You cannot do this and be a successful trader
Last Friday as I was walking off our trading floor, a beaming SMBU student yelped at me, “Bella I could hug you after today.” He was very pleased with the progress he had made as a trader. Fast forward to today and that same trader caught me hitting the elevator for my walk home. I asked him how trading went … Read More
Some questions from a European trader learning US markets
One of our SMBU students visited our desk in NYC from Sweden today. Merritt, from SMBU Trading Conversations on Friday 1:30PM EST, joined us for lunch, as did this trader’s dad. This European trader is a graduate of SMB DNA and The Winning Trader and working on his game, after work hours from Europe. There were two issues that arose … Read More