We as a firm were studying our top five traders this week. Each of them trade a very different style. Said another way, each of them is unique. One is a scalper. Another trades momentum. Another is an inefficiency trader. Another is an arbitrage trader. Still another trades low floats. What is more interesting is that each of them trades … Read More
This is your trading business
We teach a class, SMB DNA, and a student asked this question about the chart above from this class: As you can see from the chart, after price broke above 238.40 and traded above it, price tested and rebounded from the level 4 times. It seems to me that this suggests the level is significant intraday as well. The 3rd … Read More
Meet Mr. Excuse trader
*inspired by 18 years of trading I lost money because of that damn Jim Cramer! No you lost money because you followed his advice on a trade not best for you. I lost money because the damn Fed keeps inflating prices. No you lost money because you didn’t follow the trend created by the Fed keeping rates low. I lost … Read More
Back against the wall trading
I get a lot of emails from prop, hedge fund, and retail traders confiding: I have to make money now! Their back is against the wall. Your first reaction may be that they are in this position because they did not seek help earlier. But that would miss the point of this post and the lessons we can learn from … Read More
This is what a professional trader looks like
It’s 7:27PM EST on Thursday night, I throw my backpack over my shoulder and head home for the night. As I close my office door at our proprietary trading firm, I notice a trader still at the office. That’s him, last night in that picture above. This is what a professional trader looks like. Let me be clear about … Read More
Careful aggressive traders
I love aggressive traders. Firms love aggressive traders. There is trader lore and real-history of firms testing for that fabulously aggressive trader trait (if it exists). Then there is these times. Markets when the aggressive trader takes his beating from Mother Market for being overly aggressive. The holidays are coming. It’s not earnings season. Traders are sitting around, re-clicking ESPN … Read More
How to trade bigger
In our recent survey we asked you for lesson ideas to include in SMBU Premium 2016. Many of your responses included topics related trading size, trading bigger, and questions like “how do I trade bigger?” Here’s the short answer: Identify your trading strengths Trade your best setups more often and with larger size as I wrote in The PlayBook Trade … Read More
30 trading habits in 30 days- a book of charts
Welcome back to our new series 30 trading habits in 30 days. This is not my idea. I co-opted it from a trader we trained from scratch to High Performing Trader. This is an excellent habit to build for your daily training as a trader. Build a book of best charts. Every time you make or spot a great setup, … Read More