The other day I mentioned on my Twitter account (@sspencer_smb) that I would begin to blog about my daily interaction with HFTs in the US equities markets. I have been actively trading stocks with heavy HFT activity since at least 2003. In 2003 I traded AAPL on a regular basis and it was already flooded with dozens of HFT programs, … Read More
Three Days In One
Those who follow the markets closely have heard the expression countless times “the market takes the escalator on the way up and the elevator on the way down”. This simply means that markets tend to go down in price a lot more quickly than they go up. Today the SPY eliminated three days of gains in one massive down day. … Read More
SMB Fundamental Trades: #1: EP May 25th 2011
Thanks to everyone who responded to my initial post yesterday regarding the setup in EP. I think this series of posts is gonna be a lot of fun and we will hopefully continue to see a large amount of community feedback on how YOU would trade various setups. Because ultimately we each must develop a trading style that suits our … Read More
Conversation With A Trainee At 10:45AM
trainee: “So this SLV isn’t really doing much this morning” spencer:”Yeah, pretty tight range” trainee:”it is just stuck in a 35 cent range” spencer leaves the desk to attend firm business at 11:00AM. second conversation at 12:20 when spencer returns spencer: “you long this SLV? finally broke out of the range” trainee: “no. i’m watching it.” ———— A large part … Read More
Spencer’s Setups
I have an idea for a new blog series. I will try at least once a week to post a setup based on SMB Fundamentals: Fresh news, Technicals, and the Tape. But in the interest of it being a learning experience and also a recognition that the readers of our blog are way above average intelligence, I will ask for … Read More
If Check 1, If Check 2, If Check 3 then pounce
One of the ways I use the SMB Radar to identify the best stocks and setups to see if a ticker is appearing at the top of multiple categories simultaneously. At 10:37AM today LO was atop In Play, Weak Today, and Opening Range. It was consolidating at the low of the day after a strong Opening Drive. I love this … Read More
Context Matters: Why BIDU was a short and CF was not
Last week I wrote a blog that discussed an excellent short setup in BIDU from May 16th. BIDU was trending down on the daily time frame and offered a very low risk intraday trade on the short side after running up on the Open and then forming a rounded top. I tasked one of our trainees to continue to look … Read More
I’d Rather Make Money Than Be Right
Those who follow SMB closely know that our AM Meeting divides trading ideas into three sections. Fresh, Second Day Plays, and Technical Plays. On Friday during we discussed YUM that recently had been trending higher and was especially strong on Thursday. With this particular scenario we highlight “prices of interest” where we would look to play YUM on the long … Read More