The real stop

BellaGeneral Comments

A trader on the desk wrote this in his daily review: Took the train home with (redacted, Senior Trader at firm) today, we had a really good chat. Seeing how far he has come and how he views trades.  Does Not trade price action so much. He focuses more on his overall idea and trades it loosely.  Shorting rallies covering … Read More

How to improve your discipline as a trader

BellaGeneral Comments

A new trader wrote this to me: Noob (trader here).  Two months in with maybe a total of 3 days where I consistently followed my rules.  Down about 2k thus far.  I am questioning my ability to do this.  Mainly because of my lack of discipline in following my rules. There is the old parable about the frog that asks … Read More

When you are trading well…..try this

BellaGeneral Comments

During a daily review one of the firm’s top traders observed this about this trading:  I am feeling confident about my trades, seeing the markets well, and want to leverage this period here to trade aggressively as long as I am staying in sync. Dr. Steenbarger has taught us traders to study, study, study the trading periods when you are … Read More

Getting in the back door at a prop trading firm

BellaGeneral Comments

Yesterday Merritt and I had lunch with the winner of The Winning Trader.  This is a short training program that exposes developing and new traders to setups with edge.  The idea is to gain exposure to setups for students to try and see if they work for them, build a PlayBook, and learn how pro traders attack the trading day. … Read More

What are you going to do about it?

BellaGeneral Comments

Last night a trader sent me a review from a very poor trading day.  He wrote: Little mad at myself for not taking 2 of my best setups in UVE below 18 and HCI at 32.  Had the alerts go off but didn’t take the trade, and those trades played out to perfection. It definitely got under my skin most … Read More

Optimizing Discretionary Trading with Automation

BellaGeneral Comments

At our firm, traders can be discretionary traders, automated traders or hybrid traders.  Discretionary traders push the buttons and make their own decisions.  Automated traders develop and idea, backtest, forward test, and then let computers run the strategy.  Hybrid traders do a little of both and use technology to inform better discretionary trading. Often we hear in the Financial News … Read More