Back in the day I used to think that every sale was a bad sale. Inevitably internet stocks would somehow find their way higher. And then came subprime. Followed by its evil twin the near recent collapse of our banking system. And during this historic trading period at times every cover was a bad cover. And yesterday I battled a … Read More
High Frequency Trading
In light of all the recent commotion about high frequency trading (HFT), we have decided to compile a list of articles that depict the advantages, disadvantages, as well as arguments for and against HFT. The list follows below: Stock Traders Find Speed Pays, in Milliseconds: This is the original exposé by Charles Duhigg in the New York Times What’s Behind … Read More
FSLR After Hours
Some great action in FSLR after reporting today. It immediately drove up from 175 to 187. There was a pullback to 180 where the bid momentarily held before dropping out to 179. Before you could blink it drove up to 190. This powerful drive got us to start thinking about where to buy on a pullback. Gman was thinking 185 … Read More
Keep It Together
Panic is not a good thought for a trader. And during really crazy moves in a stock, when you may be tempted to panic, calm is required. I had such a situation on the Open with MHS. Let’s discuss. So we start the day and Alexander gets me into this MHS. I wanted to trade something else but he just … Read More
A Bad Day
As traders some days we just won’t have it. During the last two training classes at SMB our best students have been female. For some reason only about two percent of the resumes sent to us originate from women (how do we get more?). A leading female student in our present class finally had a negative trading day in her … Read More
Weekend Review: July 20 – 26, 2009
The SPY finally traded above that 95 level this week. In fact, it traded above that level for most of the week. With earnings surprises to the upside from most S&P companies, it’s understandable as to why. Even in the face of tech heavy weights MSFT and AMZN selling off on initial earnings results, we managed to hold a bid … Read More
HFT and AMZN
HFT (high frequency trading) has dominated the financial media of late. @zerohedge, Charlie Gasparino and CNBC, the StockTwits nation, @steenbab, GMan from @smbcapital, and many other talented bloggers have all weighed in. And then came Senator Schumer: (from Bloomberg courtesy of @zerohedge): Senator Charles Schumer asked the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to ban “flash orders,” saying the transactions give … Read More
Confirmation Bias
Today I fought confirmation bias. Confirmation bias is processing information in the market so that it fits your preconceived opinions. You overvalue all the information that backs your preconceived thoughts. You ignore all the information that counters your belief. @steenbab (Twitter handle) and @thekirkreport have written about confirmation bias in their blogs previously. I wanted to share how I had … Read More