Happy new year to you all! I have spent some of the last few days off thinking about my trading and things I need to improve this year. While watching my archive of tapes in the days that I struggle I have found some inconsistency with my tier size. I have seen this problem in a couple of our guys … Read More
The Right Daily Stop Loss Amount
There is a fine line between failing and making it as a trader. Whether you trade with a prop firm or trade for yourself it is important to have an appropriate stop loss. Having too small of a daily stop loss will keep you out of the game too many times and will impair your ability to grow as a … Read More
Catching Yourself Before Disaster Hits
I picked up a copy of the new Malcolm Gladwell book Outliers this weekend and read something that caught my attention. Gladwell points out that a typical airline accident involves seven consecutive errors. The errors by themselves rarely have an impact on the overall safety of a flight, yet the combination of them consecutively usually lead to disaster. I started … Read More
Plays Not to Be In
Yesterday I got pretty heated at some guys on our desk for being in what I call “a good play in a sucker stock” in the middle of the day. Every day for the past 2 weeks I have noticed that some guys get in plays where the risk appears to be 1 cent and the reward about 5-10 cents, … Read More
So Weak. So Weak!!
Yesterday we had a ridiculous sell off. Three days worth of gains got completely eliminated. Yes, we were expecting a pullback because the market had been walked up on light/moderate volume during the holiday, but yesterday’s price action shows there is fear in the market again.The price action yesterday put us today in an uncomfortable position. You could argue that … Read More
Patiently Waiting in the Wrong Stock
Yesterday was a hard day for me. I performed well, though I traded lightly and found it difficult to trade the market in the middle of the day. I am normally the type of trader that can sit there and trade profitably all day long. I make my adjustments so I can trade profitably during the middle of the day … Read More
Letting Go
I was trading HPQ this morning on the good guidance they provided. I traded the stock pretty well in premarket and was able to build a pretty good cushion for the open. I normally do not trade this stock as it is too thick and doesn’t have enough volatility. Today however it was up almost $4 on the open and … Read More
Reviewing Your Work
I was out on the West Coast interviewing some candidates at UC Berkeley last Friday. It sure was nice out there! Mid 70s in the middle of November, really? Oh boy do I miss that awesome weather!. One of the interviewees with a bit of experience in trading his own account asked me a question that I thought was interesting. … Read More