I tweeted the following this afternoon: there is “easy money” and “hard money” in trading. your longevity is determined by which one you choose to pursue…$$ I had quite a few responses. Some traders pointed out trading is not easy. And of course I agree with this. Trading successfully requires thousands of hours of practice and skill development. But once … Read More
When The Price Action Changes–Facebook
Facebook had been an great swing short since Tuesday morning when it made a new post IPO low. It continued to make lower highs and lower lows. The definition of a “downtrend”. You were hard pressed to spot two consecutive green bars on the 15 minute chart and the few times that did occur there was very little volume and … Read More
Facebook Friday And Rocket Science
Despite the fact that the fast majority of those hired by hedge funds and banks these days are literally rocket scientists (PHD’s in Physics, AstroPhysics, Mathematics etc.) trading is NOT rocket science. Of course being good at math and being able to write algorithms doesn’t prevent someone from successful market speculation it just isn’t a prerequisite. On Friday I outlined … Read More
Facebook Live
It is time to use the most overhyped IPO of the decade to share a few tips on First Day trading for an IPO. In addition to the tips below I will be broadcasting LIVE starting 5 minutes before FB begins trading and will probably continue to broadcast for another 5 minutes once trading begins. Everything written below is based … Read More
Learning Some More–Day 2 SXCI
I spent some time yesterday writing how exciting it was to see some traders on the desk add to their game a new trade. Instead of only looking for the quick profit taking a scalp short in a stock gapping higher they looked to capture the larger move to the upside. Here is what I wrote: We urge our desk … Read More
Learning
This morning it was announced that SXCI was buying CHSI in a cash and stock deal (story from Benzinga). Both stocks were gapping up significantly. It is unusual for the acquirer to gap higher in a merger that involves stock as a major component of the transaction. There is usually a huge amount of selling pressure from the “merger arb” … Read More
The Bear Trap Followup: NFLX 110
Yesterday’s SMB U Trading Lesson was on how not to get ripped to shreads in a Bear Trap. Today, Gman tweeted in Pre-market that NFLX was setting up as a Bear Trap and that he would look to trade it long against 110 to take advantage of those who might be trapped trying to short. Let’s take a look at … Read More
Trading Lesson: The Bear Trap–Ouch!
A large part of successful trading is understanding how others are positioned in a stock and using that information to your advantage. One of the most common triggers for opening a short position in day trading is a drop of multi-day support. The idea being that many longs will have stop orders below this level, which will lead to a … Read More