JPM priced a secondary a couple of days ago at $35.25. JPM showed nice strength in the morning and traded up from around $34.40 to $35.25. One of the younger traders on the desk called out “JPM at the high of the day”. Rosie, the trainee who sits to my left immediately responded that JPM was approaching its secondary price … Read More
The key to my day today: stock selection
The key to my day today: stock selection. It was pretty clear this morning that the action was going to be in the financials that had announced secondary stock offerings. JPM, STI, AXP, and MS all sold stock to the general public so they could pay back the TARP money and get the gov out of their hair. In our … Read More
Why Inexperienced Traders Fail to Hold Their Winners
One of the most difficult skills to master for a younger trader is holding a position for a larger move. I’m going to discuss the reasons that I believe this is the case and some of the things SMB does to help its traders improve on this very important skill. I will also briefly discuss one of the younger traders … Read More
Anatomy of a Rip
I mentioned last week that I would blog the next time I took a rip of more than 1K. Unfortunately, I ripped up a lot more than that today. There were several reasons why I took this unnecessary loss and they were all my fault. Sometimes as a trader you will take a large loss due to market circumstances. But … Read More
Stay Where The Money Is
WFC has treated me very well lately. On Thursday it sold off hard on the Open and then after some consolidation continued lower. Easy short play. On Friday after a nice gap down it filled the gap and closed at the high with furious buying. Easy long play. This morning I had a decision to make on which stock to … Read More
One That Got Away
RIMM has been my favorite trading stock for the past year or so. I have blogged about trading it a few times already. On Friday it presented a phenomenal trading setup. A setup that I believe works over 70% of the time and offers a risk to reward of greater than 10:1. This setup does not occur that often but … Read More
All Trades Are Not Created Equal
On our desk newbies are taught to look for setups where they can risk one unit to make five. By constantly looking for these great risk/reward setups they can become consistently profitable. But there is something more important one needs to recognize in order to move to the “next level”. Traders must recognize that unlike people all trades are not … Read More
The Advantage of In Play Stocks
I have written extensively since our blog began regarding “In Play” stocks. During earnings season there are many In Play stocks to choose from each day. Traders should choose no more than two or three of these stocks each day to focus on. This is the case because you can make a lot more money trading one or two stocks … Read More