The other day I mentioned on my Twitter account (@sspencer_smb) that I would begin to blog about my daily interaction with HFTs in the US equities markets. I have been actively trading stocks with heavy HFT activity since at least 2003. In 2003 I traded AAPL on a regular basis and it was already flooded with dozens of HFT programs, … Read More
SMB Fundamental Trades: #1: EP May 25th 2011
Thanks to everyone who responded to my initial post yesterday regarding the setup in EP. I think this series of posts is gonna be a lot of fun and we will hopefully continue to see a large amount of community feedback on how YOU would trade various setups. Because ultimately we each must develop a trading style that suits our … Read More
Spencer’s Setups
I have an idea for a new blog series. I will try at least once a week to post a setup based on SMB Fundamentals: Fresh news, Technicals, and the Tape. But in the interest of it being a learning experience and also a recognition that the readers of our blog are way above average intelligence, I will ask for … Read More
Context Matters: Why BIDU was a short and CF was not
Last week I wrote a blog that discussed an excellent short setup in BIDU from May 16th. BIDU was trending down on the daily time frame and offered a very low risk intraday trade on the short side after running up on the Open and then forming a rounded top. I tasked one of our trainees to continue to look … Read More
Using Your Strengths To Improve Your Trading Results
I had an interesting conversation after the close today with a newb trader who is attempting to become consistently profitable. I asked this very intelligent and competitive young woman what were her strongest qualities as a trader. The first thing out of her mouth was she was not afraid to let her winners run. She then added that she felt … Read More
Trading with a Bias: Unlocking Strategies to Overcome Market Challenges (Stock: WFMI)
(this post was originally written May 1st and refers to the price action in WFMI from 4/28/11) Let me start by saying as an intraday trader it’s ok to have a bias but your mind needs to be open to all different possibilities. A stock is gapping up, my bias would be long, gapping down my bias would be short. … Read More
SMB Gameplan Recap for May 11th
Here is another recap video that takes you through my thought process with respect to our AM Ideas as well as how the price action during market hours impacted our trading plan. Fresh ideas are usually listed in order of difficulty. Ideas listed first are for novice traders and as you work your way down the list the stocks become more … Read More
My First Time
Today was the first time I have ever traded SLV. Or at least I cannot recall trading it previously. In the past week I have read several blogs and watched a couple of videos related to the monster run that silver is on. After the close today I interviewed some kid for the desk who asked me when this “bubble” … Read More