Hello Bella

I just finished reading ONE GOOD TRADE, and I loved it. I am different from the traders you talk about. I am retired and living off my pension, social security and making up the shortfall by trading in my IRA. Cramer didn’t work very well for me, neither did IBD nor, recently, Gil Morales. I hope it’s just the market, but I like short term trading and I think your advice would help. If this question is an old FAQ, I missed the memo. I found no books on Amazon, nor rational responses from Google.

You might hate this approach, but us Old Guys (from Men in Black) need something simple. I don’t need to compete with your professional traders, just something like $100 per day would be wonderful. I could trade the Open to 11 am and call it a day in time to pick up my grandkids from school. Isn’t that possible without pushing the envelope? One Stock in Play, one good probability strategy and I can probably work out the rest. For example, I tried reading the tape and I’ll keep trying till I get it, if I must. However, I stumbled onto Scottrade’s one-second chart, which seems to be the same information laid out horizontally. I know you teach flexibility and moving with the market, but flexibility is not a strong point with Old Guys. So One Good Trade would mean, to me, one trade that works good enough. One small, subset of the big playbook that you use to teach real traders.

Staying within the limitation of an IRA can be done, I’m sure. There are no limitations on intraday trading, as long as I use settled cash for all my buys. (It’s amazing how much misinformation there is about IRA’s on the internet.) And if I had an ETF and inverse that resembled a stock, I could forgo Stocks in Play and go long and short. Fidelity has some commission-free ETF’s that I can use as practice. For example I can trade the heck out of IWM for free, one share at a time (until Fidelity cuts me off, I guess) and preset a dozen buy and sell orders on the trade screen for rapid hit the bid practice with my – shudder — mouse. If I want to practice flipping, I can also set up a dozen RWM orders, at $8 bucks a pop. Since RWM is a near perfect hedge for IWM, I can fumble around after buying RWM and hit IWM when I get around to it – or change my mind and hit RWM. To me, this sounds like real trading!

I have lots more ideas, but this e-mail is long enough, and I want to hear your thoughts on the concept.

Thanks in advance.

Bella

The author above I would categorize this way: I can only be a part-time trader. There are millions like this in the trading community. As you know I am a trade every tick, every day, all day trader/trading mentor. But what if you are not interested in watching the markets every tick, every day, all day? Are there trading paths for you?

Of course there is. If you read one blog from Peter Brandt you quickly learn of a strategy from a very successful trader that espouses not watching the markets all the time. Doing so actually hurts your performance. You might learn technicals and swing trading. Pick up The StockTwits Edge and you will find numerous profitable strategies that do not require a serious gamer’s attention. SMB has an algo that fits in this box. And yes there is a way to trade equities part-time as an intraday trader that might work. The idea above is one that can work.  You will see experienced intraday traders summer trade this way, making a few bucks but mostly working on their golf games, tans and Hamptonsing.

I am not a huge fan of the part-time equity trading thing because SMB Training is more about elite performance than anything else. How good can you be? This is not a game about income. This is a game about improvement. Working at something part-time as an equity trader can be profitable but it misses our core.  Heck many are just not interested in that.

Having said that SMB Options does teach a style for those who cannot watch the markets 24/7. Perhaps you are working looking to supplement your income, have a bug about trading, but cannot take the risk of quitting your job? Perhaps you have just retired, love the markets, do not want to work 10 hours a day staring at screens, but want to earn some monthly income? Perhaps you are an equity trader looking to trade other products but cannot watch this new product tick by tick? We started working with Seth Freudberg of SMB Options (check out our Options Tribe free seminars) to provide a trading style solution for those very people above. This is a style you can become consistent at that does not require tick by tick, all day, every day focus (btw for those interested check out our free Options Tribe meeting this Tuesday.)

I hope that helps.

Mike Bellafiore
One Good Trade