In this video, SMB Trader Max Ganik talks about his first year trading at SMB Capital. He offers 4 pillars of how he was able to find success in his first year.
View Video Transcripttoday basically i’m just going to go
over four pillars of
how i was able to find success in my
first year trading here at
smb capital
[Music]
the first is keeping a mind in check
at all times be in the moment and aware
of your psychology push the style of
trading
that works for you have a defined focus
early on
in your career work with a team grow
and learn from your peers and mentors
and then lastly
stay humble and accept the setbacks
so now we’re going to go through all
four of those in more detail
so for the first one it’s just a one day
at a time
i found that many times especially early
on like
we will all have kind of goals for how
much we want to make so for example
um one of the first milestones for us
was to have
a one thousand dollar day and i think
that
uh coming in every day and saying that
uh today is the day that i’m gonna make
the one thousand dollars
is uh something that is going to be um
you know a big problem you know like
rather than just for example
uh trading the trade because like you
know if let’s say that you were in a
trade
where the uh trade was showing signs of
failing
at a 600 profit right and you know
in your mind uh you were saying i want
to get to that 1 000.
it’s possible that the trade would then
fully turn
and then you would end up losing and
that would impact
your psychology for the following days
and it would kind of screw up your
uh consistency right so really just uh
you know like focusing on
uh trading the trade and taking things
like one day at a time
um besides that you know just kind of
like sticking on this point
i found that especially in times where i
drew down so for example
in august like when the market got
slower it was
one of the first times where i would say
that the market was actually truly slow
since going live for me so really uh
focusing on just kind of
taking things one day at a time you know
and not trying to
dig out of the hole in just one day and
just
focus on getting back my consistency and
just kind of
printing green days was critical
for me actually closing the month green
and as well on the flip side
in september which was a record month
for me
instead of kind of focusing on
every single day me like you know how
much money could
i make this month instead just kind of
every day coming in
and focusing on that very next trade
allowed me to
stick to my goals stick to uh on my
playbook
and then slowly uh progress to end up
you know having that record month uh the
second point is i’ll
learn your strengths and weaknesses so
what kind of style of trading works for
you
what kind of stock works for you like uh
when you trade best and worst
so for example for me i found that when
i’m trading my best is usually in high
um arvol
names that’s when there’s either some
sort of a breaking news catalyst
or there’s a large volume uh technical
breakout
so really focusing on putting my risk
on in those setups and then dialing
things back when things slow down
and then in lower arvol setups is
something that has worked well for me
and obviously this is all through trial
and error and
for me the error was kind of early on
when
i would realize how much i would give
back in mid-day trading which is
you know a pretty uh a common problem
for traders and realizing that helped me
adjust
my style of trading so it’s basically
just kind of a feedback loop right
um and we’re going to go into different
kind of
styles of stocks in a little bit um and
then lastly
focus on on pressing in areas of
strength
find ways early on to boost your
confidence so
during the march when there was crazy
volatility pre-market trading became
something
that became a focal point for me um
because there were
at least in my opinion there were clean
tape trades
that allowed me to kind of build up my
um
you know like some sort of a cushion
many days
going into the open where i can now go
into the open and then
attack the setups in a you know in a
much more calm way
because i had that uh uh cushion
from the pre-market right and this kind
of let me
grow at a faster pace because uh my
psychology
was in such a good point on those days
um you know because i was able to uh
get that little boost and now even
though you know my things have
slowed down a bit in in a pre-market i
was able to build on that edge and see
why there’s so many benefits to
pre-market trading like for example
being able just to
watch the tape for two three hours
before the open and see what prices seem
to be
important how our buyers and sellers
interacting at various prices
you know throughout those hours will
then kind of give you a little bit more
of an edge
for uh when those same prices come up
during the regular hours and
and potentially allow you to enter an
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years of online education so now as far
as finding your style trading
i would say that from my experience and
just from witnessing other traders
most traders find success either in low
floats or
in large caps most people that i work
with
will have a pretty much a defined focus
you know in one or the other i’d say
that there definitely is a different
style of trading
um in one verse the other so i
personally have found a lot more success
in large caps
so what uh you know i’ve done basically
is
tell myself that during the regular uh
trading hours i will
for the most part uh not touch low
floats there are very few situations
where i’ll be interested in trading low
floats because
for me the tape is just not as clean so
therefore it’s something that i can
kind of narrow my focus down at and then
build my edge in other places right so
for the first year obviously
you want to find how could you build
your uh consistency and for me that was
focusing on large caps that have
higher oval right so being able just to
uh
narrow down that focus is key uh second
is going to be scalping versus bigger
picture
so for me i would consider myself more
of a scalper a tape trader
trying just to get bits and pieces but
as
i try to develop other parts of my
trading business i’ve realized how i can
kind of
take both you know so for example if
let’s say
you also consider yourself to be a
scalper
but like you have these bigger picture
ideas like you can
use that edge to try to build up
positions
throughout the day so for example if
let’s say you thought a stock was going
to
trend up for the um whole day right and
you saw
some trade on the open where you can get
in for an opening drive with
a very tight um rr right
you can use like this setup to get a lot
more size
you know with that tighter stop and then
keep course
along the way and just kind of trail
stops uh rather than let’s just say
buying the open putting the wide stop
and then just seeing if it can close at
highs right so this is
you know just like some way where you
can build up trades like risk-free while
still staying
involved for the uh bigger picture
um you know for example there was one
trade i think it was
la um it was in august where um
a few traders and i were trading
uh tesla on a multi-day breakout and
we noticed how the tape sped up into a
breakout point
we were buying into that breakout then
it broke out we
took off for uh 1r but we had this
bigger
picture idea in mind for a multi-day
swing
so what we did is that we trailed each
portion of the or
a tier of the position at various stops
so that way we could still build into
that bigger
picture position and we were still able
to
you know hold on to that same core size
and if let’s say we bought that breakout
with a very wide stop
so next is what strategies make the most
sense to you
and what skills do you have to give you
edge in a certain trade so
you know this kind of speaks to the last
point in the sense that
what do you feel most comfortable in so
for example for me i don’t really feel
comfortable being
in trades with very wide stops it just
gives me
anxiety you know i would much rather be
in trades
where i’m able to scalp out for a
risk-free
position quickly versus a tighter stop
and then be able to manage that position
going forward um i find that i just
trade this way
much better so what does that mean even
if let’s say there are
wide stop trades that look decent it’s
not a part of my playbook and therefore
you know i should not be putting on
those trades so for you what you want to
do is try to
narrow down what trades are you going to
trade properly
um in what situations are you going to
be putting on the right amount of risk
feel comfortable in the trade and manage
that properly
because if you’re not going to manage
the trade properly then there’s
no point in putting on the trade at uh
you know in the long run that you’re
more likely to lose or you’re more
likely to
be entering and exiting at the wrong
points and then lastly is
learn the tape reading the tape
especially just like visualizing what
you want to see in the setups that
you’re taking is uh paramount
so even if let’s say you are a more
swing style trader i still think it’s
critical
to be able to see the uh confirmation on
the tape so that way
uh you know uh whether or not your idea
is playing out
or whether or not it’s possible that it
was let’s say a false breakout a false
breakdown
um so going back to that um
the tesla example from august when we
all saw the breakout through the
key resistance point you can just see
how fast the
tables just blew through prices right so
that’s served as confirmation when using
the tape
but there are many uh you know other
trades
throughout the months where we would
kind of have that very similar setup
but you would see kind of the tape just
be extremely
heavy you know at that breakout point so
being able to
visualize that and then you know go into
more a risk management mode is something
that can
you know help save you on a loss and
kind of uh keep your uh consistency
teamwork so one of the greatest things
about obviously working in a
prop trading firm is being able to work
with other traders
and to build teams and uh to learn from
each other um you know so like whether
it’s being
on you know an actual team or
forming subgroups with
traders from your class one thing that
i’ve been able to
realize is that learning from people
that trade
completely differently is probably the
best thing that you can do
for your career and specifically group
training for example so
for the last few months i’ve been
basically every day
speaking with a select group of traders
whose background
is more so in back testing bigger
picture trading
kind of more trade to holds whereas
obviously i said before that mine is
more in scalping so being able to
use these different sources of edge
has been able to you know allow us to
build a synergy where
we’re able to put on smarter and better
positions because
we’re able to see different sides of the
market
and we’re able to combine those sources
uh you know
a veg to get in at the right prices hold
to the right
profit target and also create more ideas
um and then lastly part of teamwork and
part of group trading
is you know i believe that it’s
extremely important
to be uh very vocal with your ideas
and you know like sometimes early on
people will be shy but the reality is is
that it’s important for you to
to um you know like push your ideas and
accept that pushback because by
by you know explaining those ideas like
you’ll
you know realize the shortcomings in
those ideas right so
if let’s say you’re trying to convince
someone
that that your trade is you know like
the right trade and then
you realize as you’re speaking that it’s
actually not
smart or you see all the flaws then like
that
could save you from putting on a pretty
poor trade or
on the flip side if let’s say everyone
throws shade at the idea
and they say why it’s not going to work
but you’re able to
counter that or you see flaws in
their argument then i think that that’ll
just give you extra confidence for why
you should be considering this as an
eight-plus trade
and that’ll just give you uh more
confidence
in your trades and especially early on
in your career if you can build up that
confidence
then you’ll be able to grow uh that much
quicker
setbacks come um you know as soon as you
can
accept that you will make poor and
impulsive decisions i mean like there’s
gonna be times where you are
buying the breakout at the worst
possible point
stopping out at the lows you’re going to
end up chasing a setup for no reason
you know the reality is it is that we
all are going to make these mistakes
but what you can do is you can go back
and review these poor trades see why
they failed see what the uh
tape looked like that you should have
seen so that way for the next trade
you won’t make that same mistake and
especially like when you’re trading
more size you know and your stop is
greater like you want to
have the experience of making these
mistakes early on and obviously
i’m not saying to just go out and lose
every trade so that way that you have
experience from losing money but the
reality is is that
as long as you can kind of take from
these losing trades and go back
and review why exactly like they failed
and learned
how could you improve them or you know
why they should not be part of your
playbook then
you’re at least like making use of these
losses um
you will miss out on some a plus setups
uh for example there was even just like
one trade like this past week
um i believe that it was on neo there
was a breaking news catalyst it broke
out from like a three week consolidation
um and there was a certain setup that i
knew that
that i should have taken but i didn’t
take it i kind of just hesitated
but now i can go back and see what
exactly that setup was
i can go through like the factors that
made that
um an a-plus set up how did the tape
look
what was the uh chart pattern so now uh
the very next time that i see this setup
i know that that i should be putting on
this trade
i’m going to be that much more confident
and probably be able to
size that trade up because i’m going to
use this experience of missing out
on this a plus to my benefit and then
lastly you will stop out everyone does
um i stopped out i think maybe you know
two or three times within the first like
four or five weeks of trading
and that’s just par you know of the game
everyone does it
um you know like it’s important that you
take lessons from it and
you’re able to then realize was like
you’re risk managing poor
was your ideas poor you know for example
like did you let’s say
start out up and then end up giving back
like your profit
and then got triggered because of that
you know being able to
go through that experience will uh you
know
allow you to see like your own um
shortcomings
where you can find points where your
psychology is faltering
and then make steps from there so for
example one thing for me is that
give backs always uh trigger me so if
i’m let’s say up
x and then i give back more than 30 or
50 percent
like that’s something that is going to
stick with me
for the rest of the day so realizing
that
after i hit let’s say a 30 or 40 percent
give back
i know that that you know i should stop
trading because i know that anything
after that i’m not going to be trading
the trade properly
i know that i’ll be selling the profit
way too quickly or i’m just going to
size it too aggressively and then go
back to negative or stop
out so you know using the experiences
from the past where i made those errors
is
what allows me to learn and improve uh
going forward now
and yeah that basically sums up just
kind of uh the lessons that i’ve learned
from my first year trading hey go ahead
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