Into the Close I recognized that one of the stocks I was long was stronger than all the others. That was DNDN, which will now be the first stock I consider to trade as I prepare before the Open tomorrow. Let’s discuss. Into the Close I was long LVS, DRYS, AIG, and DNDN. SPY broke from its tight range and started an upmove … Read More
SMB Training presents the Reading the Tape Program
SMB Training now proudly presents our Reading the Tape training program for new and developing traders. After two months of arduous work we have finally put together an intensive 2 day program available to you for 30 days on our training website. Reading the Tape allows intraday traders to determine the next move in a stock just by examining the … Read More
Reading the Tape with Gman: Longer Term Setups
Gman, head trader at SMB Capital, wrote an excellent article for Wall Street Cheat Sheet about using tape reading skills to enter into and exit out of longer term trades. Gman discusses how learning this important skill helps traders limit their risk on a trade while maximizing profits. You can read the full article here.
Should I be Short or Long?
If a stock has fresh news prior to the market Open it may gap up/down a large amount from the previous day’s closing price. My first instinct as a trader is to be long stocks that gap up on news and short stocks that gap down on news. My experience tells me that the majority of the time there is … Read More
Anticipating The Change
In September and October of 2008 the young traders on our desk put up ridiculous numbers. Their aggressive instincts were rewarded by the unusual level of volatility. But then their aggressive instincts were severely punished in the months that followed. They were slow to adapt to changing market conditions. By December of 2008 it no longer made sense to make … Read More
Summer Crush Turned Long Term Relationship – AIG
The party continues in AIG. After the reverse split the stock has been heavily in play at least 75% of the trading days. Yesterday the stock was not as in play as it had been but still provided some good opportunities. That AIG is like that attractive girl you are happy you met for the summer that later turned into … Read More
Your Job is Not to Make Money
What do all of these things have in common? We took down our leaderboard at our firm a few months ago. Today one of our traders left early because he got stopped out. The other day I was interviewing a candidate for our desk who defined a good trading day by how much he made or lost. What is your … Read More
Our Approach Makes the Most Sense (Really)
When I began trading in 1996 we identified the stocks we were going to trade from something called the “ticker”. This window that appeared on our trading platform identified stocks that were moving. We were taught to get long stocks that were going up and short stocks that were going down. We were momentum traders with state of the art … Read More