Hi Mike, Nicely done tonight… You spoke about stocks in play briefly. I am not sure I heard the definition properly for a stock in play. Is the selection a function of Volume only which is +/-3% of overnight volume? Could you briefly define a stock in play? Thanks, Jim @mikebellafiore Thxs for attending our Webinar last night. In The … Read More
Steps to Profitable Short-Term Trading
The first step we cover during our interviews with candidates for a position in our NYC office is a series of questions designed to discover a trader’s motivations and goals for entering the business of short-term stock trading. As we cover the questions, we recommend you write them down on a separate sheet of paper and answer them for yourself … Read More
The Daily Gratitude Exercise
The above is from a slide for my last presentation at an 800 plus event. This exercise has had a profound impact on my trading and trader mindset. Let’s explain the Gratitude Exercise which you might co-opt for your trading. Each day find time to close your eyes and replay three things for which you are grateful. During the … Read More
Get a Trading Coach Already
There is little evidence of anyone competing at the highest levels without critical feedback, coaching, and mentoring (coaching is what happens in real-time and mentoring after the close). I received this e-mail yesterday that can teach us about the power of trader coaching and education. Dear Mr. Bellafiore, I wanted to send you a quick email to thank you … Read More
Do Not Fear the Bots
Computer trading has become the largest part of our market’s volume threatening the profitability of many discretionary traders. Many traders/investors fear the bots. We shouldn’t. We should embrace their underlying technology and use it to help us find more of our favorite trading patterns. And even turn quant. Adding support to my thesis above was a recent blog post at … Read More
Bad Luck Boeing?
On Friday the news hit of a fire on a Boeing 787. Yes, that same plane that BA was forced to take out of service because of lithium battery fires during flight. I don’t know about you but I prefer my flights without fires on board. BA tweaked and fixed the battery issue and the 787s were back in flight. … Read More
The 3PM Bull Basket
I was sitting on our trading desk looking at SPY this Friday. I felt a very strange sense of déjà vu that it was 1998, the year I was relative strength trading semi-conductor stocks, and MSFT, INTL, DELL. This was before the Internet Boom but when these sectors were red hot. At 3PM we would add to our strongest-acting stocks … Read More
Real Companies Get Bought When They Gap Down… Except for UPS
If you sit near me on our trading desk you have heard me say, “In a strong market real companies get bought.” What I mean is when a real company gaps down, in a strong market, it is likely to find a big buyer and find a way to trade higher. But then there was UPS on Friday. This was … Read More