Expectations can be harmful to your trading. We ask all of our prop traders to set goals for themselves. I do for myself. Whether its for my trading or our trading firm. As John Wooden says,”make each day your masterpiece.” But goals often for the new trader are incorrectly results based and not process based. And I want to take … Read More
Think About Your Trading
After the Close I was talking with two veteran traders. Both trade with us. Both are very wealthy from years of successful trading. You know how the NBA named its 50 best all-time players? Well one of these traders I describe as one of the 50 best day traders of all time. He actually taught me how to trade. Though … Read More
Reversals, Reversals, Reversals
Friday was a very difficult trading day because the market reversed so many times. Into the Close the market reversed four times. I usually get caught in one reversal a week. I got caught in eight yesterday. I would make a bunch of profitable trades and then a stock would reverse. I got caught in the SPY upmove midday from … Read More
What is our Next Market Pattern?
As a trader I am like a WWII decoder. The market talks to us. It just does so in code. And often that code is challenging. But patterns always emerge such that we can understand the market and what she is saying. Yesterday after the announcement that the government would directly infuse cash into the big banks we sold off. … Read More
Where is the bottom? Make a List
I got a call from a family friend anxious about his 401k a few minutes ago. There was panic on the other end of that call from an upstate suburb. When will the market bottom? How long will it take for me to make back what I lost? What the hell is going on down there? This is not an … Read More
Wow!
It seems that every week the market gets better and better for intraday traders. Yesterday’s selling was as weak as I have seen the market in my trading career. And then we bounced. And that was a huge bounce. There was a ton to be made on the short side till 3 and then a ton to be made catching … Read More
Yesterday was Yesterday
Yesterday I got hammered. For those unfamiliar with my trading I have been negative one month in 5 years. At one point I attempted to reshort DE at around 42. Our trading platform rejected my orders. I called up Trade Desk to figure out why. And they explained that I had hit my loss limit. Loss limit? I am such … Read More
Road Map
As I write I am debating whether to trade RIMM or GS. GS is in play because of the news that the bailout may not happen. RIMM reported last night and showed unusual weakness. SMB traded RIMM in afterhours yesterday and chopped it up. So I have a feel for what to look for this AM from RIMM. But we … Read More