I received this email from a reader of our blog. I thought we could discuss: Hi, this is Ivan in NYC (Bulgarian immigrant), a regular reader of the blog. I’m a retail trader and a relative newbie. Although I can not formulate particular trading strategy just by reading the blog I enjoy reading it and find it useful. I would … Read More
Seen That, Traded That: AIG
“Have you ever seen anything like that?” asked a new trader. “The news isn’t new,” chirped a trader on Day 18 of his trading career. “AIG traded up from 15 to 23 and I barely made any money how is that possible?” Let’s discuss AIG and all the plays that will be like AIG going forward. 1) There will be … Read More
Repeating Patterns to Exploit
One of our new traders in the June class asked me about what I review when I watch my trading video. The short answer: patterns that offer clean trades where I can be aggressive. When I review my work and I see patterns that offer these clean trades I brand that opportunity in my head. Let’s take a … Read More
High Frequency Trading
In light of all the recent commotion about high frequency trading (HFT), we have decided to compile a list of articles that depict the advantages, disadvantages, as well as arguments for and against HFT. The list follows below: Stock Traders Find Speed Pays, in Milliseconds: This is the original exposé by Charles Duhigg in the New York Times What’s Behind … Read More
A Bad Day
As traders some days we just won’t have it. During the last two training classes at SMB our best students have been female. For some reason only about two percent of the resumes sent to us originate from women (how do we get more?). A leading female student in our present class finally had a negative trading day in her … Read More
Confirmation Bias
Today I fought confirmation bias. Confirmation bias is processing information in the market so that it fits your preconceived opinions. You overvalue all the information that backs your preconceived thoughts. You ignore all the information that counters your belief. @steenbab (Twitter handle) and @thekirkreport have written about confirmation bias in their blogs previously. I wanted to share how I had … Read More
Interview with SMB Co-Founder Mike Bellafiore (“Bella”)
For an excellent interview, with SMB Capital Co-Founder, Mike Bellafiore, about training new traders, the growth of SMB Capital, and trading please see this link:
Brick by Brick
After I leave the office Friday around 7PM I generally grab some dinner (last night at Pomodoro on the UWS….delicious!) and then shut things down for the day. So I missed an important email sent to me last night. An email that a new and developing trader can learn from. One that we should all write to someone who we … Read More