As indicated by previous posts, yesterday was a great day. Sometimes you don’t know when days like that are coming around. Sometimes you can tell. On Thursday night, my roomates asked me to go out drinking, but I declined because I had a feeling something could happen to the market on Friday. I know that when I’m hungover I don’t … Read More
One Good Day
Yesterday was a good day for our desk. It is days like yesterday that make me upset the market is not open seven days a week. Trading can be very frustrating but when you do the right things it is freaking sweet. It is nice to see that the hard work pays off. There are days when trading feels like … Read More
A Great Day for Two New Traders
Yesterday was a great day for our prop trading desk. My partner and our head trader killed it. One of our new traders who was a former Olympic trial swimmer put up a huge day. And on and on and on. But I want to highlight two of our new traders because we can all learn from them. For those … Read More
Take Advantage of this Opportunity
Our new traders love to hear “back in the day” stories. You know the late 90’s when day traders were making 6 figures a month. What was the most you ever made in one day is a frequent question. And I tell our prop traders the story about when the Fed cut rates surprisingly intraday by 50 basis points. Now … Read More
Are You Making Money?
We teach our day trading desk, SMB Capital, in New York City to check to see which stocks they are making money in. I supposed a new prop trader reading this might say, “How could I not know that? Or that seems like a complete waste of time.” You would be surprised. The human mind is a funny thing. It does not … Read More
Talking Yourself Out of the Market
So everyday when the trading session begins in New York I pride myself in being able to gauge what kind of day it might be and base my aggression and ultimate moneymaking potential on that judgement. Some of the factors that I use to base my judgement on are the volume and potential moves of stocks that are in play. … Read More
Film Time
One great tool that is used on our desk is a screen recorder that allows us to record our trading in real time for later review and critique. This is a lot like game-time (or practice) films that any athlete is familiar with. The quote was always “the films don’t lie” as your were captured in slow motion missing that … Read More
Statistics, chocolate chip cookies and trading
If homemade chocolate chip cookies are made and I eat one, there is a 100 percent chance that I will eat many, many more. If I fade a strong stock, there is a 70 percent chance that this trade will result in a loss. Last nite we were visiting friends and our host made some chocolate chip cookies. I ate one … Read More