This Monday we made a Momentum Scalp Trade in Visa, stock symbol V. Perhaps you can make this trading pattern your own. Let’s set up the trade: On Monday June 21st V exploded intraday. Monday afternoon U.S. politicians reached an agreement on the regulation of interchange, or “swipe” fees on credit and debit card transactions. This language was expected to … Read More
Traders Ask: How Do I Make Adjustments?
I received the following email from trader Angel: Hey Mike! I hope that my email finds you well. I have topic that may benefit some other readers as well. It’s about re-inventing the wheel. Back in april and early may I was trading very well. I had multiple $1,000 days and even a $3,000 day. However, when the volatility increased … Read More
Becoming One of the Chosen Few
This weekend I was invited by Stocktwits and the Money Show to speak at the LA Trader Expo in Pasadena. One of the most awesome things about the Internet and our young trading blogosphere is how much free trading content is obtainable. GMan and I refer to this as domain knowledge. And acquiring domain knowledge is an import ingredient to … Read More
A ?4 the Trading Community- Should I Short?
Dr. Steenbarger helped me recognize one of the improvements we could make at SMB awhile ago. The partners and Senior Traders must be responsible for a great deal of teaching and mentoring. But if traders are not leveraging the talent of all firm members then that firm is not offering the best learning environment. Traders learn from other traders and … Read More
Old School Lessons from Mike Bellafiore
Mike Bellafiore, Partner at SMB Capital, and author of One Good Trade: Inside the Highly Competitive World of Proprietary Trading was featured in the recent issue of SFO Magazine. In his article, Old School Lessons For Mastering Today’s Markets, Bella discusses what it takes to become a great trader in today’s changing market. A must read for new traders! The … Read More
Opening Range Play (MON)
On my latest StockTwits TV show, SMB University, I was asked about trading right on the Open. Often new traders struggle with this time period for two reasons: a) they miscalculate their downside risk before entering the trade b) they do not have a playbook with trades that work for the open. Well let’s try and correct some of (b) … Read More
Ten Mistakes by BP a Trader Should Never Make
1. No Exit Plan. There was no exit plan for if the rig (RIG?) exploded. Before every trade we must decide where and how we will exit BEFORE entering the trade. 2. Live to Play Another Day. It is not definitive that BP is a viable company going forward even with 6.08 Billion in quarterly profits. 1) When will the … Read More
Traders Ask: What is the Proper Exit on a Swing Trade?
Reader Alex asked: My name is Alex and I’ve been swing trading for two years. I’ve been reading SMB’s blog for a while, and really enjoy the posts on trader development. I have recently journaled a question that emerged during two of my recent short trades. I believe that this question relates to intraday trading as well. Depending on conditions … Read More