Our playoffs have begun- earnings season. This is the time where we as prop traders make most of our money because there is so much price action. Interestingly, there has been tremendous price action in the financials and energy sector recently before these playoffs. Hence a dilimena. What to trade? Do we stick with the energy and finacials stocks that … Read More
Small Tier Size Can Equal Large Profits
I meet with a ton of potential future SMB prop traders. Obviously there is a great deal of interest in those who wish to trade with us. Hey that’s part of my job. Luckily for me I get to screen everyone who walks in our doors. So I enjoy most of the interviews. There have been a few two minute interviews. … Read More
Rally Monkey Come Out and Play
Today we saw good strength on the financials with our money maker WFC leading the market. It was definitely a good stock to watch today on the open. It was a bit sketchy into the close and it made it easy to churn away profits in the middle of the day. But overall if you stuck to buying and selling … Read More
XLE Levels
The past two trading days there has been tremendous price action in XLE, crude, and related equities. I am not an expert on energy but I do know that 80 and now 77 are very important levels for XLE. Below 80 and 77 and you should look for weakness in the energy stocks. Above 80 and 77 and you should look for strength. Below … Read More
Trading Slumps: Don’t Stop Believing
Recently one of our guys was struggling. His Luger’s fund (money donated by our desk for a celebratory meal at Peter Luger steakhouse http://www.peterluger.com/) jokingly(?) turned into Mike’s Survival fund as you can see from the picture. Trading slumps as they are usually known, happen to the best of us. To me it is just a psychological barrier that slowly … Read More
Always Be Ready
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
The Right Stocks
A trader is only as good as the stocks that they are trading. Recently, a bunch of guys on our desk have made money trading CHK and HK. They were making nice chops every day. Sometimes its hard to let go of stock that you have been consistently making money in. But it is essential for this job to recognize … Read More