In our smallest office in our downtown Manhattan digs I was an actor in this conversation. “We make trading too hard,” said the new, gregarious trader. “I am not sure what you mean. Trading is about learning set ups and then mastering the fifteen subsets of each play,” I replied. “See that is where I think I go wrong. I think trading … Read More
A Last Week in August to Remember – AIG
I wrote last week that the last week in August is historically uneventful. I went on StockTwits TV and said the same thing. I wrote in my blog “Vacation….Chop!” that you ought to take a break. I suggested that the last week in August or the first week in September are generally excellent weeks to vacation. I have some new … Read More
Quick Nighttime Thoughts – The Turn On The Way?
The market has been offering a few clues about a possible pause in the rally run we have had over the past 4-5 weeks. The financials have been a leading sector and I wanted to point out a few things. As I discussed in our AM Meeting, there seemed to be a blow off top in the XLF and IYF … Read More
Psychology Drives Price
RIMM reported after the close today. It traded up over 20% from its closing price. You are going to read a lot of articles about how they “blew away” expectations and gave great guidance. The articles will assign these as the reasons for RIMM’s explosive up move after the market closed. Really? I don’t think so. Do you believe that … Read More
Learning to Let Go
One of our talented young remote traders sent me the following email a few days ago and I thought this was an important topic to address. Below is his email: Gman, I had a hell of a time with ACN this morning. There were a lot of screw jobs, and fake outs. The price action was very choppy and it … Read More
Tuesday Morning Fun – Excessive Celebration
On our desk we frown upon excessive celebration after making one good trade. Many get in an excited mental state which causes them to make several bad trades in a row. One of our traders found this link this morning. This is clearly an example of excessive celebration. Wait for the score at the end of the clip. http://video.yahoo.com/network/100284668?v=4656506&l=4418225 Enjoy. … Read More
Percentage Returns for Day Traders?
A couple of days ago I received an email from a blog reader inquiring about my performance for this year. And often times we are asked during interviews what kind of returns we generate. Almost every day I see on Facebook and some blogs people posting their percentage returns for a particular stock. Individual investors among others judge their performance … Read More
Note of Caution On Trading Systems
On my way to San Diego I began reading The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. I am still working on the book but I wanted to share some thoughts that can relate to trading. The author discusses how it is in our nature to use past instances that corroborate a hypothesis and use that as evidence to prove … Read More