I just watched Mike’s presentation in Georgia Tech and I have a question that I hope Mike could answer. He was talking about how he would feel at ease practicing basketball. I played competitively for 12 years and I know exactly what he is talking about. The court is like my home and I feel an inner peace and happiness whenever … Read More
This is How You Make More Money
I tweeted on the open: A pattern to master for the open: The Opening Drive. See STX in the first ten minutes this am. My inbox is dominated with trading reviews of SMB Traders thirsting to make more, blog readers the same, and new traders looking for the path. Well here it is. The clean, trending STX. I traded it on the … Read More
The Language of the Successful Trader
Trader A has overperformed since his start at SMB relative to his experience and peers. Trader B has underperformed relative to his experience with us. Trader A went to a middle of the road school. Trader B has a very impressive educational background. Both love trading. Both are guys you build a firm around. So what separates the two? Their … Read More
An Argument for Why Not Trading Much Makes No Sense
So I work with a trader who started very well. I was very happy with his progress. He was consistent with his results. Steve frequently would remark at his over-performance given his experience. And then recently he has not traded well. So much so that yesterday I wrote him this email: Hey, what is going on w u? Something bothering … Read More
How do I regain my trading confidence?
Hi Mike, I think it’s crazy (in a great way) that a successful trader/prop firm manager/author still takes time to answer random question from traders… Thanks so much for considering responding to mine. First, a bit of background so you know where I’m coming from. I started trading at the beginning of 2004 at a prop firm in Chicago that … Read More
The easiest trade of this open (STT)
Scanning the market universe on the open STT, State Street Corporation, caught my eye. 1) I liked that it was down a lot 2) I liked that after the open it showed an ability to move away from prices 3) 40/39 were levels on my long term charts so it still had room to trade lower 4) There was a … Read More
The CCL Trade
After the open we meet in our training room to review the open with some of our newer traders. We talked CCL, Carnival Corporation, for the midday and into the close. Before that we went over what we liked about CCL and what we didn’t. What we didn’t like: 1) Future bookings to probably decrease because of the accident. 2) … Read More
One day in the life of a pro trader
I received this email from a new trader disappointed. I chuckled when I read it. Man have I felt like this trader like every year of my career 🙂 I really got my a$$ handed to me the last two days. I think they are my two worst trading days in terms of net PnL. I basically gave back all … Read More