Yesterday I was a panelist at High Frequency Trading World USA 2010 in NYC where we discussed HFTs effect on market volatility. Some are concerned that a market overly volatile will scare investors from participating in the market. Since HFTs are our modern middle men, perhaps market maker rules should be considered for them. This is an idea worth exploring but will not change … Read More
Who Believes in You as a Trader?
There is lots of talk about Coach Ryan the coach before tonight’s J…E…T…S Patriots battle. Coach Ryan is a believer in making sure his players believe. In a Bloomberg.com column the importance of belief found another sport: Speaking of winning, Duke basketball’s Mike Krzyzewski, one of the most respected and successful coaches in team sports, likes to use the same four … Read More
Improve Your Performance by Watching Yourself
One of our traders read our blog post last night on improving your performance by watching and shared some interesting additional data. This comes from the book One Second Thought: Outsmarting your Mind’s Hard-wired Habits by Wray Herbert. Psychologists used to think that perception and movement were two completely separate process, lodged in different regions of the brain. The common … Read More
Traders Ask: Any Advice on these Trades?
Mike, I’ve been lately having a hard time executing my trades properly. I find the setups, my analysis is correct, yet myfingers don’t follow up with my brain! I wrote a blog post about it, and reach out to you to tell me what you think could be done. http://bit.ly/gtTprL Hopefully you’ll have time to look at it and perhaps … Read More
Better Stop Prices
During a group meeting a New Trader shares,”I set my stop at 75c.” I say, “Set it at 74c.” Later a New Trader discussing another stock shares, “I set my stop at 35.04.” I reply, “Set your stop at 6c.” Yesterday in The SMB Blog we asked one of our readers to consider a better stop for a trading play. … Read More
Traders Ask: Was I a Wuss?
Hey Mike And Steve, I had a question for you guys about risk and how you guys manage it psychologically. For some reason, when trading on my Lightspeed Platform, my risk tolerance shrinks, and I punch out of stocks way to early or cannot sit through pullbacks when a stock goes negative on me. I get nervous it will just fall out of … Read More
Attack Your Trading Challenges Like a Navy Seal
Trading offers us so much opportunity for I can’t. Or this is too hard. Many thirst to be a consistently profitable trader but never build the skills to do so. It all starts with you. With your attitude. With your skill to build your trading mindset. So we want to get better. How do we do this? How do we … Read More
Getting Back into Trading Shape
I have lost my feel for the market while being away for the past two weeks- pre-wedding, wedding, honeymoon. I sit with a terrible case of jet lag, disconnected from the markets, and out-0f-shape trading skills. I am sure many used last week to catch up with family and friends, rest, and truncated your trading week. For me two days … Read More