Mr Bellafiore,

I want to thank you for taking the time to read this email. I know you likely receive innumerable emails each day and reading and responding to them takes a considerable amount of your time. As a busy trader and a managing partner of your own firm, time is likely your most valuable asset, so the time you take to read and respond to this is greatly appreciated.

My name is Future Gr8 Trader (name deleted for privacy reasons) and I am an aspiring trader and hopeful student of yours in the future. I am a 23 year old Nuclear Engineer who graduated from the University of Tennessee. I realized that engineering is not the passion I want to pursue and that I had gotten a degree just because I could. I have recently been introduced to trading and realize that this is the passion I want to pursue. I have a engineering job currently but I am planning and looking forward to moving to NYC to pursue this passion, hopefully with SMB Capital. The purpose of this email is to introduce myself and present my resume.

I just started swing trading four months ago. I realize that this is a very limited time frame of trading but as you have stated many times one needs to develop a track record. My focus is to just get better everyday. Six months ago I was completely guessing with a few stocks and had no idea what the hell I was doing. Since then I have started to keep a sort of trading archive where I write down important quotes, trades, and my set of rules, along with highlights from inspiring blog posts (most of these highlights are from SMB).

 

Then I started reading. And doing research. Talking to my friend about trading everyday. Doing more reading. $Studying, shall we say. And just working on risk management and honoring a system. A system of good entry price levels, honoring stops and moving to the next trade. Attached below is a screen shot of many of the trades I have taken recorded in TraderVue which I name, tag, and track so that I can improve upon my setups so that I can refine my process and detail my playbooks. The system and playbook I have began to create is such a small dent in a wall that is years high, but have been inspired by you and your team, my friend, your books, and your trader education.

In The Playbook you speak of attempting to shorten the learning curve. I feel like your doing a splendid job at helping developing traders do this. Seeing as I grew up playing three sports and huge sports fan. I understand what one must do to get great at something and repetitions. After reading Outliers I found out it takes about 10 thousand hours to be great at something. Well, 3.5 months ago I decided to “Burn the Boats” and presently wake up to a small statue of a Wall Street Bull on my bed side table everyday reminding me of where I want to go. I have read OGT, I continue to read and have read past SMBU blog posts, along with other known blog sites such as “Alpha Trends”,  “Kirk Report”, “Abnormal Returns”, and “TraderFeed”. Other titles I have read are Reminiscences of a Stock Operator, Liar’s Poker, A Beginner’s Guide to Short Term Trading, The Candlestick Course,  and have multiple titles still left on my desk (The Playbook jumped ahead of the others).

I mainly wanted to introduce myself and present to you my resume, which is attached below, seeing as I plan to continue to work two jobs (my engineering job and my trading studies every day after work ranging from 2-4 hours everyday and more on the weekend) in order to position myself to be a successful trader and on a prop desk in the near future.  I am 100% bought into learning from those more experienced in order to succeed. “The man on top of the mountain did not fall there” is what inspires me to listen to others who are atop the mountain I want to climb.

When I am prepared to transition to NYC I will send you my resume, email you, mail you, call you, anything I can do in order to be given an opportunity to work under you and your TEAM. I do not have the capital to take a chance yet, but have my eyes on where I want to be and what I want to do for the foreseeable future. And that is work for you and be a CPT. For the time being, I am growing as a person who has become religious about watching the market, learning everything I can, getting better everyday, and focusing on one good trade after one good trade. I feel I am off to a good start, 3 months in the big scheme of things is such a small facet of my trading career yet I feel like I have come a long way from where I began a short time ago. Like I have said above I realize you are busy with SMB and your new family so you probably do not want to spend too much time sending and reading emails. But I do have a couple requests.

1. What is one/or two of your favorite Swing Trading Setups? 

2. What are the two most important things you know now that you wish you would have known when you started? 

3.Lastly,  What is your favorite and most inspirational book (other than the 2 you wrote, could be about golf, trading, life, etc.)?

Thanks for your precious time, and I look forward to working for YOU and your prop TEAM in the future.

P.S. OGT and The Playbook are two of the best books I have read concerning trading and the markets. Not only knowledgable and inspiring, but funny as well.