Archive for July 2008
Jul 22nd, 2008 |
By gman |
Category: Gilbert Mendez's (Gman's) Blogs
Earnings season is an exciting time for us as traders. As Bella puts it, this is our Superbowl. Today was a great example of why this is an exciting time.
I love being on the bus on my way to work scanning through briefing on my phone and seeing that a few of stocks I trade well have reported and are up/down 5%+. Now that is a sign that it is going to be a good day. I am excited to get to work to make some money to pay for my next vacation!
I have to point out that it is during this time that it is very easy to get distracted with all the action in the market. It is very easy to try to be involved in all the stocks that look juicy. Obviously there is a lot of free money in all the stocks
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Tags: day trading, earnings stocks, smb capital Posted in Gilbert Mendez's (Gman's) Blogs |
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Jul 22nd, 2008 |
By Gualberto |
Category: General Comments
I had a great day today. Actually, I feel like this could be the best I've traded in the past year. When I woke up this morning I was excited because there were a bunch of stocks that I've traded that had earnings today. And when the market opened, I was all over the place. My alerts were going off all over the place, getting me into trades at levels I knew were good. And then when I was done with one, my next alert went off. So that was my morning. Chop after chop after chop.
So after lunch, I was trying to keep myself from giving any of it back. See, unlike our boy CBA, I'm probably one of the more aggressive traders on the desk. Where he doesn't take enough size (something I've
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Tags: day trading, financials, prop trading, smb capital Posted in General Comments |
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Jul 22nd, 2008 |
By Bella |
Category: General Comments, Mike Bellafiore's (Bella's) Blogs
I received a GChat message from a future trader, Carter, who was interested in the impact of blackboxes or algorithms on intraday trading. I have heard Carter's concerns from other future traders. Some believe that blackboxes will rule trading and eliminate the intraday trader. A few thoughts:
1) I have heard this argument for the past 5 years and I am still trading profitably. And our desk just had its best week ever.
2) Blackboxes have made intraday trading more difficult, which is part of the reason why it is imperative in this market to be trained well (think SMB Training, www.smbtraining.com).
3) You must be more selective with your trading. But if you are then there are still many
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Tags: algorithims, Blackbox, programs, trading Posted in General Comments, Mike Bellafiore's (Bella's) Blogs |
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Jul 21st, 2008 |
By sspencer |
Category: General Comments, Steven Spencer (Steve's) Blogs
My primary focus for the past few years has been making money intraday. But occasionally I observe a pattern that causes me to take an overnight position. Around 10:30AM on Friday FNM had a very powerful breakout through $12. It topped out around $14. During the afternoon there was some selling and it traded as low at $12.40. But during the final hour a huge buyer emerged and was pushing the stock towards its high. I was long around 8000 shares. I was looking to dump the position at $14 or higher. But the buyer ran out of time and the stock closed around $13.50 and I was still long around 4,000 shares. So my dilemna was what to do with the position. I have found that the pattern
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Tags: day trading, FNM, smb capital Posted in General Comments, Steven Spencer (Steve's) Blogs |
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Jul 21st, 2008 |
By Bella |
Category: General Comments, Mike Bellafiore's (Bella's) Blogs
One of our traders, CBA, made a chop in HON into the Close. And even better CBA got me into the play as well. I like that excellent communication at SMB Capital. CBA is a conscientious trader. He watches tapes of his trading over the weekend (I saw him this very Saturday watching such tapes in our office), keeps a detailed journal, prepares well, works hard to eliminate his weaknesses, etc. He is too conservative. So we have been working with him to selectively become more aggressive.
And there was one place where CBA could have added some more size in HON into the Close. But what is even more important is as a trader to have a system to add more size. What plays are you willing to
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Tags: day trading, prop trading, size, smb capital Posted in General Comments, Mike Bellafiore's (Bella's) Blogs |
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Jul 20th, 2008 |
By Bella |
Category: General Comments, Mike Bellafiore's (Bella's) Blogs
Steve and I went to our 20th high school reunion last night. A few things: 1) they served chocolate chip cookies for dessert and I ate as many as I could until there were no more (delicious!); 2) I witnessed another great example of she just might say yes. For those on our prop desk in NYC she just might say yes is code for put in your bids and offers. Place your bids and offers at great prices habitually while you are trading. You just might get hit on the bid or taken on the offer at very favorable prices. And as a result you will earn some free money just through this trading fundamental.
At SMB Capital we like to use the analogy of asking that very attractive young lady
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Tags: day trading, marry, prop trading, smb capital Posted in General Comments, Mike Bellafiore's (Bella's) Blogs |
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Jul 19th, 2008 |
By Bella |
Category: General Comments, Mike Bellafiore's (Bella's) Blogs
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 we have been killing the last many weeks? Or do we find a stock that has reported on that AM and trade it? Personally, I lean towards trading a stock with fresh news. When a stock just reports the price action is so significant that I can get on the wrong side a few times, I can wush out and close out my position too early, I
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Tags: day trading, earnings season, prop trading, smb capital Posted in General Comments, Mike Bellafiore's (Bella's) Blogs |
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Jul 17th, 2008 |
By Bella |
Category: General Comments, Mike Bellafiore's (Bella's) Blogs
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. I have bluntly told a few they were not prepared to trade successfully. But the question I find to be a complete red flag, not gonna be a good fit, has no idea what it's gonna take to make it, not interested in learning the craft of trading, is: how much money will I have to trade with?
This is not a good question to ask in an interview. You have no idea how to trade,
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Tags: day trading, prop trading, smb capital, tier size Posted in General Comments, Mike Bellafiore's (Bella's) Blogs |
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Jul 16th, 2008 |
By gman |
Category: General Comments, Gilbert Mendez's (Gman's) Blogs
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 at important intraday levels then the stock was awesome.
I just wanted to point out that on the previous two occasions after we had strong closes we sold off aggressively the next day. The past two times stocks caught bids right on the open but then by around 9:40 stocks started to top off. The selling was exacerbated into the close when the reversal was apparent. So will we sell off tomorrow? I
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Tags: day trading, financial stocks, smb capital, trading patterns, WFC Posted in General Comments, Gilbert Mendez's (Gman's) Blogs |
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Jul 16th, 2008 |
By Bella |
Category: General Comments, Mike Bellafiore's (Bella's) Blogs
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 is a two day chart of XLE and you can see it move aggressively below and above that 80 level. 80 is the more important level in the XLE. But you ought to have an alert set for these levels. And a few corresponding stocks ready to trade above and below 80 and 77: CHK, HK, VLO, XOM, etc. These stocks tend to correlate with XLE (VLO inversely). Also, watch
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Tags: day trading, prop trading, smb capital, XLE Posted in General Comments, Mike Bellafiore's (Bella's) Blogs |
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