Archive for March 2009

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Tuesday Morning Fun – Excessive Celebration

Mar 31st, 2009 | By | Category: General Comments

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. Happy trading.

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Be Like Tiger

Mar 30th, 2009 | By | Category: Mike Bellafiore's (Bella's) Blogs
Tiger Woods won Bay Hill for the second consecutive year with a dramatic putt on the 18th green. It is a privilege to watch him work. We can all learn a great deal as traders from him. On "Pardon the Interruption" today an intro leading into this story asked- How does he do it? Well below is how he does it. Below is a sample day of his practice routine. Many talk about wanting to be great traders. And many wish to be a great golfer like Tiger. Wouldn't that be cool? You would have a private jet, a supermodel wife, all the money in the world, and access to anything you desired. But seriously, how many are willing to pay the price that Tiger does for success? Are you willing to work Read more [...]

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Hard Work Pays Off

Mar 30th, 2009 | By | Category: General Comments, Steven Spencer (Steve's) Blogs
We asked about 8-10 of our core traders to work on their skill development during the past two months. These are guys who had been trading live anywhere from 8 to 16 months. They had all previously demonstrated a high level of profitability. But the market environment changed and they had to adapt. They had developed some bad habits because they began their trading careers in the middle of a crazy time period. Young traders who should have been making 300-500 a day were making 3-5K. They started to believe this job is easy and spent less time working on their skill development. This lack of focus and overconfidence came back to bite them in the you know what in December and January. Read more [...]

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Percentage Returns for Day Traders?

Mar 29th, 2009 | By | Category: General Comments, Gilbert Mendez's (Gman's) Blogs
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 in facebook and some blogs people posting their percentage returns for a particular stock. Individual investors among others judge their performance by their overall percentage return on their portfolio. We as day traders do not use this metric. Let me explain. As active intraday traders we place many many trades. Personally, on a very volatile day I can put on as many as 250-300 trades. For me to try to add up all the little percentage moves for the different stocks is inefficient. Read more [...]

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Survive and Advance

Mar 27th, 2009 | By | Category: Mike Bellafiore's (Bella's) Blogs
I heard on the Street that many day traders struggled in December and January.  I know there were some on our desk who were disappointed with their results.   Over the years I have been offered data from the market that I was not going to succeed as a trader.  I was offered this data when I first started (starting down $36k to start my career), and I am offered this same data periodically during every trading year.  In the spirit of March Madness I offer a thought for you to ponder.  The good trader during these lows just tries to survive and advance. I am very proud of my desk.  Some individually were offered data that they would not be a successfully profitable trader in December and Read more [...]

Tags: , , Posted in Mike Bellafiore's (Bella's) Blogs | 3 comments


Self Aware

Mar 26th, 2009 | By | Category: Mike Bellafiore's (Bella's) Blogs
Before the Open I was pissed.  As a partner sometimes I miss the days when I could just roll into the office and trade.  I look forward to the day when the guys we teach are running the desk.  And I can just come in and trade.  And I hope I get to sit all the way in a back row, with the young guys making fun of me, perhaps calling me the old man, and watch them make chops everyday.  But we are not there yet. So today before the Open I had to make sure we were prepared for a video shoot, consider how to best respond to two sensitive emails, prepare for the Open, check what our new class was learning, answer my regular email, and finish a chapter for the trading book I am writing.   And Read more [...]

Tags: , , , Posted in Mike Bellafiore's (Bella's) Blogs | 5 comments


I Am Not Making the Same Mistake Today

Mar 25th, 2009 | By | Category: Mike Bellafiore's (Bella's) Blogs
As traders we search for repeating patterns.  The last two trading days have offered the same pattern. Levels were violated into the Close and the market trended into the Close.  Financials could be bought or sold in the direction of the trend and held into the Close.  Let's discuss.  Yesterday into the Close SPY traded between 81.20 and 81.50.  We broke SPY 81.20 around 3:45 and trended down for the rest of the trading day.  Today into the Close SPY 79.50 was our trendline.  Just before the Close we traded sharply down towards 79.10.  I thought this move was too steep and advised a trader to Close out AMB at 12.75.  My sense was the market would probably test the trend line at 79.50 Read more [...]

Tags: , , Posted in Mike Bellafiore's (Bella's) Blogs | 4 comments


Sometimes It’s Just That Easy

Mar 24th, 2009 | By | Category: Mike Bellafiore's (Bella's) Blogs
Often intraday traders struggle understanding the difference between a Trade to Hold and a short term trade.  Most trades that we make are short term trades.  But every intraday trader needs Trades to Hold.  And you ought to have a list of these trades that are best FOR YOU.  Let me offer a suggestion of a Trade to Hold for you. The market has been up over 22 percent recently.  Yesterday we were up 7 percent.  Yesterday Geithner unveiled his plan to help the banks purge their toxic assets.  The next logical step is for the Street to wonder whether this plan will work.  I am not a fundamental trader, but I think we need to acknowledge that a pullback is possible considering the above. Read more [...]

Tags: , , Posted in Mike Bellafiore's (Bella's) Blogs | 2 comments


Don’t Fight the Tide

Mar 23rd, 2009 | By | Category: General Comments, Steven Spencer (Steve's) Blogs
Part of my job as a partner at SMB is keeping an eye on what other traders on our desk are trading.  I have a third monitor that is used primarily for this purpose.  I find it kind of amusing when a new trader asks for a third monitor.  Why would they need a third monitor?  So they can spend more time watching videos on You Tube?  I guess in that sense I'm old fashioned; like the parent who doesn't know why their kid needs (fill in the blank).  But I digress. For those who are professional traders you understand how distracting it can be to focus on anything but your trading during the Open.  When I am trading my focus is pretty singular.  I filter out information that isn't relevant Read more [...]

Tags: , , Posted in General Comments, Steven Spencer (Steve's) Blogs | 3 comments


Planting Seeds

Mar 23rd, 2009 | By | Category: Mike Bellafiore's (Bella's) Blogs
One of our traders had a great trading day.   He finished negative.  The market was up 500 points as the Obama administration unveiled its plan to remove toxic assets from the books of the nation's banks.   BTW we now have traded up 1300 points since the day I left for vacation.  This trader did not make many trades after 10AM.  Today he was a role model that we all can learn from.  Today he planted a lot of seeds.  Huh? Let me explain. This trader has been underperforming of late.  He is better than his previous results.  He knows it.  I certainly have let him know this.  I have challenged him to step it up.  His results are unacceptable commensurate with his ability.  Lately Read more [...]

Tags: , , Posted in Mike Bellafiore's (Bella's) Blogs | 4 comments


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