September, 2009 | SMB Capital

Good on Paper (GOP): Be Respectful

Sep 30th, 2009 | By Bella | Category: General Comments

I just handed in my manuscript for The Way of the Prop Trader to Wiley. I am relieved to have this behind me. During my editing process I discarded some humorous anecdotes that just did not quite fit with my book. I thought you might enjoy this one interview I had with a prospective prop trader candidate. GOP: Be Respectful This next interview occurred on a Friday. By the end of the week if I can keep my eyes open past 9PM this is a huge victory. And it's 7PM and I am at the office. I am hungry. I really just want to go home, lie on my couch, order a pizza, and watch the Yankees. But we are a little behind with our interviews and there is an excellent candidate to be interviewed. Read more [...]

Tags: smb capital, The Way of the Prop Trader, Wiley Posted in General Comments | 22 comments

Understanding Inflection Points

Sep 29th, 2009 | By sspencer | Category: Steven Spencer (Steve's) Blogs, Trading Theory

A core part of SMB's trading philosophy is identifying inflection points in the stocks we trade each day. These are prices where battles take place between buyers and sellers. After a battle is over a stock will typically move very powerfully away from these prices. Sometimes stocks will touch these prices two, three, or even four times in a day. When a stock approaches these critical levels a pop up window will appear on our trading platform to give us a heads up. We then use our trading skills to take advantage of these great risk/reward prices. We offer these alerts via our commercial website to those interested in the stocks and prices that most interest our desk. But, frankly, unless you're Read more [...]

Tags: inflection, points, understanding Posted in Steven Spencer (Steve's) Blogs, Trading Theory | 3 comments

From the Mailbag

Sep 28th, 2009 | By Bella | Category: Mike Bellafiore's (Bella's) Blogs

I received this email from Reader Josh. This is a very interesting dilemma he finds himself in as a new trader. For SMB Readers do you have any advice to offer Reader Josh? Hello Bella, I believe my question is geared towards adjustments. I am 25 years old. I have been playing poker and making money in it since 2004 playing online cash games, 8 tables at once. i can process information extremely quickly and can be aggressive enough to be able to manage that many tables with positive expectation almost every week. I am a recent graduate (april 2009) of online trading academy. I have been making money trading options and trading the underlying on intraday basis fairly consistently. Read more [...]

Tags: day trading, prop trading, smb capital Posted in Mike Bellafiore's (Bella's) Blogs | 47 comments

StocktwitsTV – Live From the SMB Classroom with Bella

Sep 28th, 2009 | By ajames | Category: General Comments

Last night, SMB Capital's Mike Bellafiore appeared on StocktwitsTV to discuss trading rules. Mike discussed why it is important for active intraday traders to develop a set of trading rules. Click here to watch the clip. Mike appears on StocktwitsTV every Sunday at 8:30pm so be sure to tune each week to watch the show. Read more [...]

Posted in General Comments | 3 comments

Reading the Tape with Gman: How to Use Levels to Win

Sep 25th, 2009 | By ajames | Category: General Comments

Gman, head trader at SMB Capital, wrote an excellent article for Wall Street Cheat Sheet about using tape reading skills to identify and take advantage of key intraday and longer term levels. You can read the full article here. Read more [...]

Posted in General Comments | No Comments »

SMB in TheStreet.com

Sep 25th, 2009 | By ajames | Category: General Comments

Mike Bellafiore, partner at SMB Capital, was cited yesterday in an article on TheStreet.com about the weakness in DRYS. You can read the full article here.

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Ya Gotta Be Flexible

Sep 24th, 2009 | By sspencer | Category: Steven Spencer (Steve's) Blogs, Trading Theory

As an intraday trader I need to make many adjustments during each trading session. I have to determine if a stock is a short, a long, or a no trade. I may also make adjustments in how I am entering and exiting my position. If I don't keep an open mind it is impossible to make the adjustments necessary to be consistently profitable. I was trading RHT and AIG when the market opened today. AIG had a very powerful opening drive above 49. I decided to buy on a pullback as I thought the opening drive was the beginning of a multi point up move. I bought some stock at 48.50 and some more in front of 48. I got flat when the 48 bid dropped. Rip! I then had to make a decision whether Read more [...]

Posted in Steven Spencer (Steve's) Blogs, Trading Theory | 8 comments

SMB Capital on StockTwits TV

Sep 23rd, 2009 | By ajames | Category: General Comments

Today, SMB Capital's Steve Spencer appeared on StockTwitsTV to discuss the Market and the stocks in play for the day. Steve also answered several questions from our viewers about our trading style and, specifically how the Market influences our best morning ideas. SMB Capital appears on StockTwitsTV every M, W, F at 2pm so be sure to tune in. Watch the clip here. Read more [...]

Posted in General Comments | No Comments »

Getting Rewarded for Doing the Wrong Stuff

Sep 22nd, 2009 | By gman | Category: General Comments, Gilbert Mendez's (Gman's) Blogs

We teach our traders how to trade while taking little risk in the marketplace. We teach them the fundamentals and then allow each trader to develop a trading style that suits their personality. Further, we give each trader the freedom to trade whatever stock happens to be in play and in a fashion that suits their style. Unfortunately, this allows for some funky/fancy trading by some. Often these fancy traders are rewarded big for doing the wrong things and this scares me. Let me explain. We emphasize finding opportunities where the risk is one unit and the reward is at least five units. Some of our traders have developed a style in which all trades have one to three cents of downside maximum. Read more [...]

Tags: AIG, trade2hold Posted in General Comments, Gilbert Mendez's (Gman's) Blogs | 7 comments

Reading the Tape Syllabus

Sep 21st, 2009 | By gman | Category: Gilbert Mendez's (Gman's) Blogs, Reading the Tape

We have gotten some comments and emails from some fellow readers asking what is included in our Reading the Tape program so we prepared this syllabus. SMB Reading the Tape Syllabus DAY 1: The Basics The Basics 1. Two quick written lectures on The Level II and The Prints including a Glossary. 2. One 15-minute audio lecture on the Prints complimenting the written lecture. 3. 1 hour and 15 minutes of video lectures on The Level II and the Prints. 4. Multiple-choice quiz to reinforce your knowledge on the Basics: The Level II, Jargon, and Prints. The Indicators 1. Four written lectures on the Reading the Tape indicators 2. 5-minute audio lecture and 10-minute video on indicator Read more [...]

Tags: Reading the Tape Posted in Gilbert Mendez's (Gman's) Blogs, Reading the Tape | 24 comments