A trader on our desk shared this email sent to him by another trader on our desk. It offers a great lesson to the new and developing trader based on the work of Dr. Steenbarger and a trader’s individual experience. I was reading the first chapter of Enhancing Trader Performance by Dr Steenbarger today and I realized that I was … Read More
The Bear Trap Followup: NFLX 110
Yesterday’s SMB U Trading Lesson was on how not to get ripped to shreads in a Bear Trap. Today, Gman tweeted in Pre-market that NFLX was setting up as a Bear Trap and that he would look to trade it long against 110 to take advantage of those who might be trapped trying to short. Let’s take a look at … Read More
AM Idea – April 3rd 2012
Disclosure:Short $ARNA Long: $AMZN
Trading Lesson: The Bear Trap–Ouch!
A large part of successful trading is understanding how others are positioned in a stock and using that information to your advantage. One of the most common triggers for opening a short position in day trading is a drop of multi-day support. The idea being that many longs will have stop orders below this level, which will lead to a … Read More
A Quick Lesson in Tape Reading (ESRX)
I was long ESRX. It had gapped up on positive news. The first moves on the tape in the stock were positive. I liked the move above the open high. I liked the way it moved away from prices. I liked that above 56.50 provided a clear entry if it held above. The idea was shared on SMB Real Time: … Read More
AAPL Can’t Go Up Forever…
This post is the second in a series that we will be publishing over the next month , tracking the hypothetical performance of broken wing butterfly trades selected by Greg Loehr of Optionsbuzz.com. Apple can’t go up forever. Or can it? This week I’ll be tracking a hypothetical broken wing butterfly on Apple Computer (AAPL) that won’t lose money if … Read More
Five Things I Wish I Knew About Trading When I Started
Like any challenging pursuit with a steep learning curve, trading requires an incredible amount of determination in order to succeed. If we are successful, there is the temptation to look back to our beginning and to shake our heads at our combination of naiveté and the youthful enthusiasm that allowed us to overcome it. While reminiscing, we can also ask ourselves: … Read More