See the hypos!

Merritt BlackFutures, General Comments, Intraday Levels, market structure, Trader Development

I’m grinning from ear to ear today. One of my mentees was tasked yesterday to begin preparing premarket “hypos” each morning. It’s just what it sounds like – a few hypotheses for how the day might unfold, therefore providing a roadmap for the day with key inflection points and potential targets. Here’s a screenshot of his premarket journal post in … Read More

Using the Opening Swing to Improve Your Trading

Merritt BlackFutures, General Comments, Intraday Levels, market structure, Technical Plays, Traders Ask, Trading Conversations

Last Friday, during our weekly Trading Conversations webinar, we had a lot of great questions from our community – like we do most weeks! One question was about analyzing stocks right around the open, from the first minute to the first hour or so of trade. Keeping with the live and interactive spirit of Trading Conversations, I asked users to … Read More

Inside The Trading Vault – A look at CL_F

Anne-Marie BaiyndGeneral Comments, Intraday Levels, market structure, Technical Plays, Trader Development, Trading Ideas, Trading Lesson, Trading TheoryLeave a Comment

      Trading Vault Concept – “When charts are in a trend, we are often tempted to pick bottoms or tops because we FEEL a chart has reversed enough.  The slightest drift over or under a level, we trigger our trades to initiate a trade in the direction of the move, but in these markets breakout and breakdown levels … Read More

The PlayBook Checkup: Scalping a Range Before the Drop (Video on Demand)

BellaGeneral Comments, Intraday Levels, Trader Development, Trading Ideas, Trading Lesson1 Comment

Below is our newest installment of the 2014 edition of The PlayBook Checkup with Bella, author of One Good Trade and The PlayBook. During these sessions a trade archived by a Junior Trader from our desk will be reviewed by Bella. Attendance is free for SMBU Tools subscribers, who can also ask questions during the event. See this review with Video on Demand: Scalping a … Read More

Bias Shmias!

sspencerGeneral Comments, Intraday Levels, Steven Spencer (Steve's) Blogs, Trader Development2 Comments

One of the most frequent confessions I hear from developing traders is that they couldn’t change their bias when the price action warranted such a change.  They develop a bias as to which direction a stock will trade and hold on to their viewpoint despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.  I have even heard there are many experienced traders who deal … Read More