Why Blindly Following Your Options Trading Rules Eventually Leads to Failure

smbcapitalGeneral Comments, John Locke, M21 Trading System, Options Education, Seth Freudberg's Blogs, SMB Fundamentals, Trading Lesson, Trading TheoryLeave a Comment

Trading rules are designed to help us make money and eventually become a better trader. Unfortunately market conditions change. The static examples you find in trading education don’t  provide guidance to navigate new price action. This is where the rubber hits the road and where success or failure lives or dies. How do you adapt? What is your plan after the perfect … Read More

Should Short Term Traders Consider Fundamentals? Part I

sspencerGeneral Comments, SMB Fundamentals, Steven Spencer (Steve's) BlogsLeave a Comment

I believe the majority of market participants agree over longer time horizons fundamentals will influence the price of a stock. But what about in the short or medium term? Should intra-day traders or swing traders be evaluating fundamental news related to the stocks they are trading? Or should they simply focus on price action in relation to news? I have … Read More

SMB Fundamental #7: Replaying Your Important Trades

sspencerGeneral Comments, SMB Fundamentals, Steven Spencer (Steve's) Blogs3 Comments

Back in early 2006 we established what have become known as the SMB Fundamentals. They are a list of 7 trading principles that SMB believes should be followed for every single trade. Fundamental #7–Replaying your important trades–trades that offered a ton of opportunity—help you mentally prepare and execute at a higher level when faced with a similar trading scenario in … Read More

Expiration Friday Pinning Trades in GOOG and AAPL

Seth FreudbergGeneral Comments, One Good Trade, Options Education, Seth Freudberg's Blogs, SMB FundamentalsLeave a Comment

The great thing about options is that they can be played in so many different interesting and creative ways. A case in point:  There is a cult of options traders who focus on the last two days of the monthly options expiration cycle.  These traders focus, separately, on  expiration Thursday trades and expiration Friday “pinning” trades.  The premise for each … Read More

What do all successful traders have in common?

Seth FreudbergGeneral Comments, Options Education, Seth Freudberg's Blogs, SMB Fundamentals, Trading Psychology16 Comments

In the summer of 2010,  I traveled to Manhattan from my home in Philadelphia to meet with Roy Davis of  SMB Capital for the purpose of checking out  SMB’s    intraday  equities training program. While I am an income options spread trader myself,  my premise was that  intraday equities trading and options income trading  were not at all mutually exclusive … Read More