There are only a few things as professional traders we have certain control over and one happens to be a critical element in the quest for consistency and success: preparation. As an athlete my entire life and now someone who is obsessed with becoming a scratch golfer, I have experienced a direct correlation between preparation and success. In my opinion, … Read More
Price Matters
During two video review sessions today price was undervalued by our traders. For active day traders price matters. One of our talented new traders bought consistently at poor prices and was negative trading RIMM, while almost everyone else on our desk was in the green. Let’s talk about price some more. Wharton Junior was trading GS and added to his … Read More
That’s Not the Way We Do It
Today I overheard one of our new traders talking about fading GS around 71.20. GS had stopped going down. So this youngster, aka the Red Dragon, got long. And I heard what he was doing. I offered that I would prefer for him to continue trading GS on the short side until the downtrend was broken. Since apparently I just … Read More
Why I Trade on Black Friday
There were very few on the train to work this AM. The volume is very light on the day after Thanksgiving. Probably 80 percent of traders take today off. Why did I trade today? Back in the day two of the best days I have had trading were on Black Friday. During the Internet Boom I walked in up close … Read More
Do This Every Day to Become a Consistent Trader!
I get this question almost daily: Jeff, what are you going to trade today? Or this one, especially in this market: Jeff, do you think we are close to the bottom? These are both good questions and there is nothing wrong in asking these questions, but what I learned pretty early in my trading career, and it has come in … Read More
Flat Before the Number?
After the Close our desk had a spirited debate about whether a trader should have a position before an announcement (in this case the oil and gas number). On Tuesdays we meet after the Close to watch video of One Good Trade produced by a few of our experienced traders. One of our most improved traders, let’s call him MIT, … Read More
How Do I Make Money Today?
So today during our AM meeting Steve highlighted MS as his stock of the day. Steve said, “I am going to look for a pullback right on the Open and then look for MS to trade in an uptrend for the day.” Now that is what I call a great call. On Friday Steve mentioned MS as a stock to watch. … Read More
Getting Caught
Yesterday after the Close SMB celebrated our outstanding month of September with some drinks, cigars and food (lots and lots of food). Nothing against Queens but I am going to have to talk to CBA about choosing that locale. It was a little far from Manhattan. During our celebration I had an interesting discussion with a new trader (“Triple Threat”) who got caught in GS yesterday … Read More