@DynamicHedge wrote a must-read piece recently that went viral, “Letters to a Young Trader”, in which along with buckets of awesome advice he also asserted prop trading shops are dying. This is true. But this is not the same as prop trading is dead and/or ALL prop shops are dying. That would not be correct. The author never stated this but … Read More
One Easy Trade (ANF)
After our 11AM Open review a trader approached my desk. “Bella can I ask you a question?” “Yes.” “Do you think I should add here to ANF?” (Abercrombie & Fitch Company) I looked at the chart, saw it trending cleanly above the important 41.50 technical level, spotted a target entry at 42.11 and a definable exit at 41.94, found room … Read More
Copy this trader (episode 2): An SMBU Blog production
Yesterday in our first series of “Copy this trader” we highlighted the best practices of an SMB Trader to copy. We are back at you with some more goodness from the desk. continuing to focus on whats working for me which is finding the sector thats showing relative strength or has fresh news and finding the sympathy plays in the … Read More
Copy this trader
A decent day for me to start the month of February. I have experimented a lot of new trading techniques today, and added more elements to my trading. For example, trading a high beta, in-play earning stock like AMZN. In fact, 1/2 of my daily P&L was generated from AMZN today. 178 was the pre-mkt level we had discussed in the … Read More
This is How You Make More Money
I tweeted on the open: A pattern to master for the open: The Opening Drive. See STX in the first ten minutes this am. My inbox is dominated with trading reviews of SMB Traders thirsting to make more, blog readers the same, and new traders looking for the path. Well here it is. The clean, trending STX. I traded it on the … Read More
The Language of the Successful Trader
Trader A has overperformed since his start at SMB relative to his experience and peers. Trader B has underperformed relative to his experience with us. Trader A went to a middle of the road school. Trader B has a very impressive educational background. Both love trading. Both are guys you build a firm around. So what separates the two? Their … Read More
How do I regain my trading confidence?
Hi Mike, I think it’s crazy (in a great way) that a successful trader/prop firm manager/author still takes time to answer random question from traders… Thanks so much for considering responding to mine. First, a bit of background so you know where I’m coming from. I started trading at the beginning of 2004 at a prop firm in Chicago that … Read More
Is this a tape reading play that you make?
Mike/Bella/Mr. Bellafiore, First, I can’t thank you enough for all you’ve done for the trading community. I’ve learned orders of magnitude more from the fruits of your efforts than from any other single source since I’ve started trading. You’re doing great things. My question is about tape reading. How would you describe the difference between tape action that signals a … Read More