I was reviewing a monthly review from a mentee, Shark (sometimes Shark Daddy or Sharkalicious or Shark Shack), that I thought could use the thoughts of Dr. Menaker, trading psychologist. Shark wrote: Too excited on days I want to do well. I force too much. I had such high expectations for myself coming into earnings season that I started … Read More
Four Traits of the Perfect Trader
Maybe “perfect” isn’t the right word. We can strive for it, but we’ll all fall short of it given enough time. Greatness? That’s attainable. But what does it take to become a great trader? Well, I’m still working toward it myself, and maybe you are too, but we can agree it’s a combination of things. It’s having the ability to … Read More
Add a Little Nuance
Hi Mike, hoping to borrow just a bit of your time for another trading question. I continue to find that the most difficult part of trading is deciding when to take off a winning trade. I believe the problem is that I am not confident and decisive enough in my plan when I enter trades. When it comes to my … Read More
Traders Ask: Are you concerned when a fellow desk member is on the opposite side of your trade?
Dear Mike, I just recently applied to SMB, and as my interest was piqued, I decided to do more research by reading your book. I was instantly hooked. It cleared up a lot of my misconceptions and, to be honest, made me feel a bit abashed about some of the answers I put down in the application. At the same … Read More
Free Options Webinar: SMB’s Options Tribe: Tuesday, November 8, 2011 at 5pm EDT: Statistical edges in Option Trading
Tuesday November 8, 2011 at 5:00 pm Eastern Daylight Time SMB’s Options Tribe is an online community of options traders dedicated to sharing successful options trading ideas with all of our members worldwide. Each week the community will meet online for the primary purpose of watching live presentations made by outstanding veteran options traders and experts in the world of … Read More
Fear–Not So Much
(This post was written on November 2nd) I spent a good amount of time during Tuesday’s AM Meeting discussing how when fear comes back into the market you need to adjust your trading style very quickly. I was particularly demonstrative on this point as my experience has shown me over the years that traders, especially less experienced traders, are very … Read More
Why I Was Long NFLX
The other day I tweeted that I was long NFLX and short SPY and that it felt kind of “weird”. I wrote “weird” because the easy money trading NFLX had been on the short side for over a month and at the time the SPY was in a multi-week uptrend. As an intraday trader I often will take trades that … Read More
Chasing Trades Isn’t Paying
Current conditions and the overall complexion of the market is always subject to change, but it’s still always worth taking note of. The market seems to be continually morphing into another phase, whether it’s range-bound, trending, highly volatile, or really tame. Right now, we’re in short-term pullback mode after seeing some upside continuation. The past couple of sessions have been … Read More