I spent some time yesterday writing how exciting it was to see some traders on the desk add to their game a new trade. Instead of only looking for the quick profit taking a scalp short in a stock gapping higher they looked to capture the larger move to the upside. Here is what I wrote: We urge our desk … Read More
Learning
This morning it was announced that SXCI was buying CHSI in a cash and stock deal (story from Benzinga). Both stocks were gapping up significantly. It is unusual for the acquirer to gap higher in a merger that involves stock as a major component of the transaction. There is usually a huge amount of selling pressure from the “merger arb” … Read More
The Trading Elite: Discussions With Top Financial Traders
What do professional traders do day-in and day-out to beat the markets? What separates the amateur from the professional? Why is it that some traders make millions while others can’t even get their account into the green? Those are the questions I set out to answer when I decided to get in touch with several of the top financial traders … Read More
What a difference 83 minutes can make.
This post is another in a series that we will be publishing over the next month , tracking the hypothetical performance of broken wing butterfly trades selected by Greg Loehr of Optionsbuzz.com. If you were following along last week with the hypothetical AAPL 610-605-595 put broken wing butterfly, then you saw how that example returned a profit of 31% (calculated … Read More
Buy, sell, move on
Below is an argument from a trader on our desk not to hold stocks during this earnings season. The trader suggests to get in and out and not expect much follow through with stocks to the upside. Kind of a frustrating market day because the market is slowly grinding higher throughout the day but individual stocks don’t really make hods. … Read More
Midday Idea – April 17th 2012
Disclosure: Short $CIE and $ECYT
A hint to make more this earnings season
After the close SMB met in its training room for a talk led by me. I haven’t given many talks of late but I thought the desk was due for one after my observations of their trading. It is earnings season. There are tricks to scoring. And there are things traders do to harm their results. Trying to hard is … Read More
Should I bench this trader?
A few weeks ago a developing trader on our desk sent me his trading review for the day. He had traded at least 15 stocks and was negative in nearly all of them. I responded: There is no reason for you to trade more than 8 stocks. Set that as a rule. You have to see the big picture and … Read More