It was Spring 1997 and I walked into the lobby at 60 Broad Street to head to my firm’s trading floor. As I entered the elevator the firm’s head trader commented to me “hope you aren’t long Intel”. I responded that in fact I was short Intel and a few other technology stocks that had behaved weakly the prior trading … Read More
The Triple Butterfly Trade
In this video presentation, Seth Freudberg, SMBU’s Director of Options Training, explains the Triple Butterfly trade, which provides a good example of how options income trades can be successfully adapted to address strong market movements. Seth Freudberg Director, SMB Options Training Program The SMB Options Training Program is a program designed for novice and intermediate level options traders who are … Read More
Overlooked Risk Tools: Position Sizing
Too often I listen to inexperienced traders over reacting, exaggerating and showing how over dependent they are on things like technical analysis. Too many engineers and people who think they can outsmart the market by trying to define everything it does with some over restrictive measure, indicator or data series. Much of the time, the objective of this pursuit is … Read More
Trading in a State of Flow
Mike Bellafiore, co-founder of SMB Capital, spoke to students at Pace University about trading and the need to start early while they’re in college if they want to get an edge in trading. In this short clip Bella discusses the concept of being in a state of flow. Flow by Mihály Csíkszentmihályi is a must-read book. A state of flow occurs … Read More
The Final Step for Systems Success: Accuracy
Accuracy is simply defined as the percentage of trades that end profitably. It is the final of our seven steps to systems success. To phrase it better, accuracy is the last thing we look at in building a system. Accuracy—almost without fail—is the first question asked about a system. However, it has the least impact on the success of a system. … Read More
PlayBook Checkup: Breakout Fade ($OPTT)
Below is our newest installment of the 2014 edition of The PlayBook Checkup with Bella, author of One Good Trade and The PlayBook. During these sessions a trade archived by a Junior Trader from our desk will be reviewed by Bella. Attendance is free for SMBU Tools subscribers, who can also ask questions during the event. In this video a Junior Trader talks about … Read More
Members-Only Options Webinar: Explore Earnings Plays and Options Behavior with Matt Amberson of Orats.com and Casey Platt
SMBU’s Options Tribe is an online community of options traders dedicated to sharing successful options trading ideas with all of our members worldwide. Each Tuesday, SMBU hosts an options webinar—the Options Tribe—during which veteran options traders and experts in the world of options trading share live presentations. Next week, Matt Amberson of Options Research and Technology Services (ORATS), joined by … Read More
Duration: The Sixth Step to Systems Success
Number six in our seven steps is Duration. Duration represents the expected length of time in winning trades, losing trades, and all trades. Almost without exception we find that trend- and momentum-oriented signals have a shorter duration for losing signals and a longer duration for winning signals. The reverse is true for mean-reversion trades. Knowing your expected duration is important … Read More