News of lower than expected jobless claims resulted in a quick pre-market spike then sell-off in SPY today. However, on the open it rallied and proceeded to break through the 95.50 resistance level (peaking at 96.11) in the early afternoon. As the end of the trading session neared, sentiment reversed and SPY sold off hard into the close, finishing at … Read More
Battle on the Open: CRDN
In my quest to help the intraday trader exploit the open better I offer another great setup on the open. Again for those who struggle on the open it is not that this is a difficult time period to master. It is that you are not in the right set ups. I call this one The Battle on the Open. … Read More
Afternoon Support Equals Morning Resistance
I would like to share with you another little gem from the world of intraday trading. If a stock shows support at a particular level in the afternoon then the following morning this level will serve as resistance if the stock has gapped down. In our AM Meeting today I highlighted some of the market leaders such as AAPL and … Read More
The Week That Was: June 1 – 7, 2009
The SPY traded in a pretty tight range this week, not trading much below 93 or above 95.50. Again, we were looking for that catalyst to push us one way or the other, and I thought we were going to get it Friday morning with the much better than expected non-farm payroll number. We’ll see this week if Friday’s weakness … Read More
Where is the Next 50c Trade?
We are in the office watching tape on this Saturday. We just ended Part I one of our review session. An interesting trading topic emerged: when to forgo a scalp. Let’s discuss. There is this notion that day traders just scalp. Wrong. But there is also this elitist belief that scalping is somehow beneath some traders. Not me. … Read More
SMB Capital Blog – Now in Russian!
For our Russian speaking traders, check out a translation of some of our blog posts: myidealtrade.blogspot.com Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter!.
The key to my day today: stock selection
The key to my day today: stock selection. It was pretty clear this morning that the action was going to be in the financials that had announced secondary stock offerings. JPM, STI, AXP, and MS all sold stock to the general public so they could pay back the TARP money and get the gov out of their hair. In our … Read More
A Must Read: The Daily Trading Coach
The first time I met Dr. Steenbarger was in the smaller conference room of our proprietary trading firm in NYC. We were finalizing our training program and we wanted the best teacher that we knew to review our work. He wasn’t being paid, he was just a trading coach offering a helping hand. As Dr. Steenbarger offered his critique I was … Read More