From time to time I get asked during interviews if I trade other asset classes during the trading day. My answer is always yes and no. I do longer term swing trades in the FX market but no, I do not trade both FX and equities intraday very frequently. When I do I tend to lose my focus and do … Read More
Get Your Game Back
Happy New Year. I have been battling some sort of an “on again off again” stomach virus since Christmas that has made me miss many days of trading over the past couple of weeks. But after returning to trading, I have found myself struggling. This gives me a perfect topic with which to start the new year. How to combat … Read More
“How Did You Know to Bid There?”
We are always instructing our traders on the setups that present the greatest risk/reward. If they are involved in these setups trading will be easy. If not they will struggle. I pointed out one such trade to our newest group of trainees. I was trading AAPL on the Open as it was very In Play due to Steve Jobs taking … Read More
Please Make This Trade–Especially SMB Traders
The past twelve months have been a complete roller coaster ride in the energy markets. We watched oil go from $50 to almost $150 and back below $50 again. In fact, the other day it was around $35 per barrel. On New Year’s Eve oil made a powerful up move on very high volume. There was some good money in … Read More
Picking Your Tier Size, Part I
Happy new year to you all! I have spent some of the last few days off thinking about my trading and things I need to improve this year. While watching my archive of tapes in the days that I struggle I have found some inconsistency with my tier size. I have seen this problem in a couple of our guys … Read More
ROH Bounce
ROH tanked on the Open yesterday. Fading it on the long side was like trying to catch a falling knife. And many of you have heard the Street expression “don’t catch a falling knife.” These tank jobs in ROH happen everyday. As we discussed during our SMB AM Meeting, it is a mistake for a new trader to try and … Read More
Holiday Trading
I did it again. I do not know what is wrong with me. I definitely have a problem. I had about 15 cookies last nite. Delicious! I just can’t stop. If I eat one then I will eat 15. I went to three XMAS parties this week. That was one too many. I did not trade very much last week. … Read More
Why Trade Stocks in Play?
SMB Capital trades Stocks in Play. Our traders are taught how to find such stocks. And during our SMB AM Meeting we review the best Stocks in Play for a particular trading day. Over the past few years I’ve had quite a few conversations with interviewees, including “experienced traders”, about this core trading philosophy. Some don’t seem to grasp the … Read More