During our AM meeting our Desk gathers in our conference room to discuss the stocks that will be “In Play” for the day. I usually also throw in some tidbits about recent market patterns that may help our traders make some “easy” money. Easy money is usually found in one of our core trading plays that our trainees learn during … Read More
Hey, Just Relax and Trade
During the past few days we have seen noticeably increased volatility and movement in our markets. Days like this are what a day trader salivates for, because the money making opportunities are vast as money is pulled in and out of the market and stocks act somewhat erratically. During these times it is easy to get overly worked up because … Read More
Picking Your Spots
We had a long discussion about picking your spots today with our desk. How many of you who are professional day traders feel as if you over-traded today? Today was a day where that was easy to do. But let’s take a look at the last 3 hours of the trading day and particularly with LEH and FNM and discuss … Read More
Feds Announce Plan For FRE and FNM
News broke today on the bailout plan for Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/14/washington/14fannieweb.html?hp) We saw a strong bounce in both stocks on Friday after Paulson stated that the federal government wasn’t interested in an outright takeover but would support both entities in their current form. The above article gives more detail on how the Bush administration intends to handle … Read More
Always Be Ready
As indicated by previous posts, yesterday was a great day. Sometimes you don’t know when days like that are coming around. Sometimes you can tell. On Thursday night, my roomates asked me to go out drinking, but I declined because I had a feeling something could happen to the market on Friday. I know that when I’m hungover I don’t … Read More
A Great Day for Two New Traders
Yesterday was a great day for our prop trading desk. My partner and our head trader killed it. One of our new traders who was a former Olympic trial swimmer put up a huge day. And on and on and on. But I want to highlight two of our new traders because we can all learn from them. For those … Read More
No FNM or FRE
During our AM Call we remarked that FNM or FRE are not good stocks to trade today for new traders. There is a very high likelihood that the government will announce a bailout plan and the stocks will get halted. You do not want to be in a position on either side if they are halted. The gaming stocks, LEH, … Read More
Take Advantage of this Opportunity
Our new traders love to hear “back in the day” stories. You know the late 90’s when day traders were making 6 figures a month. What was the most you ever made in one day is a frequent question. And I tell our prop traders the story about when the Fed cut rates surprisingly intraday by 50 basis points. Now … Read More