In this morning’s AM Meeting I discussed a possible short setup in BRCM. I was very skeptical of the gap above $40 as this stock was trading at $30 a couple of months ago and only traded higher when they said they were hiring an investment bank to look at selling off some assets. In my view this was a … Read More
This Options Trader is Succeeding
I try to offer examples of best practices from succeeding traders and share them with the trading community. It is my hopesuccess.1 developing traders will co-opt some of these best practices and improve their trading. I have another one to share- this one from our options trading desk. One of the options traders on our desk just had his best … Read More
A Focus on Immediately Being in the Money Helped this Trader Improve
I had a conversation with one of the traders on our desk end of month congratulating him on his improved performance and inquiring on the reasons for it. We sat in my office and I congratulated him on improving from consistently negative to flat for the month. Come again Mike? Why is that something for which to congratulate a … Read More
Options Trading for Income with John Locke for July 21, 2014
Risk Disclosure No relevant positions
How Do I Simplify My Trading? – Part 2
Dear Mr. Bellafiore, My name is (deleted), and I’ve contacted you in the past. One of our conversations ended up on your blog and eventually made it into your book (http://www.smbtraining.com/blog/should-this-trader-make-a-comeback). Your responses to my inquiries have always been courteous and insightful, so I’m turning to you once again for some more advice. With the full support of my spouse, … Read More
What Do You Need First to Gain Trading Edge?
I have been listening to a great deal of the Toddler music channel on Pandora so pardon my lyrics. First comes skill Trading Skill! Next comes edge Trading Edge! Then comes trading profits in your head …..And in your bank! Our firm has edge during Russell imbalances. I was discussing this strategy in theory with our college training class, exposing … Read More
Harness the Power of Your Emotions
As humans we make decisions based on emotions. Of course we sometimes use logic change our decisions but our initial decision, and the one we are most likely to act upon, is always based on emotion. This is because our emotions are much more powerful and react much more quickly than our logic. Therefore, our emotions quickly send us down … Read More
Creating a Road Map Helped this Trader
I noticed one of our new traders had a day of out-performance. I assumed this was his best trading day because of his PnL but it turned out it was his second best. Still he was near the top of the leaderboard with a very substantial intraday PnL for a new trader- heck for all traders. I asked him what he … Read More