*****David Blair, The Crosshairs Trader, is a blogger/trader/educator who does a wonderful job of sharing research on elite performance and how it relates to trading. Below is his latest post for the SMB trading community.***** — Editor’s Note Enhancing our trading performance means we must swallow some nasty-tasting medicine from time to time. But I have found the nastier the … Read More
Smart Options Trading: Unlocking Success with Strategy and Skill
“It’s better to be lucky than smart.” I’m not sure how that one got started, but I have to count that as one of the most foolish expressions in the English language. First off, what does it even mean? That if you have no intelligence or experience, that the only thing you have left is “luck” and you had better … Read More
The Challenge of Letting Winners Run
You know the following situation well: You had a long in EUR/USD at 1.3005 and sold it at 1.3018 only to watch it go to 1.3086 over the next hour. Of course when you try and hold for these type of moves, you give back your 10+ pips plus some additional when your stop gets hit. How do we know … Read More
SMBU Trading Tip of the Day ($VSI)
In this SMBU Trading Tip of the Day, Bella, author of the “trading classic” One Good Trade and The PlayBook, talks about the importance of execution with an example in Vitamin Shoppe (stock symbol $VSI). Highlights from this trade: 1) You can turn a very good trade into a losing trade with poor execution. 2) Trading is a skill. 3) Market “calls” are … Read More
A Trader’s Trading Path From A-Z
This Thursday I will speak to aspiring traders at Pace University. As I prepare for my discussion, I have been thinking of a Trader’s Trading Path From A-Z. A. Read about the markets when you are young. If you enjoy reading about markets, then read more. B. Start playing with putting together trades in simulation. C. If you find some … Read More
What a Successful Trader Would Never Do
Mike, This was kind of a mixed week. Good. 1. I find the 2nd day trade makes the most sense to me. I pick the strongest stock of the day and then find two levels of support and outline my entry price, stop price, target, and size. So far so good. 2. I also found that I don’t pay as … Read More
The Wandering Trader: Answers Lie Within
I’ve been wanderin’ early late From New York City to the Golden Gate And it don’t look like I’ll ever stop my wanderin’ –James Taylor As traders we want to spot best practices and co-opt them for our trading. I offer one for your trading in this post from a trader on our desk. Let me set the scene. I … Read More
Six Lessons on Systems Trading
In my recent post, Confessions from a Discretionary Trader, I wrote how I was spending more time each day learning about quantitative trading. Today I attended the live taping of our new course, SMB Systems Foundation, with market veterans Rick Martin and Andrew Falde at our NYC headquarters. Here are the six most interesting ideas I found shared in this course from … Read More