Mr. Padre is a senior trader trying to hit home runs with his trading. It was not working for him, both psychologically and with his PnL.The more famous “Mr. Padre” was the late Tony Gwynn of the San Diego Padres, who built a hall-of-fame career slapping singles. He consistently hit above .300 and got on base at a clip of … Read More
How Big Dog sized down to progress
Big Dog started to learn Futures to capitalize on this market with elevated volatility. He is a fast study. Big Dog is also an accomplished trader, in the 500k-1m a-year range. Let me share an anecdote working with him on our desk to improve his sizing. Big Dog noticed something about his stops when he started to size up … Read More
Thoughts On Trading Tired
It has been a grueling two weeks. Peak earnings season. Peak bear market. Here are some thoughts on things you can do if felling run down… Steven Spencer is the co-founder of SMB Capital and SMB University which provides trading education in stocks, and options. He has traded professionally for 19 years. His email address is: [email protected]. No relevant … Read More
7 observations from a guest lecture on trading at Rutgers
Last night I gave a visiting lecture at Rutgers. I thought I would share some of my observations. 1) Rutgers is doing a masterful job of promotion. The deep red logo stands out. I even bought a shirt for myself I liked the logo and colors so much. Signs on the highway blast out their Top 10 ROI. Did they … Read More
Losing Money On A Trade Is Not The Same As Failing
In our SMBU Daily Video, Seth Freudberg discusses why losses are inevitable in this kind of market. Options traders struggle in volatile markets like we are experiencing. It’s important to keep a proper perspective in these circumstances–losing on trades is expected–as long as you stayed disciplined through the trading process then you didn’t fail–you simply lost money on a trade. … Read More
Three Ideas to Help You Catch Your Best Trade Ideas
@mikebellafiore One thing I do before the open is develop a game plan. What stocks do I want to trade first? What prices do I want to enter positions? This helps a trader to not get overwhelmed when the market opens. There is all this data flashing buy on multiple screens in nanoseconds. Sorting out your best stocks and best … Read More
Why this trader got sent home
Yesterday we sent home a trader. Why? To cement a small win from him which he can build. The trader is just passing over his Year1 mark into Year2. This is the year where there are PnL expectations. At our firm our data suggests most traders experience significant improvement in Year2. Yesterday he was having one of his best days. … Read More
How this Bearish Strategy Beat the Index by 288%… Even in a Bull Market
Please note: Trades discussed below are hypothetical and simulated for educational purposes only. Review the options risk disclosure. The graph below compares the Bearish Butterfly vs. the S&P 500 index. If you had traded the rule-based Bearish Butterfly Strategy for the past 5 years, you could have outperformed the index by 288% — even though the market was bullish during … Read More