Hi Mike, I’ve been trading awhile and I’m certainly getting better at it. I’ve noticed a recurring problem. Whenever I get a good streak going and I start feeling like I’m getting the hang of it, I hit a losing streak. Sometimes it’s a week or two of gains everyday and then a slow meltdown to give it back. I … Read More
Use the GPS
When I trade a stock “off the beaten path” (see my previous blog post), I always have an understanding of where the stock is in its trade along with the broad market. I’m always watching SPY levels and how the SPY trades. This allows me to make a better assessment of the relative strength or lack of in my stock. … Read More
Traders Ask: About that SYY Trade
Hi Mike, I just read your blog post on the SYY trade you guys made the other day. It was basically a play for an opening drivethat you wanted to add to your traders’ playbook. Just a quick couple of questions, if you don’t mind: 1) Would you be more aggressive if you see the bid hold at 30.63, drop, … Read More
Forex trade of the week
A key point in the EUR/CHF trade was when the price fractured the areas of support, which are identified by the Fibonacci retracement at level .618 % at an approximate price of 1.2800. Once those areas have been breached, we expect the trend to be lower than the previous minimums, but in turn, the price increases producing up trends. This … Read More
Loss Aversion and Irrational Focus
A passage from The Economist that may help our trading- The referee’s an anchor: A new book looks at the behavioral economics of sport “Loss aversion”, the tendency for people to care more about avoiding a loss than about making a similar-sized gain, is rife even among the greatest champions. Evidence from a huge database of near-identical putts shows that, along with … Read More
Knowing when a stock should move can be more important than picking its direction
Most traders make a whole lot about picking the direction of a stock. A very important skill talked little about is knowing when a stock should move. After you see something of the Tape you know the stock is now likely to move. We saw that a few times in PCX. Sometimes this skill is more important than actually picking … Read More
From Bad to Great- A Trader’s Steps to Improve Performance (Examples)
Yesterday we blogged how one of our underperforming traders improved his results. Some of our Readers asked for examples and our trader obliged: Hey Bella, I’ve attached 2 charts – one breakout trade of SLB on 9/29 (10min candle chart) and one breakdown trade of AEM on 9/21(15min candle chart). The line on both charts indicates high/low for previous day. … Read More
From Bad to Great: a Trader’s Steps to Improve Performance
One of our traders went from flagged for underperformance, to Most Improved, to one of our better traders. How did he do this? Hey Bella, One of the things that has really helped me has been going back and studying the charts of all of my winning trades and finding similarities in the chart patterns and taking a … Read More