We are all paid at the end of the month based upon OUR trading performance. It is easy to measure your pay based solely on YOUR production. This is a mistake. Let’s discuss. We have two excellent young traders on our desk Dov and DLE. Dov killed it in the fall and then struggled to start 09. DLE was consistent … Read More
MS: A Great Second Day Play
The theme of the day is the “Second Day Play”. Jtoma talked about it on Fast Money and now I will review the best Second Day Play from today. Yesterday, MS released earnings and traded in a 2 point range for the day between 22.50 and 24.50. MS was behaving relatively weaker than the market yesterday afternoon. When the market … Read More
IBM Pattern
I did not identify the pattern in IBM today until near the Close. This soured my trading results. The pattern in IBM today was to create a support level, hold that level with significant volume, trade higher from this support level, then drop, hold a level lower, and then explosively trade higher. Basically IBM would not explode higher until … Read More
A Conversation with Yourself
I received an email from a trader who is a superstar at reviewing his work. Below is an email he sent to me this weekend…..I need to slow things down and do exactly this: 1) [keep doing exactly what I’m doing, in preparation, in hard work, in planning trades, sharing ideas, and reviewing work] 2) have more patience so … Read More
A Trade to Increase Your Stop Loss
One of our better traders asked me a follow up question about trading HOG into the Close. As you may remember I blogged about a HOG Trade to Hold from 18.50 to 17.90 into the Close yesterday. This excellent trader struggled with HOG in the AM. He asked about the adjustments that he could have made trading HOG. Let’s discuss. … Read More
Relative Weakness- HOG
Relative Strength is a trade taught on most desks. When you notice the market is weak and a stock cannot go down, this shows relative strength. Conversely when the market is strong and a stock cannot go up, then we conclude it is weak. Today we saw a relative strength play in HOG. Let’s discuss. After 12PM SPY was strong. … Read More
Attention All RIMM Traders!
I love trading RIMM. Not because it was my most profitable stock in 2008. Well maybe partly. I love trading RIMM because it is one of those few stocks that all the major players on Wall Street trade. Hedge funds flock to RIMM when the market is moving. As do mutual fund managers, professional traders, and retail brokers. With so … Read More
From the Mailbag: Scalping and Stress
I received this email today, which I would like to discuss. Mr. Bellafiore, I enjoy reading your blog. Thanks for sharing your knowledge! I have a question regarding anxiety/stress when reading the tape. I find that this method of trading is much more stressful for me than say, trading patterns off a five-minute chart, primarily because it is faster. How … Read More