You Don’t See That Every Day: 6 Minutes of Insanity

At around 2:30PM the SPYs were trading down to 113.60 from 117. It seemed like it was a good place to start looking for a bounce. I was keying in on the 113.10 level from March 5th as a potential dream price to get long. I got stopped out below 113 a few minutes later. At 2:42 I decided to … Read More

OPENING DAY

Tomorrow is Opening Day!  All the statistics from last year are thrown out and we start anew.  Spring has arrived with its warmer weather, flowers blossoming and sunlight extended.  All those fans of non playoff teams gain a great gift- hope. No matter that the Tampa Rays failed to make the playoffs in 2009 as most predicted- this could be … Read More

A Day Trader’s Dream

You couldn’t ask for anything more than AAPL provided today. A selloff that began in the premarket from 208 that ended when a large buyer began accumulating at 203.40. An uptrend that once above 208 offered more than five points of upside. And a downtrend into the close that began with a hard down move through 211 and ended from … Read More

How Many Trades Should I Make Each Day?

I was talking to one of our trainees today about starting to trade a live account. He said “Steve, I don’t want to make a lot of trades each day.” I told him that he should be looking for the best setups in the stocks he is watching and execute on those trades. That is certainly my goal each day. … Read More

Trading Gap Downs on Earnings Day

Every morning I scan through several news sources and rip through charts and screeners to find the best intra-day trading opportunities. The best setups are usually in stocks that have decent sized gaps (anything more than 5%), and have some fresh news (earnings/guidance, upgrade/downgrade, etc.) Today, although I had a few stocks on my watch-list, I decided to focus on … Read More

Ban Day Trading Part I

I began my professional career as a “day trader” a little over thirteen years ago. Little did I know at the time that I would one day become a strong advocate for banning myself from the market. The Institutional Day Trader First, let me offer a little bit of background information regarding “day trading” before I explain why it, other … Read More