Conviction Makes a Good Trader Great

mprincipatoGeneral Comments1 Comment

A few days ago the head trader of our equities desk, GMan, had an exceptional day. Jokingly I sent him a message that read, “Now I know what ‘G’ stands for in Gman: Grande”. I’m writing about him here for two reasons. First, a significant part of his returns came from a position in the EUR/USD pair which he took … Read More

Unleashing Trading Potential: Leveraging Market Profile Strategies

mprincipatoGeneral Comments, market structure, SMB Forex9 Comments

The new trader is usually in a rush. They want to be handed a system that will make them profitable practically overnight. A professional and consistent trader is one who is usually informed in a way that goes against the conventional. Getting to that level of knowledge requires building enough experience with conventional information so that you can make it … Read More

Three Ways To Gauge Volume in the Forex Market

mprincipatoGeneral Comments, SMB Forex1 Comment

Volume is a key component in technical analysis and in momentum based trading strategies. Heavy volume usually leads to sustained price trends and higher quality intraday momentum. In contrast, lack of volume usually leads to a lot of broken keyboards, computer screens and accounts. So it can be very beneficial for a trader of any instrument to have a sense … Read More

Factoring News Into Your Forex Strategy

mprincipatoGeneral CommentsLeave a Comment

News can cause major movements in the currency markets. Many newer traders like to believe that it is possible to trade news events profitably. That idea gets really old fast and/or your account goes to zero faster. Either way as the newer trader gains experience they realize news trading isn’t the most productive strategy. The question is how can we … Read More

One day on the street with a professional trader

Seth FreudbergGeneral Comments, Mike Bellafiore's (Bella's) BlogsLeave a Comment

In the article Book Takes a Look Inside Professional Day Traders, national columnist Joel Stein is spotted $100,000 to try his hand at professional intraday trading for one day. Matt Nadell, @tradecrushers, a guest blogger at SMBU Blog, in Chicago gives Joel a taste of the nerve-wrecking excitement that trading can offer while teaching him basics along the way. Highlights: … Read More

What behavior should a prop firm reward?

BellaGeneral Comments7 Comments

After the close one day this week I encouraged our traders to CALL OUT awesome potential trading opportunities.  Shark called out SXCI into one close and the firm and individual traders caught a very profitable trade.  I got our Floor Manager into ILMN for an opening drive play at the start of the week.  He sent me an email of … Read More

I See Momentum Buying

BellaGeneral Comments2 Comments

I settled at my trading station wondering what to trade on this Open.  RHT? BBY? AMLN?  There had not yet been a price spike on the SMB Radar in health care yet but I would later ask what and where to buy for that sector.  BBY showed some consistent selling at 25 so I scalped that down to 24.60 on … Read More