I had the privilege to visit a prestigious US hedge fund this week. I just cannot shake this one image. We, 4 of us from SMB, arrive from NYC in Greenwich in my family SUV. You pass the private airport so close to Westchester and Southern, CT . The four of us joke about the SMB private jet, that can take you … Read More
Is There Power in Negative Thinking?
Is it productive to think negatively as a trader? Bobby Knight, National Collegiate Hall of Fame coach, thinks so. Coach Bobby Knight says that when he first started coaching one of the worst things he would hear was “It will be O.K.” Not only that, Knight says, as he did in a recent New York Times interview, that “the worst … Read More
What do you do when your strategies stop working?
Hello Mike, I have an interesting question for you. Its about the life cycle of a trade set up. I’ve realized that like businesses trading setups are also cyclical. There will be periods where the set up produces an edge, and there will be periods when the set up is not producing an edge. Does this mean the setup no longer … Read More
How happy should you be?
Should we seek to be happy all-the-time as a trader? No, says the research. Eric Barker, at his Barking Up the Wrong Tree blog, asks a question: “Should we try to be happy all the time?” It’s a good question and he answers it with one word: no. Now, he isn’t knocking happiness. He’s only pointing that context matters and … Read More
Art Therapy for Your Trading
I received an awesome email teaching me about an interesting concept for our trading: art therapy. I thought I would share it with the trading community. Last time on your webinar you asked what is art therapy? It’s kind of like when a kid goes to a child psychologist and in order for the psychologist to figure out what’s going … Read More
Do You Pick Bottoms and Tops?
Good afternoon Mike, I read One Good Trade, and I pre-ordered The Playbook so I could get some additional insight into professional trading. I saw quite a few references to buying the support plays or selling the resistance plays, and I was wondering about the strategy, so my question is overall do you try to buy the low or sell … Read More
Do you have a news edge?
Last night I had dinner with Ravee Mehta, author of The Emotionally Intelligent Investor and former hedge fund trader at Soros Fund Management, hoping to learn more about getting a real news edge while trading. On my desk I hear my guys talking about Conviction Trades before the stock confirms their thesis. I have worked with very experienced discretionary traders who … Read More
Does the 10,000 Hour Rule Apply to Trading?
It takes purposeful practice AND 10,000 hours to become great at anything, says this latest blog from Barking Up the Wrong Tree. I write about one way to practice purposefully in my next book The PlayBook (which you can preorder), by creating your PlayBook. I have written about other ways extensively on this blog (some examples below). Improving Our Performance … Read More