{"id":1872,"date":"2009-08-29T09:20:40","date_gmt":"2009-08-29T14:20:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/?p=1872"},"modified":"2023-04-24T13:36:34","modified_gmt":"2023-04-24T17:36:34","slug":"a-last-week-in-august-to-remember-aig","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/a-last-week-in-august-to-remember-aig","title":{"rendered":"A Last Week in August to Remember &#8211; AIG"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I wrote last week that the last week in August is historically uneventful. I went on StockTwits TV and said the same thing. I wrote in my blog <a href=\"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/vacation-chop\">\u201cVacation\u2026.Chop!\u201d<\/a> that you ought to take a break. I suggested that the last week in August or the first week in September are generally excellent weeks to vacation. I have some new information. Let\u2019s discuss.<\/p>\n<p>Steve has written many excellent blogs on Stocks In Play. Our trading philosophy as short term intraday traders is to find the stocks that are moving and use the trading set ups that work best with these stocks. The advantage of this strategy is that we can count on one hand the days that do not offer opportunity in a given year. To be more accurate we can count on one hand in the past three years the trading days that have not offered opportunity. And this past week, this week that has been traditionally slow was the best week we have had all year.<\/p>\n<p>Huh? Bella did you just say that you guys had a killer week last week? But the market did not move. It was the last week of the trading summer. Everyone was on vacation working on everything not trading. Young traders were in the Hamptons hitting on the models (oh to be young again). Dads were catching up on important family time. People were having fun. People were not trading Bella. What the hell is wrong with you?<\/p>\n<p>The huge advantage of trading Stocks In Play is that you only need one stock to be in play. Not only that but you need only one stock to be in play for a few days. And we saw that this week. We saw this with AIG. We saw this in the last twenty minutes into the Close on Wednesday, all day Thursday and again all day Friday. Our desk made some serious chops!<\/p>\n<p>A favorite baseballism heard on a baseball broadcast is: \u201cYou see something new every time you come to the ballpark.\u201d I went to the new Yankee Stadium on Tuesday and saw a grown man eat four sausage dogs in one sitting. Does that count? This week we again saw something new in the markets. A last week in August that offered memorable opportunity.<\/p>\n<p>I had planned to take Tuesday through Friday off from trading this week and focus on my Partner business. And then came AIG in the last twenty minutes on Wednesday. I formulated a Plan B. Plan B was all day trading, all the time, in AIG. Good Plan B. GMan had planned a trip to Great Adventure for Friday with a mess of the guys. Trip Canceled. Profitable decision.<\/p>\n<p>Like in professional basketball there are runs in our sport. There are days that can make your week. There are weeks that can make your month. There are months that can make your year. This August &#8217;09 was a month to make your year. If you missed it you may have missed the best trading of the year. And this is part of the huge disadvantage of what we do. You have to be connected to the markets and ready to cancel plans when tremendous trading opportunity visits.<\/p>\n<p>Trade with an open mind at all times. Expect the unexpected. Just because every August I have ever traded was slow does not mean there would not be opportunity in my twelfth August of summer trading. And this is straight out of the \u201dBlack Swan\u201d. We overvalue what we know and undervalue what we do not know. Eleven straight years of a quiet last week in August does not mean this year will be similar.<\/p>\n<p>Best of luck with your trading! Don&#8217;t forget to <a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/smbcapital\">follow us on Twitter!<\/a><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1873\" title=\"AIG 08-28-09 3-day\" src=\"http:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/AIG-08-28-09-3-day.bmp\" alt=\"AIG 08-28-09 3-day\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I wrote last week that the last week in August is historically uneventful. I went on StockTwits TV and said the same thing. I wrote in my blog \u201cVacation\u2026.Chop!\u201d that you ought to take a break. I suggested that the last week in August or the first week in September are generally excellent weeks to vacation. I have some new &#8230; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/a-last-week-in-august-to-remember-aig\" class=\"more-link\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":144,"featured_media":1873,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,10],"tags":[329,18,81,353],"class_list":["post-1872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general-comments-2","category-mike-bellafiore-bellas-blogs","tag-aig","tag-smb-capital","tag-smb-training","tag-stocks-in-play"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>A Last Week in August to Remember - AIG | SMB Training<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/a-last-week-in-august-to-remember-aig\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Last Week in August to Remember - AIG | SMB Training\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I wrote last week that the last week in August is historically uneventful. I went on StockTwits TV and said the same thing. I wrote in my blog \u201cVacation\u2026.Chop!\u201d that you ought to take a break. I suggested that the last week in August or the first week in September are generally excellent weeks to vacation. I have some new ... Read More\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/a-last-week-in-august-to-remember-aig\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"SMB Training Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/smbcap\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-08-29T14:20:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-04-24T17:36:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Bella\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@smbcapital\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@smbcapital\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Bella\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/a-last-week-in-august-to-remember-aig#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/a-last-week-in-august-to-remember-aig\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Bella\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/80500a901d0e5ce0a27fa996bb1b9161\"},\"headline\":\"A Last Week in August to Remember &#8211; AIG\",\"datePublished\":\"2009-08-29T14:20:40+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-04-24T17:36:34+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/a-last-week-in-august-to-remember-aig\"},\"wordCount\":639,\"commentCount\":13,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/a-last-week-in-august-to-remember-aig#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/AIG-08-28-09-3-day.bmp\",\"keywords\":[\"AIG\",\"smb capital\",\"smb training\",\"stocks in play\"],\"articleSection\":[\"General Comments\",\"Mike Bellafiore's (Bella's) Blogs\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/a-last-week-in-august-to-remember-aig#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/a-last-week-in-august-to-remember-aig\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/a-last-week-in-august-to-remember-aig\",\"name\":\"A Last Week in August to Remember - AIG | SMB Training\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/a-last-week-in-august-to-remember-aig#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/a-last-week-in-august-to-remember-aig#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/AIG-08-28-09-3-day.bmp\",\"datePublished\":\"2009-08-29T14:20:40+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-04-24T17:36:34+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/a-last-week-in-august-to-remember-aig#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/a-last-week-in-august-to-remember-aig\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/a-last-week-in-august-to-remember-aig#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/AIG-08-28-09-3-day.bmp\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/AIG-08-28-09-3-day.bmp\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/a-last-week-in-august-to-remember-aig#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"A Last Week in August to Remember &#8211; AIG\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"SMB Training Blog\",\"description\":\"Lessons from the trading desk\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"SMB Training\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Logo-e1658419502954.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Logo-e1658419502954.png\",\"width\":230,\"height\":81,\"caption\":\"SMB Training\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/smbcap\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/smbcapital\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/smbcapital\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/80500a901d0e5ce0a27fa996bb1b9161\",\"name\":\"Bella\",\"description\":\"Mike Bellafiore is a co-founder of SMB Capital, a day trading firm which takes great pride in its exceptional training program. SMB Capital is an equity prop trading desk that trades on 5th Avenue in New York City. Mr. Bellafiore is a graduate of the University of Connecticut School of Law. He has traded professionally for more than a decade.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/bellas-blog\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/author\/bella\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"A Last Week in August to Remember - AIG | SMB Training","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/a-last-week-in-august-to-remember-aig","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"A Last Week in August to Remember - AIG | SMB Training","og_description":"I wrote last week that the last week in August is historically uneventful. I went on StockTwits TV and said the same thing. I wrote in my blog \u201cVacation\u2026.Chop!\u201d that you ought to take a break. I suggested that the last week in August or the first week in September are generally excellent weeks to vacation. I have some new ... Read More","og_url":"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/a-last-week-in-august-to-remember-aig","og_site_name":"SMB Training Blog","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/smbcap\/","article_published_time":"2009-08-29T14:20:40+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-04-24T17:36:34+00:00","author":"Bella","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@smbcapital","twitter_site":"@smbcapital","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Bella","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/a-last-week-in-august-to-remember-aig#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/a-last-week-in-august-to-remember-aig"},"author":{"name":"Bella","@id":"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/80500a901d0e5ce0a27fa996bb1b9161"},"headline":"A Last Week in August to Remember &#8211; AIG","datePublished":"2009-08-29T14:20:40+00:00","dateModified":"2023-04-24T17:36:34+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/a-last-week-in-august-to-remember-aig"},"wordCount":639,"commentCount":13,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/a-last-week-in-august-to-remember-aig#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/AIG-08-28-09-3-day.bmp","keywords":["AIG","smb capital","smb training","stocks in play"],"articleSection":["General Comments","Mike Bellafiore's (Bella's) Blogs"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/a-last-week-in-august-to-remember-aig#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/a-last-week-in-august-to-remember-aig","url":"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/a-last-week-in-august-to-remember-aig","name":"A Last Week in August to Remember - AIG | SMB Training","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/a-last-week-in-august-to-remember-aig#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/a-last-week-in-august-to-remember-aig#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/AIG-08-28-09-3-day.bmp","datePublished":"2009-08-29T14:20:40+00:00","dateModified":"2023-04-24T17:36:34+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/a-last-week-in-august-to-remember-aig#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/a-last-week-in-august-to-remember-aig"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/a-last-week-in-august-to-remember-aig#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/AIG-08-28-09-3-day.bmp","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/AIG-08-28-09-3-day.bmp"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/a-last-week-in-august-to-remember-aig#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"A Last Week in August to Remember &#8211; AIG"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/","name":"SMB Training Blog","description":"Lessons from the trading desk","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"SMB Training","url":"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Logo-e1658419502954.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Logo-e1658419502954.png","width":230,"height":81,"caption":"SMB Training"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/smbcap\/","https:\/\/x.com\/smbcapital","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/smbcapital"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/80500a901d0e5ce0a27fa996bb1b9161","name":"Bella","description":"Mike Bellafiore is a co-founder of SMB Capital, a day trading firm which takes great pride in its exceptional training program. SMB Capital is an equity prop trading desk that trades on 5th Avenue in New York City. Mr. Bellafiore is a graduate of the University of Connecticut School of Law. He has traded professionally for more than a decade.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/bellas-blog"],"url":"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/author\/bella"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/144"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1872"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1872\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53905,"href":"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1872\/revisions\/53905"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}