{"id":32794,"date":"2013-10-21T20:03:58","date_gmt":"2013-10-22T00:03:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/?p=32794"},"modified":"2023-04-27T08:34:31","modified_gmt":"2023-04-27T12:34:31","slug":"why-we-started-smb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/why-we-started-smb","title":{"rendered":"Why We Started SMB"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mike,<\/p>\n

I’ve just started your book One Good Trade<\/em>, and I love it. My question is why start a prop firm if you and Steve are the best traders and it is all your money? Can’t you just scale up your trades?<\/div>\n
\n
I trade my own money and was thinking about starting a prop firm, but then I think:<\/div>\n
\n

1. \u00a0It’s my money.
\n2. \u00a0Why not just trade bigger amounts?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Clearly, I don’t have all the skills as you do, as I’m somewhat of a “one trick pony,” as I only trade UPRO, a 3X leveraged S&P ETF, and I essentially “buy the dips,” as defined by price channels, slow stochastics and MACD. My holding period is weeks\/months, more swing trading. I’m really looking for fear and greed. Debt ceiling debate was a lay up. A little manufactured fear, with a leveraged ETF worked wonders.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Here are some books that I’ve read: Alexander Elder’s three books, Trading for a Living<\/em>, Come Into My Trading Room<\/em>, and The New Sell and Sell Short<\/em>; Jesse Livermore’s Reminiscences of a Stock Operatator<\/em> and How to Trade in Stocks<\/em>; and Trend Following<\/em> by Michael Covell.<\/p>\n

I’ve also read a few trading psychology books, and I bought the one you recommended by Steen. I’m also buying Kiev. If this guy counsels SAC Capital, there’s certainly something I can learn. I’ve also read various books on fundamentals, including: Security Analysis<\/em>, Intelligent Investor<\/em>, and the Buffettology series. For daily reading, that would include The Wall Street Journal<\/em>, IBD<\/em>, and I’m somewhat addicted to CNBC. As for blogs, I don’t follow any\u2014but I will now follow yours.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Take care, and you do a tremendous job writing.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\n

@mikebellafiore<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

This is a great question.\u00a0I recently shot a video for our new SMB DNA Program<\/a> where I explain how and why we started.<\/div>\n
\n

When I first went to Steve to ask him about starting a prop desk this slide encapsulates his response:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
\"Steve<\/a><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Now look at him!<\/div>\n
\n

This next slide explains why and how we started our firm:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

1) To provide a solution needed in the trading community: a need for better training<\/div>\n
2) A tremendous demand for training<\/div>\n
3) A plethora of insufficient trader training<\/div>\n
4) A desire by us to teach and develop traders<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\"why<\/a><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Yes, it turns out we were quite good at it, and we’ve now spun off the training for our prop traders into SMBU, where we offer trader training in many products globally.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\n

Related blog posts:
\nFinding Yourself as a Trader
\n<\/a>What a Star Fund Manager Can Teach Us About Improvement<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

You can be better tomorrow than you are today!<\/p>\n

Mike Bellafiore<\/p>\n

One Good Trade<\/em><\/a>
\nThe PlayBook<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

No relevant positions<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mike, I’ve just started your book One Good Trade, and I love it. My question is why start a prop firm if you and Steve are the best traders and it is all your money? Can’t you just scale up your trades? I trade my own money and was thinking about starting a prop firm, but then I think: 1. … Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":144,"featured_media":32795,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2444,2449,4703,2448,1718,2445,4712,4690,207],"class_list":["post-32794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general-comments-2","tag-daytrading","tag-how-to-be-a-day-trader","tag-learn-trading","tag-prop-trade","tag-the-playbook","tag-trading-careers","tag-trading-courses","tag-trading-education","tag-trading-stocks"],"yoast_head":"\nWhy We Started SMB | 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\/why-we-started-smb\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why We Started SMB | SMB Training\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Mike, I’ve just started your book One Good Trade, and I love it. My question is why start a prop firm if you and Steve are the best traders and it is all your money? Can’t you just scale up your trades? I trade my own money and was thinking about starting a prop firm, but then I think: 1. ... 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