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‘# POSTS >4 SIMPLE SOLUTIONS 50 YOU DO NOT MISS YOUR A+ TRADES
4 Simple Solutions So You Do Not Miss Your A+ TradesDo you ever feel like if I you could just take my best trades, we say A+ trades, my
results would be a lot better? Iam talking a lot better. You are probably right. Let
me share a recent anecdote about this from the desk and offer 4 simple solutions.
A few traders on the desk had been missing some of their A+ trades in a joint
account. Both are seeking breakout trading years. You might even say they need to
have a breakout year this year.
They are doing a lot right, but still need to stop missing some of their best ideas.
They exchange trade ideas and then when both agree they put the trade on in their
joint account. But again they were missing some of their best trades. They were
frustrated. I asked CBry, who runs the trading floor in NYC, to set up a call with
both of these traders. I asked for the traders to fix the problem and then join us for
acall.
Obviously if you are not taking all of your A+ trades your Pn will suffer. But it
actually suffers more than most think. There is a side effect that happens to traders
missing their A+ and this makes things so much worse.
What is that side effect?
That side effect happened to these two traders ready for a breakout year executing
on their joint account. Not only were they not capturing the Pl. from some of their
favorite trades but but but because they were not in all of their best trades, they had
periods of time where they were doing nothing. Missing some of their best trades
meant there was time where they had no trades on at all. And when a trader has no
trades on that can always cause trading trouble.
What kind of trading trouble?Instead of being in their favorite trades and managing those names, they went trade
surfing. They went trade surfing for trades to be in. And with this trade surfing
they started trading outside of their PlayBook. Yikes! And this trade surfing caused
this side effect of additional trading trouble.
So now not only were they missing some of their A+ trades but they were taking
trades they should not have been taking. Their PnL now did not include some of
their A+ trades, but it also included trades they should have skipped. So their PnL
was not buff enough from A+ trades missed but it also was emasculated with losses
from trades outside their PlayBook.
Their results were not representing their true trading ability. In fact, their PnL was
much worse than what they were capable of. To put this into Pn. estimates, this
was potentially the difference from treading water to posting 6-figure months.
I was on the phone with a very successful trader this week, who never needs to
make another dime. He now coaches some traders and we were discussing some
work he might help us with. He said something that sums up the tragedy of missing
some of your best trades. He said, “It is one thing for traders to fail because they
lack ability. But I hate seeing traders fail who shouldn't.” You deserve to experience
the success of your best trades.
(You missed a trade! What do elite traders do next?)
Okay so now we sought some simple solutions with these two traders. If you
struggle from this very issue, perhaps the ideas below will help you as well.
4 Simple Solutions:
1. A DRC, Daily Report Card, on whether you took all of their A+ trades.
Intensively work to fix the issue of missing some of their A+ trades. This
technique was taught to us by Dr. Steenbarger and has been adopted by many in
the trading universe.
2. Scrub your communication with each other so as not to miss your best trades.3, Clarify your execution system between each other so as not to miss your top
trades.
4, Brainstorm on technology alerts so you capture your favorite ideas.
Once again, and give this some time to sink in, you deserve to experience the
success of your best trades. Now go do it!
Important disclosures
Mike Bellafiore is the Co-Founder of SMB Capital, a proprietary trading desk, and
SMB Training, which provides trading education in stocks, options, and futures.
Bella, @MikeBellafiore, is the author of One Good Trade and The PlayBook. He
welcomes your trading questions at
[email protected].
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