()1 Clockwork found the desk growing increasingly lonely. Seeking fresh camaraderie, he requests a move to the middle of the office to be closer to the top traders. The bonds formed with his closest colleagues during the summer 2011 training class had slowly dissolved with everyone having left the ranks, leaving him as the sole survivor. All my friends are gone. Even Pete. Kinda depressing. Life at home wasn’t going so great either. Clockwork had been delicately managing a long-distance relationship with his college sweetheart. Stretching across the miles from California, they had intially man ..read more

This is a new series called Portait of a Trader. The first one of this series is about my good friend at MBC Securities, Clockwork, who started with me in the training class of summer 2011. It will reference a lot of what happened in Prop Trader Series, which I suggest reading first, although I do try reference anything relevant. Additional author’s notes in the footnote: 1 Portrait of a Trader as a Young Man Growing up, Stephen liked to play multiplayer online role playing games (MMORPGs). He enjoyed immersing himself in a virtual ecosystem where he could interact with other players all aroun ..read more

8:00 AM on Friday morning on a chilly February the 16th. One person is blowing up my gchat with comments about one particular stock. bro check out SMCI Clockwork1: I’m short SMCI from $1040 pre-market. I’ll take the pain on it, 4th day 4 ATR gap up, never seen anything like that. I might just short more on opening print and close my eyes lol I know that this SMCI has been a pain in the ass for short-biased traders for the last 3 weeks. I don’t want to join the pain train and get into these plays before they’re ready. I don’t have that prop trader’s “fuck it and chuck it” attitude in me anymore ..read more

If you missed the first mailbag, it’s here. These are real questions from real traders, fielded from my e-mail, twitter account, or comment section. If you have any questions, just ask away. Let’s get started. 1. How’s your trading going in 2024? Eh. I think it’s time for me to take a hiatus from active trading1 I find myself directionless and without any love or passion for the game. I often feel riddled with anxiety and all kinds of fucked up thoughts swirling in my head. I thought I could fight through it but I’ve reached my breaking point. For much of 2023, trading was just a part-time gig ..read more

(continued from Stopping Out) That’s it. It just ends. There’s no redemption arc where I am asked about my most challenging moment in a Market Wizards interview and I have the cliche answer dialed up and ready to go: “it’s when I blew up on FNMA but I came back from it a stronger trader. Now I am MBC’s #1 trader after I made $40 million last year.” I took the cowardly way out. I moved on from MBC to be an independent trader and for the next 10 years, my results were… pretty good. Let me show you something. Consistency and solid risk-adjusted returns and closing near the high watermark–year ov ..read more

(continued from Risk Limit Exceeded) Let me tell you a story about a trader named Franklin Chase. Franklin Chase started trading at Datek Securities some time in the mid 90s1. He established himself as one of their best traders and after making millions, he then left to trade his own money. Franklin had a good feel for how the dotcom stocks moved. He committed to his research and understood share structures and corporate financing at a time when most investors only concerned themselves with headlines and momentum. That is to say, he knew most of these dotcom companies were total shit. One hect ..read more

(continued from The Pot Stocks) Avery had pulled us into a meeting in the middle of the day to coach us on how we could have extracted more value out of our short on a stock called Plug Power (PLUG). We had been hunting for a huge correction on this parabolic stock and today was the day it finally collapsed, along with a few other fuel-cell related stocks. Most of us over-covered at $9 and flattened out at $8… while the stock continued to bleed towards $6 and below. We left some serious money on the table. Avery passionately argued that if we were going to commit all our mental capital into t ..read more

(continued from Bitcoin II: The NO! Awakens) Me: Some people don’t take it seriously enough. They’re not gonna make it. Teddy: Oh yeah? Me: Yeah. Your whole life has to be about trading. You have to suffer for it every single day. You have to be obsessed with finding ways to make money. Morning commute. Think about stocks. Lifting session at the gym. Think about stocks. Evening dinner. Think about stocks. No time for tourism or Tinder. Just trading. Me: “If you’re not all-in, you’re not gonna make it. You’re gonna be another Imran. Another Billy. God help you, you’re gonna be another Terran ..read more

(continued from Consistently Profitable Trader, although more of a continuation from Bitcoin) November 21st 2013, 3:00 AM EST It’s going to go to 0. We’re gonna lose everything. I want to die.1 I wake up in cold sweat and clutch my chest. I see price hasn’t budged–still $800. It was all in my head. I see our equity approaching $500,000–more money than I’ve ever managed in my life. Why is making more money more stressful? It’s because now I have more to lose. I want to sell it all before it inevitably collapses. I know you Bitcoin, I know how you operate. Ok, relax. I’m struggling to handle my ..read more

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