One Good Trade is filled with anecdotes of real traders facing real challenges in learning and mastering markets.
Dr. Brett N. Steenbarger --SeekingAlpha.com
The best part about the book is that it makes you want to be a better trader. For me, that is the main reason you should read it.
Steven Place --InvestingWithOptions.com
This past weekend I devoured ONE GOOD TRADE, or as I will refer to it here OGT, seeking to answer the questions I require of a book worth recommending to other traders and would be traders. --Crosshairs Trader --This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.
In my opinion this book is an absolute MUST READ for anyone wanting to take on the challenge of being a Successful Daytrader. Mr Bellafiore has really divulged everything that goes on in the life of a day trader. I have read dozens of books on the subject and trade for a living myself and can tell you that this is one book that has really brought to life the realities that daytraders deal with on a daily basis. He has also revealed very important lessons, facts and solutions that will help anyone that is trying to up their game to mastering their craft. This book is only for the Serious Professional!! If you trade at home or at a Prop Shop this book will give you more clarity and direction in moving forward. I can honestly say that this book has allowed me to become a much more confident and diligent trader. Trading can be a lonely game and if you are having trouble it's up to you to seek help. Bella goes deep within the minds of day traders that have really stretched themselves beyond anything they ever thought possible. This is the secret to becoming a successful day trader. Do you want to become a better person, live a more fullfiling life, become the person you never thought you could be? This profession is a journey of life. If you survive the discipline that it takes to succeed in this profession it will change your whole life from the inside out. Only the persistent survive! I consider myself an artist and strive to become the best I can be. Trading has revealed to me my strengths and more importantly my weaknesses that I work on everyday. This makes life for me exciting and I am up for the challenge. Are you deeply passionate about trading? Then this is the book you have been waiting for. BRAVO, Bella!!!!
One Good Trade is a great book for short term technical traders. It explains the training and commitment necessary to become a trader and techniques useful to improve trading results. I purchased the Audible version and have listened to it twice and picked up on some of the techniques the second time that I didn't focus on enough on the first time through. Various trading setups and strategies including gap plays, support and resistance, breakouts, momentum, etc. are discussed from the perspective of a prop trading firm. It was an eye opener, to me, to hear about the many strategies used and I learned more about some of these strategies by reading the SMB U training blog. To me, this is a must read/listen for anyone thinking about working at a prop trading firm and the rest of us traders out there. It is a specific trading style regarding short term setups, etc. that I wasn't familiar with. I still study/use chart patterns, stochastics, candlesticks, swing lines, and other technical and fundamental analysis techniques, etc. for swing trading from other resources, but the strategies discussed in One Good Trade are a very useful part of trading to understand.
One year ago, I had no idea what a prop firm; not to mention the existence of one. The only idea I had for a trading career is with the investment banks (not to mention analyst or dealer). After a number of job application during my university times, I was invited for an interview with one of the leading prop firm in Australia. The co-founder of the firm who also wrote numerous books on trading then asked me if I had any idea what a proprietary trading firm does and he told me to go get the book "One Good Trade" and said he would have wrote the book if Mr. Bellafiore didn;t publish it before him in a similar context before I attend my 2nd interview.
My copy of "One Good Trade" has been read so many times in this couple of months that the book is falling apart with highlights and notes. The book covers various topic on traders, technicals, psychological etc and since it's not an encyclopedia, don't expect it to cover everything in full details.
A must read for anyone who wants to establish a career with a proprietary trading desk. If SMB Capital have a trading desk in Australia, I will be one of the first to attend their program.
I am looking forward to Mr. Bellafiore's coming book: "The Play Book"
Happy Trading.
This book was an excellent read for me. I am a struggling trader and have been for quite some time. I have trained under some very large investor education organizations and have worked for two proprietary trading firms. I have a great knowledge of the markets and trading, but still have not found my way to making a living trading on my own. This book helped me clarify why I run into a lot of problems with my own trading. The two prop firms that I have previously traded for did absolutely nothing in terms of training. They basically gave me a couple of patterns to look for and said go make money on your own. When I asked a question I felt like I was interrupting their time. My coach showed up a few minutes before the bell and the office was empty by 4:01PM. No meetings, no review, no discussions. "One Good Trade," let me discover that there are people out there that do care about your success and are willing to take the time to help you. I love the work ethic that he describes and the teamwork-type atmosphere that they have set up. A team where everyone shows up at 7:30 AM to prepare for the day and then a morning meeting with the whole company to discuss set ups and possible good plays. Then another meeting half way through the day to discuss the morning trades and possible afternoon set ups. I love that he expects his traders to stay after the closing bell and seek out more opportunities for the next day. SMB has set what seems to be an excellent mentoring program that most companies lack. It sounds like they spend a lot of time developing there traders in a healthy environment. For someone like me, this makes me feel good knowing that there are places like this. I hope I can join an organization like that or possibly even SMB. Everybody has their own way of approaching the market and no one view is the perfect one. For me "One Good Trade" and SMB make sense.
Book is SMB marketing material, and thus should be free. 330-page content can be summarized like this:
-- To become a succesfull trader you MUST be insanely 1) passionate about the markets/trading,
2) hard working 3) disciplined 4) mentally tough
-- Trading Advice: 1) you must cut losses when stock goes against you 2) Buy when you see a big bid/buyer, sell or short when the bid/buyer goes away or gets filled. 3) do the right thing for every trade (which is not described in the book, but tought by SMB) and statistically you will make money in the long run.
-- The rest of the book is description of SMB office environment and people, and some anecdotes...
The first 2 bullet points is widely known info and available for free, and "Big bid/offer" strategy hasn't worked since 2002. This rest is extremely misleading: author pumps "the job" yet fails to clearly state there is no salary.
Prestigious prop trading firms - Goldman, SAC Capital etc. offer 6-figure salaries, even lower tier firms such as First NY, Schonfeld offer some salary or at least $5-6K/month draw. Also author implies that noone gets fired if they follow SMB
ways, yet even if you do, its possible to have a bad streak and lose enough money to be let go or simply not being able to afford not getting paid for a few months while trying to come back. There's very little specific info on what goes on in the office, how traders interact during the trading day, not a single example of how their trading analysis resulted in a trade. By being so vague, the author doesnt live up to the book's title and to readers expectations.
Talk of prestige effect that "trader" job title has on women is an even bigger joke - most NYC women that hit bars after work are far from dumb and #1 question would be "which firm do you trade at?" If you say "SMB Capital" especailly while wearing sweatshirt and sneakers - you got no chance....
Author's writing style is boring and primitive as if he is talking to a 10yr old, very repetetive, often taking multiple paragraphs to convey a simple point. Much more useful and entertaining reads on similar topic are: Lefevre "Reminiscences of a stock operator", Mark Douglas "Trading in the Zone", Shwager "Market Wizards" series, Ben Mezrich "Rigged", interviews with SAC's Stevie Cohen.
My first read through of One Good Trade helped give me the confidence to start intraday trading full time in April 2011. Today, August 11th 2011, I just finished my 11th profitable day in a row during one of the most volitile market periods ever. For about a six months before reading One Good Trade I had intensely searched for an investing style that I could pour myself into full-time having handled my own investments very much part time over the last 18 years using more medium timeframe William O'Neil style of investing mixed with some options trading as well when I had the spare time. Over my 18 years of investing I have reads dozens if not hundreds books on everything ranging from Graham and Dodd value investing to Trend Following, commodities, options, futures and about anything else you can think of.
For me One Good Trade is the book I wish I could have had 18 years ago and pretty much skip most of the rest. It is not because this book hands you a clean 10 point check list of what you need to do in a step by step fashion to execute profitable trades as an intraday trader. While there are many great strategies and some ground breaking concepts such as stocks-in-play covered within, cookie cutter strategies are not what this book is all about. For me One Good Trade is about learning how to think for yourself as a trader. If you read a book that does nothing but show you 10 different chart setups and then think you are going to go conquer the market, well, good luck because you will get crushed. Many of the reviews that feel this book falls short seem to think intraday trading should have a simple recipe, or that there is some universal magic key to the trading kingdom. Having a diverse playbook is important, and there are some universal concepts everyone should study, but if you do not learn to think for yourself and adapt to the ever changing markets you will be one of those who hands over your hard earned dollars to mother market.
I have now read One Good Trade cover to cover 3 times and key sections 10 times or more. As I have been developing my trading skills and gained more experience tangling with the market on an intraday basis new concepts come alive in re-reads that did not stand out before I took a few lumps from the markets. There is no substitute for having money at risk with every tick of the market to create focus on what is important to learn, and make reading key sections of a trading book 10 times anything but mundane.
Intraday trading is definitely not for everyone but for those looking to give it a shot I recommend first reading this book and then once you start trading, review every trade you make after the market close every day. The areas you need to work on will become glaringly obvious. Once you fix an issue, the next greatest weakness in your trading will be revealed and must be conquered and so on in a perpetual growth process. Each new trader will have a unique maze of issues to navigate on the path to consistantly profitable trading even though we all work in the same market. One Good Trade gave me the framework and tools to successfully tackle this journey on my own sitting at my work station in Florida. For those that are ready to give it a shot this book is priceless. One bad trade in the market can cost you more than the price of this book, and this book can shorten your learning curve enough to save you from hundreds of bad trades on your path to consistent profitability.
Product Details :
Hardcover: 368 pages
Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (August 2, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0470529407
ISBN-13: 978-0470529409
Product Dimensions: 6.4 x 1.2 x 9.1 inches
More Details about One Good Trade: Inside the Highly Competitive World of Proprietary Trading 1st edition
or
Download One Good Trade: Inside the Highly Competitive World of Proprietary Trading 1st edition PDF Ebook
No comments:
Post a Comment