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Great interview with Mike Ballafiore, founder SMB Capital, author of "One Good Trade"
"Kirk: Who is the person you most admire in the trading arena? Mike Bellafiore: Dr. Steenbarger. No one has given more to the trading community without ever expecting anything back. His [B]blogs[/B] are a treasure that all traders must devour."
"Kirk: What is the your biggest pet peeve about trader training today? Mike Bellafiore: Again, an overemphasis on domain knowledge. Most training consists of some guru in a video or written blog or lecture as Franchise from One Good Trade would complain “waxing poetic” about some simple trading set up that makes sense to them. They talk at their students about a simple charting pattern. This is a nice first step. But this is not training. That is talking at someone. Teach, motivate, critique, and make them practice."
"Kirk: Among the people you’ve successfully trained, what is a common problem you see most frequently? Mike Bellafiore: Trading on tilt. The more actively you trade the more likely for a trader to struggle with their emotions. We teach our guys vivid imagery exercises, which we learned from Dr. Steenbarger, to offer a different response than just frustration to that which sets them off."
"Kirk: If someone wants to learn how to trade for a living, what steps do you recommend they take? Mike Bellafiore: As we read more and more about elite performance it has become very clear that elite training is essential for success. For example in the awesome book [B]Bounce[/B] we learn there is little evidence of anyone reaching a high level of achievement without world-class coaching."
"We demand that our traders do the following each day to turn one day of trading experience into ten:
Watch video tape of their trading with critical feedback from the partners
Perform visualization exercises
Talk with their mentor one-on-one about their trades
Practice on our simulator"
"Kirk: There are many ways to trade, but all traders tend to find certain methods easier than others. While not forcing you to make an over generalization, what trading methods do you think are easier than others for people to learn and become successful with? Mike Bellafiore: Learning to trade off the order flow or Reading the Tape is the easiest way to start as a trader. Learning to trade off of held bids and offers, and levels developed by intraday volume can be understood quickly. Kirk: Very interesting, Mike. Are there trading methods you think tend to be especially difficult and should be avoided especially for new traders? Mike Bellafiore: Fading, taking a position counter to the majority of market players, is not a great strategy for most new traders to first learn. It’s too hard for them. We encourage our traders to follow the trend of a stock at the start."
"Kirk: Among all of the unique insight provided in your book, what do you think was the single most important thing you wanted to convey about trading successfully? Mike Bellafiore: Make One Good Trade and then One Good Trade and then One Good Trade. At Duke Coach K screams whether his team is up or down by 30, “Next Play.”
"Kirk: I know your firm really focuses on monitoring trading metrics to determine key patterns for both trade identification as well as to improve trading performance overall. So, what information do you think every trader needs to have in their trading journal? Mike Bellafiore: We have developed an extensive trading journal. It is long, detailed, and takes a half hour at a minimum to fill out each day."
"Kirk: Are there any tactics that individual traders can use to trade better in an environment ruled by Wall Street machines? Mike Bellafiore: Expand your trading time frame. Lay off the one minute trades and settle into five and fifteen and thirty minute plays."
I bought his book about a month ago, unfortunately I stopped reading it but plan to go back to it some day. The focus was too much on the structure of the prop firm, and not enough focus on the trader (at least up to where I stopped reading, as I mentioned in my thread the last half of the book may be different).
