Also the large market phases will change again in the long term. As a trader, you have to be prepared for it. This may mean, for example, to make more long or short trades, or to act more pro-cyclical or counter-cyclical. Often the transition is for traders is difficult when the market behavior changes – also applies to always keep this in mind. Let’s meet another talented star trader with an uber-profitable combi-nation of passion and pure, unadulterated trading talent. There is not a single trader on our desk, including myself, includingSteve, including GMan (you’ll meet him, too), who is as competitive asFranchise. Not one. In fact, there isn’t even a close second. Here’s why. Others fail because they do not really love trading. Take a look at any records of their trading and it does not reflect their setups, or have never recorded trades into their trading journal.

You have a choice. You can spend the first six months of your trading career not learning anything because you don’t listen, or you can start the right way. After six months, you can possess the skills that you need to trade profitably in any market, from anywhere, and for the rest of your trading career. Or you can be frustrated, unskilled, and with a decidedly negative trading account. Do not be one of the thousands who needlessly loses excessive amounts of money when he begins and worse still, never develops career-making trading skills. The light I shine on the world of prop trading will include my mistakesand those of other prop traders. A great trader is an elite performer. Eliteperformers spend every day trying to improve. Every day we trade is anopportunity to learn from the market. My mistakes and those of other proptraders are just gifts from the market for us to improve, and they will beshared so you can learn. The first level of the pyramid is to master the simplest trading setups. Trades in which you act on the basis of statistical advantages.Now if prop firms are essentially their own client, where is the com-petition? Trust me, there’s plenty of that. The market only has so muchvolume to go around, and every day is like a boxing match, beating all bigbanks, hedge funds, and automated programs to the punch. Consistently profitable traders constantly evaluate their trading system. They make adjustments every month, every day, and even intraday. I have substantially changed my trading system six times since I began. I have traded through the Asian Financial Crisis, tech boom, Internet Boom, bursting of the Internet bubble, 9/11, a range-bound market, and now the near collapse of the banking system. Every day is new. There is no ‘system’ to learn. It is about developing trading skills and then making adjustments continually. At the same time it could also be the most difficult task in life, to become a consistently profitable trader.

They have Level 2 data because they have a superior platform, aka Reading the Tape is important. Because retail newbies unlikely to have such access to "cutting edge technologies". Mike Bellafiore is the author of the “trading classic” One Good Trade: Inside the Highly Competitive World of Proprietary Trading (Wiley Trading) and The PlayBook: An Inside Look at How to Think Like a Professional Trader (Financial Times Press). Mike’s blog posts offer new and developing traders ideas on how to improve their trading, and for the past fifteen years he has shared the many lessons that “mother market” has taught him wrapped inside of trading stories and his own trades. He ends every post with his personal life philosophy: You can be better tomorrow than you are today! In addition, it comes to choosing the right position size – starting as low as possible and slowly increase (!). Ideally, you will be getting better, without noticing it. Make one good trade after another, be mentally focused, confident, and flexible. As you get stopped out the Trade restarts and provides a clear new opportunity, you should re-evaluate and try again. worked best for each distinct trading period. Most importantly, I introducethe principle that has allowed me to profit in so many different markets: Iadapt. A spot on a prop desk is a dream job for many people, yet they donot know how to succeed once they arrive. Bloomberg, CNBC, and Fox of-fer endless hours of professionals pontificating their opinions. Still, I knowof many new and developing traders overwhelmed with information andempty with ideas to improve. We will use an old teaching technique of thehead basketball coach at UCLA, John Wooden, to offer valuable sugges-tions in Chapter 4 (Pyramid of Success).Thank you to my best friend, Steve, for helping transform my idea tobuild the best equities training desk on the Street into our firm, SMB Capi-tal. What an incredible, exhausting, challenging, and rewarding life experi-ence it has been. I wouldn’t have wanted to do this with anyone else.

teaching to make sure their trainees succeed. If a trader is not successful,the firm has invested a great deal of time, energy, and capital with almostno benefit. Thus, nothing less than an outstanding training program is inthe proprietary trading firm’s best interest. If you manage to become a profitable trader, the journey is far from over. You have to re-adapt your systems and strategies again and again to the markets, as they are constantly changing. That is part of the life of a trader and every rough patch will make you an even better trader.We all know someone like Dr. Momentum. Brilliant yet modest.Absorbs new information twice as fast as you and remembers twice asmuch. And someone we all root for. Dr. Momentum is a red-head Jewishkid from Brooklyn, who stands 5′7′′ (maybe), and yaps all the time with asmile on his face. Thank you to Meg Freeborn for your awesome advice on content.Thank you to Melissa Lopez for walking me to the finish line. Thank youto Tiffany Charbonier for assisting on this brilliant cover. Thank you toKevin Commins for finding me, giving me this opportunity, and steering methrough this rewarding experience. Thank you to Charles Basner who makes everyday easier for me and alittle bit more enjoyable. I hope you enjoy my Seinfeld references. Mike is a graduate of the University of Connecticut School of Law and a former member of the University of Connecticut Board of Trustees. Becoming a better trader takes discipline, skill development, and statistically profitable trading strategies, and this book will show you how to develop all three.