I believe that if you put your heart and soul into it you can do anything. It doesn’t matter if it’s trading, building a house, or striving to be a better person. I have learned over the years to apply some of the things I have learned about trading to how I live my life, how I invest, and how I plan for the future. As I have said many times, I didn’t grow up with a silver spoon in my mouth and I don’t have a PHD (Poppa has dough).
My father could not help but to help other people. Even after his printing company had gone out of business and he lost his home and moved into a condo. With heart disease and half a lung, he never gave up faith in his God, or in people. My name is Danny Riley. I grew up in an Irish Catholic family of 6 girls and 4 boys. I didn’t get to go to college. I went to the school of hard knocks, and then to the CBOT High School where millions were made and lost in seconds. From the minute I walked on the trading floor I knew I had met my calling. Over the 38 years of being on the trading floor I hired over 150 people, I traveled the world, and I fought for the customers that used our S&P desk. It didn’t matter to me if the order was a 1 lot or 500 lot, it was someone’s money.
If It Sounds Too Good To Be True, It Is
I learned a lot on the trading floors of the CBOT and the CME, but the one lesson that took most of my life to figure out is, if you want to make the money you have to do the work. There is no easy way around that. A few days ago a trader reached out to me on Twitter. He had asked me last week if I would have time to talk to him. He said he has been having a hard time with his life, trading, and trying to make money.
He was a futures trader originally, but recently followed an S&P options trading program on Twitter where you trade less often, but with larger size. The Twitter account had been making profitable call after profitable call, but once he started trading, he lost and lost. He got his son through a good college and into a good job. Now he’s an empty-nester and he trades by himself all day and doesn’t talk to anyone. He told me he was depressed.
I have told you many times that I am not a life coach. I’m just a street guy from the trading floor of the CME, but I can’t turn someone down that needs help. I’m like my dad. So I spoke to my friend on Twitter and I think a lot of the things that were bothering him are the same things that are bothering a lot of people. Let’s face it, these are not normal markets and there is a lot of anxiety out there. Many people are financially strapped and using what I call ‘scared money’ to trade. It’s not risk capital. It’s money they may need later, or even now, but they gamble it with the idea that they can make a few hundred bucks a day. Instead, they end up with nothing more than a gambling addiction. While that may not be who you are, I know there are a lot of people out there holding out hope that “someday” they will make money trading.
Here was my street-smart advice to my friend from Twitter:
- Don’t trade in a closet. Move back closer to family and friends.
- Don’t go outside your comfort zone.
- Get back to trading futures and not following a Twitter account and stick with things that work.
- Back test and research – look on the blogs for opinions before spending any money.
- And most of all, be patient. The markets know when traders are pressing it. Trade the levels and use proper risk management (stops).
Instead of developing his faith in himself, he was cutting himself off from his support system and putting his faith in some random, temporarily winning guy on Twitter. Maybe his calls were profitable, but he wasn’t teaching my friend how to trade, just bragging about his own trades and tempting him to chase him. That’s not the kind of self-reliance a trader needs. You only get that self-reliance from doing the work.
In the end, I believe it’s important that we don’t shut ourselves out from the outside world. Trading in a closet and not having someone to bounce ideas off of only makes this game harder. And the next time a fellow traders needs some friendship or advice, take the time out to do so. It will make you a better trader a better friend…
In Asia, 7 out of 11 markets closed higher (Shanghai Composite -3.06%), and in Europe 8 out of 12 markets are trading higher this morning (DAX +0.87%). Today’s economic calendar includes the MBA Mortgage Applications, EIA Petroleum Status Report, and Federal Reserve Gov. Jerome Powell on panel discussing treasury market structure and liquidity, in New York.
$ES_F GLOBEX HIGH 2034.50
Our View: Overall it was a quiet day for the S&P 500 futures. Volume and trade has been lighter over the last few days.The ES finally sold off and went for the sell stops under 2019 but like everyday over the last few weeks the ‘bids’ came flying back in and then the MiM started showing as much as $400 million to buy. Our view is with the ES up so much we lean to selling the early rallies and buy weakness. I know this can’t work forever but we also are not looking to fight the price action either.
- In Asia 7 out of 11 markets closed higher : Shanghai Comp. -3.06%, Hang Seng -0.37%, Nikkei +1.91%
- In Europe 8 out of 12 markets are trading higher : CAC +0.68%, DAX +0.87%, FTSE +0.40% at 7:30 am CT
- Fair Value: S&P -7.52, NASDAQ -11.20, Dow -94.11
- Total Volume: 1.26mil ESZ and 5.5k SPZ
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