http://youtu.be/HzONDEEcV90
For years people have asked me if I could get the PitBull to make an appearance. In 2013, he invited me to join him and his wife at his alma mater, Amherst, where he gave a rare talk on trading and life, one of the few times he has spoken publicly. If you asked him about me, he would tell you I was a rough and tumble kid who had a lot of order flow and that if he could get my attention there was no one like me on a good day. I didn’t know who he was when his clerk Debbie introduced herself and said I was supposed to call him. I did not return his call right away, so when I did he was quick to say, “I don’t like it when people don’t return phone calls.”
He went on to ask me if I “followed the winners.” When I said I did, he barked into the phone, “Good! Because I don’t want to talk to anyone that follows the losers.” He acted like I should already know who he was. Meanwhile, I was thinking, who the hell was this guy and didn’t he know who I was?
We had a colorful relationship back then. He knew I had big flow and that I handled the UBS program trading business. In the early days before it was chic to complain about the algos and program trading, Marty Schwartz was belittling them daily. The direct line on the desk would ring and one of the guys would yell, “Danny, it’s Marty, pick him up!” If he was long and the S&P was going down he would say, “What are you doing?”
Then he would hear me yell out a bid for a sell program and scream “sell 500 the hard way!” And a second later he’d say “those program pricks couldn’t trade their way out of a paper bag” and then slam the phone down. Actually he said a lot worse things.
While I showed him my street smart ways he enlightened me into things like his “channel lines” and other things he uses to make his trading decisions. Even after trading for 45 years he still gets out of bed every day to battle the markets. Many of the things he has taught me about trading also apply to how you live and manage your life.
He was a bull of a man back in the day, and of all the customers I handled he was by far the most demanding. He wanted attention and excellence, and if he didn’t get it you knew about it. After years of getting ripped off in the pit, he had found a street fighter who would fight for better executions and fills. He knew people got rich off of him and he protested “dual trading” as a farce. When things went bad he would yell at me and then come back and say, “Those pricks in the pit got us again.” He knew what was going on and said it cost him millions of dollars.
The PitBull was hard on me back then, but I have learned a lot over the years and we have found the mutual respect that prize fighters have for each other. We both know it’s not an easy fight but we also know if you don’t put in the time, you don’t do the work, you won’t be successful. It took me a long time to learn that and I wish I had learned it earlier, but I get it now and for that I have to thank my friend the PitBull.
In Asia many markets are closed for Chinese New Year. The 6 open markets were mixed. In Europe this morning 6 of 12 markets are trading modestly higher.Today’s economic calendar is light: PMI Manufacturing Index Flash and Atlanta Fed Business Inflation Expectations.
Our view: The February expiration study shows the Friday of the expiration up 13 / down 18 of the last 31 occasions. Overall Fridays have been down 5 out of the last 7 or 3 out of the last 4 in 2015 with some big losses. The problem is, the S&P isn’t going to just sit at 2095 without blowing through some stops. The overall price action remains buying the S&P when it pulls back or sells off. So will the S&P rip through 2100.00 today or Monday? Either way, it’s going to happen. Another spoke of the wheel is crude oil, which is seeing daily swings of $4.00.
Our view is that “Thin to Win” is still in effect and until we start to see the sellers really do a push, it’s going to be business as usual, selling off a little to go back up.
Thanks for being part of MrTopStep and I hope to see you on the Feb 28 webinar.
As always, please use protective buy and sell stops when trading futures and options.
- In Asia many markets are closed for Chinese New Year. The 6 open markets were mixed: Shanghai Comp. closed, Hang Seng closed, Nikkei +0.37%
- In Europe 7 of 12 markets were trading higher: DAX -0.13%, FTSE +0.15%, MICEX -0.30%, Athens GD.AT -0.57%
- Fair value : S&P -2.82, Nasdaq -1.41, Dow -26.47
- Total volume: LOW 1.1mil ESH and 7.6k SPH traded
- Economic schedule: PMI Manufacturing Index Flash and Atlanta Fed Business Inflation Expectations.
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