The PlayBook: An Inside Look at How to Think Like a Professional Trader

The PlayBook: An Inside Look at How to Think Like a Professional Trader

by Mike Bellafiore
Released July 2013
Publisher(s): Pearson
ISBN: 9780132937672

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Book description

Want to become a truly great trader – either for yourself or for a proprietary trading firm? This book will help you get there. This unique approach is the closest thing to signing up for a “trader boot camp” yourself! You’ll learn by watching new traders walk through actual trades, explain what they’ve tried to do, and try to survive brutally tough expert critiques. One trade at a time, The Playbook reveals how professional traders must think in order to succeed “under fire,” how they assess their own performance, and how they work relentlessly to improve. Using concrete, actionable setups drawn from his extensive trading and training experience, Bellafiore walks through an extraordinary array of trades, showing readers how to maximize profits and avoid disastrous hidden pitfalls. He covers support plays, bull-and-bear flags, opening drives, important intraday levels, bounce and fade trades, pullbacks, scalps, technical opportunities, consolidation, relative strength, market trades, and more. He also presents indispensable insights on psychology and trader development, based on his work with hundreds of traders on a major commodity exchange and an elite prop firm’s trading desk. Packed with color, personality, and realism, this is an exciting guide to real-world trading.

Table of contents

  1. About This eBook
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright Page
  4. Dedication Page
  5. Contents
  6. Acknowledgments
  7. About the Author
  8. Introduction
    1. The Perfect Storm
    2. The PlayBook Becomes Our Solution
    3. The Truth about Trading
    4. Yes, You Can!
    5. What’s Inside
  9. 1. The PlayBook
    1. The Big Picture: First Know What Is Moving the Market
    2. Intraday Fundamentals: Trade with Real Order Flow Behind Your Stocks
    3. Technical Analysis: Friend and Foe
    4. Reading the Tape: Find Better Entries and Exits
    5. Intuition: Unartful Things Said During an Interview
    6. The PlayBook: An Example with a Second Day Play
    7. Top Ten Ways the PlayBook Can Help Your Trading
  10. 2. Trade Like a Shark
    1. The Work Output of a Pro Trader
    2. The Language of the Successful Trader
    3. Good Traders Are Real-Time Relentless
    4. Shark’s Best Trade Ever (NKE)
    5. If Shark Can Do It, Why Can’t You?
    6. Trading Calm
    7. Most Valuable Trader
    8. Shark Is Self-Actualized
    9. Shark’s Focus on the Process
    10. Shark Hunts the Best Stocks
  11. 3. The Day Knight Capital Almost Fell (A Support Play)
    1. Reasons2Sell
    2. From Our Training Room: A Trade Discussion with Shark
  12. 4. TO: How Good Can You Be?
    1. TO: The Ultimate Trading Competitor
    2. TO Is One Step Ahead of You
    3. The Failure Rate of a Prop Trader
    4. The Standard Is: How Good Can You Be?
    5. And the Winner Is...TO
    6. From the Training Room: A Biotech Fade Trade Review with TO
  13. 5. Follow the Trading Path of Pippen
    1. A Path to Profitability
    2. Be in Your Right Culture
    3. One Good Trade
    4. From the Training Room: Trading an IPO (FB) with Pippen
  14. 6. Special Projects: Get Ready to Trade Pro
    1. Do You Fail as a Trader, or Do You Learn It Is Not Your Passion?
    2. The GM Test
    3. The Rise of College Traders
    4. Make It Happen!
    5. Why Aren’t Universities Teaching Trading?
    6. We Need More Female Traders
    7. The Future Five-Year Career Path
    8. From Our Training Room: A Reversal Trade Review with Special Projects
  15. 7. Prep
    1. It Is Everyone Else’s Fault But Mine
    2. Trader Rant
    3. Fear of Missing Out (FOMO)
    4. Follow Your Giveback Rule
    5. Consider the Big Picture
    6. Negative Self-Talk
    7. You Are Trading Too Many Stocks
    8. Making Money Starts with Being Professional
    9. Trading on Tilt
    10. Finding the Solutions
    11. From Our Training Room: One Good Losing Trade with Prep
  16. 8. We Are All Rudy
    1. The Blue-Collar Trader
    2. Do Poker Players Make Better Traders?
    3. Is a Gifted Mind Enough to Become a Great Trader?
    4. Mental Agility and Concentration Built from Gaming, But...
    5. You Cannot Execute If You Don’t First Settle Your Personal Issues
    6. Overthinking Harms Your Execution
    7. From the Training Room: A Technical Trade Review with Rudy
  17. 9. Iceman: No Guts, No Glory
    1. Having the Guts to Be Your Best Trader
    2. Iceman Trades His Personality
    3. Eleven Steps to Trade Bigger
    4. The Unavoidable Psychological Journey to Success
    5. From the Training Room: An Opening Drive Review with Iceman
  18. 10. GMan: Trading Is Not Easy
    1. Traders Need Great Coaching
    2. How GMan Improved His Trading Methodology
    3. Remember How Tough Trading Is
    4. Argghh: Insufficient Trader Training
    5. Party Time
    6. GMan’s Pullback Trade
  19. 11. South Africa
    1. The No Trend Pledge
    2. A Trading Desk of Tennis Players
    3. Was It True That Stocks In Play Didn’t Trend in South Africa?
    4. The American Version of SMB Traders Off the Tracks
    5. Some “Proper” Traders
    6. Phillie: Some Call It Perspective
    7. Stevie: There Is No Option But to Succeed
    8. Carpe Diem: A Comfort for Action
    9. Brody: A Pursuit to YBT
    10. Rudders: Ultra Calm and Giving
    11. JoeBoy: The Natural
  20. Conclusion. The Future of Trading
    1. How You Can Become a Profitable Trader
    2. You Are a Multiproduct, Multimarket, Bionic Discretionary Quant Trader
    3. You Can Be Better Tomorrow Than You Are Today
  21. References: Works Cited
  22. Index
  23. FT Press

Product information

  • Title: The PlayBook: An Inside Look at How to Think Like a Professional Trader
  • Author(s): Mike Bellafiore
  • Release date: July 2013
  • Publisher(s): Pearson
  • ISBN: 9780132937672