The StockTwits® Edge: 40 Actionable Trade Set-Ups from Real Market Pros

CHAPTER 14

The Underlying Psychology of Large Players

Gilbert Mendez, @smbcapital

Gilbert has taken tape reading to a whole new level of understanding and insights. He speaks a different language than many of us, so start learning today. He is wicked smart and has a really solid understanding of market psychology.

The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it.

—Henry David Thoreau

BURN THE SHIPS

In the early sixteenth century, a Spanish conquistador named Hernan Cortez led an epic odyssey that caused the downfall of the Aztec empire. It has been said that upon reaching new land, Cortez told his crew to burn the boats since there would be victory or death but no going back. I “burned my boats” early on in my career and have not looked back since.

After graduating from college, I did a very short stint at a tier 1 bank and realized that I was not cut out for the corporate world. I decided to be a trader. Here I was, an Ivy Leaguer who turned down a great job to struggle making a penny trading real capital and taking real risk. In addition, my parents were not very happy about it, and it was frustrating to see graduates from my class starting to enjoy the fruits of their 120-hour-a-week jobs. It was not all fun and good times during my first two years of trading. My learning curve was quite extensive.

I must confess, I have read only two books (cover to cover) on trading: Brian Shannon's book on technical analysis and most recently Mike Bellafiore's One Good ...