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

CHAPTER 13

Intraday Momentum

Steven Spencer, @sspencer_smb

Steven is a cream-of-the-crop day trader, a true professional. He is aggressive yet minimizes risk. He's the complete package. Steven loves to share, so he is constantly paying it forward with the StockTwits community.

PROFITABLE BY MONTH FOUR

My interest in the stock market began at the age of eight when I was visiting my great-uncle in Greenwich, Connecticut. I discovered that he had made a fortune buying stocks in the 1930s during the Great Depression. It seems like yesterday that he told me the story of how he loaded up on shares of Chrysler at a dollar each because he was certain the government would bail the carmaker out. He turned out to be correct, and in 2008 history repeated itself as the government decided to bail out American car manufacturers once again.

My interest in the market grew further at the age of 10 when my fifth grade teacher explained to our class how stock prices would fluctuate and that it was possible to place a wager on the future direction of a stock via an option without actually owning any shares of a company.

I placed my first trade at the age of 13 when I bought shares of TWA (Trans World Airlines). I don't remember my reason for buying shares at the time, but looking back on it I was lucky to escape with a small profit. The airline industry has been a great destroyer of public wealth for the past several decades, although there is recent evidence that finally this trend has changed. ...