It goes back to what I was saying before. I only trade when the markets are moving. When stocks aren't moving, I don't try to create something out of nothing because in the past, when I have done so, I have lost money net-net.
Interesting stat...what types of trades do you like off the open? Apologize if those are not details you wanted to discuss in this thread, but I'm guessing that was the intention.
My name is Brendan Byrne. I am the founder of Epiphany Trading. I now have three partners of whom I enjoy coming to work with every day. We laugh, tell jokes, and most importantly make money. It all started almost 5 years ago, 2005. Erik Kolodny was trading at Carlin and was looking for a new place where he could trade at advantageous rates, with leverage. Barkley Trading was just that place. It was almost one year later, Erik was spending Thanksgiving at his in-laws on eastern Long Island, where I grew up. I was going to be out there to see my family, too. Considering that we have never met, we would make time during the pre meal meeting. It was a perfect time considering the boredom one experiences waiting to Thanksgiving dinner. A year later, Erik and I find another reason to meet. My employee had had been seduced by the most notorious businessman in our industry. Needless to say, these two individuals conspired to deplete a multi-million dollar operation of its funds through elaborate devices. Without going through it all, it put me in a tough spot personally. It is not easy to wake up and realize that most of your money is gone and your business, too. People who believed that they were trading at Barkley Trading, and getting paid by Barkley were actually trading in an account owned by these two characters. These CROOKS of whom many post were written about, were keeping the profits while Barkley was making the payroll. The insane thing is that my former employee even issued 1099's for the company, after he left, to cover up his tracks. This thread is not about them, but it appears that that karma has caught up to them, to the point where staff is dropping like flies and they are promoting cleaning staff to moderate chatrooms. But, this thread is not about them. Lets skip to 2007. I manage to build my business, in the wake of what I went through. I took notice of the fact that Erik Kolodny did not have a losing month since he started with me. Additionally, I was writing him very large checks. So, I asked if I could sit with him to see what he was doing. He welcomed me to his office, which I still make fun of him about today. I must add, I came back every day since then. I rescued Erik Kolodny from a miserable existence in a dust infested pile of clutter of which he was comfortable turning a buck. Today, Erik has a very large following on his "Modern Stock Operator". He still has not had a down month since I have met him. More so, he instructs people how to make money and be disciplined. Additionally, has posted his "Thoughts" on this site in the past. But, the hecklers have been really ridiculous. However, he has agreed to resume posting his content on this site to genuinely help this community. Over the years, we have had a few times where I promised Erik that he should either say nothing or chose his words carefully, or else!!! He let me in on why he would cut coupons in the middle of the day. I was curious because I wrote him very large checks, why coupons. His explanation was that it wasn't the $0.89 he would save on cottage cheese, but the the hundreds of dollars saved per day by not trading when nothing was going on. This as he explained, over time, would be equivalent to ten of thousands of dollars over the course of a year. Epiphany Trading is growing in leaps and bounds. We have raised several million dollars from a small group of tremendously wealthy investors. We have created a trading environment that is light years ahead of our competition, due to our capital, clearing, trading routes, dark pools and technology. Erik Kolodny is no longer just a trader. He is a partner in both a trading and a money management company. He is my partner who genuinely works his ass off to earn every dollar he makes. My suggestion is that you take advantage of this resource, as I did. Brendan P. Byrne, President Epiphany Trading, LLC
My email is Brendan@EpiphanyTrading.com I would more than welcome anyone to contact me with any claims from any business that I have been involved with. To date, there have only been hecklers on this site. But, we do understand that is a reality here, regardless of the quality content of which we provide.
I do two types of trades off of the open...news-centric trades and relative strength plays. For instance, my first trade today post-open was Dendreon (DNDN). It gapped higher by almost two points because had a press release last night trumpeting their hopefully-for-tem soon to be released drug. The issue though is that after a negative analyst report on Tuesday, they issued a very similar statement...it is just that last night's was more detailed. So, OK...let's go with the news was good albeit a bit repetitive. The stock traded in a relatively quiet band for about an hour before the open. As it couldn't keep going on the bell, when a refreshing offer came into it, I immediately shorted the stock just above 35.20. It opened at 35.24, rose to 35.32, and began breaking. So, my entry at 35.22 was below the open...and I had my out triggered for 35.35 in case I so much as saw it tick toward 35.30 (although Id have been out of it if it went 35.25 bid because it would have indicated to me that it just wasn't gonna break in the immediate-term. Because there was vapor underneath (i.e. nobody left to buy), some of the overnighters sold it with the stock breaking to 34.77 on the next 1 minute bar. I covered in pieces starting at 34.95 and ending at 34.83. An example of a relative strength play I did (albeit not in the first 15 minutes because all I did today were news plays during that time) was AIG. It traded in a relatively narrow band from about 10:35 to 11:15 on the upper side of its range while the market was quiet. Thus, I felt if the market held, shorts would rush to cover if the stock breached a new high...simply because it already had a reversal and was hanging so tough. I know if I was short aggressively and the thing ticked to a new high, I'd be scared. And sure enough, within a few minutes, the stock rallied to 26.75 or so from 26.08. These types of moves I find are more plentiful and smooth during the early early part of the day as everyone wants to get a jump start. Thus, with things moving (on average) faster and more fluidly in the first few minutes of the session, this is typically when the type of trading I try to emply works best.
I for one certainly try re the latter part of your quote, but really, no need for names calling...while the 3:55PM post was uncalled for by Nas, the dialogue thereafter was good and certainly fair.
Thanks for taking the time with your response. I think the approach may be a bit too subjective for my tastes, but if its working consistently for you then its probably preferable to something easily quantifiable.
Brendan, I am glad to see you`re running full steam and having good success. Still in Baby vill? Best, Chris.
Thank you. Yes, we are still in Babylon Village. The company is taking off. We are hiring traders every day. The hard work is paying off. If you like, shoot me an email, Brendan@EpiphanyTrading.com Talk soon.
No prob. I wouldn't say it's subjective per se mechanically- more like practical/flexible. I don't want to mechanically have a set number I will lose or win because each situation is different. I have a watch list of ideas I monitor and know if the set-up presents itself, I'll do the trade. So, I adapt in a real-time environment as circumstances dictate. With that in mind, I am the first to say that a lot of what I and others focus upon is the entries and I have that part of the process down to a relative science as much as I feel is possible at this point for me although I continue to learn every single day in attempting to enhance the quality of my trading that much more. However, I let the market dictate what is going on and act accordingly once in a position. Here is the data for a trade I did this morning cut and pasted from my trading monitor (so I hope it works with the Elite Trader format): 10:03:15 SCOK BOT 300 48 10:08:28 SCOK SLD 100 49.5 10:09:33 SCOK SLD 100 49.5 10:11:20 SCOK SLD 100 51 SCOK traded up anew this morning and then consolidated nicely near a high for about 40 minutes following yesterday's deal news. I bought a lousy 300 shares at 48 at 10:03:15. Just after 10:08AM, I sold 100 shares at 49.50 because someone was selling stock on the level II consistently. I sold another 100 at 49.50 at 10:09:16 after it failed to breach 50. And when 51.05 refreshed at 10:11:15 or so, I sold the other 100 at 51. So, I failed to capture all of it as it went to 51.45 a minute later, but the relative 'scientific' entry is what propelled me to have the idea in the first place. Good luck. Erik