I'm sorry but I have to disagree with you here. I did visit also. And I actually sat next to Steve and if you think he is ''one of the best there is'' well...look maybe I caught him on a bad day. Nobody should be judged as a trader based on an hour or two. I liked Mike and Steve. But it was actually me watching Steve trade that made me realize that SMB was not the place for me. Again, maybe I just watched on a bad day. Maybe he really is ''one of the best out there''. From what I witnessed, I did not come away with that opinion.
There isn't a single "great" trader who would bother teaching newbies anymore. Just not worth their time and missed trading opportunities. Steve might be "one of the best there is" in his own small firm, but not even close to some of the whales at other houses.
SMB is a very professional outfit but the style of trading that they teach is not a profitable way to trade today's volatile markets. It's a quick way to churn your account to zero. I find that the best, most consistent traders shy away from volatile stocks that are "in play" because the competing black box algorithms create way too much randomness in the stock. Even if you identify good price levels, you can easily lose because you will continually be shaken out of your trades or your stops are so tight that you can always be on the wrong side of the trade. The best traders trade non-volatile stocks using an exploitable edge, either by acting as a market maker on less liquid stocks or by using rebate or dark pool trading techniques. In addition, the consistent traders know how to use OPG basket orders, pairs trading and MOC orders. None of these techniques are taught by SMB so they are completely missing the boat on how to trade today's markets profitably. The style of trading support/resistance levels for stocks "in play" used to work when the moves were cleaner. Now, there is so much randomness and volatility that this style of trading is essentially a zero-sum game.
Yup, you know what's up. There are no exploitable edges left for newbies, they have been exhausted years ago. Even the ones you mentioned are not anywhere near what they were. There is no profit in training newbies, so the best scenario is simply churn their risk deposit for fees, rinse & repeat. A few here & there may turn to profitability, but the prospect of sharing their profits is not enough to compensate for the losers.
http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&postid=2328997#post2328997 What made you change your mind in the past month?
After I realized that the style stopped working and I lost about $15K. Then I hooked up with a group of veteran traders at another firm and finally saw the light.
good for you, glad you kept in the game and moved on Im yet to hear of an SMB trader who has made more then 250k a yr trading.
They wanted to charge me $10K for training and I have more experience than they have. I said no thanks I won't pay $10K to learn how to scalp/daytrade. They offered me the "job" without even seeing my resume just an unsolicited email I sent to them.
met with the guys at smb capital, agree with the posts above, I knew more than these guys and all I saw was losses on their screens from trading that day. They led me to believe I could trade w/them with no money then after wasting my time said oh, "just for you it's only $5k for the training" these guys give real traders a bad name
I've been following, but very difficult to judge without knowing a simple fact: Just how much are they receiving each month for the educational materials? It is hard to believe that they have many subscribers with the monthly fees charged and even less people able to pony up $5k to have 2 months access to educational materials. Not sure what the rake on commissions is for them from traders. Without knowing the above, I am neutral. IN NYC, the cost of a trading room, and good money to live on, it seems like someone there is likely making money. I am finding it hard to believe that someone from SMB won't defend themselves though, that leaves me leary.