Happy Wednesday, tradersโฆ
Ben here.
The best traders I know all have one thing in common โฆ they study constantly.
Warren Buffettโs partner of 60 years, the late great Charlie Munger said, โThose who keep learning will keep rising in life. If you keep learning all the time you have a huge advantage. You don’t have to be brilliant, only a little bit wiser than the other guys, on average, for a long, long time.โ
And this doesnโt only apply to tradersโฆ
The best folks in any field hone their craft meticulously (even after achieving professional success), while those who donโt tend to dwindle away into mediocrity.
Bottom Line: If you arenโt willing to study hard, youโll be quickly outpaced by those who are.
That said, I know studying isnโt as fun as tradingโฆ
When I was playing Division I college basketball, practice was never as exciting as the big game โ but it was critical to victory.
And since the market is closed tomorrow, you have no choice but to study.
I might sound like your parents telling you to eat your vegetables. (You may not like broccoli as much as pizza, yet you know itโs good for you.)
Remember: Winners do the hard work that losers arenโt willing to do.
With that in mind, let me show you how to use your day off to study like a proโฆ
Study Tip #1: Build Your Watchlist
As many of you know, I send trade alerts out to Spyder Members almost every day.
While Iโm happy to help point you toward setups that intrigue me, my watchlist canโt replace one that you build on your own.
I canโt tell you exactly what (or how) to trade. Youโve gotta trade the setups that work for you.
So, at the beginning of each week, take some time to build a killer watchlist.
Keep it short and simple โ reserve your weekly watchlist for the best setups only.
That way, if one of the stocks youโre watching starts to make a big move tomorrow โฆ you wonโt have to go searching through a massive list of tickers.
Instead, your five-star setup will be right there โ waiting for you to pull the trigger.
Study Tip #2: Identify Key Price Levels
If you read my watchlists or watch my webinars, youโve probably noticed that I often talk about the importance of key price levels.
This is because key price levels have helped me as much (or more) than any other technical indicator throughout my trading career.
I use these levels as goalposts for my trading as they tend to map out areas of support and resistance.
If a stock regularly bounces at a certain price on the way down โ thatโs support.
If a stock gets continually rejected at a certain price on the way up โ thatโs resistance.
After so many years of trading the stock market, Iโve noticed another consistent trend around key price levels โฆ they tend to correspond with big round numbers.
Traders have a psychological sensitivity to round numbers like $10, $50, $100, $500, etc.
Time and time again, youโll see stocks bounce (or fail) near these critical levels.
This isnโt a coincidence โ itโs a key psychological level rearing its head.
If you can get a grasp of how to identify key price levels, youโll give yourself a superpower in the stock market.
Study Tip #3: Make a Game Plan for Next Week
All of the studying in the world will be entirely useless if you donโt form an airtight game plan for every possible outcome of your trades.
After all, the stock market is like life โ wildly unpredictable.
Back to my basketball career for a minuteโฆ
When I started playing for the University of New Hampshire, I had big plans and goals for my career thereโฆ
Then, in a turn of events completely out of my control, I got injured. And then injured again. And then injured againโฆ
Every season, I was plagued by a different injury, sidelined with a broken ankle, mono, torn ankle ligaments, a separated shoulder, knee surgery, two broken bones in my foot, and a broken jaw โฆ in that order.
Naturally, I was forced to radically recalibrate my expectations for those seasons after taking so many shocking injuries.
The same goes for tradingโฆ
You could be exactly right on a trade thesis, only for some shocking headline to completely shake market sentiment out of nowhere โฆ and ruin your entire play.
What will you do if your options contracts open down 50%? Will you cut your losses immediately โ or hold a little while longer?
What if they open up over 100%?! Will you sell them all right away โ or keep some contracts on the table for a potential home run?
These are the types of questions you should ask yourself today when you have time to strategize outside of active trading.
Planning my trades carefully and studying hard have helped me achieve my 80%+ win rate in 2024.
By employing these study habits regularly, you can potentially get a leg up on lazy โtradersโ who donโt put in the work.
And speaking of getting a leg up on the competition, letโs look at:
๐ฐThe Biggest Smart-Money Bets of the Day๐ฐ
- $6.5 million bullish bet on AMZN 01/17/2025 $210 calls @ $6.57 avg. (seen on 11/26)
- $4.5 million bullish bet on MARA 12/20/2024 $32 calls @ $2.44 avg. (seen on 11/26)
- $2.3 million bullish bet on HD 02/21/2025 $460 calls @ $5.30 avg. (seen on 11/26)
Happy studying,
Ben Sturgill
P.S. The biggest options-trading opportunities of the year could be right around the cornerโฆ
Thatโs why TODAY, November 27 at 4:00 p.m. EST, my buddy Danny Phee is hosting a LIVE WEBINAR where heโll be breaking down the biggest Smart Money moves weโre seeing in the options market, likeโฆ
170% on CVNA in ~2.5 hours*
1,080% on PANW in ~24 minutes*
336% on LYFT in ~4 hours*
191% on UBER in ~6 hours*
265% on CME in ~20 minutes*
466% on SHOP ~40 minutes*
955% on PLTR in ~5 hours*
Stop missing triple-digit trade opportunities โ CLICK HERE NOW TO RESERVE YOUR SPOT!
*Past performance does not indicate future results
