I had high hopes for the recently published “One Good Trade” (Wiley Publishing) with a price point near $60 and many positive reviews on Amazon. Given that the book was written by Mike Bellafiore, who co-owns SMB Capital and runs the popular trading blog SMBTraining, I assumed that a book this size would go into specific trading strategies and cite detailed examples of what makes them such a successful prop trading firm. That is not the case and this misunderstanding is really my fault, because had I paid more attention to the subtitle “Inside the Highly Competitive World of Proprietary Trading,” I would have known exactly what I was getting myself in for and adjusted my expectations. I feel this distinction is critical to call to the attention of potential readers and I also believe that this book suits newer investors because it starts with the basics and never gets too technical. As with the 
majority of books written by successful traders, there are many insightful cliches and unique perspectives that “Bella” offers that make this book a worthwhile read and I did empty a highlighter on concepts I’d like to revisit in the future such as “we overvalue what we know and undervalue what we do not know.”
If you’ve ever wanted to know about the inner workings of a prop firm, where “the firm is the client”, but were afraid to ask, well you’re in luck. One aspect that Bella makes clearly apparent is the team atmosphere that is nurtured within SMB Capital. If all of the sport cliche’s weren’t enough, he devotes one entire chapter to getting to know many of the key cogs that make this well oiled machine run. So much so that I felt like I was learning about the A-Team of Trading, with many of these traders taking on nicknames such as Franchise, Dr. Momentum, and Gman. What was interesting while learning about these handpicked traders is their strengths and weaknesses, as many of the trader methodologies were explained.
If you had to take the best components of what makes a trader successful based on the lessons learned from the SMB team, it would be paying attention to what is going on in the markets in that moment with a clear unbiased mind, constantly improving your craft through education, while adapting with an unbending will that never surrenders no matter how many losing trades you make. Because the core message of this book is that you are never more than one good trade away from putting a string of wins together that can turn into something more. If I could insert my own sports analogy describing the two keys to winning a football game is that it’s all about momentum and field position, with one’s field position in trading being determined by the preparation and time you put in to educate yourself and set yourself up for the next trading day. It’s important to put yourself in a position to succeed because all traders know there are many ways to blow a trade.
Trade with an open mind at all times ~Mike Bellafiore
This book almost serves as in invitation to join SMB if you’ve got what it takes to trade with their rules and another small benefit…their money. The really cool part of this equation is that Mike essentially provides a cheat sheet of dos and don’t of what they look for in a potential candidate. This is called the essay exam and it consists of 13 questions that if answered right, will get you to the next part of the interview process. One piece of advice that is offered is by the author is if you want to have any chance at all of getting hired, under no set of circumstance ever utter these words in an effort to impress him. “I will outwork everyone on the desk.” Those seven words in nearly every occasion will disqualify you instantly.
One of the key components to ensuring your success when completing one good trade is to make sure that you are focusing on the right types of stocks. Bella reminds readers that “you are only as good as the stocks that you trade” and that keeping a watchlist of “stocks in play” that have enough liquidity, a large enough ATR (average trading range), combined with a catalyst to move those stocks are vital so you fishing from the right pond. The second part to achieving profitability in our trading is making sure that it offers the right risk/reward to give you the best chances for the trade to work in your favor. These can be best described as setups that offer a “downside/upside ratio of 1-5, and your win rate is at least 60%”. I personally think a 1-3 is acceptable, but then again, I’m not co-owner of SMB – One Good Prop Firm.
One chapter that I think falls short in it’s ability to really get across to the reader how to accomplish what is highly regarded as one of the most difficult aspects of trading, is the chapter on Tape Reading. Essentially the only way to do this according to the author is to put your time in front of a level 2 trading screen to get a feel for how the bids are behaving at key support/resistance levels. So it’s either through tape reading osmosis or you can pay a sizable chuck of money to take one of their training courses. Now I believe if you’re going to have a chapter devote nearly 20 pages to the topic, it’s best to have some actionable advice to take away from it, or it’s best to leave it out altogether.
In conclusion, if you are looking for a book that details exactly what goes on inside a proprietary trading firm, then you’ve found your book. It’s very clear his bias is that traders should be around other traders and his case is sound after reading this book. Complete with a colorful background of many of the traders that have come and gone and remain at SMB Training, you’ll get to really know the people behind the firm. The basics of their trading philosophy are outlined, but if you are looking for the secrets that make the firm so successful, it appears you are going to have to take one of their training classes to discover those trading gems. Bella also stresses the mental aspects of trading many times throughout the book and cites the benefits of visualization and trading in a very zen-like state which resonates with me. I’ve struggled with the question of whether I would recommend this book as it does have many flaws, but no book is perfect. I did highlight many useful quotes that cause you to go a-ha such as “experienced traders control risk, inexperienced traders chase gains” and if the measure of a book is based on the highlighter rule, than this one is worth checking out.
