I sat down with my guy Patrick Assalone — head trader over at Target Trading — and we just let it rip.
No script. No agenda. Just two guys who came up through the institutional side of the futures world swapping war stories, calling out industry BS, and talking about what actually works when real money is on the line.
Patrick is one of the only people I know in this space who is actually licensed to give financial advice on futures and commodities. He’s been running his trading room for 17 years, his clients are up over 76% year-to-date, and the man trades everything — ES, NASDAQ, gold, oil, British pound, the Dow — all off a modified market profile system that he’s been refining since his days on the Chicago trading floor.
Here’s a taste of what we got into:
The Chicago trading floor days — The wild early years of pit trading, the characters, the bars that opened at 6 AM, and what the real average trader looked like (hint: it wasn’t the Ivy League MBA).
Why contract start dates matter more than you think — Patrick breaks down why looking at price levels from years ago is basically useless in futures, and how tracking volume from the current contract gives you the only support and resistance that actually counts.
Gap fills, fear, and greed — We go deep on the mechanics of why gaps fill, what professional traders holding hundreds of contracts actually do at the open, and why Tuesday through Friday mornings are where the money is made.
The psychology of blowing up — Why four contracts is the magic number where most traders lose their minds, how arbitrary dollar amounts get anchored in your subconscious, and what Patrick does to enforce discipline (he literally kicks people out of his room if they break the rules).
The dirty secrets of Wall Street — Conviction buys that are really exit liquidity, why your stockbroker will never put you in a trailing stop, and what it means when a firm like BlackRock starts denying redemptions.
Micros vs. minis — Why the smartest move right now might be sizing down, where all the volume has shifted after the gold margin hikes, and how one of Patrick’s clients went 9-for-11 on micro gold making over $2,000 in real money.
Why futures traders have an edge — No pattern day trader rule, defined risk on every trade, leverage that stocks can’t touch, and the ability to flip the same capital day after day.
This one’s long — about an hour and a half — but if you’ve ever wanted to be a fly on the wall while two veteran traders just talk shop with zero filter, this is it.
Until next time—trade smart, stay prepared, and together we will conquer these markets!
Ryan Bailey, VICI Trading Solutions.
