Coach Gruden’s Trading Playbook:

“If YOU are not succeeding, WE are not happy”

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Table of Contents

About Me………………………………………………………………………………………………..3

My Style………………………………………………………………………………………………….4

Mindset…………………………………………………………………………………………………..5

Trading Cycles / Seasonality………………………………………………………………………….6

Small Cap Rules………………………………………………………………………………………..7-8

Fib Retracements/Charting…………………………………………………………………………..9-10

My Setup…………………………………………………………………………………………………11

Great Traders / Sources……………………………………………………………………11-12

Indicators……………………………………………………………………………………………..13-14

My Strategies………………………………………………………………………………………...15-18

Morning Flush Strategy………………………………………………………………..15-16

Risk Management………………………………………………………………………………………19

Options on Earnings Example………………………………………………………………………...20

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Disclaimer:
● Everything stated here is my opinion and not professional advice. This is based on MY
personal experiences trading so results may vary.

About Me:
● As many of you know, just a year ago I had a net worth of -50k in debt all for a Penn
State business degree that warranted just a 60k job offer at Oracle. While Oracle is a
great place to work and I understand the value of climbing your way up or paying your
dues, I did not want to wait until I was 65 years old to be retired and finally “happy.”
● God forbid, who knows maybe I will never make it to 65 years old. I want financial
freedom now because tomorrow is uncertain.
● I also have an enormous family (Italian) in Northern, NJ and we are extremely close, so
moving to Boston was not really enticing to me.
● I started with a $1,732.38 bond from when I was born, cashed it in early as the last $$$ I
had to my name as my paid internship was cancelled due to COVID.
● I declined the Oracle offer and followed my dream of being a full-time trader, since fully
committing I have made over 200k this year at just 22 years old.

Paper Trading:
● I began paper trading in 8th grade and in 2019 I opened an investopedia
simulated game “Warren Buffett Million Dollar Challenge”
● I am currently ranked the 51st best portfolio in the world amongst 50,000+
competitors
● I am up 7,711.77% or over 70M since beginning (if only it was real)
● This was the original place I began to learn and see what worked for me since I
had no money to start with, practice makes perfect

When transitioning to actual money it's definitely different because real money is on the line and
emotions factor in, but you can very much have the same results as myself:

Year 1 (Real money): $1,732.38 → $200,000+

Use this playbook as a means of motivation, and education for all those with smaller
accounts. Know you are capable of being next and creating your own financial freedom

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My Style:

● I am a day trader who focuses on purely intraday movements whether long or short in an
individual trading day. I do swing “sometimes” however it is rare for me to hold things
overnight unless extremely good reasoning.

● This removes the “Macroeconomic” factors for me as I do not have to sweat about if my
position will crash due to COVID, a global threat impacting or creating fear, treasury
yields, etc. I prefer not doing this because if I have a good company, outside factors such
as the ones listed above can cause my positions to still lose value and the time I spend
digging into the state of the economy, company earnings, etc. I can just play intraday
moves stress-free and then go about my day/life after 4pm.

● Also it allows me to strive for a daily target of income instead of taking large and volatile
swings in profit on days where a long term hold moves the wrong way. Everyday I can
consistently strive towards my annual goal and for me I can wake up everyday with full
buying power (100% opportunity cost), and a clean slate so I just judge the market for
what it is that day in the morning and repeat the cycle.

● I am 23 years old, although I have 200k to play with $1,000 a day is my goal. That is a
ton of money for someone my age my friends make 60k a year so 1k a day is $260,000
that is plenty. I do NOT have to become a millionaire in 1 day, I take base hits and let my
account grow through CONSISTENCY.

● I cannot stress enough that yes 1,000% gain is awesome but it's RARE and if u do not
properly scale in and out recognizing resistance and adding support then you can end
up bag holding waiting for miracles.

○ It is better to get 5/5 on 20% than 1 100% runner and 4 25%+ losses

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Mindset:

● “Why not you?”

○ I see so many people making millions out of nothing, why can’t it be you?
Remember this

● Mindset is everything in trading, you cannot be emotional!

● I used to have another burner account where I trolled PJ Matlock when I lost on one of
his plays. Truth is I was market buying something on breakouts just because he
mentioned it. Is that really supposed to warrant a good result?

○ Be ACCOUNTABLE, I got roasted by Mystic Mac for bitching about alert taking
that did not work. I changed my ways. It was not his fault I lost, I had no plan, I
wanted him to say a ticker and I just get rich quick, not going to happen guys.

● YOU are the one who clicks buy, and everyone trading is over 18 you are rationale
adults, nobody else cares about YOUR money, nobody else has to feed YOUR child, no
one cares if your wife does not want to sleep with you because you lost the kids college
fund on a YOLO penny stock. Be SMART

● Every position you enter should have a rationale behind why this will make you a return,
and why it is more likely to go up from here than down.

● EXPECT EVERY PLAY TO GO TO $0, even $AAPL will go to $0 eventually.. Not today,
not 50 years but maybe 200 years, look at BlockBuster or Blackberry.

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Seasonality / Trading Cycles:

● One of the best ways to win is being malleable (ADAPT). Change your style based on
trends, for example in August when small caps generally slow down, do not force trades
and instead move to where the money is (ex: large cap options, earnings season, etc.).

● When it's the summertime and less money is in the markets, algos are turned off, etc. do
NOT market slap alerts, this is the easiest way to get BURNT.

○ February this year, that is a time to market buy when algos are on and everything
spikes, squeezes shorts, and repeats.

● In a slow market (summer) take days off, bored trades are the easiest ways to lose
money

○ Capital preservation is a skill, sometimes not losing is winning, what's better 2

steps forward or 2 forward 1 backwards?

● Know the trends

○ August large caps were the move

○ December SPACs were huge
○ January sympathy plays
○ February short squeeze central
○ April was shorts revenge on retail
○ July was IPO time
○ March - June Swings got crushed, was not time to swing
○ May - June high growth stocks stepped back into limelight
○ June-July large cap staples broke consolidation, with many hitting all-time highs

*Recognize what the theme in the market is, they typically do not just last 1-2 days and will
continue for 4-7 weeks, so recognize this and move to where the money is*

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Small Cap Rules (Options too):

1. Take profits before they become losses, these companies while some good 95% at their
core will trend lower and lower overtime. There is a reason they are small caps or penny
stocks..

2. Recognize the dead periods, 9:30am EST - 11:30am EST is when I make most of my
money. 11:30am EST - 1pm EST is usually when gains are given back out of boredom,
lunch hours (people sell and come back to trade after). Scale lighter during lunchtime
and take profits quicker.

○ Use lunch hour dips as an opportunity to get a cheap position for PH, dips are not
always bad!

3. ALWAYS scale into a position, even when scalping.

○ You need to leave room to add in case the stock moves in the opposite direction.

○ Stop, ask WHY did it dip? Is it below my support level or is it holding?

○ I personally scale in ⅓ and scale out in ⅓.

4. ALWAYS scale some out before resistance levels.

○ When I add a stock I know the resistance on it whether VWAP, previous support
that broke etc. I take some before because a rejection of this level can be the
nastiest.

5. Stick to your plan!

○ If it's a scalp don’t let it become a day trade. Do not let a day trade become a
swing, etc.

6. OPPORTUNITY COST

○ If you are losing and do not know what to do or feel uncomfortable just CUT the
trade. Losers that “can’t get any worse” can always get worse, and nasty flushes
usually take a while to turn around

○ In the meantime you can cut the trade instead of bagholding and use the money
to hunt a play that IS working instead.

*Every minute you spend crying about a position that is not working, there is 10 other
plays that are setting up to run 100%, 200%, 1,000% you could be reallocating your $ to*

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(Options, stock more like 20%, 50%, 100%, etc.)

7. Do not buy resistance breaks or breakouts. It rarely works and bull traps can be
devastating blows to the account. Can legitimately ruin or take away a whole day of
gains with one knife candle at this level.

○ I know some people are breakout traders, not my style but if I do I go small size
and leave PLENTY of room to scale in if it does not work.

Important to note:

● Nothing goes up forever, every trend people take profits, shorts add in, etc. The odds
you are in the super squeeze of the month is slim, do not bank on anything.

● The higher a stock goes, the more room it has to go down.

● If you are bored, go jerkoff or something, DO NOT gamble. It is okay to take a day off.
Being neutral on the day is better than digging yourself in a hole / losing

● Everybody takes losses, even Zack Morris and Michael Jordan have missed on occasion

● If you are in just because a self-proclaimed “Guru” (like me haha) is in, do better.
Understand why you or they are in and if you like it, join. Know the levels, have a PT and
a stop if support breaks, etc.

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 ● Fibonacci Retracements:

○ Summary

○ Everyone likes to use fibonacci lines because it can make charts look pretty, but
using fibonacci incorrectly can lead to misinformed and ill-advised trades.

■ Fibonacci lines alone are NOT buy or sell indicators. Rather, they are
levels within a current trend where we can look for reversals.

■ Fibonacci levels should be used in concert with other indicators such as

moving averages, volume, and existing support/resistance levels to
enter/exit trades.

○ History:

■ As the name suggests, the fibonacci series comes from famed italian
mathematician Leonardo Pisano in the 12th and 13th centuries.

■ The fibonacci sequence starts at 0 and then 1, every number after is a

sum of the previous two numbers:

● 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, 233, 377….

■ The fibonacci sequence itself is not used in trading, but rather the golden
ratio which details a unique relationship between the numbers in the
fibonacci sequence.

● The golden ratio refers to a theming relationship thats found

between the numbers in the fib sequence: 61.8% can be found by
dividing a number in the sequence by the number that comes after
it.

○ Ex: 55 / 89 = 0.618

○ Ex: 89/144 = 0.618

● The other fibonacci ratios can be derived from dividing a number

by the 2nd, 3rd, 4th number to the right.

○ Ex: 55 / 144 = 0.382

○ Ex: 55 / 233 = 0.236

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 ● 50% is not a fib ratio but is often viewed as an important level.

○ Use in Trading

■ After you identify a trend, use the fib retracement tool to identify the high
points and the low points.

● You can use fibs on any time frame, but we almost exclusively use
the daily time frame.

■ Once you have your fib levels, use them in conjunction with existing
indicators to identify potential areas of support or resistance. These will
be the areas you look to enter starter positions for swing trades.

● We like to see 2-3 day consolidation to enter a trade.

*I will put out more info on Fibs next week with real examples and images for you to see clearly*
- In the meantime consider taking the time to learn on your own if you have spare time
and want to improve:

Great video to learn quickly on Think Or Swim:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-WEz9LbmDA

Here is an example: $ROKU after earnings on the gap down. Retraces right back to the 50%
retracement level

More details and descriptions (images) next week...

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My Trading Setup: (What I use)

● TD Ameritrade / Think or Swim

○ I love this for charting as the layout is super clean, the indicators are so easy to
use and add, plus you can have like 5 charts on just 1 monitor.
○ This link is awesome to get setup to use key features on TOS:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdySZFsiDaU

● WeBull
○ I love WeBull for options, they show the spreads with clear second levels. Also,
they easily have the least amount of fees; it's basically $0 or unnoticeable. TDA I
got crushed in options fees especially on lotto or smaller priced contracts. It's
$1.30 per contract which is crazy. On a $0.04 contract you would need at least a
50% gain to even make money..
○ Sign up here: https://act.webull.com/po/H46eyddFTh7e/nyt/inviteUs/main

STOP USING ROBINHOOD

● Trade Ideas
○ I use this platform and I know many from Atlas recommended it to me for day
trading. I use the premarket gappers list where I select a top 5 for small caps and
top 5 for large caps then I run through the catalysts whether its ER, FDA
approval, merger, etc. and base my stance on that to narrow it down more.
■ I grab 5 small, 5 large and peep the news then i put the charts up on TOS
and see which I like best

● Atlas Trading / Sapphire Trading / Diamond Trading (coming soon)

○ Atlas got me where I am now. They have great content for small caps as well as
Sapphire.
○ Use discords as a way to find ideas on plays, use them as attention getters rather
than alert taking. Then chart a stock they mention if its at support then consider
buying it using your strategy and risk tolerance.
○ I would love a similar room but for options so I am in the process of creating an
elite team and discord to help you guys immensely for super cheap ($10/month).
This will include live alerts entry and exit exactly.. Stay tuned !!

● Social Media
○ Social Media & Twitter is such a powerful tool these days and will only continue
to be. Major influences can reach mass audiences and get their attention on
certain trends, equities, memes, etc. Strength in numbers!

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 News Sources:

- Any market related news https://twitter.com/DeItaone

- More in depth about state of the economy https://twitter.com/SquawkCNBC

- This guy can move an equity 20% with one tweet https://twitter.com/elonmusk

- Benzinga Pro has an Audio Box that speaks live time news to you while you
trade it does cost $ tho https://pro.benzinga.com/feature/squawk/

Great traders:

- Mystic Mac (intraday) https://twitter.com/notoriousalerts,

- Zack Morris (swings that go para) https://twitter.com/MrZackMorris,

- Ultra (intraday) calls para runners on momentum

- Ripster https://twitter.com/ripster47 (does it all, theme based trader good at

moving where the money is)

- Yates (Digs into companies, swings) https://twitter.com/yatesinvesting

- Tommy Coops (Intraday Trades) https://twitter.com/ohheytommy

- Hugh Henne (DD king) https://twitter.com/Hugh_Henne

- NotMrManziel (Options Beast) https://twitter.com/notmrmanziel

- PJ blocked me (sorry for trolling a year ago)

● Dell Monitor x 2 with 2 Macbook Pro’s

○ I use my phone to actually trade. I find it to be quicker.

○ Monitors have my TOS and WeBull opened with a watchlist & charts.

○ Laptops have 2 discords opened, twitter and trade ideas.

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Indicators:

I believe indicators are useful however just be aware of some negative things:

● Indicators are by no means a guarantee, if they were everyone would use them and be
rich. When you win it's because someone else loses.

● Indicators are LAGGING

○ When looking at a chart in hindsight the indicator is adjusted and the pattern
becomes way more obvious. In reality when you trade the chart is still making
itself, does not always follow through.

○ Bull-traps are very much real and you can be deceived by indicators which is
where a short can pile in with a ton of capital and screw you.

● Anybody can buy or sell at any given time,

○ Extreme Example: Warren Buffet shorts 1B of a small cap, the thing is going to
shit
- It does not matter if the stock is at VWAP or an EMA the thing is screwed

Positives I use with Indicators:

● VWAP - this is my main indicator and honestly one of the only ones you need. Do not
solely rely on this but know you do not need 50 different indicators to be successful. Find
the one to three you understand most and run with it.

○ VWAP is a major point of resistance, think of it as such. I always take some off
before a VWAP test as I have time and time again seen some of the hardest
knives at this level.

○ Wait for 5m candle close over VWAP to confirm

○ NEVER buy the 1st VWAP touch when a stock comes down from a high. Make
sure it consolidates a little and holds the level, if you just load right there I usually
see it break under as selling volume and pressure just occurred and shorts are
piling in to get it under VWAP.

■ Always think of it from the opposite POV, a short wants a VWAP break
down as you want a $5 wall to collapse and explode up, they want the
knife

○ If VWAP breaks I cut the trade, take a ton of buying to get back over and hold.

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 ● 9EMA & 21EMA

○ Dip adds, usually see it go just under this level so I set limits there

○ Also can be resistance if they do not break

● Level 2 on WeBull shows you where big walls or support buys are, great resource

○ Walls never usually break on the first tap, take some off before!

● MACD → Throw it OUT!

○ The biggest of the laggers in my opinion

● RSI → If RSI says 30, but a stock does an offering that does NOT mean it's going to
bounce. This indicator ignores news!

Always have $VIX, $QQQ, and $SPY up on chart to see if they blow or blast

$VIX →

- This is extremely important as it can help tell you what steers $SPY

- Example: $20 is a huge resistance for $VIX so if approaching this level watch for
$SPY to rebound if it rejects or vice versa.

$QQQ & $SPY →

- As you may have noticed small caps especially get clobbered when these are red, that's
just the current market. When $SPY down 0.5% you are down 10-20% on small caps it
seems while when $SPY goes up 1% your plays only up 3-4%.

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Strategies:

1. Opening Red Candle: (New Name = SPYDER 2Y Banana)

- I learned this from Zack Morris; he has mastered it. Check out PGIR podcast where he
talks about it: https://twitter.com/PGIRPod/status/1423012109055561729?s=20

- Basically, I use Trade Ideas or a Premarket Screener (FinViz, ThinkOrSwim) to find

moves to create a watchlist at 9am. Then, I quickly chart these out and identify
support levels or resistance. I pick my 5 favorites, usually ones with the most
volume, bullish theme, or news that was unexpected and good.

- Next I draw levels on them which I will explain below, say $MRNA is at $412, up from
$398 previous close with good news out and volume, plus I know $400 is support
(major psych level that broke and held). It usually happens where profit takers on the
stock will take profits right at open as well as calls. Then we get a nasty red candle
down to support just above $400 say $403 and I quickly load up. 9/10 times it will
revamp right back up and trend bullish higher and higher (as long as news and
catalyst are good).

- So I added at $403 I have $400 support so my risk is low, if it goes under then you
can stop out quickly.. Premarket high is $417 so you have ways to go until resistance
and your calls can go 100-200% before then. Always scale some there too!

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*Also I saw a great thread today of someone describing how they play it, similar but I try to
do it a bit quicker and more for that 1st candle at 9:30 where he waits for confirmation.
- Absolutely fine you have to do what WORKS for YOU

https://twitter.com/making_sales/status/1424313838292377604?s=20

Two examples on $MRNA this week using the 1d:1m timeframe:

Profit taking right at 9:30am but we have COVID catalyst, earnings coming up and news out
so we eat up the red candle at open, look at that demand zone right above $375 support.

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See 9:30am IMMEDIATE profit takers. Long pile in quick as you can see it was holding that
$403 level perfectly all premarket, plus $400 support under that the risk was so low here
just put a stop under $400. Quickly at that $403 given the bullish news and COVID catalyst
last week longs did not hesitate to load up that 1st ugly red candle, ran the rest of the day..

2. Support & Resistance Levels: Coming SOON!

3. Trend Trades & Run-Ups:

- Everyday I ask: what is the theme of the day?

○ Ex1: Fed speaking at 2pm, I scale back, think bearish

○ Ex2: EV Bill or Biden speaking I move to $TSLA $NIO $SNMP play run-ups into
speech
○
○ Ex3: COVID ramping I move to mask plays, online retail, $ZM, $CHWY, $AMZN,
etc.
○ Don’t get scared, think who benefits from this?

○ Ex4: Election money is going to move into major topics such as weed, clean
energy, etc.

Always want to be thinking what catalyst is coming, what are people paying attention to in the
news?

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 - I am going to be very clear I RARELY see something rip after expected news. $CCIV shit
the bed, $AAPL on good earnings already had its run so they sold the news, the $COIN
IPO everyone was so hyped it dropped 50% from highs. I ALWAYS sell before the news
and will only rarely do a lotto call on earnings. 9/10 good earnings reports are already
priced in and run up before, $CMG is an anomaly here sometimes you do get that 1 that
blows it out the water and can go up 2,000% on calls.

- If everyone knows about it, expect it to go down on the actual event again, unless
something UNEXPECTED comes out of it that's bullish

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Risk Management Rules:

1. Down 50% of my trading daily goal then I cut the trade automatically:
- $1,000 is my daily goal, so I am down $500 on any position I cut.

2. Buy in scales of ⅓, never a full position on first buy, sometimes ½ if super confident

3. Always scale out ⅓ right before resistance levels, use level 2 or charts to see where
walls are at. They never usually break on 1st tap unless Zack Morris throws a milly..

4. I do not scale out at % gains (ex: okay I take ⅓ if I get 100%, no don't do this) I scale
at resistance because the ugliest red knives come from shorts piling in at resistance
so reduce your exposure!

5. Play trades for free especially options

- Say I day trade and get small wins & then they add to $500 (build cushion), I
love $MRNA open calls next morning on opening red candle strat, use that
$500 as your risk! You can have free trade and let that run for 100%, 1,000%
- You don’t have a cushion yet, your calls go up 50% scale ½ and move your
stop loss to your entry, automatically securing 25% no risk! Then those keep
going to 100% gain, move the stop loss up to a 50% gain, and so on!

6. Do not risk money you cannot lose

- Take a damn breath you do not have to win it all back TODAY
- I lost 22k in ONE HOUR in March at 22 years old. That is my tuition for the
year gone in 1 hour… Took me 2 months to regain that $ back, but I learned
so much and how the small wins add up.

7. If entering weekly contracts on expiration date (0DTE), play lotto size

- These can go down 50% in seconds, know this

8. Never set a stop at these levels: .00, .99, .75, 74, .50, .49, .25, .24
- Example: I see it all the time where stocks come down to $3 and it goes just
under, especially on the 1m chart.
- This does not mean it is not holding $3 support as longs could be soaking
there, so I do not get out at $2.99 stop, I set it at say $2.93 for example

Also Note:
Mental Stops I prefer to use as I have seen bots that will tap down to my stop, steal the
shares and tag right back up $0.10-$0.20 and my stop will be the low

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Options on Earnings Example:

- I did an experiment on $ROKU earnings

- Roku went down 7% and I took note of the calls and puts on some OTM
contracts just hours before earnings, the implied volatility is SOO HIGH unless
you get an insane move you are expiring these cons for pennies:

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