Following directly from the prior session’s FOMC anticipation, this episode of Trading Live With Bubba opens the morning after the Fed actually delivered the expected rate hike, and the market’s reaction is a genuinely interesting lesson in why “expected” news doesn’t always trade the way you’d assume. Bubba notes the markets initially sold off on the news, which surprised him since he expected a relief rally, and while they did eventually turn positive, the rally lacked any real energy or follow-through. The core theme running through this episode is the same discipline he demonstrated the day before, just applied to a slightly different market condition. Rather than chasing the tepid bounce, he stays glued to his process: watch for a clear, concise setup with real speed and velocity behind it, and if it’s not there, don’t manufacture a reason to trade. He notes the S&P had already pulled back about thirty points from its highs after being up nearly a hundred points earlier in the session, calling the price action exactly what it looked like — a market struggling to hold onto gains rather than building real conviction in either direction. He runs through his full watchlist again in the same ticker-by-ticker style that defines this show, covering names like Apple, Amazon, Circle, CrowdStrike, Google, IBM, Meta, Microsoft, Netflix, Nvidia, SMCI, SpaceX, SPY, Tesla, and Zoom, mostly landing on “nothing yet” for each one. A handful get a bit more attention: SMCI shows a setup that’s close but ultimately too thin on premium for his taste, and he passes on it explicitly because the risk-reward doesn’t clear his bar even though the technical setup looked plausible. That’s a subtle but important distinction from a lot of trading content — a chart can look interesting and still not be a trade if the options pricing doesn’t support a favorable risk profile. By this point his spread record stands at eight wins in his last eight trades, and he’s careful to frame that streak accurately, noting one of the eight is technically still open and hasn’t been officially closed as a winner yet, so he won’t count it prematurely. That kind of intellectual honesty about your own numbers is rare in trading content, where win streaks tend to get rounded up rather than reported with appropriate caveats. There’s a nice practical note buried in the middle of the episode about SPY’s upcoming triple-witching expiration and ex-dividend date, with a specific warning to anyone short in-the-money SPY calls to check their position ahead of assignment risk — the kind of small operational detail that separates someone managing real risk from someone just watching charts for entertainment. He closes out reiterating his standing offer to email him directly for access to some of his other live trading classes, and signs off ahead of the weekend with his usual reminder that he can’t and won’t force trades just because the market is open. For anyone trying to build the emotional discipline required for consistent options and futures trading, watching an experienced trader sit through two consecutive slow sessions without abandoning his own rules is arguably more educational than watching someone catch a lucky, high-conviction winner. |
About Trading Live With Bubba
Trading Live with Bubba is a live-session show on the Tradier Hub YouTube channel hosted by veteran trader Todd “Bubba” Horwitz. Airing Tuesday and Thursday mornings, Bubba scans markets in real time, calls out credit spread and day trade setups, and teaches trading discipline through live narration.
