Debut at the NYSE: Danielle Shay’s Trading Code, Family Insights & Jeffrey Hirsch’s Almanac Story

Hey, my name is Danielle Shay. Welcome to the first edition of Trader Code. I'm the VP of options at Simpler Trading and I'm also a directional momentum options trader. You'll also find me investing in long-term stocks, which I talk about on Fox Business and CNBC. I first got into trading because I wanted to find a way to stay home with my young son. I was a single mom by choice. I left my fiance and I decided that we needed to make our own in this world. And what I ended up doing was getting into trading. Why? Well, it was because of my dad. Thanks, Dad. My dad suggested that I learn something called the squeeze. I was home with him and my newborn baby and I was trying to figure out my next move. I walked into my dad's office and I heard this voice coming out of the computer. It was really charismatic, but I didn't understand really anything that he was saying and it was the voice of John Carter. But what I heard was that he was talking about the squeeze. The squeeze is a pattern that you can learn that you can use to trade directional options. And you know, for me, like I said, I had no idea what options trading was, but I was intrigued because I wanted to be able to find a way to stay at home and work from home with my son. And that is how my trading journey began. Now, 12 years later, here I am talking to you. I'm in New York this week launching my podcast. I went ahead and visited Charles Payne yesterday on Making Money and I'll be heading to a few other TV studios this week. So anyways, what I wanted to do throughout the course of this podcast is I wanted to share with you some of my favorite trading tips that I have learned throughout this journey. I also wanted to share some of my favorite trading setups because, you know, for me it's all about learning patterns. You know, when I first got into trading, let me tell you, I found it to be extremely difficult. However, the thing that really saved me was focusing on identifying patterns and focusing on identifying my overall goals and what I wanted to do. I knew that my goal was to be able to stay at home and work with my son because I did not want to put him in daycare and I also didn't want to have to be away from him all day long. So, what I did was I dove straight into identifying patterns and first learning the squeeze pattern. So, let me go ahead and start off by telling you what the market's doing right now and what I'm seeing because, you know, I am a technical analyst and I also read a lot of earnings reports as well. So I have a little bit on the fundamental side too, but the base here is always a pattern. So, let's start with that.

Let's start off with the NASDAQ. The NASDAQ is my bread and butter. That's where I identify a lot of my trades. I love trading Magnificent 7 names in tech stocks. And it's because these names, they have a lot of great movement in the options market. And they're also highly optionable. So, looking at the NASDAQ right now, what we see is that we had a really nice pullback in August. We had a pullback, August 20th was the low. And from that moment, stocks have been bouncing really well. We're in a nice bullish trend. You can see that overall buyers are coming in. As a trend follower and as a pattern follower, that's exactly what I love to see. So, when I see those nice pullbacks in the market, I like to jump on that trend. Now, something else that I'm looking for right now is not just trend following, but also identifying consolidation that's ready to break out. That's what we call the squeeze. But there's another kind of special squeeze that I love to look for, and this is a pattern that works really well when we're at or near those previous all-time highs, which is exactly where we are in the market right now. And that is going to be the short squeeze. So, the short squeeze is a pattern that sets up when you have a stock that has higher than average short float. So, what that means is that there's a large number of traders that are betting against this stock. When you have a large number of traders that are betting against the stock and then for some reason there's a catalyst and that stock breaks out, that's where we end up seeing what we call a short squeeze. It's where the short sellers have to buy to cover to get out quickly. And then also you typically have momentum traders like myself coming in and buying the stock, which pushes it higher and causes it to explode. So, I'm looking for a combination of things right here. I'm looking for number one, the regular squeeze, which is where we have consolidation that's ready to break out. And then on top of that, we have tickers that also have high short float. So, when you combine these ideas, especially when you have a market that's near previous all-time highs, this is where you can get some really big movers. So, let's talk about a few examples from this week. Earnings can be one catalyst that can cause a stock to break out. So, for example, we had Kohl's report earnings this week and we had Build-A-Bear Workshop. Now, both of these stocks are retail companies that have a lot of people betting against them. And you know, they don't have to have this amazing earnings report. They just have to have something that was better than expected. So, both of these companies exploded after earnings and that caused a little bit of a short squeeze. So what we want to do as traders is we want to look at these patterns and then we want to identify tickers that could do that in the future so that we can be long for the ride. Right? So right here I'm going to give you three patterns right now that are setting up that I think could be potential short squeezes. So let's go ahead and take a look. The first one is going to be OK.

This is one that I've been trading in and out of this summer and I think that it's setting up again. Why? Well, because currently right now it's trading at 78.886 and the previous high was at 85.34. So, we're pretty close to that previous high, right? And you know what you really see with the short squeeze is you see it take off when you're approaching that previous high, but then if you can get enough volume in the stock for it to break out above that high, that's where it will explode. And that's because that's typically where the short sellers give in. They take their stops. They have to buy to cover and it explodes. Now, I like this pattern for a couple different reasons. Number one, it has a bullish trend. Number two, it has momentum. It's up 7.68% today. So, some really nice momentum and volume coming in there. It has the regular squeeze and then it also has a short float. So, if you look at the short float, 16%. It's pretty elevated. Typically I'm looking for 10% or more. Anything that has 20 or 30% is a huge amount of short float. But I'll take 16% for sure. So first tip. Okay. Next one is going to be RGTI. I like this one because it's in the quantum space. So you know you have a lot of attention surrounding that. So that can definitely help short squeezes. But it also fits my other criteria. It has a regular squeeze and it's also near previous highs. Now, right now it's trading at 17.05. I would say the most recent high is at 18.26. So, pretty close, right? If you look a little bit further back on the chart, you'll see that we have a high at 21.42. That's a spot where I would expect it to really get going. So, I like this one. It's up 10.62% today. I think overall this one looks pretty good. Now, I invested in this one on a long-term basis in my son's account. And then also I like it on a short-term basis for trading long options. Now, let's go ahead and look at the last one, RBRK.

Now, if we pull this one up on a chart, what you'll notice is that currently, right now, as of this filming, it's up 5.87% today. Now, you might be saying, Danielle, why are you picking these names that are up so much today? You know, we could have had a better entry at another time frame. Well, yes, that's true. And you know, you do typically want to get in before a stock is up 2%. However, with a lot of these short squeeze names, what I will see is that when they start taking off like this, this is when they're really getting ready to go. So, while an entry on a pullback would have been a better entry, at the same time, sometimes these stocks can squeeze forever and you're just waiting and waiting and waiting for it to come through. And so sometimes once the volume and momentum takes off, that's when it's actually ready to go and you can get a pretty quick trade out of it. Now, with RBRK, the previous high is going to be at 103 and you're trading at 92.67. So again, you're pretty close to that value and you have earnings coming up on the 9th. Now, that's something that I also like to look at for an additional catalyst because a lot of the time what you'll see is you will see tickers like this rallying going into earnings. And oftentimes like Kohl's and Build-A-Bear Workshop, they can actually explode post earnings. So those are three tickers that I'm trading right now. They're on my watch list. Love those short squeezes because like I said, I'm a directional momentum options trader. And also, I wanted to let you know that as a directional momentum options trader, I am writing my first book and it's going to be published this fall. So, make sure you check it out. I'll be talking about it on the show. This book is called Sharpen Your Trading Edge: 10 Steps to Master Directional Options Trading, and it's going to be my exact 10-step process that I have created over the course of my trading career. So, I'm really excited about this. This is something that I've been working on for a long time. And I hope you'll find it helpful because you know what? If it weren't for people before me that helped me, I would never be where I am today. So, as a part of this, what I wanted to do is I wanted to bring on my first special guest, which is my son, Leo. Now, he's the reason why I got into trading to begin with. And I just felt like this is a perfect moment in time to bring him on and have him ask me a few questions about why I got started, how I got started, and how things have changed for us. So, let me go ahead and take a break and I'll bring him on, and I'll see you in a minute.

Hey, it's Danielle and I'm back here with my son Leo and this is his first visit to the New York Stock Exchange. I thought it was going to be fun for him to interview me. So, let me go ahead and turn this over to him and he's going to ask me a few questions about how I got started trading, why, and what we're going to do moving forward.

So, starting trading at home sounds pretty risky to me. What were you thinking?

Well, you know, I thought it sounded pretty risky as well, but it was, after all, grandpa that suggested it, and grandpa is a very calm and steady presence, and he's very responsible. So, I figured that if grandpa was suggesting to do something so crazy, then it may be a good idea.

Yeah, that's pretty cool. Being here at the stock exchange is pretty cool. But how is it different from trading at home?

Well, you know, when I first started trading, you were a newborn and well, it was quite interesting because I would have my laptop there. I was working from home. I was pretty broke at the time. So, it took me a while to get proper trading equipment. So that was one thing that was massively different, right? So, I actually ended up getting my own laptop. I finally got a nice phone after I had a nice Apple trade. So, that was cool. But you know, I think that the main thing is that when I was working at home when you were a baby, I could be there with you. So, you were actually a pretty needy baby and you didn't like it when I went too far away from you and I tried to get a job. But you were not very happy about that and you would be upset when I would leave and you didn't want to drink your milk. So, it was very problematic for me as a mom. So, I ended up staying home with you and determining that I was going to make a go at this whole trading thing and I decided to, you know, keep doing it and never give up. And that was how we got to where we are today. So, pretty cool, huh?

Yeah. Who are some people that inspired you to start trading?

Well, you know, definitely grandpa. Grandpa's been investing for a long time and he loves trading and then also of course John Carter. So when I first started trading, I was trading at home by myself and I was learning online. So I joined the Simpler Trading trading room and that was something that I would do while you were running around the house acting crazy. You know, I would always make sure that I would listen to the market open and the market close sessions that they were putting on in the trading room. And what I did was I was practicing with paper money at first. So paper money is just fake money that you can trade with. And so in the very beginning, because you know, we didn't have a lot of money, I practiced with that until I was confident enough to put real money at risk in the stock market. And so after a while of doing that, learning various strategies, learning how to follow the trend, what I ended up doing was I started to trade with real money. So it was a great experience. It was not easy to work from home with a baby. I learned very quickly that day trading was not for me because it's really difficult when you're getting interrupted by a child and you're trying to do really short-term trades. And so that actually really helped me evolve my trading style where I'm primarily a swing trader. And I trade really the market open and the market close, but I don't usually trade all day long. And I usually hold on to my trades for several days to several weeks. And so that made my trading style more flexible towards having a family.

Sounds cool. What is the biggest win you would say you've had in trading?

So, I think that the most monumental moment for me was when the pandemic happened. And we really wanted to get out of the city and what I was able to do is I was able to use some of my trading profits to put a down payment on a house. And so, what we ended up doing was we bought a house by the lake, the lake house, I'm sure you know. That was the first time I was able to buy a house, which I was really excited about. And I don't know, for me that was kind of a full circle moment because we went from not really having a place to live to being able to, you know, afford our own house. And then also you know of course that ended up building equity in the long term and that ended up growing money because you know when you take your money and you pay for a house especially in this case because it was 2020 the house went up in value and then we were able to sell it for more than we bought it for. So, you know, being able to use some of that trading money to be able to do that and then grow that equity and earn more money that way. I mean, for me, that was the monumental win that we had.

Sounds good. How would you say your trading has changed over the past few years?

Well, you know, in the beginning, as I was mentioning, I really felt like I needed to be a day trader because I was trying to focus on making a certain amount of money every day, but I learned very quickly that that was just not the way to do it. And so, what I've really tried to do is I've tried to structure my trading around family life. So for example, the market close is a perfect time for us. You know, Leo is at preschool, a two-year-old, and this is a great time for us as far as our family is concerned for me to be putting on trades because we live on the Pacific coast and so it's, you know, from 12 to 1:00. And so my trading strategy has mainly evolved to focus on earnings trading, a lot of momentum high volume trading, and you can really see that momentum and high volume coming through the last hour of the day at market close and so I like to put on a lot of my trades at that moment in time. And I don't really do a whole lot during the middle of the day because I'll do shows and stuff like this, but then we also have to do doctor's appointments and go do things at school and things like that. And so I've really adjusted my trading style to fit our family lifestyle.

Yeah. That last hour is very important to you. I learned that over the last few years of homeschool.

Yes, that's right. Yeah.

What would you say about someone who wanted to know how to, what would you tell someone if they said they wanted to have their trading evolve around their family?

Well, I would say that you need to find a mentor that has a trading style that you can vibe with and that's something that you feel like you want to learn because there are so many different trading strategies. You can trade extremely short-term scalping. You can day trade. You know, there's a lot of people that don't like to hold positions overnight. So, for some people, you know, maybe they can day trade two or three days a week and that works for them. For me personally, you know, I like swing trading, especially just overnight trading because that's what fits my lifestyle. But the moral of the story is really it's important to identify with mentors that have specific trading strategies that you find interesting and try to work on one strategy, focus on that strategy until you can nail it. Because oftentimes what a lot of beginners do wrong is they try this and then they try that and then they try this and then they try that and because they're not focusing on one specific strategy, they can't ever get it right and they give up before they really give it a good go. So I would say find one specific area of focus and work on it and don't give up.

That's great. Cool. Great advice.

Yeah. Thank you. Well, I really appreciate you joining me on the first episode of my podcast. You did a great job and I really appreciate the fact that you got me into trading. So, thank you.

Yeah.

All right. Love you.

Bye.

All right. Now, for the next segment, I'm going to bring on Jeff Hirsch. He's absolutely amazing. We use his work with the Stock Trader's Almanac in our trading room at Simpler Trading on a regular basis. I love trading seasonality, especially moves going up into earnings season. I love trading the December Santa rally, the January effect, and more. So, during the next segment, stick around because he's going to be here and I'm going to be asking him all kinds of questions about his top strategies.

Hey, it's Danielle. Welcome back to Traders Code. And I'm so excited that I have Jeff Hirsch here today with me. And he is the editor-in-chief of the Stock Trader's Almanac, which by the way, I absolutely love and we use at Simpler Trading all the time, and also the CEO of Hirsch Holdings. So, thank you so much for joining me, Jeff.

Thank you. I really appreciate it. So Jeff, you have been a Wall Street veteran for 35 years and took over the Stock Trader's Almanac from your father, Yale Hirsch, in 2001. Can you share the story of how he founded the Almanac in 1968?

Wow, that's amazing. I love that. It's such a great book. And you know, I heard that the 2026 edition of the Stock Trader's Almanac is the 59th annual edition. Congrats.