Monday, March 12, 2007

The hybrid market... a small disaster

I'm down $150. I was up $150. There's just no trading this market right now.

Let me share a couple of frustrations...

OMG. I bought this stock around 10am near 39.50. About 10 minutes later I was stopped out at the low of the day. Nothing new there, that's been happening consistently for the last 8 years. What IS different is the way the stock traded immediately after I was stopped out. In the past, if you get stopped out but you still like it, you could get back in. Not today with OMG as it spiked almost a half point right after the stop-out... that's how stocks trade in the new hybrid market. Poorly.

Same exact thing happened with LTM at almost exactly the same time. Go figure.

One last frustration. My worst stock of the day is TNH. I bought it around a quarter after 10. Only 200 shares because I'm currently trading small and trying to get my confidence back. So I stop 100 at a new low and the other hundred just below the figure. The first 100 I got at a fair price losing 10 cents or so. The hundred I stopped below 52 however were triggered and I was filled at 51.62. The low of the day. And of course, (because this always happens when you are in a slump) the stock ran straight up after that. Argh.

So I'm down $150. My only good trade is LVS which I've made about 40 cents on. Volume is really light today. It's probably a good day to take things easy. Can't force trades.

If you like music while you trade, check the latest Forkcast on Pitchfork. Here's the link... it's like a mixtape of the best recent music they've reviewed.

http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/page/forkcast/41645

Trade well.

2 comments:

OBAT said...

Hi Dino Trader,

I just came across your blog when I saw your comment in J.C.'s blog. I trade listed stocks too and have been doing it since 2002. This hybrid market is not easy to trade. The tape reading stuff that I applied profitably is not really working in this market. I am trying to find my way also. Good luck.

Dinosaur Trader said...

Hey,

Yeah, it's tough. I was thinking about making more posts about how to deal with the hybrid changes.

I check the NYSE blog on this topic and while they are nice and everything, I haven't received any concrete help as far as trading goes.

Thanks for your comment. I'll try to address this issue more.

-DT