A Real Snoozer Until...It Wasn't

After all of our recent excitement, today qualifies as a real snoozer.

My best and only really interesting trade of the day was a short in FED.



This was a risky trade because I initiated my short while the stock was still rising around the $46.75 level. However, I added slowly and was watching some of the other mortgage names, MTG, DSL, RWT and JLL come off their highs. FED just took a little longer to melt. I got more than half my position off above the $47.50 level, so I scaled in smartly.

I covered some around $46.50 and the rest down by $46. I pulled in a little over a grand on the trade.

Other than that, I really just took some small scalps on either side of the market. We were rangebound all day long so I worked on my patience and didn't trade too much. Had I done the same yesterday I wouldn't have missed out on all the fun post 3:30. But anyway...

I hope this doesn't put an end to all the volatility. I don't think it does. After yesterday's crazy short covering into the close I figured we might see a day like today. I'm writing this post at 2:30, so who knows how we'll end. The market is having a tough time moving in either direction. That employment report tomorrow could be a big deal and perhaps we'll have to wait until then for more movement.

Anyway, the dog days of summer are here. It's 90 degrees outside and I'm not sticking around. Off to the beach for some surf and dinner with friends.



UPDATE: Okay, so I wrote that part of the post at 2:30 and I thought I was done for the day. I should have been because I just gave back half my gains in that nasty "rally" at the end of the day. I'm sure I'm not the only one, that was messed up. Check out what happened at the end of the day. I got chopped in TNH and in MA... and I don't think there was one stock that you would have been safe in... fucking robots.

Here's the stats:
P&L, $487
Best, FED, $1075
Worst, MA, -$405

shares traded, 29,000
19 stocks traded, 5 winners, 14 losers
160 total trades