Stepping To The Sidelines

Made some money in TSL and EXM on shorts and I'm choosing not to get overly involved in this low-volume market.

As far as swing trades go, I closed my DE position at $148.70 and my FED at $50.27. I also initiated a LAZ short at $42.37. "The Fly" best be right about that one...

So for now, my swing account reads:

100 POT
100 NMX
-200 LAZ

The good news on my swing account is that (as of yesterday's close) I made $1135 in it for the month. Doesn't sound like much, I know, but considering that I was down $1500 in it right after the FED cut, I'll take it. Also, I only traded this account with small positions... 100 and 200 shares. I may try to build those positions slightly in October if the market is still cooking.

Going surfing.

Global Warming IS Real Afterall!

Hey, if Bush says it's true, it must be... right? True leadership!

Actually, now I'm beginning to doubt it.

CNBC And Their Damn Anchors

Melissa Lee has the worst voice on TV. It defines nasal.

Animal Collective, "For Reverend Green"

In their prime.

I listened to Strawberry Jam on my ride to the beach in the afternoon and then on the way back. Get it... it's explosive.

A New Appreciation For My Neighbor

My earlier post really says it all.

I only wish I had gotten home at 3:59 and not at 3:40... it would have meant $750 more in profits. Instead, I came home and was thrilled, shocked even, to see my P&L green and so I just sold out of most of my position near $31. I had also set limits to sell 400 at $31.20 and 400 more at $31.50 while I was out... amazingly, they too were hit. So upon my return, I had 1000 shares left and sold most of it around $31.10.


Believe me, I'm not going to complain too much about missing that last 65 cents.

You know, I said that I was doing that to prove to myself that I wasn't attached to money, but really, it seems like I'm more attached to trading itself than I am to money. I really "felt" that the stock was going to go higher but I "felt" even more that if I hung around to watch it that I'd screw it up.

Funny the way lessons can be learned.

Anyway, apart from my intraday number today, I made almost $600 in my "swing account" with gains in NMX (thanks Momo), POT, and DE. FED is dead in the water... if he doesn't move to the upside tomorrow I may bail on that one for a tiny loss.

Also instructive today is the fact that the other two positions that went against me, CNS (long) and LDK (short) would have worked out quite well had I let them be and not exited them for losses. I'm not saying that taking the losses when I took them was wrong, but I am saying that I should probably take smaller positions and give myself more room in them because it could be that I'm often on the right side of a position over a longer timeframe... I'll be exploring this more in the days to come.

Here's the stats:

P&L, $217
Best, ANW, $1007
Worst, CNS, -$544
23,200 shares traded.
14 stocks traded. 6 winners, 8 losers.
97 trades.

Virtual Office, $22,111. Dow, +34.79, 13,912.94.

Misstrade, $21,000 on 21,000 shares traded.
Momojuicing, $734 on 32,200 shares traded.
Tapeworm, $300 on 2 contracts traded.
Me, $217 on 23,200 shares traded.
Bubs, $97 on 1900 shares traded.
Evolution, may trade again tomorrow.
OBAT, -$8 on 15,400 shares traded.
Akalawoo, -$106 on 20 contracts traded.
Denarii, -$123 on 2400 shares traded.

Well, I guess I should address the obvious here... Misstrade did the heavy lifting today. I guess when you cover a chunk of your JRJC short at the low of the day you deserve those kinds of profits. Nice trade.

The rest of us slobs barely scratched out an existence today.

Anyway, volume sucked. I mean, seriously... the NYSE traded 1,180,687,000 shares today. That's like a summer Friday... is there a new Jewish holiday or something?

Looking forward to earnings season. Perhaps that will add some volume into the market.

My Neighbor

I hate his leaf-blowing, wood chipping ass.

Seriously the guy just blew some leaves into a pile (it's windy here... a rake could have done the job in half the time) and then proceeded to pick the leaves up in clumps, throwing them into his woodchipper, "making more" leaves.

Idiot.

Or, I could just be upset because I'm getting completely smoked. Currently, I'm down well past my limit which means I can no longer enter any new positions. So I'm left with this situation. I have 1800 shares of a thin, crappy stock. Do I sell it and accept my loss or do I just hold this piece of shit all day knowing that it's my only hope at regaining any of my lost money?

I could just go to the beach and let the chips fall where they may. When I get home I could either be exactly where I am now, -$1750 or down double that, or I could be positive again. My gut tells me the stock is moving higher today.

Since I've never done this before, and as an exercise in losing my attachment to money, I'm going to walk away and just post the graph here for your pleasure.



I'll be back at 3:59 to close the position. Wish me luck.


UPDATE: HA! HA!!!!!



I'm under no illusions here, I got pretty lucky. Okay, very lucky. Anyway, maybe my neighbor isn't such a bad guy after all, he drove me out of my house, into the surf and away from the computers.

Your Relation To Money

Will over at Dummyspots asks a big question.

He's been blogrolled over there on the right for some time. However, if you haven't taken the opportunity to check out his blog, today is a great day to do so. He always writes thoughtful, clear posts and has also made a couple of great trading calls.

ORA On Wallstrip

That's right, go green! Great Wallstrip today, check it out.

Gusty Southerly

Surf has been flat or unrideable here since early Sunday morning. 4 days has been the longest I've gone without surfing since I began again a couple of months back.

My surfing buddy relies a lot on paid surfing reports and "models" that tell him whether or not it's worthwhile to drive out and get in the water. I'm more inclined to drive out and get in the water despite the reports just because I think there's no better way to start your day than with a dip in the ocean. And hey, if I manage to catch a crappy closeout wave or two, so be it.

Anyway, we spoke late last night and he told me that the "models" were wrong and that the surf was going to be a mess today. I told him I was heading out regardless and that if he wanted a ride, to let me know.

I woke a little late this morning and noticed that the trees were still. No wind! I clamored in the darkness for my clothes and kissed Judy on the head. "I'm gonna go see what's out there," I said. Our daughter was nestled up next to her in bed, looking warm and comfortable. I ran downstairs and out the door.

By the time I arrived in my town, only a few miles away, the flag was stiff with a gusty southerly. One look at the flag and I knew what the surf would be like. White water mush with strong currents.

At 6:00am, the only people in town are the sanitation department guys, running around in fluorescent orange vests emptying garbage bins and hooking large hoses up to the hydrants, to hose down the streets. Since not many people are driving through town every morning with surfboards on their car, they've come to recognize me, and I waved to them as I decided to turn around and head back home.

I turned on the teakettle and walked back upstairs to the bedroom. I slid into bed next to our daughter and buried my nose in her hair, the hair that we cut for the first time just yesterday. Since she's not going to nursery school until January now, every extra moment we have with her has taken on a new importance... even if we appreciate those moments before she wakes up.

As I listened to her breathe and smelled her hair, I thought maybe getting in the ocean isn't the best way to start the day after all.

The Dead - Billy Collins Animated Poetry

Buffet And The Bear

Well, well. If it isn't Uncle Ben saving the market's ass, it's Uncle Warren.



If the bears weren't scared shitless after the 50bp rate cut, they must be freaked out now.

Anyway, it was a pretty crazy day for me. Like I said in my earlier post, I got killed in CMI, but had good trades in LDK and TBSI.



In LDK, I was in and out a lot between 9:45 and 10:45 but always net short.



I got short TBSI when all the shippers started to collapse. He was lagging behind the fall.



I still overtraded today. However, I'm pretty damn pleased with the performance of my "swing" account. I'm now officially in the green there. Once I gain a little more confidence with that style I will start increasing my position sizes and daytrade less. That's my new plan.

The writing has been on the wall as far as me and daytrading for sometime. Really, since the beginning of the year and the implementation of the hybrid market. Simply put, I don't like trading stocks with limit orders and I hate the way the NYSE trades like a goddamn ECN now. So I'm working on adjusting my style.

Near the close today I added another stock to my "swing" account. 100 shares of FED at $51.11. There's a lot of economic data out tomorrow so I'm a little nervous about adding any more size to my current positions. I'm going to keep it mellow for the rest of September and see what October brings.

Meanwhile, does anyone miss me creating links to the stock profiles directly from this post each day?

Here's the stats:
P&L, $1155
Best, LDK, $1225
Worst, CMI, -$831

54,600 shares traded.
27 stocks traded. 16 winners, 11 losers.
194 trades.

Virtual Office, $3091. Dow, +99.50, 13878.15.

Momojuicing, $3412 on 11,800 shares traded.
Me, $1192 on 55,000 shares traded.
OBAT, $100 on 8400 shares traded.
Bubs, flat on 1200 shares traded.
Evolution, switching firms, no trades.
Denarii, -$136 on 3200 shares traded.
Tapeworm, -$355 on 4 contracts traded.
Akalawoo, -$487 on 15 contracts traded.
Misstrade, -$635 on 20,000 shares traded.

It was a wild day in the market. I'd love to know who got their hands on that BSC news at 10:45. That's when we had our first financial rally of the day led by BSC a few hours before the "news" was made public.

Anyway, volume was again crappy. You know, I use esignal and check $tvol to get my volume numbers. But someone told me the other day that leaves out ECN volume. If someone knows how to get the cumulative volume number on esignal, please let me know.

As it is, it looks like we traded just below 1,300,000,000 shares today. Blah.

Lots of eco-data in the morning. Should make for an interesting open. We'll see.

Meanwhile, Gasparino on CNBC is really sticking his neck out by saying that the Buffet news is most likely false... props to him either way...

Sold 200 of 300 DE, Bought 100 NMX

Well, the post title pretty much sums it up. I took the quick and easy gains on the DE, selling 100 at $143.51 and another 100 at $144.37. I'll hold the other 100 until it breaks my entry.

Also, taking a tip from Momojuicing, I picked up a little NMX for the swing. I love the daily chart on it so I figured I'd give it a shot. I got 100 at $129.17. A break of $130 would be sweet. As for downside risk, I'd be out if it broke the low of the day, around $126 or so...



So with these transactions, my "swing" account currently has these 3 positions.

100 DE
100 NMX
100 POT

One Semester Of Spanish Love Song

Good stuff.

Wild Morning

All I wanted to do was relax today, but the market wouldn't let that happen.

In short, I got smoked in CMI and made some good trades in LDK and TBSI. I also caught the rally in the financials led by BSC starting at 10:50 or so, but the exit was ugly.



So I'm up, but heading out to the surf shop to pick up my newly repaired board.

Also, despite losing 75% in my swing trading account on my first two trades, it has now turned the corner and I'm nicely positive in it thanks largely to my DE overnight position.

September Sessions

Okay, so I watched the Jack Johnson "movie" September Sessions last night. The first thing I noticed, just as I was getting comfortable on the couch, was that it's not a "movie" at all since it's only 26 minutes long.

Which leads me to the next thing I noticed. I was happy it was so short. The surfing is pretty amazing but it's also pretty repetitive with guys on short boards getting barreled and making sharp turns up the face of the wave and then riding it back down.

There's also no dialogue, just voice-overs mainly with the star surfers explaining how stressed out they've been on the tour circuit and how stoked they were just to get a chance to make this movie which apparently is "all about the stoke."

I mean, it's fine to watch but you have to go into it knowing that it's really short. I'm not going to harsh on it too bad because the footage is amazing but, it's not a movie... more like a short collection of surf footage collected over a couple of days without a story to really hold it together.

So here's the 3-min trailer. Imagine 23 minutes more of the same and you've got the movie. Pretty cool for what it is.

Bob Dylan, "She Belongs To Me"

"She can take the dark out of the nighttime and paint the daytime black."



BTW, you can skip the first 1:30 of this video... it's just backstage stuff.

Working Less

I didn't trade too much today. Instead, I built a position in DE and sweat.

I don't have my work computer up anymore, but I think I lost $300 in him. There were times I was up $800 in him and other times when I was down $1000 in him. It was a lesson for me, to hold a position the whole day and not churn in and out of it.

The thing is, I think I can trade less and make more if I put my mind to it.

August was great for me... it was a market that asked to be traded heavily. However, September is completely different, volume has declined and the swingers seem to be raking it in. And you know, longer term I think that swing trading would be healthier for me... and if I could put on a few positions and not have to obsessively watch them, I could probably "work less" so to speak.

Working less is one of my goals in life.

Work less and write more. Write less about trading.

This is all developing of course. I'm just thinking here...

Anyway, it was great to read some of the posts on Wallstreak today. Some of those guys really did well today. If you're the type who can build a position and be confident enough to let it run for you this market has been great.

So I'm going to try to do more research in the morning and make a watchlist of like, 10 stocks and look to trade them only...

We'll see. Time to watch a movie. I got September Sessions through my local library. I'll report back on it tomorrow.

No stats tonight... I'm keeping that work computer off.

Virtual Office, $9023. Dow, +26.50, 13,785.56.

Misstrade, $8125 on 17,600 shares traded.
Akalawoo, $563 on 42 contracts traded.
OBAT, $370 on 6400 shares traded.
Tapeworm, $135 on 6 contracts traded.
Me, $67 on 16,600 shares traded.
Evolution, switching firms... no trades.
Momojuicing, -$53 on 8000 shares traded.
Denarii, -$59 on 2800 shares traded.
Bubs, -$125 on 5200 shares traded.

Well, it's one of those days where the indexes don't really tell the full story. Today was a day to look at sectors and individual stocks to gauge the strength or action in the market. On the NYSE it looks like just over 1,200,000,000 shares will trade. Less volume than yesterday's already zombie-like trading.

Still, over at Wallstreak, guys were making gobs of money trading CROX and the solar companies.

Remember, ever since the Daily Show detailed the "dirty secret" about CROX that stock has been on fire.

Anyway, I have to get out of here quickly, so I'll post my "daily" and video later this evening.

UPDATE: YOU PEOPLE AMAZE ME. THE CNBC "SEX POLL" IS UP FOR 4 HOURS AND IT ALREADY HAS MORE VOTERS THAN THE "R" POLL GOT IN A WHOLE WEEK.

Closed TSL Swing Trade, Opened POT and DE

I bought 200 at $50.11 and sold 200 at an average price of $55.16.

That was my first successful "swing" trade since opening my account at the beginning of the month. Despite the win, I'm still down in the account due to the drubbing I took in the QID when the FED cut rates.

Meanwhile, yesterday I purchased 100 shares of POT at $99.86 and today I picked up 300 DE at $141.68.

UPDATE: I sold 100 DE at $142.44. I was over my overnight limit at my firm...

Which CNBC Anchor Would You Sleep With?

That's right.

After the abysmal showing in my last poll, and spurred on by my newfound "porn fame" I've gone lowbrow again for this poll to try and get more of you involved.

The question is:

Which CNBC Anchor Would You Like To Sleep With?

Sharon Epperson
Erin Burnett
Melissa Francis
Melissa Lee
Jim Cramer
Maria Bartiromo
Bertha Coombs
Trish Regan
Dylan Ratigan
Mark Haines
Sue Herera
Rebecca Jarvis
Joe Kernan
Steve Liesman
Becky Quick
Mary Thompson

Now there's something there for everyone... don't be shy, voting is anonymous. If I've left someone out, please fill us all in.

NOTE: Apparently, you can only have 10 options, so I've edited the list.

Esignal Customer Service Sucks

12:24:13 PM Lori - eSignal Hello, and thank you for using LiveRep.
12:24:13 PM Lori - eSignal What can I do for you today?
12:24:50 PM You Hi, my cursor window seems "stuck" the time doesn't move anymore when I scroll my cursor over the candlestick bars on my chart.
12:25:13 PM Lori - eSignal is there a specitic time that you see in there?
12:26:00 PM You Well, it changes from graph to graph. Right now, my graph says 13:25 but my cursor is on the 11:00 am candlestick.
12:27:14 PM Lori - eSignal I am sorry but this is too complicated to resolve here in LiveRep. Please call us at (US) 1 (510) 264-1700 option 2, (London) +44 (0)20 7825 8777 or (Sydney) +61 (2) 8668-1600 option 2
12:27:24 PM Lori - eSignal Thank you for your patience
12:27:46 PM You Wait... I've solved it before with you on Liverep... I just don't remember how.
12:31:48 PM Lori - eSignal unfortunately, that session isn't coming up. At this point, please call in for further assistance. Thanks again for your patience.
12:32:11 PM You Thanks. You guys are the best.
12:32:48 PM Lori - eSignal signing off now;you're welcome, and thanks!
12:32:48 PM Lori - eSignal bye for now

This is an actual transcript of my "conversation" with their "customer service" idiot.

Seriously, I sign onto their "LiveRep" service and I'm told that my wait time will be 45 seconds. 10 minutes later, I'm "chatting" with one of their knowledgeable representatives. The reason why I don't call is because I hate waiting on hold for 20 minutes for such a simple question.

Meanwhile, note how it takes nearly 10 minutes to have this simple conversation.

When The VO Eats You Alive

You know, I don't think any of us could have predicted a few weeks ago that High Probability Trader would rename his site, High Probability "Blowup" and start posting nude videos of Angelina Jolie...

Honestly, I love his site now more than I did before because you just don't know what you're gonna get! He's like the blogging version of that movie character from the movie Network, the "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore" guy?

Anyway, kudos to HPT on picking up the pieces and transforming his blog.

Alan Greenspan On The Daily Show

I can't believe I'm a week late posting this... just in case you might have missed it.

Dinosaur Porn "Recreation"

Just in case you missed it, my friend Trading Goddess managed to find a picture of me in a "compromising" situation.

Go ahead, check it out. It's a little embarrassing but now that it's hit the internets I feel no reason to hide from it. My guess is that everyone shows up naked on the internet eventually, right? Still, as I mentioned in her comments section, the picture makes me look old.

Meanwhile, the movie we're watching is "Jurassic Pork" a classic, 1973 Dinosaur Porn flick.

NOTE: In a disturbing development, I have received many hits from Google now from people searching for porn involving geriatrics...

Poll Closed, Book Finished, Bob Saget Disease

Not to start the day off on a downer, but remember when Bush "won" in 2004 by the slimmest of margins? But then he acted like he won in a landslide?

Well, that's how I'm treating this poll.

Here was the question: "Is "R" A Useful Tool For Measuring The Success Of A Trade Or Does Your Account Total Already Do That?"

The results: 37 total votes. 45% (17 votes) thought R was useful, 55% 20 (votes) thought R was useless.

This poll suffered from very low voter turnout which surprised me somewhat as I thought that "R" was something of a hot-button issue in the stock blogosphere. Anyway...

The people have spoken and they have decided that "R" is completely useless. In fact, from here on out, should you speak of "R" your phone will be bugged, your family will be kidnapped, and you'll be forced to watch Bob Saget clips on Youtube all day.

In other news, I finished Tapping The Source by Kem Nunn. While it was somewhat pornographic in parts and gratuitously violent in others, I really liked his style of writing and can confidently recommend this one. I am now reading Dark Noon by Tom Clavin.

Okay, now see what will come of you if you mention "R" again...

Minutemen, "This Ain't No Picnic"

This seemed fitting. I'm in a bad mood.

Who Loves The Sun?

I'm going to make this quick, because I'm still really pissed about what I just did to torpedo my day and I just want to get away from the computer.



A lot of my trades come from sectors. For example, I see all the fertilizer stocks on the move and I buy the laggard, or a sell the leader. Often, these trades will work (on a short time frame) and you can book decent profits this way.

However, now and then, you get smacked with this style.

I was up nicely at noon when I decided to head out for lunch and take a breather. I brought my board to the shop to get a fresh ding repaired and then I came back to look at the market at 2:45. All of my shorts from the morning (CF, LDK) worked like charms but I was already out of my positions.

I was pissed that I missed the sell off.

So I scanned around and saw that all the solar stocks reversed. Except TSL. So I started getting short into what I saw a little "squeeze" just after 3pm between $54 and $55. To make a long story short, TSL simply wasn't following the rest of the solars down. He kept going up and I got squeezed.

To make matters worse, I was trading this thin stock with too many shares. So, I completely blew up in the last hour of the day, wiping out all of my gains and starting the week with a bad one.

Here's the stats:

P&L, -$818
Best, LDK, $573
Worst, TSL, -$524

46,000 shares traded.
7 winners, 13 losers
170 trades.

Virtual Office, $7861. Dow, -61.13, 13,759.06.

Momojuicing, $4962 on 13,400 shares traded.
Misstrade, $3164 on 9000 shares traded.
Bubs, $290 on 3000 shares traded.
OBAT, $235 on 2800 shares traded.
Akalawoo, $152 on 41 contracts traded.
Denarii, -$6 on 1000 shares traded.
Tapeworm, -$118 on 18 contracts traded.
Me, -$818 on 46,000 shares traded.

You know, the last two times I've added new traders to the VO I've gotten smoked... Damn VO...

Anyway, some entrance! Momojuicing decided to juice enough Momo out of the market that he had to buy a second refrigerator to hold it all. Okay, awful joke. But give me a break, I just got smoked.

So to be honest, I'm a little too pissed about my own "fucktardedness" in the last hour of trade to dwell too much on the "bigger picture." I'll say this, volume still sucks in this market and I'm a little tired of it. We'll trade just over 1,300,000,000 today. Lame.

At least I'm reading a good book... Tapping The Source by Kem Nunn. I recommend it if you like surf novels. I'm going to go bury my head in it now and forget about the market until tomorrow.

New Member Of The VO

That's right. We're going to be adding and dropping members until we have the chemistry here just right. Expect more changes in the coming weeks.

Momojuicing has a new blog and it looks like it could be a winner. He's been trading for awhile, trades everyday, and more importantly, trades stocks intraday thereby making him a perfect fit for the VO.

So without further ado, please go visit his shiny new blog and see what you can learn from him.

I'm thrilled to have another intraday stock-trader in the office.

Day Trading Still Misunderstood

95% fail? I mean, where do these statistics come from? In my experience it's more like 50%.

Anyway, no gratuitous hot chicks in this video... actually, that's not entirely true. "Bambi" was pretty cute.



(h/t HPT)

Yoga That Everyone Can Enjoy

I don't have any great post ready right now, and since it's the weekend and I feel like relaxing, I figured I would just throw up this video of a hot chick doing yoga.

Completely gratuitous and cheap, I know, but worthwhile.

Preliminary Virtual Office

I'm out of here. I may not have a connection until tomorrow or Sunday.

So the VO will be very late, like, probably Sunday. Here's a quickie:

I made $427 on 15,200 shares traded.
Bubs, made $93 on 1200 shares traded.
Akalawoo didn't trade. His ass is on VO probation since he never trades.
Evolution is on vacation.

Have a good weekend everyone.

Dinosaur Comic

Hattip, Denarii.



You can check the comic in full size here.

Here's what the panels say:

Panel 1: I have an extra $50 that I have saved. I believe I will put it in my bank account!

Panel 2: No, T-Rex. That is a bad idea. (T-REX says) Explain!

Panel 3: If you leave money in your bank account it gets interest but if it's not as much as inflation, you're actually losing money plus your investments could be making more on the stock market. (T-REX says) Fine! I'll invest my stupid $50 in the stupid stock market. Okay? Happy? I'll invest my $50 in a company that makes neckties for underachieving dogs.

Panel 4: But before you do that, T-Rex, you should consider your investment goals! (T-REX says) Man!

Panel 5: Seriously! This is important. You need to decide: what do you want out of your invesments? Security? Rapid growth? (T-REX says) Listen, all I want out of life is for my bank account to have $58,008 dollars in it, so that when I read my statement upside down it says, "BOOBS."

Panel 6: Worst answer to "What do you want out of your investments?" question. Today's Champion.

NOTE: After getting smoked right off the open, I made it back and clawed my way into the green. I think I'm done for the week. Also, I added TSL to my swing account today at $50.11.

Ikea Lamp Commercial

I was trolling the internets for trading commercials yesterday when I found this gem.



For lack of a better tag, I'll just throw it in my "old trading commercials" bin.

Wacky $900 Million Trade

Check this out. Hattip to Bloggerdotcom.

Basically, someone bet $900 million that the S&P is going to drop hard and fast by the 21st of September.

Let's hope they're wrong...

UPDATE: By the way, gold hit a 28-year high today.

Edward Abbey, "A Voice In The Wilderness"

From some documentary that was made about him. In the beginning, you hear him reading from Desert Solitaire.

Good stuff. Also check out The Monkey Wrench Gang.

Damn Mexico And It's Homebuilders...

I had a great morning today. I was up a couple grand by 10:00am.

Then, at 10:00am, feeling confident, I short 1200 shares of HXM. This was right before the stock spiked up 80 cents on like 400 shares or something ridiculous like that... anyway, that kind of killed me.



I hear you out there saying something snarky like, "Well, duh! That's what he gets for trading thin stocks," and to that I'll say, "You have a point, but that doesn't mean your wife is being faithful." Think about it...

Anyway, so between HXM and a bunch of other trades that I shouldn't have made, I found myself up $150 by 10:30. Making money and then giving it all back is maybe worse than just losing from the beginning. It's a tough call though. Either way it just sucks.

The good news is that I didn't freak out too much. I still felt good about my morning trades (shorts in RDN, MTG, CNH, DSL) so I wasn't completely broken. I stepped away for awhile.

I came back and noticed that RDN was having trouble regaining the $26 price level.



So I got good and short around $25.70. As you can see from looking at the graph, this was a good idea. Of course, I managed to mess it up a bit since I covered the fat part of my position by $25. I let a measly 200 shares run down below $24.50. Ah, patience... I need some more of it.

Anyway, this brought me back to a respectable level on my day and so I decided to call it quits and check for surf (there was none... things have gone flat).

So on the way back from the beach I sat with my surfing buddy and had a frozen drink while the drunk proprietor of the establishment told us about his coming fame.

"I'm gonna be in a book... that's the author right there!" He slurred, pointing to a balding man.

He continued, spitting while he spoke, "I'm not going to read the book until it's published though. He gave me an advanced copy, but it's bad luck to read unpublished books. Anyway, I live in the Caribbean."

And with that, he stumbled away down the bar to hurl non-sequiturs at other patrons.

Here's the stats:

P&L, $1348
Best, RDN, $1026
Worst, HXM, -$734

54,600 shares traded.
21 stocks traded, 12 winners, 9 losers.
193 trades.

Virtual Office, $8300. Dow, -48.86, 13766.70.

Misstrade, $7049 on 19,500 shares traded.
Me, $1348 on 54,600 shares traded.
Denarii, $121 on 2800 shares traded.
Bubs, no trades.
Akalawoo, no trades.
Tapeworm, sick.
Evolution, vacation.
OBAT, -$218 on 5400 shares traded.

Don't think it's lost on me how lame the VO has been lately. Half our guys don't trade anymore!

Anyway, today was a low volume sell off. In the last few weeks, when we've had low volume days, they've come on the rallies. Perhaps this marks a shift in the market where we rally on higher volume and sell off on low volume. It would be nice, if the market is going to go up, for it to do so in a sensible manner...

I'm guessing volume will be low again tomorrow. Rosh Hashanah started tonight...

Volume Truly Blows; Yesterday's Fees

I just want to note how much volume sucks today...

Yesterday, by 2:30, we had traded, 1,204,017 shares. Today, at 2:30 we hadn't even turned a billion yet, chopping in at just 844,755,000 shares.

That, is pathetic... it also means that we could perhaps rally into the close.

Also, since the other day I said I was going to start keeping track of my daily fees paid to the NYSE and the SEC, I just want to note that yesterday I paid $39.20 split between those two.

Stewart of Ameritrade

You know, I posted this commercial way back on March 23rd, well before my blog reached it's current level of prominence.

So I don't feel too bad about sharing it again, it's a classic. If anyone knows where I can find some of the other old stock trading commercials from around the year 2000, let me know.



NOTE: I'm stepping out. Made a little money, but feel like surfing. So be it. I'll never be a millionaire with this work ethic... so expect a late VO and a later daily post.

Top Stock Market Blogs

If you have an amazon account, you can vote on this list.

You know what to do, people...



NOTE: I have no idea how this thing works... clearly, it is meaningless...

Feathers, "Past The Moon"

That's some monthly chart eh? "Past The Moon" indeed!

Over at Wallstreak, we always make the lame joke about the ticker symbol when someone calls this gem of a stock out.

"You're buying POT? How much? A dime bag?" "Next thing you know, you'll be buying ACID and LSD. After that, you'll be turning tricks and smoking crack." And stuff like that. We have fun.

Anyway, here's a song that will make you want to smoke some of the real stuff. If you like mellow moods, be sure to check it out. It's one of my favorite songs of the last year.

Dinosaur Trader's Golden Smash Hits

For some reason, if you click play from the window on the right sidebar some of the songs are only playing 30 second snippets. If you click "launch standalone player" this problem seems to go away.

Just FYI.

Too Tired To Surf

This is the first morning in a long time that I didn't wake up at 5 to get out and go surfing. I was just too tired. My arms are shot.

Also, I didn't throw up a daily post last night because I was just exhausted.

We went out for a hike after work and then had dinner at this great place where you can watch the sunset. It's always nice to appreciate a sunrise and a sunset in the same day. Helps keep you level.

Anyway, let's see if the extra time for morning research helps, or if I just waste it all reading other stock blogs!

UPDATE: I wasted a lot of time on other blogs... Bluedog has a "Flock Of Seagulls" video posted. "The Fly" has a post on the demise of Ducati. Good stuff!

Virtual Office, $14,889. Dow, +76.17, 13815.56.

Misstrade, $14,400 on 16,500 shares traded.
Me, $422 on 49,800 shares traded.
Denarii, $121 on 4300 shares traded.
Bubs, $0 on 800 shares traded.
Akalawoo, no trades.
Evolution, vacation.
OBAT, -$54 on 7000 shares traded.

Well today has to be one of the oddest VOs ever posted. Everyone basically treads water except Misstrade who turns in a big one. Guess he knows some people on the "inside" eh?

Anyway, so it looks like the market wants to keep going higher. For all the money going into mutual funds (according to Bob Pisani $10 billion in inflows yesterday), you'd think there would be a little more upside volume to this rally. We traded, about 1.6 billion shares today. Better than a couple of weeks ago, but still a fraction of what we were trading to the downside in August. Who knows?

Anyway, more earnings tomorrow.

Meanwhile, how about oil? $80.51. People are all talking about the rate cut and forgetting about oil...

GAIA En Fuego

Closing in on a new all-time high up at $24.68. I always love it when you can make investments and feel good about them at the same time. This company promotes yoga, healthy living, sells organic clothing and furniture and also sells solar stuff.



It's my longest term holding ever, so I'm pretty happy about the strength of the last two days.

As for today, I'm a little disappointed in myself. I thought I was having a great morning and expected to be up a couple of grand. Unfortunately, it's more like a couple of hundred! I just got a little more chopped than I thought in some crappy trades today, like LNN and RWT...

I'm going to go finish the book I'm reading, Maverick's by Matt Warshaw and come back in the afternoon.

UPDATE: You can read Howard's post about GAIA here.

A Nice Morning Of Clean Surf

It was beautiful out there... however, my toes are starting to get cold. It may be time to start looking into "booties."

Check out this really cool site. Basically, it shows in slideshow format images that are being downloaded to blogger. It's just random, but fun to watch.

Anyway, time to get my trade on. Dow 25,000 here we come!

Pink Floyd, "Money"

Bull Run

Ah well, get out of the way of the bulls (again).

I'm ready to buy stock again. Bernanke cured me of my bearishness. I'm more convinced than ever that this game is completely rigged in the bull's favor and that really, it's a big waste of time trying to short the market... at least longer term.

They always save the bulls.

Anyway, I'm shot. Oddly enough, I made my best trade of the day in the morning... on the short side in LAZ.



After the LEH numbers, all the financial stocks gapped higher. This provided and excellent and easy opportunity to get short. I got short LAZ in the high $41 area and covered when it slammed below $41 at around 9:45.

It's funny looking at that graph. I mean, why didn't I get massively long the stock at 2:15, right? I had to make things difficult by being all bearish. Silly me!

Anyway, after the FED pasted the bears, I got long UBB and made good money there too. It was hard not to...



Of course, I was still stupid and gave back money trying to short HXM... why would I try to short when the FED cut 50bp? I really, truly thought the market would panic on that news and that after that huge run that we'd pull back and go negative.

I really thought that and it crippled me from making huge money today. I was skittish in all of my longs and looking short!

This really strikes home the point about being neutral-minded when trading the markets. Look at the graphs and let them tell you what is happening in the market. Get any bullishness or bearishness out of your head and just trade.

Anyway, here's the stats.

P&L, $2757
Best, LAZ, $1023
Worst, HXM, -$432

47,200 shares traded.
18 stocks traded, 12 winners, 6 losers.
180 trades.

Virtual Office, $6156. Dow, +334.02, 13737.44.

Me, $2757 on 47,200 shares traded.
Akalawoo, $1785 on 4 contracts.
Misstrade, $1260 on 6500 shares traded.
Bubs, $469 on 2600 shares traded.
Evolution, vacation.
OBAT, vacation.
Tapeworm, -$35 on 4 contracts.
Denarii, -$75 on 400 shares traded.

Has anyone else noticed that the higher the market goes, the shriller Maria's voice gets?

Clearly, today was a crazy fucked up bail out of the banking industry. 50 basis points, Yay! I mean, people make bad loans and the FED comes to clean up the mess. God Bless America.

Anyway, it was a good day for the VO. There was no "pullback." If you bought at 2:15 and held, you made good money.

Tomorrow should be great. In fact, the next 10 years should be good. Dow 20,000 here we come!

Also, if you are a NYSE trader, please see my earlier post from today about the new fees.

Meanwhile, my daily post will be late. I need to get out of here for awhile.

The FED Hates Short Sellers...

Wow. Well, so I covered my shorts and got long. Party on.

HPT Leaves VO For "Personal Reasons"

I'm not going to do a huge public "firing" of HPT in the mold of what "the Fly" does over at his site.

I'll just say that the intense pressure and whirlwind competitiveness of the VO finally caved this man psychologically, thereby causing him to blow up his account.

HPT leaves on amicable terms. When asked by a reporter why he was leaving he said, "to spend more time with my family."

Everyone at the VO wishes him well and hopes that, should we need a token futures trader again, that he will rehabilitate his account and be ready to do battle again on the "killing field" that is the VO.

Godspeed, HPT.

New NYSE Fees

Simply put, these fees could be a "gamechanger."

Here is the press release detailing the new fees that go into effect on October 1st. They were brought to my attention by "Jawbreaker" via the comments section of this post.

Here's the thing I don't quite understand. If you route your order to the NYSE and "take liquidity" away from the market, you get hit with a .08 fee per 100 shares. I need a good explanation of what "taking liquidity" away means. If it means using a market order, I'm screwed.

There is a silver lining. The key is figuring out how to exploit it. If you "provide liquidity" via NYSE ARCA, you get a .25 rebate per 100 shares traded.

I need to know exactly what type of orders to place, (market or limit) and exactly where to route them (NYSE, ARCA, other ECNs) in order to avoid the "monster fee" and take advantage of the "petty rebate."

I trade from home. If anyone works for a place where they are discussing these fees and how we can avoid them/take advantage of them, please inform us all via the comments section.

Meanwhile, if we can't figure this stuff out, October will be a little bit like this:

LEH Trading Up Pre-Open

I haven't even looked at the numbers yet, but it looks like I'm going to get squeezed like a schoolteacher in my LAZ short.



UPDATE: It's all good. Financials gapped up and sold off. I short a good amount of LAZ and made 40 cents. I short UBB and ITU as well. A good way to start the day, I'll probably take it real easy up to the 2:15 number now.

Sue Teller Mashes It Up

I guess this will count for your "music video" today...

Quiet Before The Storm?

Man, this stock has ran 20% in the last 5 sessions. Clearly, money is being put to work in the name, but still, it needs to take a breath soon.

Unfortunately, today wasn't the day. And, I got short...



So I got smoked, losing about $750 in LVS, the gambling stock. How apt.

Anyway, otherwise, I did well today. I got short LAZ at around $41.90 and made a little over a half point in the guy.



I also stayed short some overnight. Hopefully, LEH posts a bomb, freaks the market out therefore allowing me to cover with a quick gain. My worry is that this trade seems almost too easy and obvious... we'll see. Heck, the Fly" is short... as long as the same "fat mountain bitches" who run CWTR don't run LAZ I think it could work out.

Other shorts that worked in my favor were KMT, DSX, HXM and AMG.

I traded lightly today... just trying to have a positive day before the storm tomorrow. I need to rebuild confidence here since we may be headed for some volatility.

Also, I don't remember whether or not I've brought this up here earlier, but I think the market is fucked tomorrow no matter what happens. It's run back up here on really light volume. I bet tomorrow we'll see a sell off on higher volume despite what Uncle Ben does for us.

Anyway, go vote on my damned poll. Also, if you're a stock trader and want to join the VO, email me. I need to shake it up a bit.

Here's the stats:

P&L, $250
Best, LAZ, $524
Worst, LVS, -$742

14,000 shares traded.
8 stocks traded, 6 winners, 2 losers.
70 trades.

Virtual Office, $3747. Dow, -39.10, 13403.42.

Misstrade, $3390 on 11,500 shares traded.
Me, $250 on 14,000 shares traded.
Denarii, $182 on 4000 shares traded.
Tapeworm, no trades.
Akalawoo, no trades.
HPT, AWOL...
OBAT, vacation.
Evolution, vacation.
Bubs, -$75 on 1200 shares traded.

Damn the VO was lame today. The majority of the traders took off, leaving it up to Misstrade to make money. Ah, to be Misstrade... the man has had like, 3 down days since March.

Volume today was pathetic enough to actually make me angry with the market. We traded a lousy 1,103,448,000 shares. That's like, 1998 levels or something silly like that.

I mean, that volatility in August looks like a big tease right now. I hope we heat up again after the FED announcement tomorrow otherwise I'm going to go back to worrying about my future.

So despite a heated debate about "R" today, not much happened here. All eyes will be on the FED tomorrow. I, for one, can't wait. I'M SICK OF ALL THE FED TALK!!!

A New Poll

I've always made fun of the "hillbillies" over at MovetheMarkets for measuring their trading performance in "R." Currently, we are having a friendly debate about "R" and it's usefulness. At least I'm being friendly... I can tell Richard hates me.

I've always found dollars and cents to be a perfectly fine metric for measuring how good or bad a trade was. It works like this... if I make a lot of money, it was a good trade. If I lose a lot, it was a bad trade.

Anyway, I'm interested to see how many of you measure your trades in terms of "R" as opposed to dollar value.

My feeling is that unless I can pay for my daughter's college education with some type of "R" certificate (Dino-Dollars?) that I'll stick to measuring my performance in dollars and cents.

So, here is the poll: Is "R" a useful tool for measuring the success of a trade or does your account total already do that?

"Bears Are Godless Killing Machines"

I'm extremely bearish going into the FED meeting tomorrow. Someone give me some good bull arguments to even out my trading. I'm missing every long...

The Market, 5 Billion Years From Today

It seems that Ray and the NYSE are already planning ahead.

Note the dig on NASDAQ... I loved that!

He needs a spot on Conan.

Me and LVS

I got short LVS this morning... a little "early."

This is what it felt like...



Hopefully it won't see $124 or above for the rest of the day. If that happens, I'll take off the rest of the afternoon and wait for the fireworks tomorrow.

How Could You Censor Gidget?

That's right! Censoring in the USA... watch those opinions, people!

FOX is the fascist network... If you watch it, fine, just understand that you are watching propaganda and propaganda only.

Libraries Rule

I recently discovered that I can log into my local library's main search engine from home.

They are part of this huge lending network. I can search the database, find DVDs, CDs or books that I want and request that they be sent to my library.

In short, I'm amazed that I can get all this stuff for free, legally.

Go hug a librarian.

Blue Dog

Hey, sorry that I still haven't posted the VO for yesterday. I just haven't been in the house to blog much these past couple of days.

So my buddy "Blue Dog" from Wallstreak has started a new stock blog. Check it out!

He will be updating the blog regularly. Perhaps he will enter the VO soon? We will see...

Virtual Office

Evolution, $1462 on 34,600 shares traded.
Me, vacation
OBAT, vacation
Akalawoo, no trades
Misstrade, $0 on 4000 shares traded.
Denarii, -$69 on 14,000 shares traded.
Bubs, -$190 on 12,000 shares traded.
Tapeworm, -$312 on 10 contracts traded.

Well, a pretty lame day for the VO. Pretty lame post too... but I'm on vacation.

My hands smell like lobster and my hair smells of saltwater.

Bob Dylan, "It's Alright Ma, (I'm Only Bleeding)"

I won't be posting much today. I took a day away from the markets and had my best surf session since I started again a couple of months ago. I caught countless clean rides as the wind shifted here overnight to slight offshore. It's a beautiful day.

Anyway, so I'm posting one of my favorite songs of all time with the lyrics. I wish we had someone to write songs like this today. I've bolded some of the lyrics that stand out to me as being particularly meaningful. Enjoy.

Meanwhile, I probably be very late with the VO. We are having company out midday and through dinner. I will also try and throw another post up later this evening.

Hope you're having a good day.




Darkness at the break of noon
Shadows even the silver spoon
The handmade blade, the child's balloon
Eclipses both the sun and moon
To understand you know too soon
There is no sense in trying.

Pointed threats, they bluff with scorn
Suicide remarks are torn
From the fool's gold mouthpiece
The hollow horn plays wasted words
Proves to warn
That he not busy being born
Is busy dying.

Temptation's page flies out the door
You follow, find yourself at war
Watch waterfalls of pity roar
You feel to moan but unlike before
You discover
That you'd just be
One more person crying.

So don't fear if you hear
A foreign sound to your ear
It's alright, Ma, I'm only sighing.

As some warn victory, some downfall
Private reasons great or small
Can be seen in the eyes of those that call
To make all that should be killed to crawl
While others say don't hate nothing at all
Except hatred.

Disillusioned words like bullets bark
As human gods aim for their mark
Made everything from toy guns that spark
To flesh-colored Christs that glow in the dark
It's easy to see without looking too far
That not much
Is really sacred.

While preachers preach of evil fates
Teachers teach that knowledge waits
Can lead to hundred-dollar plates
Goodness hides behind its gates
But even the president of the United States
Sometimes must have
To stand naked.

And though the rules of the road have been lodged
It's only people's games that you got to dodge
And it's alright, Ma, I can make it.

Advertising signs that con you
Into thinking you're the one
That can do what's never been done
That can win what's never been won
Meantime life outside goes on
All around you.

You lose yourself, you reappear
You suddenly find you got nothing to fear
Alone you stand with nobody near
When a trembling distant voice, unclear
Startles your sleeping ears to hear
That somebody thinks
They really found you.

A question in your nerves is lit
Yet you know there is no answer fit to satisfy
Insure you not to quit
To keep it in your mind and not forget
That it is not he or she or them or it
That you belong to.

Although the masters make the rules
For the wise men and the fools
I got nothing, Ma, to live up to.

For them that must obey authority
That they do not respect in any degree
Who despise their jobs, their destinies
Speak jealously of them that are free
Cultivate their flowers to be
Nothing more than something
They invest in.

While some on principles baptized
To strict party platform ties
Social clubs in drag disguise
Outsiders they can freely criticize
Tell nothing except who to idolize
And then say God bless him.

While one who sings with his tongue on fire
Gargles in the rat race choir
Bent out of shape from society's pliers
Cares not to come up any higher
But rather get you down in the hole
That he's in.

But I mean no harm nor put fault
On anyone that lives in a vault
But it's alright, Ma, if I can't please him.

Old lady judges watch people in pairs
Limited in sex, they dare
To push fake morals, insult and stare
While money doesn't talk, it swears
Obscenity, who really cares
Propaganda, all is phony.

While them that defend what they cannot see
With a killer's pride, security
It blows the minds most bitterly
For them that think death's honesty
Won't fall upon them naturally
Life sometimes
Must get lonely.

My eyes collide head-on with stuffed graveyards
False gods, I scuff
At pettiness which plays so rough
Walk upside-down inside handcuffs
Kick my legs to crash it off
Say okay, I have had enough
What else can you show me?

And if my thought-dreams could be seen
They'd probably put my head in a guillotine
But it's alright, Ma, it's life, and life only.


Copyright © 1965; renewed 1993 Special Rider Music

Zero 7, "In The Waiting Line"

A Long Conversation

So I had a bad day. My computer is off (my work computer) and I'm not going to dredge all that crap up again. I short UBB heavily and it spiked up almost a point.

But my day had a happy ending. I drove back out to the beach and had a great conversation with a perfect stranger. In my experience, people generally piss me off, almost immediately, so it was a refreshing change of pace.

Anyway, I did a lot of writing today, although not the kind I throw up here on the blog. Perhaps eventually it will work it's way here in some form.

For now, I'm off to bed.

I don't expect to trade much tomorrow.

Virtual Office, $555. Dow, -16.74. 13,291.65.

Misstrade, $1065 on 2500 shares traded.
Evolution, $1007 on 38,200 shares traded.
Akalawoo, $262 on 6 contracts traded.
Bubs, $139 on 1800 shares traded.
Denarii, $28 on 1400 shares traded.
OBAT, vacation.
Tapeworm, -$562 on 10 contracts traded.
Me, -$1384 on 33,600 shares traded.

The fucking market is going to sleep. SHHHHHH!

We traded a whopping 1,258,775,000 shares today.

The Jewish holidays start tonight, the Fed meets on Tuesday... I wonder if we break a billion shares the next 3 days. Shalom.

Try as I did to bring the VO negative today with my craptastic trading performance, it was impossible. The VO traders are too good to get bombed like that.

Meanwhile, how many days does Maria celebrate her damned birthday? Made a bad day worse for me, seeing her all happy and fake-giggling.

Anyway, guess what? I'm going to the beach. I'll be back later.

Red Tide

At the end of the day yesterday, I went to the beach to look at the surf.

We were hit with a "red tide" and the breaking waves had a bloody look to them. Bloody waves and strong winds made it look a little scary and I didn't go out.

This morning, I got to the break before sunrise and things had calmed a bit, but not too much. The red tide was still blooming but I decided to give it a whirl anyway, fully expecting to get punished by what the local surf report was describing as "gnarly" waves.

Paddling out was tough. I got slapped in the face immediately and spit out that red algae shit. It was disgusting. Making matters worse, I opted for the long board today since I thought the swell was going to dissipate a bit overnight. It's more difficult to get under large waves with a longboard than a shortboard. The swell hadn't dissipated at all. 4 and 5 foot waves were common with a couple rogue sets of 6+ footers out there.

I was turtle rolling left and right, huffing, puffing and paddling. It's amazing how much stronger my arms are now than they were only 2 months ago when I began surfing again. There was finally a lull to the waves and with a few strong paddles, I was "outside."

Normally, you do most of the hard work on the "inside" where the waves are breaking and rushing the shore. However, even "outside" there was a lot of work to be done today. I was getting pushed west very quickly and had to expend a lot of energy paddling east every 5-minutes or so just to keep my place.

The winds were too strong, the current fast and the waves choppy. I was getting tired. It was like trading 100,000 shares for $100 in profit. Tough and frustrating. I guess that's why it was just me and my buddy out there.

In the end, I caught one excellent ride and wiped out twice. As I paddled back in through the red sludge I smelled strongly of the tide. I walked out of the water and onto the shore. I removed my leash and took a look back at the angry waves. I was out of breath but I felt like I had accomplished something.

Anyway, "red tide" has also washed up on my trading desk. I hit my loss limit for the day... I am done. Score one for the "haters."

After my massive August I don't see any reason to piss money away during these low volume headfakes... soon enough the volume should return and make this a market worth trading again. Until then, I've decided to trade extremely lightly... hopefully volume comes back after the Fed meeting.

Why CROX Are So Popular

If you watch this very funny Daily Show clip carefully, you will finally come to understand why CROX are so popular. This is something I've debated with Trading Goddess here and there, so hopefully, she'll be paying attention.

It's mindblowing... and it's not those little plastic toys that you attach to the shoes, TG.



HINT: If you're pressed for time, go to the 3:40 mark of the video for the beginning of the answer.

Ocean Meditation

Just in case the media tweaked your anxiety level today. Take a breath.

Blahhhhh-ging.

Perhaps you've noticed that there's been a little less energy and effort in my daily posts recently. There's a good reason. It's all about the surf. With the sun rising later in the morning, I've been forced to go out in the afternoons, right after the close (hence the partial VO numbers.) I get back home, eat dinner, play with my daughter and put her to sleep. By the time I'm through with all that, it's 8:30 and I'm just done for the day.

So, I apologize.

Today was an awful day for me. All day long I was down because I couldn't find any winners. It was a day to trade the open and then step away. Unfortunately, Bob Pisani never tells you when it's a good day to trade. CNBC just drools over the numbers which apparently, were "patriotic" today.

I had 4 stocks in the green today, not one was a winner over $100. On the flip side, I had 12 stocks in the red, 3 with losses greater than $100. Not much was working.

As I mentioned on Wallstreak, these are the most frustrating days because you look up, see the Dow up 180 and think, "Wow, why aren't I making money?" Trading doesn't work like that...

Anyway, here's the sleepy stats:

P&L, -$669
Best, DE, $91
Worst, QID, -$206

24,800 shares traded.
16 stocks traded, 4 winners, 12 losers.
119 trades.