Wednesday, October 17, 2007

"Washing Machined"

Click below for the proper sound effects while reading this post...



When surfing, if you get hit by a big wave and then held under for a few seconds, my friends and I call it getting "washing machined." Maybe you're more poetic, fine. Whatever, share your thoughts below.

Anyway, I made money today but still, I was "washing machined." In the morning I came in and made a lot of good trades. My best were made shorting EXM.



Still, when I checked my P&L around midday I was down. WTF? Well, I got slammed trying to short FXI a few times and then I lost over $500 in DSL. Again. I think DSL has been my worst stock for the last few weeks. In fact, I can't remember the last time I even made a good trade in the fucker. Off the screens!

So that kind of messed with my head... thinking I was up when actually, I was down close to $500.

The next thing that messed with me was Judy telling me at 11:00 that her mother was coming over in an hour so that she could go and teach her yoga class.

Now, normally I have wonderful relations with my in-laws. But when I'm losing money I don't really have good relations with anyone.

As it turned out, my daughter wanted no part of grandma today. When Judy left, all she did was cry for me. So I'm upstairs watching the market deteriorate (just after noon) and building short positions in all the "strong" stocks while I'm listening to this complete shitfest downstairs.

So, I went downstairs, grabbed my daughter and told them both to come upstairs in the office (where the only TV in the house is) to watch "Mary Poppins." So that was life at 12:30 here, trading large positions of strong stocks while my mother in law and my daughter were 4 feet away watching Mary Fucking Poppins.

Washing machined.

Anyway, somehow I managed to focus enough during this time to make some money. At one point, I was up over $1500. However, once the afternoon hit I got this urge to start shorting FXI again. That's when I started throwing money out the door.



The worst thing is that I short 50 shares in my swing account. I was filled 4 points away from the market, at $213. I called in to complain and they told me the trade would stand and that I'd have to write to some dude to try and get my trade fixed. Great! But what do I do with the shares now? "Act as if the trade will stand."

So, I got filled 4 points away from the market and the NYSE tells me that's the way they do business. Thank you Hybrid. There needs to be some accountability there... it can't all be robots. Why? Well, remember February? Robots sometimes fuck up.

Anyway, so I'm a little crazy in the head right now because FXI is ripping my face off after hours too. It'll probably open at $230 effectively blowing up my "swing account." So much for that experiment.

Here's the stats:

P&L,
$739
Best,
EXM, $755
Worst,
DSL, -$514

70,600 shares traded.
28 stocks traded. 12 winners, 16 losers.
267 trades.

4 comments:

TraderCaddy said...

DT- Every once in a great while I get a bad fill but when I compained in the past on the phone they always did the right thing.
Speaking of yoga I spoke with my son last night and he said that as part of their training they are now doing yoga. He plays Div. 1 golf at an SEC school. It helps with their flexibility I suppose. They also work out three days a week at 6 AM. Tiger Woods ruined the game. It used to be a beer and a couple of hot dogs was all one needed.

Dinosaur Trader said...

TC,

I'm hoping they do the right thing... 4 points away from the market is tough to stick on a guy.

Meanwhile, yoga for golfers is all the more reason to own GAIA longterm.

I guess LULU will buy them eventually... I always thought it was going to be WFMI but now I'm not so sure.

-DT

Bluedog said...

DT,

You are a SURVIVOR - trading and making money while Mary Poppins is playing 4' away from you. WTF?!! You have the craziest stories. LMAO!

I'm curious who you called re the bad fill? Your broker?

-BD

Dinosaur Trader said...

BD,

I called the trading desk at my company. No word yet... however, if FXI opens at $207, I'll forget about the whole incident. :)

-DT