Virtual Office, $4880. Dow, +215, 12,958.44.

Dehtrader, $988 on 5590 shares traded.
Me, $626 on 13,400 shares traded.
Akalawoo, $442 on 6 contracts traded.
Evolution, $433 on 65,200 shares traded.
Wincity, $48 on 100 shares traded.
Denarri, -$32 on 200 shares traded.
OBAT, -$125 on 16,400 shares traded.

I'm confused.

I mean we have volatility today yet the VIX was down over 2 points. We also had decent volume with about 1.6 billion shares traded on the NYSE, with over 1.1 billion of that to the upside. Score one for the bulls.

But there is something nagging me about this market. Never have I been so correct on which way the market is going to move but felt so powerless to profit from those moves.

Whereas in August the market volatility yielded traders gobs of money, this volatility has a different feel altogether. Why is this market so difficult to trade?

I blame the robots.

Humans don't bid the futures up 10 points in 10 minutes. It just doesn't happen that way without some type of news event. Robots however, are fearless. If their "program" or whatever, tells them to buy futures, they buy, stupidly, spiking the market this way and that.

I've said it many times before. Fuck the robots. Then again, who knows? Maybe in 20 years robots will send my kids to college.

Anyway, it was a pretty good day for the VO. But man, you just know Dehtrader wanted $12 more dollars...