Impressive Rally Off The Lows On Good Volume

Well, the end of the day is near and that was a nice bounce we had there starting just before 1pm. Best thing about the action today was the volume. In contrast to the rallies of last week, this one had some good volume. I especially like the way the market went below the lows of last week and even dipped below 12,000. That probably scared a lot of the "weak sisters" out and may just give us a chance to rally further. Who knows though? I'm just a trader and thus, my long-term vision is awful. Read the IBD the next week and let them tell you if the correction is over.

Anyway, I had my first good day since the disaster that was last week. I didn't get stubborn and try to short the market during it's midday run. I got long some stuff and even increased my position size since I regained a little confidence throughout the day.

Here are some stats:

Best stock of the day: SQM $763 (this on an early morning short)
Worst stock of the day: GHL $295 (the one stock I shorted during the rally)
P&L: $2378

My top 3 stocks all were in the fertilizer sector. I always find it easier to trade a sector because if one is working, it gives me confidence that one of the others may work as well. I used to do this all the time with oil stocks, but it's been awhile since I've traded them actively.

The key for me is to wake early tomorrow and build on the confidence I regained today. It's more important right now for me to focus on keeping my losses small than to worry about making big trades for gain.

I'll work on making my end of day stats more readable and clean. I still have a lot to learn about getting this blogging thing right.

Forkcast now "embedded" on Dinosaur Trader

Well, I've now officially "teamed up" with Pitchfork to embed their playlist onto this blog. You can access it over there to the right. Just click the green "play" button.

Sweeeet. Blogging is fun. Trading is fun too, but you still need music.

Enjoy the music.

Not all of the songs are great. I'm gonna try to edit out the ones that drive me nuts and keep the others.

Hope you like.

Hybrid Webinar

Here's a link to the Webinar hosted by the NYSE regarding the Hybrid Market.

I found this minimally useful as far as helping my trading strategy, but at least it helps you understand the terminology on the Hybridtalk blog.

Anyway, here's the link.

Enjoy! Don't forget, you'll never get that 40 minutes back!

Midday Trading

Between 12 and 2 in general it's just not a great time to trade.

This isn't a rule or anything, but you should definitely think about paring back on your positions and being really sure before you initiate any new ones.

More often than not, I give back profits or lose more in the middle of the day.

Just a thought.

Forkcast

Here is a link to pitchfork's forkcast.

Even if trading isn't going well, at least you can listen to some good music.

And hey, if trading is going well, even better!

My current favorite songs are:

Lost-The Mary Onettes
To the East-Electrelane
That Summer at Home-The Twighlight Sad
Eyes Are At The Billions-Cortney Tidwell

Market trying to hold on...

Well, this morning, the crazy hybrid actually came to my rescue! I saw the futures getting stronger into the 9:30 open so decided to buy 400 POT at the open.

I was filled on the opening print of 12,400 shares at $154.92 200 shares later, the stock was trading over $156.50. Think about that. It took only 2000 shares, in 100 share lots mostly, to make the stock rip a point and a half. I sold all 400 shares into the "strength" over $156.50 and was happy with the profit. Of course, in subsequent trades in the stock, I lost about a quarter of what I made... but I'm not complaining.

What bothers me is that there was never any real buying interest in the stock. 2000 shares should just not move a stock so drastically. Because there was no buying interest and this was basically an artificial move caused by the thin and loose trading of the hybrid market the stock has since declined. It's now off over 2 points on the day trading near 153. If you were a "ma and pop" investor trying to buy this stock today you were simply done a disservice by the hybrid system. In the old trading world, 2000 shares at the open would have been eaten up and I doubt the stock would have ever seen $155.5.

Please feel free to comment on any crazy things you witness that are due to the wild fluctuations of the hybrid market. I'm really just trying to find my footing here in this new marketplace and would love to hear about any strategies that any of you are employing successfully.

Good hybridizing.