A New Look For The Dinosaur

Spiffed it up around here. You like?

All Chop And No Play Makes For A Dull Day

When I have time to start rhyming my post titles, you know it's been slow...

All the pain of my day was over by 10:00am because that's when I stopped trading AGU.

It's also a perfect example of why trading is a hard job. You have to stay focused. I had 4 up days in a row... first time that's happened in a really long time. And I think I got soft... that's how fast it can happen. I think I thought, "I'm Back!" and mentally, I went on vacation.

I didn't even know that AGU reported earnings today. Had I known, I probably would have avoided $276 in losses. At 9:45, the stock started to spike up to near the level of yesterday's close. So I thought I could throw in a short with minimal risk. Wrong... maybe on a regular day, but not on the day the company releases earnings... I short 300 at 38.80, covered 100 at 39.15 and then 200 at 39.27. Not a debilitating loss, but an ugly one.



And as it happens often... one bad trade led to another... still not aware of the earnings report, I threw in a "revenge trade" and tried to short again. This time, I short 400 at 39.17. Only seconds later, I covered 200 at 39.24, then 100 at 39.30 and the last 100 at 39.47.

Done yet? Nope. I went for it again... the trifecta. I short 300 at 39.47. 30 seconds later, nervous because I had been squeezed twice already, I covered at 39.49. Whew, I learned a lesson.

NOT!

I short again 2 minutes later at 39.55, 300 shares. I covered 100 at 39.64 and 200 at 39.88. Oh, and to add insult to injury... that 200 shares at 39.88? High of the day. I was that sucker.

3 awful trades that I may not have made had I done a little research. Those 3 trades accounted for more than half my total loss on the day.

Other than that, it was choppy out there. My best winner came in an early morning short in CIG. Nothing doing. I should have been outside enjoying the weather.

Here's the stats:

P&L -$540
Best, CIG $157
Worst, AGU -$276

shares traded, 33,800
stocks traded, 20, 6 winners, 14 losers
total trades, 177

Virtual Office, -$4732. Dow 29.74, 13241.62.

NYSE Scalper, $512 on 29,800 shares traded.
One Bad-Ass Trader, $203 on 16,800 shares traded.
Denarii, -$19 on 2900 shares traded.
Me, -$540 on 33,800 shares traded.
Misstrade, -$2247 on 24,800 shares traded.
EvolutionTrader, -$2641 on 46,400 shares traded.

Bloody Thursday.

The VO got completely smoked today. At least the Scalper and OBAT were able to pull together for decent wins. The rest of us just got hit.

Tomorrow looks to be a slow day since we have beautiful weather on the East Coast and I expect to see a lot of people coming out to the "sticks" early to enjoy their weekends.

Boards of Canada, "Beautiful Place In The Country"

Maybe you're not lucky... Maybe you have to sit in an office all day. Here's a video and song that will make you feel like you're "outside" if you catch my drift.

Snoozer

It's a real snoozer out there today folks. So, after churning a little in the morning, I decided to take a walk.

Spring migrants are pouring in. I saw my first White-Eyed Vireo of the year. I don't see too many of these birds, so I was pretty happy about it.



With pics like this on my site, Trading Goddess has to be more than a little nervous about the traffic she's bound to lose due to the competition, no?

Anyway, volume is a little less than yesterday, and yesterday was already light. I have a question... WHEN IS THIS MARKET GOING TO DROP? Just wondering. If anyone knows, please clue us all in by means of that "comment" button down there. You don't have to tell us exactly when or why, just let us know your feelings.

Article on Program Trading

A mysterious emailer sent me this link.

Great article on program trading, what it is, how you can recognize when it's happening, and how you can profit from it.

Beautiful morning here and my cable is back and running.

My daughter is downstairs playing the keyboard and singing at the top of her lungs.

I feel pretty good.