Animal Collective, "Grass"

This really should be a "music video of the week" but after the churning session I went through today I needed something with some kick.

Right now, I can't stop listening to Animal Collective.

I'll be at the Seaport Festival on June 1st where they'll be playing for free. With my trading where it's at, free is good. Enjoy!

Chop, Chop, Chop

Today was a very frustrating trading day. I think that I had some pretty good gains by 11:30 and gave almost all of it away by the end of the day. Worse yet, I feel like I was on the right side of the market (short) all afternoon and kept getting squeezed out of positions at awful prices.

I just wasn't sharp today, or the market was very choppy. Probably a little of both.

TNH was the highlight again for me though I probably gave back over $1000 in him. That's a stock I should have stopped trading at 11:00 am. Rookie mistake, inexcusable, really. I'm not going to post all my trades in this stock today like I did yesterday, just because I overtraded him. It would take me all afternoon to type all the trades in. I traded over 10,000 shares in TNH alone, mostly in 200 and 300 share lots. Churn and burn.



Another highlight was the SPY. I read on EvolutionTrader's blog yesterday that he has been dabbling in it and so have I. And it's perfect today. I feel I read the market correctly (weakening) and so I traded SPY well, but I was getting chopped up in individual stocks.

Volume was pretty high today on the NYSE versus recent sessions. I think we can expect more volatility in the next few weeks. Bad for investors probably, good for traders hopefully.

I'm glad I finished green today. I really had no idea when I opened my P&L at the close where I would be. I must have had an excellent morning, because the afternoon felt pretty awful.

Anyway, let's see if I can get another green day tomorrow.

The confidence level is slowly improving despite the blowup from Friday.

Here's the stats:

P&L, $230
Best, TNH, $429
Worst, AG, -$354

shares traded, 81,200
stocks traded, 22, 10 positive, 12 negative
total trades, 415

Virtual Office, $1459. Dow, +37.06, 13383.84.

Misstrade, $707 on 3000 shares traded.
Dehtrader, $602 on 46,800 shares traded.
Me, $230 on 81,200 shares traded.
One Bad-Ass Trader, $150 on 22,400 shares traded.
Denarii, -$38 on 2000 shares traded.
EvolutionTrader, -$192 on 84,000 shares traded.

I think it's pretty clear from the numbers and share totals that today was a very choppy (and frustrating) day to trade. If I could do it all again I would have stopped trading at 11:00 am. That's what my instincts were telling me and I should have listened.

Anyway, good numbers from Misstrade and Dehtrader and no big blowups. Let's try again tomorrow.

p.s. Maria Bartiromo is annoying as hell.

Wacky Morning In The Dinosaur Cave

They're outside priming the house. Perhaps the fumes are getting to us. My daughter has been screaming all morning. I thought for those of you who have toddlers, that you may appreciate this recent exchange as my wife tried to get my daughter dressed so they could go food shopping. Conversations with toddlers are always interesting...

Judy: "Ok, let's put your shoes on!"
Unhinged Toddler: "I don't need shoes, Mom! No! I don't need shoes!
Judy: "Everyone needs shoes outside. Otherwise you can step on something and hurt your foot."

Long pause...

Unhinged Toddler: "No shoes! I DON'T NEED SHOES!!!"
Judy: "Okay (giggling nervously as she's about to lose her mind), how about we just bring them in the car then?"

Pause...

Unhinged Toddler: "No, I don't want to just bring them in the car!" Crying... foot stomping.

And all the while I'm trying to stay sane trading TNH and POT... sigh.

"I Am Good At Dealing With People!"