Neutral Milk Hotel, "In The Aeroplane Over The Sea"

I had a rough day today mentally. So, despite not having made a dime in the last 3 months, I went out and bought a wetsuit. I haven't surfed in 15 years. Why not?

Virtual Office, $2747. Dow, +111.74, 13633.08.

Misstrade, $4000 on 4400 shares traded.
EvolutionTrader, -$40 on 12,600 shares traded.
Me, -$1213 on 41,400 shares traded.

Worst Trade Ever

This one broke my spirit. I didn't know it at the time, but I was already down over $600 on the day. Here's what happened.

14:05:44 Short 800 @ 47.32 (-800)

14:12:49 Buy 300 @ 47.86 (-500)

14:16:46 Buy 200 @ 47.87 (-300)

14:19:19 Buy 300 @ 47.89 (flat)

At the time, DE had dropped a point in 10 minutes and so I was playing the pair. The first mistake I made was entering a market order. I entered the order when the stock was trading near 47.55. I was filled at 47.32. It's a force of habit that makes me enter market orders still but I need to learn not to do that anymore. The hybrid market eats me alive when I do.

So, I was filled a penny off the low of the move on my short and then got immediately squeezed for over a half point and lost $450 on the trade. This one felt awful and I basically closed out my remaining positions and walked away knowing that my account was firmly in the red again.

After waking this morning in the green with 2 trading days left in the month, my plan was to take it easy. But basically, the trade I highlighted in CNH happened to me over and over in him. I lost $885 in that one stock today. It was one of those days where nothing went right for me.

To make matters worse, I had a couple of trades that really would have worked for me had I hung in there, mainly ITU and CPT.

Anyway, I feel gross. I just can't trade this market on the long side right now. Especially with the gap down off the open, it just added to my bearishness. So I was way too skittish on my long trades, getting out at the slightest hint of a downturn and too stubborn on my shorts. Disaster.

And now I go into tomorrow staring at my third negative month in a row.

Anyway, here's the stats:

P&L, -$1213

Best, ITU, $72

Worst, CNH, -$885

shares traded, 41,400

stocks traded, 13, 4 positive, 9 negative

total trades, 157

Whales

Okay, I love whales too. They're hard not to like. But I'm beginning to hate those whales in California.

Actually, it's not the whales I hate, it's the media that is tracking their every move that I hate. Frankly, I'm tired of hearing about the "heroic efforts" that are leading them back to freedom. Do people really care so much about whales? Then how about the media takes more time to report on stuff like this.

It's like Anna Nichole Smith all over again but this time with whales. And they're on every network. Please... just keep telling us about the war so we realize what a mistake it was and never let it happen again.

Or educate people about who represents them... something, anything, but enough about the whales already.