Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Fucking Cats
Hello, my name is Dinosaur Trader and I've had bearish thoughts....
(pause)
Whew! Well, I'm glad I got that off my chest. It's important, because the last time I got all bearish, after the friggin blowup in February, it took me months to get over it... truth be told, I may not be over it yet.
Anyway, today is the worst kind of day for me. Friends and family alike will listen to the news, see that the Dow was up 187 points and ask me expectantly, "So, did you do well today?"
NO! I SUCKED! AND FOR THE RECORD, JUST BECAUSE THE MARKET IS UP DOESN'T MEAN EVERY DAMN TRADER IN THE WORLD IS MAKING MONEY!
I have some anger issues today. I'm working on it. Fucking cats. He's down there, locked in the bathroom wailing away and to be honest, I don't give a damn. I can be a stubborn prick. He can stay in there until he learns how to use that goddamn box. If you're confused by this aside, read my post from earlier today. My entire house reeks of cat urine.
Anyway, what went wrong today? I just got chopped. No big disastrous losers, just too many medium sized losers. It feels ironic to say this on a day when the Dow ripped, but I just didn't see many easy opportunities today. Check the VO, I wasn't the only one...
Not sure how to explain it but I think on some level I just couldn't believe the market was ripping so much. So every time I got long, I looked for quick exits and didn't let my winners run. More often though, I was putting my stops too close and getting stopped out. So I suffered the death of many small cuts, not the death of one fatal blow to the skull.
My best trade of the day was a UBB long right after the Beige Book came out. But even in that trade I sold early. Later I bought back and got chopped. Sigh...
My worst trade of the day was in my old friend TNH. After the 11 am run-up, I thought he'd flay the shorts by consolidating and making a new high. Eventually, this is what happened. He just dropped much lower while consolidating than I expected. What was especially frustrating is that I sold 15 cents from the low of the move... I just missed being able to hang in there and avoid a loser. But, as it was, I took the loss.
Later, after 2pm, I would take over a point out of him on the long side. So we're good again. No hate for TNH today. Just a medium loss in him, $368.
Anyway, I know how the VO did but I'd love to hear how others did. Please feel free to share how your day went via the "comment" section. And if you're interested in posting to the VO, shoot me an email.
I'm still confused how I failed to find more winners today...
Here's the stats:
P&L, -$484
Best, UBB, $304
Worst, TNH -$368
shares traded, 49,600
stocks traded, 24, 9 positive, 15 negative (there's the rub)
total trades, 327 (too much churn on a day where I never had traction)
Virtual Office, $1389. Dow, +187.34, 13482.35.
Misstrade, $2365 on 5600 shares traded.
Evolution, $385 on 64,700 shares traded.
Denarii, -$134 on 2000 shares traded.
Me, -$484 on 49,600 shares traded.
Dehtrader, -$743 on 6000 shares traded.
It was an uninspiring day for the VO.
Yes, yes, Misstrade made good money again but the sun also came up today. I hardly notice anymore.
Outside of that, it wasn't an easy day. The morning was downright choppy and that move at 10:00am seemingly came out of nowhere. Then we were back to chop until the Beige Book was released at 2. That's when the market really ripped.
Anyway, it was an impressive move. When the market moves that much, I discount volume which today, was again on the lighter side, at least on the NYSE where it about equalled the amount traded yesterday.
It's hard to tell what the market is going to do next. Perhaps the answer is right there. The market may not be ripping up thousands of points anytime too soon but after today, it doesn't look like it's about to tank either...
Time will tell.
Choppy Action, Misbehaving Cats
I was very disciplined this morning and didn't get too involved in the chop. However, just when I was going to step away for lunch I made a boneheaded trade and took a hit. I'm waiting the Beige Book data at 2 to make more moves. My win/loss ratio today is disgusting.
Anyway, we went away last weekend. Our friend watched our 3 cats for us. Upon our return, we were greeted with the acrid odor of cat urine in our kitchen. However, the litterboxes are hidden deep in the abyss that is our basement...
We hoped it was just one of our cats signaling its disapproval with us leaving for the weekend. However, the next day there was a fresh pool of urine in the kitchen. A new crisis in the household had begun.
We singled out the guilty party yesterday in mid-squat and locked him in the downstairs bathroom with his litter box. We told him that until he learned how to use the litter box that he wouldn't be allowed to leave the room. A look of fear crept across the face of our daughter, who has been doing well with her potty-training but isn't perfect yet. She was scared, yet equally fascinated. Would we lock her in the bathroom if she had another accident?
All last night, our cat wailed from the bathroom. This morning we woke and the other two cats were sleeping next to the bathroom door in a show of support. Hours later, I walked downstairs and found a new puddle of piss... we are now facing a cat insurgency.
I'm not sure how this will all pan out, but we just spent $50 on different "enzyme" activating cleaners to rid our kitchen of the smell and hopefully prevent another "attack".
We never counted on this cat solidarity movement that has gripped our household since Sunday evening. The vibe here is thick. And with me losing money today, many threats have been made in the direction of the cats. They blink at me slowly seemingly unmoved by my rants.
Meanwhile, my daughter has not had an "accident" since Sunday.
Developing...
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