Pink Floyd, "Comfortably Numb"

"When I was a child, I had a fever. My hands felt just like two balloons."

That lyric has been running through my head all week...



NOTE: Judy seems a little better today. More energy.

Smoked Out

I have my loss limit set at $1000 now. If I lose $1000, I just can't place any more trades, my system locks me out.

I was out by 1:00 today.

Here's what happened.

The day started off fine, as I made some quick money on small long positions in LNN and EXM. However, by about 9:40, my luck had changed.

Even though the market was selling off in the morning, I was just shorting the wrong stocks. That is, I was shorting the strong ones. Shorting strength is just not a good idea.

I lost money shorting CROX early and then during the lunch hours, shorting VMI. Why did I short VMI, a strong stock? Because I was long LNN when it tanked out of the blue and so I thought VMI would follow. So, I got killed on both trades, my LNN long and my VMI short. Here are the charts.



So I got short VMI at around the same time because since LNN was tanking, I figured VMI would follow. Bad assumption.



Anyway, so as you can see, I covered a good portion of my position but I still had 400 shares short when it finally began to drop. When it got down to $88.20, my loss was less than $1000 again and so I took the opportunity to enter some new shorts. I was filled at $88.30. So I guess it's a little early to write this post.

The market looks to be dropping a little and this stock is finally acting weaker. It's 1:32 and I'm down $890. To be continued...

LATER...

Okay, so guess what, I finished at -$887. I should have walked away... instead I blogged like a lunatic and watched "The Dark Crystal" that Jim Henson movie from the early 80s.

I make $3, you get fun blog posts for free. Go figure.

Also, since I had time to kill, my daughter read me Fancy Nancy and Fancy Nancy and the Posh Puppy like, 400 times.

Back to the "markito." For fear of sounding like a broken record, I just want to point out that we rallied today but on very low volume. I don't want to sound like a "bearshitter" for fear of getting my "eyebrows punched off" by "the Fly," but if I was a bull I'd be a little concerned about the lack of volume in the market at these levels.

Also, one note. Since I did well last month I began to fund a second account with my company. It will be a swing account. The account I used to post here is now considered my "super long term" account. Like, I'm just not going to trade it, ever.

I will report my swing trades here from now on. I'm going to start extremely small with my trades as I've only thrown $2000 into the account to begin, but I hope to hold the stocks for weeks. We'll see. Hopefully some of you come up with some good long term ideas.

Anyway, here's the stats:

P&L, -$887
Best, UBB, $182
Worst, CROX, -$423

26,600 shares traded.
15 stocks traded, 6 winners, 9 losers.
129 trades.

Virtual Office, -$6800. Dow, +57.88, 13,363.35.

Akalawoo, $153 on 4 contracts traded.
Tapeworm, $102 on 4 contracts traded.
Bubs, $90 on 1000 shares traded.
Denarii, still on a beach.
Misstrade, melting his brain watching football.
OBAT, -$3 on 7400 shares traded.
Evolution, -$255 on 46,200 shares traded.
Me, -$887 on 26,600 shares traded.
HPT, -$6000 on an unspecified number of contracts.

Okay, an Options trader and a Futures trader led the VO today... that's like having a carny in the White House. Oh wait....

And I'm not going to go right out and say that Akalawoo is bad luck or anything but on his first day in the VO he ends up on top and nearly everyone else gets blown to bits.

I'll be watching you Akalawoo... don't fuck with my VO.

Anyway, all joking aside, Bubs wrote me that he was going back to sleep in the middle of the day. That was a pretty smart thing to do but my guess is that he was hungover so really, it's a wash.

The volume today, 1,280,482,000 is simply pathetic. OBAT is taking another vacation... I mean, seriously... this is no good.

Sadly, I think my prediction of yesterday may be spot on. The market will suck until we get the Fed meeting out of the way on the 18th.

Don't hate me because I'm smart.

Stock Market Blogs Worth Checking Out

That is when you've finished reading through all that Dinosaur Trader has to offer. Which, if I may humbly point out, is a shitload.

You may wonder, why is this guy posting so much today? Well, I'll tell you... I got smoked. Details to follow.

Anyway, I've been away... not trading, not really blogging. Meanwhile, there are loads of people out there writing insightful funny blog posts everyday. At this point you could turn off the TV and read blogs. They're just more fun. Seriously, the TV is for stupid people. Trust me. If you don't think so... well... then you may just be stupid.

Here are a couple of good blogs that I've noticed recently.

First of all, yesterday, over at Wallstreak, we were talking about inspirational quotes. We discussed George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Einstein, Yoda, Ms. South Carolina.... Anyway, here is a stock blog that is pretty darn inspirational if you're into that kind of thing. It's called Ticker Tape Trader. Go get inspired.

But perhaps you don't want to be inspired. Maybe you're the type who hates people and is waiting for the world to end. You want to stockpile gold and grains so that when the end comes (and you tell everyone it's coming soon) you can sit behind your weapons cache and shoot at your poor neighbors when they come to your house begging for food. For you malcontents and misanthropes there is the well written and funny blog, Trading The Apocolypse. Go get your doom on.

Maybe you're somewhere in between. You hope the world doesn't end, inspiration is cool but gadgets from Apple are cooler. Well then perhaps you'll enjoy Toddstrade. He is a beginning daytrader... or, the opposite of me, the Dinosaur. Do Dinosaurs feed off the rookie daytraders of the world or do the rookies chip away at the Dinosaur's profits... who knows? Probably a little of both.

Also, I have updated my blogroll by adding the Wall Street Warrior. Rumor has it that if you visit his blog daily you will get laid and come into lots of money.

If any of you can substantiate that rumor, please report back.

That is all.

Americans Aren't Stupid, But Ms. South Carolina IS!

New Member Of The VO

I'm happy to announce yet another new member of the VO, Akalawoo.

I hadn't come across his blog yet when he contacted me about membership. He passed the psychological exam with flying colors. However, I'm still awaiting results of the urine sample to make sure he's not on steroids. It's a little known fact that both Woodshedder and Dehtrader were kicked from the VO because of their massive steroid intake...

Akalawoo is a stock options trader. Stranger still, he specializes in GS and GOOG.

Of course, I warned him that being an options trader ranks him below the two futures traders.

As I've said in the past, the VO will be "full" when we reach a total of 10 traders. Then, if more stock traders wish to join, all of the lunatics who trade things other than stock will be shown the exit. It's that simple. We discriminate here at Dinosaur Trader. If you don't trade stock, you're a second class citizen.

Further, should we get over 10 traders who wish to join, I plan on making the VO into a pit of competitiveness where only the strong will have their numbers posted and linked each day. That's when the real fun would begin.

So, with that said, please welcome Akalawoo and visit his blog.

Dinosaur Part II

Here's the follow-up to yesterday's random movie. Actually, I'm really looking forward to Part 3, which I'll post tomorrow. You can be a dick and skip ahead by finding it on Youtube, but it'll be more fun if you watch it here.

Meanwhile, early on it's a chopfest out there...

Flat Surf, Sunrise Breakfast

There was no surf today, so we turned around and headed back to town. At 6:00am, there's only one show in town, the Bake Shoppe. Normally, I avoid places that misspell words in order to appear quaint, but when you want coffee you tend to overlook such minor details.

I got the coffees as my friend ordered breakfast. He was ordering an egg sandwich. The surprisingly friendly (remember, it's 6:00am) counter man said, "You guys can go sit outside and we'll call you when it's ready."

I stepped just outside the Shoppe and into the morning. The sun was straddling the horizon and a slight onshore wind was blowing. I watched a flag flap across the street. A car engine was idling nearby and the sound from the refrigeration compressors in the Bake Shoppe buzzed. I heard a muffled order being placed at the counter. A car drove down Main Street, tires humming, and a bird blinked by, probably a House Sparrow.

"Tom?" The man called from inside the Bake Shoppe.

A man, who was not "Tom" but was standing at the doorway of the Shoppe looked at me and questioned, "Tom?" I in turn looked at a man who was leaning into the passenger side window of his car reaching for something on the seat and asked, "Tom?" He turned, "Yep!" and the window of the Bake Shoppe opened and an arm reached out to hand him his white bag that was filled with egg sandwiches.

I sat down on a bench.

"I like this place," I told my friend. "It has a real blue collar type of feel to it."

"Yeah? It kind of freaks me out... everyone looks like they're related."

The window to the Shoppe slid open and the man called my friends name. White bag in hand, we stepped back into the car and drove home with the sun rising behind us.

Hair dry.