Edward Abbey, "A Voice In The Wilderness"

From some documentary that was made about him. In the beginning, you hear him reading from Desert Solitaire.

Good stuff. Also check out The Monkey Wrench Gang.

Damn Mexico And It's Homebuilders...

I had a great morning today. I was up a couple grand by 10:00am.

Then, at 10:00am, feeling confident, I short 1200 shares of HXM. This was right before the stock spiked up 80 cents on like 400 shares or something ridiculous like that... anyway, that kind of killed me.



I hear you out there saying something snarky like, "Well, duh! That's what he gets for trading thin stocks," and to that I'll say, "You have a point, but that doesn't mean your wife is being faithful." Think about it...

Anyway, so between HXM and a bunch of other trades that I shouldn't have made, I found myself up $150 by 10:30. Making money and then giving it all back is maybe worse than just losing from the beginning. It's a tough call though. Either way it just sucks.

The good news is that I didn't freak out too much. I still felt good about my morning trades (shorts in RDN, MTG, CNH, DSL) so I wasn't completely broken. I stepped away for awhile.

I came back and noticed that RDN was having trouble regaining the $26 price level.



So I got good and short around $25.70. As you can see from looking at the graph, this was a good idea. Of course, I managed to mess it up a bit since I covered the fat part of my position by $25. I let a measly 200 shares run down below $24.50. Ah, patience... I need some more of it.

Anyway, this brought me back to a respectable level on my day and so I decided to call it quits and check for surf (there was none... things have gone flat).

So on the way back from the beach I sat with my surfing buddy and had a frozen drink while the drunk proprietor of the establishment told us about his coming fame.

"I'm gonna be in a book... that's the author right there!" He slurred, pointing to a balding man.

He continued, spitting while he spoke, "I'm not going to read the book until it's published though. He gave me an advanced copy, but it's bad luck to read unpublished books. Anyway, I live in the Caribbean."

And with that, he stumbled away down the bar to hurl non-sequiturs at other patrons.

Here's the stats:

P&L, $1348
Best, RDN, $1026
Worst, HXM, -$734

54,600 shares traded.
21 stocks traded, 12 winners, 9 losers.
193 trades.

Virtual Office, $8300. Dow, -48.86, 13766.70.

Misstrade, $7049 on 19,500 shares traded.
Me, $1348 on 54,600 shares traded.
Denarii, $121 on 2800 shares traded.
Bubs, no trades.
Akalawoo, no trades.
Tapeworm, sick.
Evolution, vacation.
OBAT, -$218 on 5400 shares traded.

Don't think it's lost on me how lame the VO has been lately. Half our guys don't trade anymore!

Anyway, today was a low volume sell off. In the last few weeks, when we've had low volume days, they've come on the rallies. Perhaps this marks a shift in the market where we rally on higher volume and sell off on low volume. It would be nice, if the market is going to go up, for it to do so in a sensible manner...

I'm guessing volume will be low again tomorrow. Rosh Hashanah started tonight...

Volume Truly Blows; Yesterday's Fees

I just want to note how much volume sucks today...

Yesterday, by 2:30, we had traded, 1,204,017 shares. Today, at 2:30 we hadn't even turned a billion yet, chopping in at just 844,755,000 shares.

That, is pathetic... it also means that we could perhaps rally into the close.

Also, since the other day I said I was going to start keeping track of my daily fees paid to the NYSE and the SEC, I just want to note that yesterday I paid $39.20 split between those two.

Stewart of Ameritrade

You know, I posted this commercial way back on March 23rd, well before my blog reached it's current level of prominence.

So I don't feel too bad about sharing it again, it's a classic. If anyone knows where I can find some of the other old stock trading commercials from around the year 2000, let me know.



NOTE: I'm stepping out. Made a little money, but feel like surfing. So be it. I'll never be a millionaire with this work ethic... so expect a late VO and a later daily post.

Top Stock Market Blogs

If you have an amazon account, you can vote on this list.

You know what to do, people...



NOTE: I have no idea how this thing works... clearly, it is meaningless...

Feathers, "Past The Moon"

That's some monthly chart eh? "Past The Moon" indeed!

Over at Wallstreak, we always make the lame joke about the ticker symbol when someone calls this gem of a stock out.

"You're buying POT? How much? A dime bag?" "Next thing you know, you'll be buying ACID and LSD. After that, you'll be turning tricks and smoking crack." And stuff like that. We have fun.

Anyway, here's a song that will make you want to smoke some of the real stuff. If you like mellow moods, be sure to check it out. It's one of my favorite songs of the last year.

Dinosaur Trader's Golden Smash Hits

For some reason, if you click play from the window on the right sidebar some of the songs are only playing 30 second snippets. If you click "launch standalone player" this problem seems to go away.

Just FYI.

Too Tired To Surf

This is the first morning in a long time that I didn't wake up at 5 to get out and go surfing. I was just too tired. My arms are shot.

Also, I didn't throw up a daily post last night because I was just exhausted.

We went out for a hike after work and then had dinner at this great place where you can watch the sunset. It's always nice to appreciate a sunrise and a sunset in the same day. Helps keep you level.

Anyway, let's see if the extra time for morning research helps, or if I just waste it all reading other stock blogs!

UPDATE: I wasted a lot of time on other blogs... Bluedog has a "Flock Of Seagulls" video posted. "The Fly" has a post on the demise of Ducati. Good stuff!