To Parents

You can avoid tainted toys and other crap. All you have to do is not buy them.

Here are some ideas about what you can buy or do with your kid.

Eckhart Tolle, "The 'No' Has Momentum"

Indeed it does. Let this post be the first step in my stopping it in it's tracks.



UPDATE: I've embraced my loss.

"Mindfucked" By DSL

I hit my limit today, right before the market bounced hard from the bottom. It's 3:07 right now and I'm just watching everything go straight up.

I'm pissed.

Here's a good trading rule to abide by:

If you're losing money trading 300 share lots, you'll lose 10x as much trading 3000 share lots.

That's where discipline comes in.

What happened today is that I came into the day all out of sorts because DSL was gapping down and I was long 300 in my swing account.



I'm out of my position at a loss of $1800+. That smarts.

So that more or less fucked with my head. I felt like I had to "make it back." Instead, all I did was dig myself deeper. I lost another $600 daytrading DSL. So for the day, swing and daytrading accounts combined, my grand total loss in this stock was $2400.

This is the first time that I've taken a big loss in my swing account and let it bleed over into my daytrading. I need to keep those two accounts mentally separated. I think that's very important.

Besides DSL, the rest of my day was awful too. Because I was trying to "make it back" all day, I was overtrading and trying to manufacture gains where there were none to be had.

In short, I sucked today. Plus I have some weird neck injury. And now, a phantom limb problem... despite the fact that I'm not an amputee.

I'm going right back into slump mode. Since Thursday of last week I've dropped about 4 grand. So for the rest of the week I'm going to follow trading rules very tightly and practice patience. I'm still up for the month, so I don't want to get myself too mindfucked right before earnings season begins. I can still have a very good month if I isolate the stupidity to the last few days.

Also, Judy taught her first (regularly scheduled) yoga class for kids today. Right when she left (when I went into babysitter mode) I built a few short positions in the shippers which promptly reversed. I just wasn't able to be attentive enough to get out of the positions in time and they pushed me over the edge.

Now the market is going straight up... I bet it closes positive. Shoot me... a reversal day and I'm watching from the sidelines. Meanwhile, volume is pathetic, especially for a reversal day. That's just odd.

Tonight I'm going to do something I don't normally do... drink beer and watch the Islanders beat up on the Rangers. Perhaps if I drink beer and watch sports it will get me in the proper mindset for trading...

Here's the stats:

P&L, -$1206
Best, ANW $289
Worst, DSL -$596

41,800 shares traded.
15 stocks traded, 5 winners, 10 losers.
156 trades.

UPDATE: The market mostly topped out when I was writing this post. Since I really felt it was going "unched" it tells you how off I was today. Thank goodness I stuck to my loss limits.

Virtual Office, $18,313. Dow, -90.00, 14074.43.

Misstrade, $12,499 on 29,500 shares traded.
Momojuicing, $5834 on 24,000 shares traded.
Akalawoo, $624 on 42 contracts traded.
Bubs, $532 on 3600 shares traded.
Tapeworm, $220 on 2 contracts traded.
Evolution, $129 on 33,800 shares traded.
Denarii, -$11 on 2200 shares traded.
OBAT, -$308 on 20,800 shares traded.
Me, -$1206 on 41,800 shares traded.

Listen, I hate to harp on the volume thing... makes me sound like Bob "let's not quibble about a couple of Dow points" Pisani. However, the fact of the matter is that when the Dow goes down 150 points and then pulls off a pretty swift afternoon retracement and we can't get respectable volume, something is awry.

The market is moving to the "dark pools."

Now, NYSE bought Matchpoint, or whatever that fucking company is called, so perhaps their stock price will still be just fine. However, volume is leaving the NYSE. For me, well, I hate that. I guess it's good for the big guys executing large block orders at fixed prices.

Quick announcement: This weekend, I'm going to do something a little different around here. I'm just going to open a thread and let you clowns talk about whatever the heck you want to talk about. There seems to be a little community forming here. Want to share your theory of evolution? Fine, do it here... I'll give you a platform. Want to share your stock picks for next week? That's fine too. Want to tell me where the volume on the NYSE is migrating to? Go for it. Anyway, I'll throw out another reminder this week but there you have it... it's like an "open mic" only there's no music, no loser singing, and no one is going to throw money in your tip jar.

Anyway, with that minor announcement out of the way looks like the VO kicked ass today. Misstrade and Momojuicing seem to like the market just fine and there were a couple of other very respectable numbers thrown in there. Apparently only I'm mindfucked.

We traded 1,149,187,000 shares on the NYSE today. A pittance given the movement in the indexes.

Covered JRJC Short @ $39.40.

Yeah, I just don't like the way these stocks keep on ripping.

I think Stewie over at Wallstreak said it best when he said, "I hate chinese spec plays. They're like strippers. They tease you and take your fuckin money."

Well said, Stewie... well said.

Meanwhile, DSL ripped my face off. I sold 200 @ $54.75. Ugh.

The Daily Show, "Cruel Intentions"

Great back-to-back clips from the Daily Show.

They're just smart... and on TV, that's extremely rare.



Where would I be without the ellipses?

Radiohead, "In Rainbows"

I'm listening to it right now... very cool.

You can go to their site and download it for however much you choose to pay. I paid $8, but since the audio isn't CD quality, I suggest you pay half that.

(Meanwhile, I'm not linking their site because it's currently down. I pre-ordered mine so I got it via email.)

They will be releasing an actual CD sometime in 2008.

DSL Warns EPS Below Estimates

Of course, I was expecting this. I mean, you can write loans in California and not be in trouble with the "housing crisis" being what it is.

My theory has always been that the 78% short interest will prop the stock up.



Now, unless it gaps down like 10 points or something ridiculous like that, I'll probably add to my 300 share position.

I will not add to my position if it gaps down and then trades down. That will freak me out.

Early morning smokage on tap for DT.