Monday, November 26, 2007

Citigroup Sells Stake To Abu Dhabi Group

Big news.

However, before you get all excited, don't forget that when Bank Of America bought that chunk of CFC it seemed like a good idea at the time.

As it stands now, they've lost 858 million on that deal.

Still, this should at least show us a temporary bottom.

3 Daytrading Rules

After going through my trades today, I've distilled what I learned into 3 well-known trading rules.

1. Don't add to losing positions.

My big losers today came when I added to positions that I should have exited because they were going against me.

2. Add to winning positions and have the patience to let them run.


I had some great trades that I failed to capitalize on fully because I never added to my initial position. When you have a position move in your favor, you need to "pyramid" into it in order to maximize your profits on your winning trades. Too often today when a stock moved in my favor I "locked in gains" instead of adding to the position at a smart place and "letting it run."

3. Analyze past trades.

Most importantly, today I remembered how important it is to analyze past trades. I hate doing it because it's boring, but if you want to trade full-time and expect to make money doing it, there's no better way to learn from your mistakes.

Quiet Riot, "Cum On Feel The Noize"

The lead singer died yesterday. Surely, he is looking down from heaven happy that he has been immortalized forever on this fine blog.

I just remember being 10 and dancing around like an idiot to this song. Naturally, that was before I had impeccable musical taste.

It Hurts

I mean, I've seen this coming for a long time. Since August I've been saying "we're going lower" and "look at the weak volume on the up days."

Blah! Blah! Blah! I made $39 dollars today. It hurts to suck that badly when you're "right" on the general direction of the market.

And frankly, I'm sick of it.

Truth is, I don't quite realize what it is I'm doing wrong. So, instead of rushing this post, I'm going to delve into each of my trades today and see what the heck I do here, sitting at the computer all day. Really, I have no idea.

If I figure anything out, such as, how one can make money being on the right side of the market, I'll share it here.

Here's the stats:

P&L, $39
Best, BIDU, $338
Worst, AB, -$327

33,800 shares traded.
22 stocks traded, 10 winners, 12 losers.

Virtual Office, $2143. Dow, -238.09, 12742.79.

OBAT, $125 on 12,800 shares traded.
Wincity, $98 on 400 shares traded.
Me, $39 on 33,800 shares traded.
Akalawoo, no trades.
Denarii, no trades.
Dehtrader, -$128 on 5280 shares traded.
Evolution, -$991 on 132,348 shares traded.

Hello everyone, it's good to be back. That said, today sucked.

I mean, if the VO is net negative (minus Misstrade, of course) on a day when the Dow plunges 238 points, then perhaps we (the VO) should stop trading and instead consider starting to sell Arbonne goods or something.

"Relationship marketing" is where it's at. Fuck trading.

But seriously, we traded 1.5 billion shares today on the NYSE. Not too bad. Take a gander at this though... about 1.3 billion of those shares were "down volume." Grim indeed.

I dunno. I think we're in a bear market. While "the Fly" may punch my eyebrows off for making such a statement the fact is there is absolutely no leadership to lead this market higher. We need stocks forming bases and busting higher... instead, on the days we're up it's due to beaten down stocks squeezing shorts.

We're going lower.

Note to CNBC...

Please put MCC back in the 4am time slot. Thank you. Until then I will watch Bloomberg.

Hummer Drivers Have Low IQs

Countdown To Market Implosion

Okay, hiatus over. A big thanks to Dehtrader for manning the VO in my absence.