Thursday, May 8, 2008

Virtual Office, -$1963. SPY, +0.16, $139.68.

Denarii, $84 on 6200 shares traded.
OBAT, $18 on 13,600 shares traded.
Retardo, no trades.
Me, -$897 on 9200 shares traded.
Sanglucci, -$1168 on 40,800 shares traded.


If Monday was the lowest volume day of the year, today was either the second or third lowest of the year. The reason I tend to harp on volume is because as an active trader, it stands for liquidity. Liquidity is extremely important for very active traders, as those little dimes and nickels tend to add up over the course of a day. And, not surprisingly, this week has seen my real-life office get taken to the woodshed.

Anyway, here, we deal with the virtual office, and the VO also took a trip to the woodshed. In general, this is not a trader's market. Yes there are hot stocks here and there, but overall, not a friendly market.

I lost my money early and decided to try to make a negative a positive by finally cracking the books on my Series 55 exam. Damn these tests are boring... but I'd like to get back to trading at least a couple NASD stocks. We'll see how long it takes me to study for this thing... could take forever. Very slow reading.

Maybe I'll have to publish a Series 55 Juicy Cliff Notes or something, replete with sex scenes and cursing.

Developing...

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Does anyone know HPT for real, anyone live near him? Go pay the dude a visit, it seems he really needs it. I wish he ain't gonna harm himself, seriously...

Dinosaur Trader said...

Yeah, that doesn't sound like he's in a happy spot.

He needs some time off to clear his head.

-DT

Anonymous said...

Sounds like he is still over trading.

Anonymous said...

Are prop traders required to get the Series 55, is that why you are doing it?

wincity said...

DT, I thought you changed your style to small size? I think there're good trades every day and one could make decent money even on 100 shares.

Today for example:

BAGL was a good short at the open.
GNK was a good long at 1:00 PM.
UBB had a nice short at 2:00 PM.
EAC had a good break-out on earnings conf call.
DNB was a good short at the opening spike.

I remember UBB is one of your stocks. But did you short its big spike up on the payrolls data this Friday? It's $5 in minutes.

Not as good, WTI was an ok short at the opening spike. Oil stocks are parabolic right now. Any opening spike is a good short at this moment, IMO. I'll be watching for them tomorrow.

Dinosaur Trader said...

Dog,

Yes, that's why I need the 55.

Win,

It's true, there are good trades every day... the problem I'm having is entering bad trades, or getting shaken out of good trades. So my winners haven't been great, and I've had too many losers.

-DT

wincity said...

DT, agree with you that trading is tough. Of the trades I mentioned, I only caught BAGL. I feel especially bad about not buying GNK. The toad is one of the high probability setups I cataloged: when a strong stock gets over-sold on retracement, it's a good buy after about an hour or so of consolidation. GNK inspired me for this setup about a month ago when it rebounded 8% all the way into the green. I fought the toad in the last couple of days and I watched it today specifically for such a setup. In the end, I chickened for fear it would plunge on me. HA!

Dinosaur Trader said...

Win,

Yeah, I tried to buy POT today at around 11:15 since all the other ag names were running. This was away from the more conservative method I've been following and I got jacked.

For me right now, it's damned if you do and damned if you don't. That's why I think I need a day off to clear my head.

-DT

Unknown said...

DT,
I guess it's not only me. Trading has been hard and frustrading lately. I have more failing setups than winning ones. Need to learn take your profit and run.

-traderEY

Sanglucci said...

DT wtf u talkin about you have to get series 55?? I don't even know wtf a series 55 is anyway!

Bluedog said...

DT,
Good luck on the 55. You should do an "interesting fact of the day" from your studies. :)

I've been stuck at a conference from Wed-Fri. It sucks not being able to trade.

BD