Ned's Atomic Dustbin, "Grey Cell Green"

Ah, the early 90s.

Patience vs. Anticipation

I had a bad day. But I didn't have any one really bad trade. I just had many 25-30 cent losers.

Looking back at some of the trades, it appears that I'm anticipating trades too much and jumping at them instead of chilling out and waiting for them to develop. Same thing with the GGP yesterday. Had I just waited for the break of $34, I wouldn't have lost $500 in the stock.

My goal next week is to just be patient. I mean, I worry that the trade will go through my level and I'll get a bad price so I jump early. Clearly though, a bad fill here and there would hurt me less than consistent jumping.

Overall, I'm feeling hopeful. I've never thought much about my attitude and how it could effect my trading, unlike my friend Attitude Trader. However, after my "hiatus," I had time to gain some perspective and I now feel this is very important. It's kind of a new thing for me, because I really like to indulge in negatives. However, negative isn't helping me right now.

I had a good work ethic this week. I'm working on having a more positive attitude and next week I'm going to work on being more patient.

Okay, enough of that.

My best stock today was AGU.



I bought a couple hundred right before it had that nice run around 10:30. After the morning run, it consolidated, selling off on lighter volume. So when I saw it slowly gain on higher volume, I got in.

My worst, was LNN.



I caught some of the run from $69 to $70 around 10:40. The problem is that instead of selling, I held. The stock seemed to be breaking a downtrend on the daily and I thought it would run more. When it sold off of $70, I bought more and was stopped out. So I turned a winning trade into a loser. Annoying.

Worse yet, I bought back when it dipped below $69, caught a move back above $69 but again, held and added instead of selling. I was bullish. It was tough to be bullish today in any stock, and I got burned when it spiked down from $69 to $68.

Anyway, next week I hope to have my software mastered. The research schedule really worked well for me this week. I felt more involved in the market.

My ethic is good and under my control, the profits will come.

Here's the stats:

P&L, -$633
Best, AGU, $359
Worst, LNN, -$268

25,800 shares traded.
26 stocks traded, 11 winners, 15 losers.

Virtual Office, $3371. Dow, -246.79, 12,606.30

Evolution, $3155 on 79,200 shares traded.
Sanglucci, $749 on 15,600 shares traded.
OBAT, $471 on 5800 shares traded.
Wincity, $65 on 200 shares traded.
Akalawoo, $28 on 1 contract traded.
Misstrade, no trades.
Retardo, no trades.
Denarii, -$12 on 200 shares traded.
Dehtrader, -$452 on 344 shares traded.
Me, -$633 on 25,800 shares traded.

Today was a real grinder.

We had solid volume as we traded close to 1.8 billion shares, but it was a battle. Every time the buyers tried to step in even a little, the sellers overwhelmed them and took the indexes just below the prior level. Then the buyers would have another go and the sellers would win again. Besides the open, there weren't any real dramatic moves one way or the other intraday, just a slow and steady trend down.

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, Evolution has made a nice comeback from his New Year's hangover. It's great to see him pull up with a big one to end the week. Sanglucci and OBAT also had nice performances.

The rest of us kind of sucked. Especially me. I got pulled into most rallies today, and lost.

Anyway, have a great weekend.

Potential Inverse Head And Shoulders Patterns Developing?

You might have noticed that I watch Brian's videos as part of my daily research routine. Today's video is a perfect example of why. As a daytrader, I have a very short -term view of trade... too short to have a clear view of a larger picture.

Normally, I vacillate wildly between unbelievably bearish or unbelievably bullish. That's okay, but I think it's much better to have more perspective.

This video tempered my bearishness somewhat.

Bank Of America Buys Countrywide Financial

I guess this is good news. It's an all-stock deal worth $4 billion.

However, BAC was also "smart enough" to buy up at $18 back in August.



From a trading perspective, it looks like a hail-mary type, betting the house, type of trade.

Adding to a loser... a cardinal sin.

UPDATE: Full story from the NYTimes here.

Good Morning

Time: 6:33
Mood: Solid