Dinosaur Trader Vs. Romeo The Valet Guy

(NOTE: As it turns out, there will be waves in the morning. So I won't have a "good morning" or "link-love" post up. Instead, I bring you this heartwarming tale.)

Grandma's birthday was in January. She passed away a few years ago (at age 100) but my family still honors the day. We've been going to the same restaurant to celebrate for the last 15 years, or, about as long as I've been driving.

Anyway, there's "mandatory valet parking" at this restaurant. The same valet attendant, a middle aged man named "Romeo" has been in charge for as long as I can remember. When I first began to drive, I didn't want to use valet parking because I was poor and didn't want to tip the guy a couple of bucks to park my car.

As I've aged, my bank account has grown, but I still don't like valet parking because I think it's a nuisance. I like having access to my car. Some would say I have "control issues." Whatever... I don't want to go find some valet misfit and wait while he hunts down my keys.

So I have a sticky relationship with Romeo. Each year, I drive right by him, park my car, and pretend that he's not there. This year was no different.

As I pulled into my spot, with Judy saying, "I can't believe you just ignore that guy, it's rude" a man in a fluorescent orange coat and a matching hat, tapped on my window.

Sure enough, it was Romeo.

Judy shot me a smile that said, "You're in trouble now, smartass" and I rolled down the window.

"Hey, I gotta park your car," he said in some unrecognizable accent.

"Why? I'd rather park it," I protested. "Is this not a good spot?"

"No, we have a system. I gotta park it." Romeo rolled his eyes and looked away like I was wasting his time.

"Listen. Romeo..." I tried to sound patient, "I'm gonna park my car. You just tell me where to go."

We went back and forth for a couple of moments. Finally, he gave up and let me park the car. The deal was that he'd hold my keys, "just in case I gotta move it." I moved the car one spot over to appease him, gave him my keys and walked into the restaurant.

I smiled at Judy. I had beaten the valet guy again.

A few hours later our meal was eaten, and the kids opened Christmas gifts (we didn't see "that side" of the family for the holidays). As a Dad, it's my responsibility to bring stuff down to the car. Things pile up and fathers remove those piles. Sometimes it's that's simple. Anyway, loaded down with boxes I made it to my car only to find the doors locked.

"Fucking valet guy" I grumbled. I put the boxes down and walked back to the stand to get my keys.

Romeo smiled and handed my keys back to me.

I packed the car and walked back towards the restaurant. As I was opening the door, Romeo whistled.

"Hey," he called over to me while making a "key-turning motion" with his hand, "just in case." I gave him the damned keys and went back into the restaurant.

When the party was over, I grabbed my daughter and headed back outside to put her in her carseat. Again, forgetting that I wasn't in control of my keys, I stood cursing Romeo for a second outside of my locked car while my daughter looked at me confused.

"What's a fucking valet guy, Daddy?" she asked quite innocently.

Just then, Romeo appeared. "Hey, here's your keys," he said. But of course, what he meant was, "I just walked 20 feet to bring you your keys, now throw me a tip."

I snatched the keys from Romeo, smiled, and put my daughter in her seat. He stood staring for a second and then walked away. I mean, fuck if I'm going to give the dude cash for withholding my car keys.

"I win again!" I thought. But that's when I saw Judy leaving the restaurant...

Amazingly, she walked up to Romeo and handed him a few bills.

Romeo was smiling and nodding at her. SABOTAGE!

Judy got into the car and an awkward silence settled over us.

From the back seat, my daughter chirped, "Daddy said 'fucking,' Mommy."

Judy fixed a cold disapproving stare in my direction.

I started the car. It jerked forward 3 feet and made a loud cracking sound as if it had hit a large boulder. Romeo had parked the car in gear.

I looked through the windshield at Romeo. He was sitting on a metal folding chair in his ridiculous fluorescent orange jacket, grinning ear to ear.

"Next year," I said to Judy, "things will be different."

Bob Dylan, "It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)

So I've posted this 2 times already... it's worth listening to, over and over.

Drawing Trendlines

Nice video from Option Addict on drawing trendlines. Useful for beginners. Though I have to say, even though I'm no longer a beginner, I had never thought about "emptiness" before... good stuff.

Trading Tired, Losing Focus

I had a nice bounce today after getting creamed yesterday. Nothing spectacular, but I'll take it. My new thing is just focusing on the profits made today, not thinking about my losses of yesterday.

In fact, to take it one step further, I think I need to get to the point where I don't think about the money I left on the table either, or worry too much about the trades I completely screwed up. And while that may not make me into the best trader, it may make me a happier trader.

Seriously, even I know that is some stupid shit I just wrote.

Fuck being happy. This game is all about getting rich, Sanglucci style.

Okay, back to whatever "normal" is... channeling... channeling...

So I made some good trades in the early morning again. That has been the way things have been for me lately. I make a few good trades in the morning and then proceed to give profits back or, not trade at all for fear of giving profits back. Today I barely traded in the afternoon.

My best stock today was ACI and man... it could have been so much better. However, there were some disgusting chop moves in it early and I just couldn't hang in there.



I got short near the top of that second green bar on the day. I sold more when it broke through the figure and then covered some near $48.50. However, then the stock went lower and spiked a straight point in the next 10 minutes. I still had half of my position stopped up at $49.15 and I was stopped out. It only went up to $49.23 before turning tail and heading back down.

That kind of killed my momentum.

I was a little bummed out because I tried to hold a "winner" and I just got chopped out. Looking back on the graph now, I was in the stock when it was all wild. Had I continued to concentrate on it, I could have found a very nice smooth short entry at around 1:30. Unfortunately at that time, I was thinking defensively, not aggressively.

Anyone have any good advice on how to "keep your edge" through the trading day? Momojuicing (RIP) used to watch just a few stocks all day... how do you do it man? I guess I lose focus pretty easily... I start listening to the idiots on CNBC and I want to write mean posts about the stupid shit they say.

Maybe my blog is killing my focus. Scalper, you out there? How is life post blogging? Are you doing better now or what? Drop a line!

Anyway, I also tried to force myself to use more limit orders again today. Yesterday I got into the bad habit of throwing market orders around. They just don't work in the hybrid market. You get awful fills...

So, more of the same. I was up late last night watching the Super Tuesday results so I'm pretty shot. Tonight I plan on getting more sleep, waking up earlier, and trying to come up with some type of "plan" for tomorrow's trade. By "plan" I mean, identifying longs if the market is strong, shorts if it's weak, and other plays for if it's really choppy. If any of you have any interesting pre-open "plan" ideas, let me know... like, how you strategize for the day? I have the research thing all sussed out, but I need to work on implementing that research into action.

Here's the stats:
P&L, $606
Best, ACI, $199
Worst, WFR, -$73

14,200 shares traded.
17 stocks traded. 11 winners, 6 losers.

Virtual Office, $6792. SPX, -13.20, 1330.00.

Sanglucci, $2345 on 37,400 shares traded.
Timmay!, $1583 on 3100 shares traded.
Evolution, $1079 on 51,000 shares traded.
Dehtrader, $647 on 5620 shares traded.
Me, $606 on 14,200 shares traded.
Retardo, $496 on 2 contracts traded.
Denarii, $39 on 3400 shares traded.
Wincity, no trades.
OBAT, -$3 on 12,600 shares traded.

It was a mostly quiet day today. The volume was dull as we didn't even get to 1.5 billion shares traded. However, there was a fairly sizeable reversal in the market midday when some guy said something.

Oh, and CME shit the shower. Yes, it was down over 100 points.



Most of the attention from my office today was focused on CME. Overall, I don't think people were happy with their trades in the stock. I kept my distance.

I can't tell you how many times I heard this today... "I'm buying 'smee'" and then, a few minutes later... "Oh FUCK! 'smee' just FUCKED ME!"

Anyway, the VO kicked some ass today. Sanglucci probably traded on some inside information or stole some of that money from a fellow trader, but whatever, he made some good money. Meanwhile OBAT got smoked, losing $3. Hopefully, he can come back from the carnage.

Retardo had a solid day. In the email he sent me reporting his profits he wrote, "Tell Tim Sykes to suck on this!" And Mr. Sykes, (author and celebrity) who tripled Retardo's profits today wrote, "Tell that Retard guy to come advertise on my blog. I'll give him a 'special' rate."

Poll Closed. DT Readers Are Politically Mixed

67 of you voted in the last 24 hours and here are the final results.

20 or 29% of you are Democrats
22 or 32% of you are Independents
25 or 37% of you are Republicans

Pretty even, really.

Okay, so since I'm data mining here, lets do another simple one.

Are you a man, a woman, or... Dennis Kneale?

I'll keep this poll open until the end of the week.

Dennis Kneale Still An Idiot

There was just a segment on CNBC in which Dennis Kneale debated with some other guy on whether or not the tax rebate will ultimately benefit China.


Dennis Kneale, Idiot

The other guy argued that when we just go out and buy stuff that a lot of our dollars are actually headed over to China, since they manufacture everything. He said if we really want to stimulate our economy, we should be investing in infrastructure since most heavy machinery is still manufactured here. In addition, we'd get the added benefit of better infrastructure. No one likes crumbling bridges.

Anyway, Dennis Kneale didn't like that idea. He said "we're looking to lift consumer spending, not US production." He said, "What's the problem? DVDs and flat screens are a good thing to buy! It's good for the economy!" He said that the whole building infrastructure thing was a "depression era argument" and that "building infrastructure that isn't needed is ridiculous."

Then, out of nowhere he said "Just cut taxes!!!"

YAY! So in his world, I'll pay less in taxes so I can have a really sweet home theater and movie collection. That will be good, because I won't want to drive over any bridges or drive on any interstates anymore, since they're all going to shit.

Melissa Francis A Self-Described Libertarian

Who knew?

Weekend Blogger

In a clear sign of the ascendency of this blog, we have a weekend blogger all lined up.

I repeat, we have a weekend blogger.

It's not "the Fly." Though, he still has an open invitation...


Weekend Blogger, Bloggerdotcom

It's our old friend, Bloggerdotcom. He will be posting a couple of company profiles. For those who remember his last posts, I'm sure it will be fun.

He will also be posting nude photos of his fiancee.

Morning Link Love

Well, not really... I'm a little too late to do much.

• It was a solid night for Obama. Hillary, I think, had to do better.
• Al Qaeda growing in strength from Pakistan (NOT Iraq).
• I've had these guys blogrolled since the beginning. 10 solid clean energy companies to buy on the cheap. They're highlighting one a day.
  

Okay, and WTF? Wall Street Journal. Watch below a video on preparing friend rat...

Good Morning

Time: 7:20
Mood: Holy shit it's late!