Pulp, "Pencil Skirt"

If women "breast painting" bothers you, then don't watch this video. Great lyrics. The whole album is excellent, really...

Better Than It Looks

Longtime readers will notice that I'm trading far less shares, and that I'm trading fewer stocks, as well. This is all by design. I'm slowly gaining more confidence with this new style of trading (for me, anyway) and as I gain more, I will start upping my share size. Today, I had a good confidence day, even though I only pulled $245 out of the market.

Why? Well, because I'm starting to see trades correctly. My first trade of the day, in ARD, was well thought out and I even showed some patience. I was watching the $48 level on the daily graph. The stock opened and ripped right above the level. Instead of chasing, and getting caught in a nasty pullback, I waited and bid for the stock back down near the $48 level. I figured, if I got the shares, it was a low risk play, since I was going to stop just below $48. And if I didn't get the shares, I'd move on.



As you can see, I got the shares, and screwed up my exits. But I still like the trade because it shows I'm thinking right, even though I need to let my winners run.

My next trade was also okay, even though, once again, I didn't hold for the full move. I was watching NUE $76.50 on the daily, and liked it even more, since NUE was showing a little relative strength compared to the rest of the metals early today.



Then I dabbled in PCU for awhile, took some small losses and then made them back by finally catching the short I was looking for, down to the $116 level. This stock was showing good relative weakness for a short. He's just a dick...



Anyway, I haven't even gone over my best trades today... short BGC, long TEX and short AGU, but I'm doing a sunrise surf session (which now means 5:30am so I can get back to the desk by 8:45) and I need to get to bed.

I expect the market to be dead until after the FED decision on Wednesday, and will continue to trade tight and light until then. Also, looks like I'll be trading a half day tomorrow.

Here's the stats:

P&L, $245
Best, BGC, $161
Worst, RSG, -$37

9 stocks traded, 5 winners for $328, 4 losers for -$83.
6400 shares traded.

Virtual Office, $1766. SPY, +.01, 139.61.

Sanglucci, $1601 on 46,200 shares traded.
Me, $245 on 6400 shares traded.
Timmay, $135 on 1000 shares traded.
Denarii, $104 on 400 shares traded.
Retardo, no trades.
Dehtrader, vacation.
Ainkurn, -$120 on 500 shares traded.
OBAT, -$199 on 7000 shares traded.

Well, it was another low volume chopfest in the major indexes today. Today, it took until 3:50 to trade 1 billion shares on the NYSE... that's like a bad volume day back when I first began trading, in 1999...

At this pace, in mid August, we'll be trading 750 million shares a day on the NYSE. And NYX should be trading in the mid 40s... time will tell.

Anyway, after the close and into tomorrow morning there are a number of interesting companies reporting earnings, including V, MA, X, VLO and AG. Hopefully, this will give the market some "juice," however, I doubt it will. The big day (which too, I expect to be anticlimactic) will be Wednesday, when the FED, in all its bearded wisdom, releases its most recent policy statement.

Until then, I expect traders to keep their heads low. Be careful out there...

Oh, and someone is posting on Evolution's blog, although it doesn't seem to be him... the plot thickens.

Painful Fall

You couldn't give me enough money to do this... meanwhile, before the kid jumps, he says "this is for Burt's Bees." Is he talking about the chapstick maker? I mean, my wife uses that shit... I can't imagine this kid selling chapstick.


Crazy Kid Leaps Down Staircase - Watch more free videos

Blogroll Update

I've added a few new blogs to my blogroll and deleted a couple of others that have gone dormant. I try to keep the blogroll current, so if a blog I read stops updating, I'll remove it and add fresh blood.

First, here are the new blogs:

OONR7 This is a very informative blog with nice graphs and descriptions of trades. He also viciously attacked Jake Gint in my comment section... always a plus.

Dogwood Again, a nice blog with discussion of stocks and other random stuff. Also, I like Dogwood trees... and, he did a whole post about my trades... always a plus.

The removed blogs... mdawsz's old blog... Get Short! He turned this shit to invite only and had the audacity to not invite me. I'd link it, but you'll just get a page that says you're not invited... making you feel like a dick. He teased a few weeks ago about launching a new blog. When this happens, he will be reinstated.

Trade Like Mike... dude got a real job and has gone on permanent hiatus. If he follows through to turn this into a humor blog, it will be reinstated onto the blogroll... that is, if it's funny.

NOTE: Here's my Peanut Gallery post explaining the "work" I'll be doing for IBC during their election...

An Extraordinary Place, Dubai...

I found this incredible post about the growth of Dubai. I mean, the pictures were so amazing and the buildings so tall, that halfway through I started to think it was a big sarcastic joke... but it's not.