INXS, "Suicide Blonde"

So painful... I better get back to making money... this posting of bad music thing on losing days hurts me very, very much.

I've started a new designation for when I am forced to post "bad music." It's under "bad music" so that it doesn't screw up my "music videos" label. Clever, eh?

Virtual Office, -$48. Dow, -108.78, 12,160.30.

Tokyo, $205 on 6605 shares traded.
Denarii, $122 on 3000 shares traded.
OBAT, $74 on 2000 shares traded.
Me, -$449 on 8200 shares traded.

Looks like we're back in the volume doldrums for awhile. Last week I got prematurely excited about the volume coming into the market. We reached (gasp!) 1.4 billion shares a couple of days, and I thought for a moment that perhaps we would avoid a summer slowdown.

Wrong. Today was one of the lowest volume days of the year as we failed to reach even 1.1 billion traded on the NYSE.

And naturally, this has changed the trading landscape somewhat. Today, the market chopped lower, grinding its way back below 12,200 on the Dow.

I should have listened a little closer to the message that the market sent me yesterday. While I didn't have any one disaster, almost every position I entered failed. That's just a clear sign to wait this market out... however, the rest of the VO did well. And the last information I have for my RO was pretty good... about 2/3 of the traders were positive, and the range was $7853 to -$1003. I was #20 of 26 today which accurately reflects my poor performance.

Meanwhile, no word from Timmay in two days... and this after I streamed his damn live show all day on Friday... could a firing be imminent?

I'm not sure if I'll have a daily post up this evening. I'm heading off to the beach for a full moon chanting session. Clearly, Judy is in the driver's seat around here... so I'll just post the bad music now.

Chopped Again

Man... this is not a market for breakout trading.

Volume is lame and I'm just getting chopped. So, like I said yesterday, instead of swimming against the current, I'm going to focus on taking my exam. I scheduled my test for Saturday, which means I pretty much better start studying... like, right now.

The blog will be somewhat "no frills" for the next few days as I focus on studying, but once I take the exam, I'll be able to trade the "4 letter names" again, which in theory, should let me be much more selective about the trades I take, since I should be able to find many more opportunities.

I'll be posting the VO each night as usual, and daily posts if I make trades.

Baracknophobia

The Daily Show (unlike U2) keeps getting better with age. This clip is ostensibly about all the false rumors being spread about Obama, but really, it's about how much the mainstream media, especially Fox, sucks salmonella-encrusted tomatoes.

Bloggers... we are the future.

Art Cashin On CNBC, June 17, 2008

Here's a brief paraphrase of Art's comments with Joe and Carl this morning... As you know from reading this blog, he's one of the only useful CNBC contributors.

CNBC: Art, what's most intriguing to you today?

Art: Well, first of all, the possible rate hike died at 8:30 Friday morning when the unemployment numbers came out. They can't raise rates with rising unemployment. If they did, they'd probably face riots.

Also, crude oil had a frustrated breakout attempt yesterday. I'm watching all the hearings about trading in crude and speculators.

CNBC: Art, why is "speculator" such a dirty word right now?

Art: I don't know... I remember Bernard Baruchs comment about speculators looking ahead. They try to figure out what's on page 13 today, that will be on page one tomorrow.

CNBC: Headline inflation came in at the fastest pace in 6 months. What can the Fed do?

Art: The Fed is trapped for now. They want to jawbone it... inflation is going up all over the world. The romance countries are saying, our economies aren't doing that well, put that gun (raising rates) back in your pocket.

For now, central banks around the world are dealing with rising inflation and weak economies.

Electric Super Car

I've always hated cars... Okay, maybe I don't hate them, but I've never been too interested in them. I view them in purely functional terms. I've never thought a car was "beautiful" or wanted to "take a drive" in a friend's new "baby."

That said, here's one that I find interesting.