The Kinks, "Sunny Afternoon"

Virtual Office, $200. Dow, -0.33, 11,842.36.

Tokyo, $244 on 3 shares traded.
Me, $85 on 4000 shares traded.
OBAT, vacation.
Denarii, -$129 on 5600 shares traded.

Two words... summer doldrums.

We barely nudged over 1 billion shares today on the NYSE, and the VIX basically flatlined. It was dead. In fact, it was the lowest volume day of the year.

Now, that's not to say that the usual suspects weren't moving. Oil and gas names ripped higher, and there was plenty of intrigue in the fertilizer names... some moved higher, while BG got clipped.

In addition, the financial stocks seem to be heading straight to zero.

Anyway, not only can I trade 4-letter names now, but I also realized today that I wasn't able to get quotes on my Level 2 from either NYSE or NSDQ these last 6 months. Interesting. Not that I rely on the Level 2 too much, but still... Tomorrow, I'll be able to trade Nasdaq stocks, and I'll also be able to trade with complete information.

In theory, that should help my game, right?

As of noon today, my RO was completely smoked. The big winner was up about $2500, while the big loser was down about $10gs. I was #9 of 25 traders.

Meanwhile, shame on Obama for letting McCain steal this headline... this is what I talk about when I say we need to move forward, past oil. This is a good start. Much better than ethanol...

Going surfing (again).

Pass

Okay, so I passed my exam and I'm free (starting tomorrow) to trade the 4-letter names. The market should just send me a million bucks and save us all time... it's clear I'm gonna start killing it now.

In reality, it seems a little slow today. The RO is getting demolished and volume seems lame. In fact, it sounds like most of them are going golfing and taking the rest of the day off...

Good surf here for the next few days. I plan on "killing that" as well... Not going to force anything.

POLITICAL ASIDE: This is a bad position for Obama to take... I hope it evolves.