Beta Band, "Needles In My Eyes"

The RO Report, "Indian Summer Market" Edition

We enjoyed unseasonably warm weather around here the last few days and with it, the market has reentered its summer volume doldrums. We barely edged above the billion share level today on the NYSE. It was one of the lowest volume days since August.

That doesn't bode well for trading. It also seems to me that we're due for some consolidation here, another negative. However, as "Trader P" pointed out to me today, the VIX is still trading near 60, and that should mean the market in general is good to trade for some time. There will be slow periods, but the volatility isn't going away too fast.

The lesson here is that as an active trader, you need to pick your spots... don't overtrade a dead market. We'll have our chance again to trade like crack-addicted hyenas.

A perfect example of solid trading today goes to our #1 and #2 Bosses, "Trader A" and "Trader Z" respectively.

Trader A traded hard right out of the gate. He had a plan, it worked out and he took his money. Most of which was made in the first 15 minutes of the day. "Trader Z" on the other hand, stayed on the sidelines until just after 3pm and hit the close hard. Neither trader churned away precious profits or whittled away hard won confidence by trading the low volume middle of the day time period.

Anyway, overall, it was a fairly crappy day for the RO. Out of 26 traders today, 11 finished gross positive, or only 42%. 4 traders finished up over $1,000 gross, while 5 lost more than $1,000 gross. I was #6 of 26, or happy.

The Bosses barely edged out the Manservants thanks to afternoon trading.

"Lucky Pierre" - Trader A, $6,708 on 110k shares traded.

2. Trader Z, $4,527 on 41,200 shares traded.
3. Trader E, $3,026 on 39,800 shares traded.
4. Trader N, $2,138 on 23,000 shares traded.
5. Trader T, $775 on 3,600 shares traded.

And the Manservants:

"Chambermaid" - Trader D, $7,416 on 76,100 shares traded.

2. Trader R, -$2,520 on 60,000 shares traded.
3. Trader C, -$1,341 on 61,600 shares traded.
4. Trader B, -$1,131 on 225k shares traded.
5. Trader H*, -$1,089 on 4,000 shares traded.

See you tomorrow.

Al Gore's Op Ed

I've stayed away from the news for the last few days. The election is over, time to take a breath. Luckily however, I ran across Al Gore's recent piece from the NY Times. It reminded me why we should feel good going forward if we can finally get on the right path.

Below is an excerpt, click here for the full piece.

Here is the good news: the bold steps that are needed to solve the climate crisis are exactly the same steps that ought to be taken in order to solve the economic crisis and the energy security crisis.

Economists across the spectrum — including Martin Feldstein and Lawrence Summers — agree that large and rapid investments in a jobs-intensive infrastructure initiative is the best way to revive our economy in a quick and sustainable way. Many also agree that our economy will fall behind if we continue spending hundreds of billions of dollars on foreign oil every year. Moreover, national security experts in both parties agree that we face a dangerous strategic vulnerability if the world suddenly loses access to Middle Eastern oil...

...What follows is a five-part plan to repower America with a commitment to producing 100 percent of our electricity from carbon-free sources within 10 years. It is a plan that would simultaneously move us toward solutions to the climate crisis and the economic crisis — and create millions of new jobs that cannot be outsourced.

Husker Du, "Chartered Trips," Frank Black, "Headache," The Field, "From Here We Go Sublime"

Volume today is already tracking very low and it's only 10:15. We have no major economic news all week and the indexes, unfortunately, could be setting up for some low volume consolidation.

This is probably good for you swing traders, but bad for active daytraders.

I'm just guessing here. Anyway, I'm gonna listen to some music and take it easy with the trade until I see some intriguing reason to enter the market. Enjoy.

Meanwhile, if you're not a fan of rock, and like trippy electronic music, be sure to check out that track by The Field.