Sonic Youth, "Mote"

Fuck, "boss music."



R.I.P Stooges guitarist Asheton.

The RO Report, "Grind" Edition

I'm trying to tell myself that it's cool the world isn't ending, but the sad truth is that it was much easier to make easy money when it was...

Back in November when I was stashing money in my basement, and having cool thoughts like, "Does it matter if I made $2,000 today when it's just going to become bribe money to escape into Canada?" things were actually grand!

Now I'm back to sweating $200 losses and thinking about "coming up with a new strategy" which means I'll be poor again in a few short weeks. Being professional sucks. God I hate 2009.

Anyway, we're closing in on nearly 200 Diggs for the BSMBP which is great. Thanks to all who have helped. And let me take this opportunity to remind you to go vote for Mr. Swift.

Also, I need your help in coming up with a new way to present the RO. Any ideas that could get me away from the actual figures and lead us down a more "relative value" road would be good. In that way, I could present the entire RO, but not the actual numbers.

For now, I'll keep it the same. Out of 28 traders, 18 finished gross positive, or 64%. 7 traders made over $1,000 gross and 7 lost over $1,000 gross. Crappy. I was #9 of 28 but barely beat commissions. The Manservants kicked ass.

Finally, please be sure to check in tomorrow. I will have a history post up. First time in over a year.

"Chambermaid" - Trader B, -$20,775 on 941k shares traded.

2. Trader D, -$7,786 on 290k shares traded.
3. Trader A, -$7,473 on 431k shares traded.
4. Trader L, -$5,115 on 84,200 shares traded.
5. Trader C, -$3,675 on 85,000 shares traded.

"Lucky Pierre" - Trader H*, $3,781 on 12,400 shares traded.

2. Trader 10*, $3,565 on 5,000 shares traded.
3. Trader N, $3,564 on 84,088 shares traded.
4. Trader P, $2,727 on 86,274 shares traded.
5. Trader G, $1,789 on 66,200 shares traded.

Here's your technical analysis of the day and your heatmap.

The Dinosaur Trader Book Club

As 2009 begins, I've decided to try and be more professional about trading. It's funny... I've traded full-time for a decade, yet I've never really defined myself as a trader. As you'll read in Wednesday's history post, I've kind of always viewed myself as somewhat "anti-Wall Street" even though I'm in the belly of the beast.

So look, I'm going to read more this year. And, in an effort to make this blog somewhat more "useful" to you, my readership, I'm going to share which books I'm reading, and when I'm reading them. That way, you too can read them and we can discuss them, in an open thread which will be posted permanently under the title of the book. Get it?

We can learn together.

Anyway, I'll announce the first book next week.  No, I don't need any of your fancy ideas...

My Discipline Problem

For some of you, the hardest part about trading is "letting your winners run" or "cutting your losers short."

I sympathize. However, for me, the hardest part about trading is actually getting to the part where I can say I know anything about how I trade and understanding where my strengths and weaknesses lie. You need discipline to sit and go through your trades.

I mean, I head over to Trader X's site and he's like "keep a trading journal." Know thyself. I check out the Warrrior and he's like, "Check out this awesome chart pattern... I'm rich! Oh, and my blog is available on Kindle!" Everything seems so simple for these guys.

But you know, I bet they're doing work too and that's not what I'm about.

In fact, instead of actually going through graphs right now (like I planned on doing) I'm here writing a bullshit post about how I can't find the discipline to go through graphs and figure out how I should trade.

It's my particular curse that I need to trade for a living, yet I have no interest in actually studying how to trade. Somehow, I've done this for a decade.

So here's the plan. I'm going to "scheduleize" my life and this blog and see if it makes me more efficient. One of my goals in 2009 is to be more "professional" and this is a necessary step in that direction.

Below is a rough publishing schedule for this blog, going forward. I have a similar, though much stricter, "daily life schedule" that I'm imposing upon myself in my non-virtual life.

I'm hoping that by making order out of some of the madness around here that I get more done.

Monday - A post that discusses a trade I made.
Tuesday - Around the house
Wednesday - History post
Thursday - Porn and politics
Friday - Links from around the blogosphere.

The only things that are set in stone at this point are Monday, Wednesday and Friday. The Friday thing is a new feature... And for now, the RO posts will continue on a daily basis.

Feedback welcome. Go!