Remember the volatility mascot? Well, forget about all that. The market is no longer volatile, it's just fucked up. So please welcome our new mascot of "the market is fucked up and weird."
That's a little wordy... suggestions welcome.
Momojuicing, $4832 on 21,600 shares traded.
Evolution, $2303 on 60,000 shares traded.
Stewie, $1200 on 35,000 shares traded.
OBAT, $572 on 8400 shares traded.
Akalawoo, $276 on 3 contracts traded.
Denarii, -$8 on 2200 shares traded.
Tapeworm, -$155 on 6 contracts traded.
Me, -$772 on 80,200 shares traded.
Dehtrader, -$931 on 11,300 shares traded.
Wow, what a day! The Wombat Of Stock Market Volatility was out in full force today as individual stocks jumped around like an innocent college student getting tasered.
Okay, that was in poor taste but I'm in a horrid mood.
And, with the volatility came some volume again. While it's still not great, I've come to appreciate any day we trade over 1.5 billion shares on the NYSE. Actually, it's amazing given some of the news out there that we only traded that much. But this is the new reality at the NYSE.
So the big news in the VO is that we added a fresh face, Stewie, into the mix. While Stewie is more of a swing trader than a daytrader he'll be posting his numbers here daily. Why anyone throws themselves willingly into the "pressure cooker" otherwise known as the VO is beyond me.
I'm trying to be in a good mood right now but the fact of the matter is that I feel like jumping out my second story window and landing in my deer-eaten rhododendron patch below... I guess it's time to get working of my daily post to purge myself of my pent up anger.
UPDATE: It's 4:10 and I have yet to hear from Stewie... this does not bode well for our "VO relationship."
UPDATE II: Evidently and "email issue." I take back what I said about Stewie. He's a great guy and his blog is "engrossing."
There are loads today. You can check this link for the whole list.
I'll be focusing on ALB, RE, PRE, CNH and PCP.
Also, I got an interesting email from "bloggerdotcom" today about profiting from the huge fire that is melting southern California. Considering that Bluedog and Danny are from SoCal, perhaps they can give us some information on which insurers we should be shorting here.
Or is that completely tasteless?
Meanwhile, R.I.P Clarence.
How does the "Lester, the Hairy-Nosed Wombat of Stock Market Volatility" roll off the tongue?
Bubs, $2,312,454 on 872,300 shares traded.
Me, $1533 on 64,000 shares traded.
Dehtrader, $1359 on 7800 shares traded.
Evolution, $1116 on 57,600 shares traded.
Momojuicing, $488 on 3000 shares traded.
Denarii, $215 on 4000 shares traded.
Tapeworm, $140 on 4 contracts traded.
Akalawoo, no trades... lots of "staring."
OBAT, -$335 on 7600 shares traded.
Clearly, the veracity of Bubs final posting here in the VO will be some manner of controversy until the end of time... or at least until this blog ceases to be. As he put it when he was leaving, "I'm going out on top, bitch!"
Meanwhile, after the much talked about volatility didn't show up today at the open, I had a difficult conversation with Clarence, "the rodent of stock market volatility." I was like, "What's up? Where the hell is the volume, the volatility?" But it was clear that Clarence was already far away...
Rumors are swirling here at the VO. I've heard from a good source, OBAT, that Bubs got Clarence addicted to Macadamia nuts. Next thing I know, the stock market volatility is gone and with it, Clarence and Bubs... his dealer.
However, as sad as this is we welcome back an old friend to the VO, Dehtrader.
Dehtrader actually emailed me with a tip about the Macadamia nut thing a few weeks back after a post I wrote discussing the lack of volume in the market. He said that he wanted to be back in the VO but couldn't be "part of an organization that felt it was okay to addict impressionable young rodents to Macadamia nuts."
With the departure of Bubs and Clarence, the door was open to invite Dehtrader back in... he "gleefully" accepted.
But back to business. The VO had a pretty darn good day. Almost everyone made money. The one outlier, OBAT, was apparently so distraught by the shake-ups in the VO that he had a hard time focusing on the market. He took a half day.
Should be a very interesting week. I need to find a new mascot of volatility because days like today just aren't going to cut it long term...
By the way... just want to say one thing to all the bloggers who are like, "I don't trade OpEx days." You're silly...
NOTE: My company really sucked today.
Somehow, he eluded our traps and is back, scampering around on the floor of the exchange.
Check out the VIX. It's a traders market. However, that said, there's a good chance I'm a little smoked right now. I got wildly bullish just after 10 and took some losses. It'll be a day of big gains and big losses. It's gonna be tough.
Funny.
We wake up today and hear that the FED is doing "repo action" or something like that. I'm not an economist... I don't know what they're doing.
But take a look at the futures! You see that spike up? That's when CNBC reports that the FED "cancelled their repo action."
Everyone thinks, YAY! The FED doesn't see the need for more liquidity, everything must be "okay!"
Ah... but what about that spike down? That's 5 minutes later when CNBC says that the FED cancelled the "repo action" because of "technical difficulties" and that they'll be doing it, but just a little later.
Makes for an exciting morning.
Europe down 4%, everyone on CNBC now thinks we're headed for hell in a handbasket. Peter Shiff finally gaining some respect... it may be time for a bounce at some point today. Not "the final, coast is clear" bounce, but expect a couple of tradable rallies here or there.
I kind of remember Mark Haines saying it wasn't so bad yesterday.... hmmm.
Oh, look who showed up to play in the market today!
Be careful today. If you can't follow stop-loss rules if you lose a lot, then automate it or don't trade today.
Good luck. It will be busy so this may be my last post until things chill out.
UPDATE: Wasn't it just a couple of days ago that CFC said they had 187 billion in liquidity? Now they're freaked out? Oh wait... someone says the market is "overreacting" to their 10-Q... move along, everything is fine! CFC to $100! God Bless America!
And by the way, who can ever trust Goldman again after that bullshit from Wednesday afternoon. Rumor that their Quant fund is going under and the market drops 200 points from its high. They come out and are like, "Shucks, what's everyone freaked out about? The Quant fund is fine!" So the market rallies back up.... However, yesterday, they said another one of their $700 million funds is going belly-up... talk about a lie of omission!
Curses!
I step out for a few hours in what seemed like a "quiet market" and look who showed up?
Is it too late to short! DAMN!
While the talking heads on CNBC have been blabbering about "volatility" all day long, you'll see that so far, that's not the case.
There has been extreme volatility in housing stocks and in mortgage names, but the rest of the market has been locked in a chopfest.
I'm not saying that we won't see overall market volatility today, but so far, "Clarence, the rodent of stock market volatility" is sleeping in his bed of cotton balls and wood chips.
UPDATE: Clarence woke up. Actually, it was me who was sleeping. Volatility abounds!
