Seriously Fly, WTF?

I gotta pay $2 to vote?

I call a blogging foul.

The Quiet Coup, Indeed...

My friends over at HCPG have been updating their blog again by offering up some very good reading. Incidentally, in an attempt to grow their readership, they have been experimenting with "sexing" the place up, via an edgy advertising campaign. Through an inside source I am able to provide you all with a bit of a scoop regarding the direction they're heading.

Anyway, it will take some time, but read the following article in its entirety to get a very unbiased opinion on how our financial system got into its current mess and what we're going to have to do to get out of it.

Normally, I would wait until Friday to post this with my links. But since the article is longer than what I normally post, and since your reading comprehension skills have been hampered by surfing porn all day long in between making stock trades, I decided to post it by itself.

Blogroll Amnesty Day

Today is "blogroll amnesty day" which you can read about in depth over at Jon Swift's blog.

It's the only holiday celebrated by the blogosphere and a great idea. I keep my blogroll tight because I like to visit the blogs on it at least a few times a week, but there are many more I would add if I had loads of time/space. Please take a moment to visit these great trading blogs.

(Except Richie's... I'm just throwing that up there because it was hijacked and I think it's hilarious.)

UPDATE: Unfortunately, someone got their blog back. Link removed.

TraderAM

Stock Rookie Goes Pro

Am I Bald?

Todd's Trade

Jules In Jumbles

Sage

Stock Hunter

Stock Picks

Market Monk

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!

Get Your Morning Links

Just a reminder... Shane is now posting his "funny money" links daily at "Butterknuckle."

Same funny links, just with added butter.

A New Daytrading Bull Market?

Perhaps... Let's just hope that Timmay! isn't the face of it.

I'm not sure if anyone has ever noted just how arrogant this dude seems... well, let me be the first to say it, Tim Sykes is a dick. He's up 219% because he's trading a small account. If he had any real balls, he'd be in the RO and holding 2 or 3 million of stock intraday. Oh, I know he did that back in the day, when he ran his gay little hedge fund, but that's when a 200 point move was a big deal.

Man up, Timmay! And email me for office info.

DT Wins Again!!!

While lesser bloggers talk about the end of the world, I'm over here wrapped in cozy winter blankets, wearing my Ugg slippers, sipping frothy coffee drinks and nailing bottoms.



As predicted, we've hit the 50dma on the industrials this morning. I now switch my stance from bullish to short term neutral. I feel we're going to do some consolidation here.

Unfortunately, I think this makes for some dull trading for the rest of the week.

Another Interesting Search

Here's a good one. Some poor soul out there was trying to search Yahoo for "scrotum" but misspelled it "scotrum" and found my illustrious site...

Clearly, my guerilla marketing campaign is working.



NOTE: "the Fly" has added a new tabbed blogger. Go welcome "Chart Addict" to the site. As I quipped yesterday, iBC has so many tabs now it's "too big to fail."

RO Cumulative Performance In October

Thanks to "Shortbus" we have this wonderful chart that really demonstrates the difference between the "Lucky Pierres" and the "Manservants."



Look at "Trader B" and "Trader D" practically holding hands and skipping their way to riches, while the hordes of the RO suffer their upper-middle class existences far below.

Of course, "Shortbus" produced these charts with only limited information, but still, I bet even with all the data added in, the results would be similar. Thanks again, "Shortbus."

Art

I've decided to take "the Fly's" advice and just not give a damn about my readership anymore.

That's right. Fuck you. Right there, you.

How does that feel? Know what? I don't care, mostly because I'm being artistic right now.

I don't care about you. In fact, if you were here, standing next to me, I'd probably freak out and throw this laptop at you and then run upstairs to protect my daughter. Why? Because Internet people are scary and also, because I don't give a fuck about you.

Another thing, you fucking idiot... on Tuesday, I want you to vote for John McCain.

Furthermore, go and pick up the latest album by the Rolling Stones, I bet it's great.

Off to masturbate.

NOTE: Since my newest tool to gain more traffic is to not care about my readership, (the irony doesn't bother me... shut up) I'm going to ignore the comment section forever.

Blog Maintenance

Wow, time flies when you maintain a blog.

I spent two hours of my life last night cleaning up my bloated sidebar. That's a bit awful.

Anyway, I removed all the individual stock symbol labels. I don't think anyone was clicking on them, and it really lengthened that label list. Then, I merged the following categories:

-"interesting words" into "vocabulary"
-"weekend walk" into "weekend reading"
-"wallstrip" into "stock market blogs"
-"ape assholes" into "ape anatomy"
-"book quotes" into "books"
-"stock earnings" into "stock earnings season"
-"stock research" into "stock trading ideas"

I've also added a few blogs to my blogroll. First of all, while browsing Jamie's blog, I noticed that Trader X is back in the game. So I changed my link from his old charts to his now updated blog. Jamie also had a link to The Zen Trader. I've never read it before, but I will now, if only to see what happens when the dude blows up. I mean, I really want to know how the "Zen people" handle losing all their money. Or, as an experiment, I may just go there everyday and leave obnoxious comments, to see how "Zen people" handle assholes.

I also added the "classics," The Big Picture, The Daily Options Report, and Afraid To Trade.

(Brief aside: If any of you recently blogrolled bloggers are reading this post due to a massive surge in traffic, feel free to return the favor. Actually, feel obligated to return the favor. More to the point, should you fail to return the favor, you will be de-blogrolled in less than a week.)

Finally, looking back on some of my old posts, I realized I kind of miss writing the "daily trading statistics" posts, so I'll try and do more of that again.

I'm open to suggestions and always searching for interesting blogs to add to my blogroll.

Thanks, as always, for reading.

Wallstrip

Truth be told, I haven't watched Wallstrip in a long time. I guess that once Lindsay left, I just felt this sense of loss and Julie wasn't able to "do it" for me...

This video below may be really old, but it brought back some memories.

This Dog Needs Perspective

Each morning, I wake up, open my blog, and check out what's going on over there to the right with my "Cavemen." Wall Street Fighter is consistently rewarding.

Check out this video which he linked today. Hilarious.



Anyway, on a more serious note, the Yen is freaking people out. The Nikkei traded at a 26 year low today. You know where a 26 year low would put the Dow? Around 775.

Where Did Our Wealth Go?

Here's a great illustration done by the clever guys at Clusterstock.

A View From The NYSE

Over on Ray's blog, (he's a big fan of Dinosister, btw) I asked him what the feeling has been like on the exchange in the last few days. He offered this very eloquent response.

I'm usually there for the open and the close, and the faces I see at those times are driven, intently watching and working the news stocks. There's a sense that the news is huge every day, and that it's all around us, from the feds, from the companies, from overseas, all at the same time. People are walking a little faster and talking both a little faster and a little louder. The sound of a broker tapping a stylus on his wireless order-management device is a little more staccato. Brokers seem like they've got a lot more orders to work, or bigger orders. There are more and bigger crowds around specialists. It feels like people are in overdrive.

PANIC!

Howard discusses panic, and you get a gratuitous midday song. Enjoy!

Short Sale Ban Set To Expire October 2nd

Or not. There has been a lot of talk about extending the ban.

At 1pm the NYSE will be holding a live webcast discussing the matter. The volume is light today, might as well check it out and get the scoop.

Also, if you haven't noticed, Ray's blog has been a must read daily during the recent market turmoil.

ReInflating My Blogroll

In the last couple of months, due to technical difficulties, my blogroll has been in a state of flux and decline. So in an effort to bailout my blogroll I am asking you, respected reader, to help me reinflate it.

Are there blogs that provide great daily content, preferably funny, because let's face it, the stock market is boring, that I'm missing? If you'd like to see something on my blogroll that isn't already there, add it to the comment section and I will run it by my "Blogroll Development Committee."

Thank you for your kind assistance.

The End Of America?

Found this over at "the Fly's" place. Scary stuff.



He talks about hyperinflation in the Weimar Republic. Interesting.

People are getting angry. They will get even more angry before this is all over. They were just talking about it on Lou Dobbs... the first 5 months of taxes you pay each year goes to paying off the INTEREST on our national debt.

I just put my daughter to sleep. By the time she's paying taxes, it doesn't seem like there will be any funds left to pay for things like infrastructure, or education, or (gasp!) our War Machine. All of her taxes will go to paying off interest on a debt that can no longer be repaid.

She deserves better.

So let's do this right. Follow this link, find your representative, and tell them you're sick of this shit.

NOTE: Oh, and while I'm pissed off, I wanted to just remind everyone of something... remember when Dennis Kneale said stupid shit like we were "talking ourselves into a recession?" Seriously... let's get some real financial journalists please. Perhaps if our airwaves weren't filled with propaganda, regular people could get back involved in the process and take interest in the country.

Where Will The Dow Close Tomorrow?

(FINAL UPDATE AND BUMP: This contest is only open until 12pm Monday, Sept 15th.)

The winner receives a placement in my blog headline for a week. You know... up there where it says "Sex."

Also, if you're a fellow stock blogger, you'll get top linking placement (i.e. over "the Fly" for the next week as well, plus a daily pump). That should yield you at least 6 extra page views next week.

The closest guess wins.

NOTE: CNBC is doing some special reporting right now... they're currently talking about the $40 million that AIG is trying to raise... they're talking with Buffet. Leisman, Faber, Gasparino, Ratigan.... they're all there on a Sunday night.

NOTE II: They're showing film of employees taking their shit from Lehman Brothers' Headquarters.

NOTE III: The title of CNBC's Special Report is, "Is Your Money Safe?" Of course, if they're asking this question, you know the answer is, "no."

Steve Liesman, "You don't know that anyone tomorrow morning has a huge counter-party risk hole with Lehman... how can you make a single trade not knowing who has what exposure?" NOBODY KNOWS ANYTHING! NO ONE LIGHTENED THEIR EXPOSURE TO LEHMAN.