That's the number of bird species I saw yesterday while taking part in a local "faunathon" to raise money for an environmental advocacy group.
We were out in the field by 3am searching for noctunal birds (like Chuck's Will-Widow and Barn Owl) and ended in a field at 8pm watching American Woodcocks display.
It was an amazing day. However, I'm completely shot today and I think I may be forced to trade very lightly.
Today was all about TNH again.
I went into the day short 100 shares of this freak. That was stupid. Worse, I added to the short position right after the open and got my face ripped off. It hurt, but finally, things made sense to me. It was not my job to be squeezed, it was my job to be the squeezer.
At around 10am, a small offer showed up in TNH at 90.94. A few days back when the stock nose-dived, an offer like this would send the stock right down. Today, it sent the stock down about 40 cents, but then it came right back up and took the offer out. That's when I decided that it was time to buy TNH all the way up to the early morning highs of 92.15.
Why? Because I knew there were a bunch of idiots like myself who saw the retracement in TNH from 78 up to 92 and decided that it was a good short. But things are never easy, especially in TNH, and that's why I knew they were going to have to feel more pain for the short to work.
Here's what I did once I figured that out:
10:08:51 Buy 200 @ 91.51 (200)
10:09:10 Buy 100 @ 91.50 (300)
10:09:24 Buy 100 @ 91.62 (400)
10:11:16 Buy 200 @ 91.20 (600)
10:16:24 Sell 100 @ 91.71 (this was actually a mistake... i meant to buy, 500)
10:16:52 Buy 200 @ 91.90 (700)
10:17:40 Sell 100 @ 92.32 (600)
10:19:57 Sell 100 @ 92.10 (500)
10:20:33 Sell 100 @ 92.31 (400)
10:23:51 Sell 200 @ 92.19 (200)
10:23:56 Sell 200 @ 92.04 (flat)
So at this point, my long trade was over. He had broken the early morning high and I expected him to reverse and head lower. POT was selling off and this added to my bearish feeling on the stock. So I entered limit orders at around 92.10, 92.15... but the stock broke below 92 and was heading south aggressively.
All I could do was to enter a market order. I was filled at 91.67. I hated this fill and so I covered very quickly. I covered 100 at 91.50, 91.20 and 91.40 and I was flat again. I entered Short limit orders above 91.80 and again, wasn't filled. The stock broke again and so I had to chase with a market order.
10:34:30 Short 100 @ 90.77 (-100)
10:38:19 Short 100 @ 90.60 (-200)
The next 20 minutes saw a spectacular selloff in the stock. But because the stock broke so quick and so suddenly I was unable to add to my position. This was very frustrating. I almost read the trade perfectly but I just didn't expect it to break so fast and hard.
10:57:55 Buy 100 @ 88.35 (-100)
10:59:05 Buy 100 @ 86.07 (flat)
In 2 minutes the stock dropped over 2 points! The thing had tanked down to 86 and now I was flat. I was also getting bullish. So, I had to start buying.
11:00:56 Buy 200 @ 85.42 (200)
11:01:42 Buy 100 @ 84.68 (300)
11:03:51 Sell 100 @ 85.69 (200)
11:03:54 Sell 100 @ 85.66 (100)
11:25:37 Sell 100 @ 84.91 (flat)
11:26:09 Buy 300 @ 83.69 (300)
11:32:33 Sell 100 @ 83.02 (200)
11:37:23 Sell 100 @ 82.76 (100)
11:38:59 Sell 100 @ 82.02 (flat)
11:42:23 Buy 100 @ 81.71 (100)
11:43:14 Buy 100 @ 82 (200)
11:45:53 Buy 100 @ 82.54 (300)
11:54:39 Sell 200 @ 83.65 (100)
12:00:12 Sell 100 @ 84.48 (flat)
12:23:19 Buy 200 @ 83.10 (200)
12:28:22 Sell 100 @ 83.70 (100)
12:29:01 Sell 100 @ 84.60 (flat)
And that was that. I didn't trade in the afternoon. I made good trades in TNH today after I lost on my first shorts. My total gains in TNH were $1214. I lost probably over $800 on my initial shorts, so really, once I got my act together, I made over $2000 trading him today. Of course, the potential to make so much more was there.
I'll miss TNH when the volatility goes away...
Anyway, here's the stats. I have to cut this short because we have friends staying the weekend who just showed up. I hate friends...
P&L, $715
Best, TNH $1214
Worst, DE -$330
shares traded, 25,800
stocks traded, 12, 3 positive, 9 negative (another awful ratio)
total trades, 186
Misstrade, $2849 on 4300 shares traded.
Me, $715 on 25,800 shares traded.
One Bad-Ass Trader, $82 on 12,800 shares traded.
EvolutionTrader, $82 on 63,800 shares traded.
Denarii, $8 on 4000 shares traded.
Dehtrader, -$284 on 18,400 shares traded.
Largely a green day for the VO. A nice way to end the week. Not bad volume either.
Will the market ever go down again?
One reminder... If you click on the name of the trader, you will be directed to their website. There, you can read that trader's daily post about how they made (or lost) their money today.
My daily post is forthcoming.
Enjoy your weekend,
-DT
I plan on alienating any female readership I have by posting this song.
But hey, last week I posted Joanna Newsom!
Joanna Newsom at a Ministry concert... there's an interesting idea.
Today was disgusting.
This job is so harrowing. You're on a roll, making money and then BAM! you get hit.
Yesterday, I made money by trading DE and AG together. Today, I got smoked doing the exact same thing. Shorting AG today because of the weakness in DE cost me over $619.
I could have bought a nice lawnmower with $619. Better yet, I could have paid a landscaping service to mow my lawn all summer. Sigh...
I did make money in DE, shorting the weakness that he was clearly exhibiting. But sometimes, I guess you have to step back and watch stocks individually. AG wasn't showing weakness. I remember it was very clear to me right off the open because I short some and was trying to buy back some shares with a limit order at 41.80. He just wouldn't hit 41.80 and he never looked back. He rallied from that point on. AG rallied from 9:50am until the close.
Ben Bernanke didn't help me today either, or was it the LEI? I dunno, all I know is that at 10:00am I was short everything and I got squeezed in everything. It was awful. UBB and POT squeezed the bejesus out of me. It was awful.
Anyway, the one stock I really made any money in today was DE. So, for your reading enjoyment, here are my trades in DE.
10:23:46 Short 500 @ 118.59 (-500)
10:31:02 Buy 100 @ 118.52 (-400)
10:33:27 Short 200 @ 118.26 (-600)
10:34:03 Buy 200 @ 118.05 (-400)
10:37:56 Buy 100 @ 117.91 (-300)
10:43:09 Short 200 @ 118.19 (-500)
10:44:14 Short 100 @ 118.03 (-600)
10:47:40 Buy 400 @ 117.84 (-200)
10:51:14 Short 100 @ 118.34 (-300)
10:56:22 Buy 100 @ 117.81 (-200)
10:56:43 Buy 200 @ 117.84 (flat)
10:56:45 Buy 400 @ 117.90 (400)
10:57:05 Sell 200 @ 117.84 (200)
10:57:14 Sell 200 @ 117.91 (flat)
14:21:49 Buy 100 @ 117.61 (100)
14:21:54 Buy 200 @ 117.56 (300)
14:21:57 Buy 300 @ 117.58 (600)
14:24:21 Sell 200 @ 117.61 (400)
14:24:36 Sell 100 @ 117.63 (300)
14:25:06 Sell 300 @ 117.58 (flat)
14:42:39 Buy 200 @ 117.69 (200)
14:42:51 Buy 100 @ 117.72 (300)
14:45:31 Buy 100 @ 117.66 (400)
14:45:51 Buy 100 @ 117.69 (500)
14:56:33 Sell 100 @ 117.79 (400)
14:58:26 Sell 100 @ 117.90 (300)
15:09:43 Sell 300 @ 117.88 (flat)
Anyway, with that, I'm putting this day behind me. I'm looking forward to ending the week green tomorrow.
Here's the stats:
P&L -$1467
Best, DE $549
Worst, AG -$619
shares traded, 60,800
stocks traded, 23, 6 positive, 17 negative (bloody ratio)
total trades, 333
Misstrade, $2480 on 4700 shares traded.
EvolutionTrader, $657 on 40,600 shares traded.
Denarii, -$55 on 2000 shares traded.
Dehtrader, -$426 on 7000 shares traded.
One Bad-Ass Trader, -$470 on 23,600 shares traded.
Me, -$1467 on 60,800 shares traded.
And this after a day the whole VO was green for the first time ever...
I'm honestly shocked that anyone figured out how to make money today. I got smoked on my shorts and chopped in my longs. Congrats to Misstrade and ET for putting up some nice numbers in a tough market to trade.
For the rest of us poor slobs, there's always tomorrow.
No reason to not state facts. Trade is choppy, signals are mixed. I'm chilling here until there is some reason to make some trades.
Yuck.
Here's a funny video. That's right, take your eyes away from the quote screens for a second, you won't be missing much.
I'm a little pissed that I gave so much back at the end of the day yesterday. So, instead of actively seeking out revenge in the market, I'm getting it out here in this blog post so I can go into the day with a clear head.
From one of the best movies of all time (and one of the best scenes too, except for that one where Bill Murray jumps into the pool while they play that Kinks song...)
My morning, and really my day is best understood by looking at the two graphs below. DE reported earnings, gapped up and then went negative. AG trades with DE, so the trade was to short both. This I did and I made good money in both stocks.
Unfortunately, I was in "light trading mode" because of the excessive churn of yesterday and also because I had an appointment to visit a potential nursery school for my daughter this morning. Therefore, while I caught over a point move in each stock, I only had 300 shares for each.
I also had good trades getting short HXM and LNN.
I had gains of a little over $1000 by 10:45. I had to leave for my appointment though, so I left a bunch of short positions. Everything was going great when I left so I felt pretty safe. I put my stops pretty far away and walked out the door whistling a tune of financial freedom.
Five minutes after I left my computer, the market bottomed and all my positions went against me. When I returned from my appointment, I had lost over half of my gains on the day. I was pissed, so instead of trading angry I just turned off the screens and focused on some spring cleaning.
Anyway, here's the stats:
P&L, $552
Best, AG $379
Worst, CPA, -$344
shares traded, 16,200
stocks traded, 14, 7 positive, 7 negative
total trades, 145
EvolutionTrader, $1574 on 72,400 shares traded.
Me, $552 on 16,200 shares traded.
Denarri, $218 on 1400 shares traded.
One Bad-Ass Trader, $145 on 16,400 shares traded.
Dehtrader, $97 on 18,300 shares traded.
It was a light volume rally day, but whatever, you have to give this market some respect. Like a good sports team, it's finding ways to win. And the VO found a way to win too. For the first time since it's inception, everyone reported gains. Of course, we were a little shorthanded today, with Misstrade taking a day off and the Scalper on hiatus, but still... we'll take it, it was historic.
ET had a nice solid day and I had a decent day even though I only traded until 11:00am. Everyone else was slightly positive which, is always positive.
Let's see what tomorrow brings. Probably another up day that I'll just shake my head at in wonder... I'll post a brief synopsis of my day later. Right now, I need to go buy a lawnmower, my old one died a quiet death in my garage this past winter.
It won't be missed.
I don't watch the Soprano's but I regularly watch Wallstrip. Anyway, I don't even have HBO. Even if I did, I probably wouldn't watch the Soprano's because I'm Italian and I hate that everything Italian has to be mob related. I won't even start on the Olive Garden commercials..., but click that link for a hilarious parody of one.
Anyway, so I went on Youtube hoping someone had posted the clip of Lindsay in the Sopranos. No luck. However, I found this Hallmark ad that she was in.
I rate it a 10 on a puke-meter. It almost made me throw up. Who writes these ads? Does this shit sell cards? Lindsay was good though even if this stuff is below her.
It's been awhile since I posted one of these, but I couldn't resist.
Check out that 10 minutes of complete lunacy and disorder between 9:40 and 9:50 this morning. I don't have time to post a detailed analysis of this one (since it's the middle of the day) but I thought some of you might enjoy having a reason to say "Wow"!
Anyway, yet another bearish reversal in the indexes. Let's see if the market can hold on here. If not, we may be in for some (gasp!) down days in the near future!
Misstrade was the first to point out Ron Paul to me as a good candidate. I consider myself an independent, so even though he's a Republican (party of Bush, don't forget) I'll consider him.
Well, you know he must have some good ideas when it's clear that Fox News is out to get him. Makes you realize why the Democrats won't participate in any debates sponsored by Fox. Unfair and unbalanced.
Just to get everyone in the mood this morning. Let's make some money today.
This really should be a "music video of the week" but after the churning session I went through today I needed something with some kick.
Right now, I can't stop listening to Animal Collective.
I'll be at the Seaport Festival on June 1st where they'll be playing for free. With my trading where it's at, free is good. Enjoy!
Today was a very frustrating trading day. I think that I had some pretty good gains by 11:30 and gave almost all of it away by the end of the day. Worse yet, I feel like I was on the right side of the market (short) all afternoon and kept getting squeezed out of positions at awful prices.
I just wasn't sharp today, or the market was very choppy. Probably a little of both.
TNH was the highlight again for me though I probably gave back over $1000 in him. That's a stock I should have stopped trading at 11:00 am. Rookie mistake, inexcusable, really. I'm not going to post all my trades in this stock today like I did yesterday, just because I overtraded him. It would take me all afternoon to type all the trades in. I traded over 10,000 shares in TNH alone, mostly in 200 and 300 share lots. Churn and burn.
Another highlight was the SPY. I read on EvolutionTrader's blog yesterday that he has been dabbling in it and so have I. And it's perfect today. I feel I read the market correctly (weakening) and so I traded SPY well, but I was getting chopped up in individual stocks.
Volume was pretty high today on the NYSE versus recent sessions. I think we can expect more volatility in the next few weeks. Bad for investors probably, good for traders hopefully.
I'm glad I finished green today. I really had no idea when I opened my P&L at the close where I would be. I must have had an excellent morning, because the afternoon felt pretty awful.
Anyway, let's see if I can get another green day tomorrow.
The confidence level is slowly improving despite the blowup from Friday.
Here's the stats:
P&L, $230
Best, TNH, $429
Worst, AG, -$354
shares traded, 81,200
stocks traded, 22, 10 positive, 12 negative
total trades, 415
