Well, just after 12:00 it seems that my orders all cleared. That kind of "glitch" really throws my day off.
Since we're in the middle of the day and not a whole lot seems to be happening, I'll probably just chill out until 2pm and see if things look any more interesting then.
I have 3 small long positions as we work our way into the middle of the day. Yawn.
Technically, this is a "stock market blog" since that is what I do for a living and because it's the fuel that feeds the drama of my everyday life.
However, you should know, I don't give a damn about stocks or the stock market and, in fact, I don't like most people who do.
It's just one of the ironies of my life.
Anyway, it's 10:40 and the "NYSE is having streetwide issues". In other words, I have a bunch of orders hanging and I'm not sure if I've been filled or not. In these situations, the rule is, I lose money. So, I'm going to sit and wait until I hear that things are okay again with the damn SIAC lines or whatever is causing the trouble this time...
Whatever your thoughts on the Hybrid Market may be, I don't think anyone can argue that since its implementation there have been far more days where "streetwide issues" effect trade. Remember the 500 point drop in February?
Anyway, here's another great song. Courtesy of the Pitchfork Media Forkcast.
Currently, I am out of my cave, blogging (with stolen internet access) from Morningside Heights, Manhattan. Our friend was kind enough the let us stay at her place while she's out of town.
At 1am there was a group of kids on the street yelling at each other for 30 minutes. No fight broke out, but there was plenty of screaming and cursing. One guy yelled, over and over again, seemingly for the full half hour, "I'm gonna FUCK that n***** up!"
I looked for a stray hammer, crowbar or whatever to keep near me in bed should the shouting erupt into a full gang war and somehow spread into my friend's apartment (which is on the second floor, so the guys really felt like they were "in" the apartment). Happily, the "discussion" stayed at street level and my daughter slept through it all.
I woke up this morning cuddling a small hammer and felt slightly absurd.
Anyway, so clearly I have chosen to take the day off. Please head over to EvolutionTrader's blog today for the VO. I'm typing on a mac and can't figure out how to create a hyperlink... forgive me, ET.
Hey, check EvolutionTrader today for the VO. It's possible he is posting the numbers today and tomorrow because I will be unable to post.
If it's not there, feel free to leave him a nasty comment.
-DT
Since I'm being delinquent and taking off tomorrow, I thought this was fitting. From one of my favorite movies, Slacker.
Not my normal music taste, but a friend of mine pointed this singer out to me. I like her.
Well, the last 3 months have been a wild ride. Too wild for my taste.
8 years of trading and 2 down months. I like to make a little money everyday and minimize my losses on the down days. Every once in awhile you can have a big day. That has been my M.O. from the very beginning.
When I worked in the city other traders would have wild swings. They'd make big one day and then lose it the next. That's never been what I'm about as a trader. There were times when I wouldn't lose over $500 in a single day for months on end. That kind of consistency makes this (rather stressful) job much less stressful. But since March I have taken some big hits and the stress level went straight up. I'm hoping that it is all behind me now.
Though I doubt it is, completely.
Even days like yesterday rarely happened to me when I was "on". So I'm hoping that this summer will really see me regain my footing now that I have broken my down-month streak and that I can start to earn enough money to make this job worthwhile again.
Unfortunately, today I learned that my prop firm is passing along the NYX reg NMS fees. So that's another hurdle to overcome. I paid over $500 this month in those new fees. The more little fees they attach like that and the less sense it makes to actively daytrade because they eat directly into profit. We'll see what happens on that front. I may have to start shopping around for a new firm. I'd love to hear if other prop firms are passing these fees along. Please feel free to comment.
Anyway, my best stock of the day was DE. Here's a 2-minute graph of the stock today.
Here's some of the trades I made in DE.
9:44:48 Buy 300 @ 119.73 (300)
9:44:59 Buy 400 @ 119.75 (700)
9:45:46 Buy 100 @ 120 (800)
9:48:06 Sell 300 @ 119.94 (500)
9:50:11 Sell 100 @ 120.13 (400)
9:51:26 Buy 200 @ 119.69 (600)
9:53:53 Sell 200 @ 120.24 (400)
9:58:02 Sell 100 @ 120.60 (300)
9:59:04 Sell 100 @ 120.53 (200)
10:02:14 Sell 100 @ 120.80 (100)
10:11:05 Sell 100 @ 120.80 (flat)
I made a few other trades in DE as well, but was mostly flat to slightly negative in them.
The key to my number today though was that I minimized my losses. My biggest loser was for $59 in WCC. This is going to be my focus going forward. Minimizing losses. I'm seeing the opportunities to make money, now I need to get the discipline to stop the ugly losers and everything should be okay.
A lot of my losers are coming from having stubborn conviction or simply lunging at trades. As Misstrade said to me once, "Patience little grasshopper." and he is correct.
Incidentally, check the interview he has on his site about his trading methods. Good stuff! And it's nice to see one of the original VOers get some recognition. If you've been following along here you know he's been on a great streak from the VO inception.
Anyway, I'm out of here for the rest of the day. I may also take tomorrow off. I'm trying to get in touch with EvolutionTrader to see if he can post the VO for the next two days. If not, it will be here again on Monday.
The VO is set to change soon. Stay tuned.
Anyway, here's the stats:
P&L, $1441
Best, DE $466
Worst, WCC, -$59
shares traded, 19,600
stocks traded, 13, 9 positive, 4 negative
total trades, 113
I'll come away from this month with a little over $1000 in my pocket.
Well, while I've been struggling with my intraday trading lately, at least my longer-term account is doing well. GAIA and MVIS (thanks Fly) are working wonders today.
Anyway, I've made some money here early with good trades in DE, ITG and CNH. Not sure if I've pulled positive for the month or not, but at least I've made it very close. I can start June with a pretty clear head. I have noticed some of my confidence returning despite another poor month. I am no longer as confused by the Freaky Hybrid trades. Now, they are just something that happens and I shake my head at them and think wistfully about the past.
I'm taking a half day today because a friend of mine has an art show in the city. I like to support artists and other poor people. Makes me feel better about myself.
I had a rough day today mentally. So, despite not having made a dime in the last 3 months, I went out and bought a wetsuit. I haven't surfed in 15 years. Why not?
Misstrade, $4000 on 4400 shares traded.
EvolutionTrader, -$40 on 12,600 shares traded.
Me, -$1213 on 41,400 shares traded.
This one broke my spirit. I didn't know it at the time, but I was already down over $600 on the day. Here's what happened.
14:05:44 Short 800 @ 47.32 (-800)
14:12:49 Buy 300 @ 47.86 (-500)
14:16:46 Buy 200 @ 47.87 (-300)
14:19:19 Buy 300 @ 47.89 (flat)
At the time, DE had dropped a point in 10 minutes and so I was playing the pair. The first mistake I made was entering a market order. I entered the order when the stock was trading near 47.55. I was filled at 47.32. It's a force of habit that makes me enter market orders still but I need to learn not to do that anymore. The hybrid market eats me alive when I do.
So, I was filled a penny off the low of the move on my short and then got immediately squeezed for over a half point and lost $450 on the trade. This one felt awful and I basically closed out my remaining positions and walked away knowing that my account was firmly in the red again.
After waking this morning in the green with 2 trading days left in the month, my plan was to take it easy. But basically, the trade I highlighted in CNH happened to me over and over in him. I lost $885 in that one stock today. It was one of those days where nothing went right for me.
To make matters worse, I had a couple of trades that really would have worked for me had I hung in there, mainly ITU and CPT.
Anyway, I feel gross. I just can't trade this market on the long side right now. Especially with the gap down off the open, it just added to my bearishness. So I was way too skittish on my long trades, getting out at the slightest hint of a downturn and too stubborn on my shorts. Disaster.
And now I go into tomorrow staring at my third negative month in a row.
Anyway, here's the stats:
P&L, -$1213
Best, ITU, $72
Worst, CNH, -$885
shares traded, 41,400
stocks traded, 13, 4 positive, 9 negative
total trades, 157
Okay, I love whales too. They're hard not to like. But I'm beginning to hate those whales in California.
Actually, it's not the whales I hate, it's the media that is tracking their every move that I hate. Frankly, I'm tired of hearing about the "heroic efforts" that are leading them back to freedom. Do people really care so much about whales? Then how about the media takes more time to report on stuff like this.
It's like Anna Nichole Smith all over again but this time with whales. And they're on every network. Please... just keep telling us about the war so we realize what a mistake it was and never let it happen again.
Or educate people about who represents them... something, anything, but enough about the whales already.
POT was my worst stock of the day. Here are my trades in it:
11:03:42 Short 200 @ 204.75 (-200)
11:09:56 Short 100 @ 204.74 (-300)
11:13:35 Buy 100 @ 205.25 (-200)
11:23:46 Buy 200 @ 205.61 (flat)
13:21:18 Short 200 @ 202.55 (-200)
14:01:01 Buy 100 @ 202.82 (-100)
14:44:16 Buy 100 @ 202.24 (flat)
The reason why I am posting my trades in POT and not my best stock of the day, AMR, is because the POT trade really marked the turning point of the day.
I had a good, easy morning, low stress trades and no significant losers. I looked at POT and saw that it was still up over 4 points on the day and that the market was acting weak and TNH had already reversed. So, I sold short and placed my stops about 75 cents away. In any normal stock I keep them much closer, but since POT is so expensive, 75 cents is really not much of a move.
As you can see, I sold a little too early. He hit my stops and filled me only about 20 cents from the top. Once he made that move, he reversed quickly and decisively and never really gave me an opportunity for a solid reentry. So, I missed the 4 point move. Instead of making over $1000 on the trade, I lost $250. More importantly, I lost my morning momentum. I really barely traded after my loss in POT because I didn't want to churn the rest of my profits away.
That's really where I am right now. If I have a good morning I'm just trying to hold the profits. I'm not going to be too aggressive because there have been too many times recently where I'm over-trading and churning profits away.
I am now up a few hundred dollars on the month with only 2 days to go. I can see a light at the end of the tunnel.
Other trades of note were good shorts in SPG and CPT after the morning run and long AMR because of the weakness in oil prices.
Here's the stats:
P&L, $680
Best, AMR, $652
Worst, POT, -$226
shares traded, 23,200
stocks traded, 7, 4 positive, 3 negative
total trades, 99
Misstrade, $4880 on 14,000 shares traded.
Me, $680 on 23,200 shares traded.
Dehtrader, -$342 on 7600 shares traded.
Well, with the unofficial start of the summer, the VO has taken in down a gear.
OBAT will be on hiatus for the next month. He's taking a vacation. Must be nice to live the life of a playboy. ET also took a day off.
Misstrade had a couple of nice trades today and landed himself some nice gains on a day that's "supposed to be slow." Always have to be on the ready for easy money. Nice trading, MT. I myself had some decent, non-stressful gains. Would like to end the month with 2 more just like today.
My daily post will be a little late tonight. It was my wife's birthday over the weekend and today she's going out with her friends. So during the early evening I will be a Dad and not a blogger.
It's always difficult waking up after a long weekend.
Instead of assuming it's going to be slow because it generally is after a 3-day weekend, I'm gonna keep an open mind and see what the market has to offer.
He addresses two of my biggest concerns: the environment and the propaganda machine we call "the media".
Misstrade, $1144 on 3400 shares traded.
EvolutionTrader, $196 on 15,400 shares traded.
One Bad-Ass Trader, -$3 on 2400 shares traded.
Denarii, -$152 on 400 shares traded.
Me, -$401 on 14,000 shares traded.
Dehtrader, -$509 on 10,000 shares traded.
Well, it wasn't as slow as I thought it would be, but it was a Friday before Memorial Day nonetheless. So, even if it isn't that slow, you think it's gonna be slow so you take the foot off the gas pedal a bit.
Anyway, everyone enjoy the long weekend. If you're going out to the Hamptons, be respectful and drive safely.
