Bob Dylan, "It's Alright Ma, (I'm Only Bleeding)"

I won't be posting much today. I took a day away from the markets and had my best surf session since I started again a couple of months ago. I caught countless clean rides as the wind shifted here overnight to slight offshore. It's a beautiful day.

Anyway, so I'm posting one of my favorite songs of all time with the lyrics. I wish we had someone to write songs like this today. I've bolded some of the lyrics that stand out to me as being particularly meaningful. Enjoy.

Meanwhile, I probably be very late with the VO. We are having company out midday and through dinner. I will also try and throw another post up later this evening.

Hope you're having a good day.




Darkness at the break of noon
Shadows even the silver spoon
The handmade blade, the child's balloon
Eclipses both the sun and moon
To understand you know too soon
There is no sense in trying.

Pointed threats, they bluff with scorn
Suicide remarks are torn
From the fool's gold mouthpiece
The hollow horn plays wasted words
Proves to warn
That he not busy being born
Is busy dying.

Temptation's page flies out the door
You follow, find yourself at war
Watch waterfalls of pity roar
You feel to moan but unlike before
You discover
That you'd just be
One more person crying.

So don't fear if you hear
A foreign sound to your ear
It's alright, Ma, I'm only sighing.

As some warn victory, some downfall
Private reasons great or small
Can be seen in the eyes of those that call
To make all that should be killed to crawl
While others say don't hate nothing at all
Except hatred.

Disillusioned words like bullets bark
As human gods aim for their mark
Made everything from toy guns that spark
To flesh-colored Christs that glow in the dark
It's easy to see without looking too far
That not much
Is really sacred.

While preachers preach of evil fates
Teachers teach that knowledge waits
Can lead to hundred-dollar plates
Goodness hides behind its gates
But even the president of the United States
Sometimes must have
To stand naked.

And though the rules of the road have been lodged
It's only people's games that you got to dodge
And it's alright, Ma, I can make it.

Advertising signs that con you
Into thinking you're the one
That can do what's never been done
That can win what's never been won
Meantime life outside goes on
All around you.

You lose yourself, you reappear
You suddenly find you got nothing to fear
Alone you stand with nobody near
When a trembling distant voice, unclear
Startles your sleeping ears to hear
That somebody thinks
They really found you.

A question in your nerves is lit
Yet you know there is no answer fit to satisfy
Insure you not to quit
To keep it in your mind and not forget
That it is not he or she or them or it
That you belong to.

Although the masters make the rules
For the wise men and the fools
I got nothing, Ma, to live up to.

For them that must obey authority
That they do not respect in any degree
Who despise their jobs, their destinies
Speak jealously of them that are free
Cultivate their flowers to be
Nothing more than something
They invest in.

While some on principles baptized
To strict party platform ties
Social clubs in drag disguise
Outsiders they can freely criticize
Tell nothing except who to idolize
And then say God bless him.

While one who sings with his tongue on fire
Gargles in the rat race choir
Bent out of shape from society's pliers
Cares not to come up any higher
But rather get you down in the hole
That he's in.

But I mean no harm nor put fault
On anyone that lives in a vault
But it's alright, Ma, if I can't please him.

Old lady judges watch people in pairs
Limited in sex, they dare
To push fake morals, insult and stare
While money doesn't talk, it swears
Obscenity, who really cares
Propaganda, all is phony.

While them that defend what they cannot see
With a killer's pride, security
It blows the minds most bitterly
For them that think death's honesty
Won't fall upon them naturally
Life sometimes
Must get lonely.

My eyes collide head-on with stuffed graveyards
False gods, I scuff
At pettiness which plays so rough
Walk upside-down inside handcuffs
Kick my legs to crash it off
Say okay, I have had enough
What else can you show me?

And if my thought-dreams could be seen
They'd probably put my head in a guillotine
But it's alright, Ma, it's life, and life only.


Copyright © 1965; renewed 1993 Special Rider Music

Zero 7, "In The Waiting Line"

A Long Conversation

So I had a bad day. My computer is off (my work computer) and I'm not going to dredge all that crap up again. I short UBB heavily and it spiked up almost a point.

But my day had a happy ending. I drove back out to the beach and had a great conversation with a perfect stranger. In my experience, people generally piss me off, almost immediately, so it was a refreshing change of pace.

Anyway, I did a lot of writing today, although not the kind I throw up here on the blog. Perhaps eventually it will work it's way here in some form.

For now, I'm off to bed.

I don't expect to trade much tomorrow.

Virtual Office, $555. Dow, -16.74. 13,291.65.

Misstrade, $1065 on 2500 shares traded.
Evolution, $1007 on 38,200 shares traded.
Akalawoo, $262 on 6 contracts traded.
Bubs, $139 on 1800 shares traded.
Denarii, $28 on 1400 shares traded.
OBAT, vacation.
Tapeworm, -$562 on 10 contracts traded.
Me, -$1384 on 33,600 shares traded.

The fucking market is going to sleep. SHHHHHH!

We traded a whopping 1,258,775,000 shares today.

The Jewish holidays start tonight, the Fed meets on Tuesday... I wonder if we break a billion shares the next 3 days. Shalom.

Try as I did to bring the VO negative today with my craptastic trading performance, it was impossible. The VO traders are too good to get bombed like that.

Meanwhile, how many days does Maria celebrate her damned birthday? Made a bad day worse for me, seeing her all happy and fake-giggling.

Anyway, guess what? I'm going to the beach. I'll be back later.

Red Tide

At the end of the day yesterday, I went to the beach to look at the surf.

We were hit with a "red tide" and the breaking waves had a bloody look to them. Bloody waves and strong winds made it look a little scary and I didn't go out.

This morning, I got to the break before sunrise and things had calmed a bit, but not too much. The red tide was still blooming but I decided to give it a whirl anyway, fully expecting to get punished by what the local surf report was describing as "gnarly" waves.

Paddling out was tough. I got slapped in the face immediately and spit out that red algae shit. It was disgusting. Making matters worse, I opted for the long board today since I thought the swell was going to dissipate a bit overnight. It's more difficult to get under large waves with a longboard than a shortboard. The swell hadn't dissipated at all. 4 and 5 foot waves were common with a couple rogue sets of 6+ footers out there.

I was turtle rolling left and right, huffing, puffing and paddling. It's amazing how much stronger my arms are now than they were only 2 months ago when I began surfing again. There was finally a lull to the waves and with a few strong paddles, I was "outside."

Normally, you do most of the hard work on the "inside" where the waves are breaking and rushing the shore. However, even "outside" there was a lot of work to be done today. I was getting pushed west very quickly and had to expend a lot of energy paddling east every 5-minutes or so just to keep my place.

The winds were too strong, the current fast and the waves choppy. I was getting tired. It was like trading 100,000 shares for $100 in profit. Tough and frustrating. I guess that's why it was just me and my buddy out there.

In the end, I caught one excellent ride and wiped out twice. As I paddled back in through the red sludge I smelled strongly of the tide. I walked out of the water and onto the shore. I removed my leash and took a look back at the angry waves. I was out of breath but I felt like I had accomplished something.

Anyway, "red tide" has also washed up on my trading desk. I hit my loss limit for the day... I am done. Score one for the "haters."

After my massive August I don't see any reason to piss money away during these low volume headfakes... soon enough the volume should return and make this a market worth trading again. Until then, I've decided to trade extremely lightly... hopefully volume comes back after the Fed meeting.

Why CROX Are So Popular

If you watch this very funny Daily Show clip carefully, you will finally come to understand why CROX are so popular. This is something I've debated with Trading Goddess here and there, so hopefully, she'll be paying attention.

It's mindblowing... and it's not those little plastic toys that you attach to the shoes, TG.



HINT: If you're pressed for time, go to the 3:40 mark of the video for the beginning of the answer.

Ocean Meditation

Just in case the media tweaked your anxiety level today. Take a breath.

Blahhhhh-ging.

Perhaps you've noticed that there's been a little less energy and effort in my daily posts recently. There's a good reason. It's all about the surf. With the sun rising later in the morning, I've been forced to go out in the afternoons, right after the close (hence the partial VO numbers.) I get back home, eat dinner, play with my daughter and put her to sleep. By the time I'm through with all that, it's 8:30 and I'm just done for the day.

So, I apologize.

Today was an awful day for me. All day long I was down because I couldn't find any winners. It was a day to trade the open and then step away. Unfortunately, Bob Pisani never tells you when it's a good day to trade. CNBC just drools over the numbers which apparently, were "patriotic" today.

I had 4 stocks in the green today, not one was a winner over $100. On the flip side, I had 12 stocks in the red, 3 with losses greater than $100. Not much was working.

As I mentioned on Wallstreak, these are the most frustrating days because you look up, see the Dow up 180 and think, "Wow, why aren't I making money?" Trading doesn't work like that...

Anyway, here's the sleepy stats:

P&L, -$669
Best, DE, $91
Worst, QID, -$206

24,800 shares traded.
16 stocks traded, 4 winners, 12 losers.
119 trades.

Virtual Office, $4065. Dow, +180.54, 13308.39.

Misstrade, $4840 on 6000 shares traded.
Evolution, $652 on 84,100 shares traded.
OBAT, vacation.
Tapeworm, -$25 on 4 contracts traded.
Denarii, -$47 on 2000 shares traded.
Bubs, -$69 on 1100 shares traded.
Akalawoo, -$619 on 6 contracts traded.
Me, -$667 on 24,800 shares traded.

Okay, well, today was one of those days where I should have stayed in bed...

Just an ugly day to trade. You can tell. Usually a majority of the VOers are green, today it's just the opposite.

This is why I started the VO. It's like an indicator. It lets you know whether it was easy to trade or hard. Today it was hard.

That's not to say there weren't opportunities. Just that they were few and far between. Check out LVS or OSG today. There was stuff moving.

Light volume rally... sigh.

UPDATED: With Misstrade and Akalawoo's numbers.

Great Rally, But Where's The VOLUME???

Seriously! Does someone want to explain this? We have a nice rally on all the major indexes but once again, volume is light.

That really makes me doubt the strength of this move.

So, I'm putting my money where my mouth is and buying a few hundred QID for the swing account. I bought 300 at $43.45.

Time will tell. But I have to follow my conviction here and make this trade. If the "big money" believed in this move or liked the market here, they'd be buying hand over fist. That's just not happening.

That said, should we get a rally with good volume, I'll cover this position immediately.

UPDATE: Art Cashin, one of the only people on CNBC I listen to just said that this rally is like a "platypus." Why? "It's got some odd points to it... low volume, financials aren't really participating and 50-60 Dow points are in 3 stocks..."

Great Movie Scene

Chatter on Wallstreak today about the book I just finished reading, "The Search For Captain Zero" led to a mention of John Cusack which immediately made me think of the movie, "Better Off Dead."

I checked Youtube but couldn't find any of the classic clips from that flick. However, in searching, I found this great clip from the movie "High Fidelity."

Now unless you've seen the movie, it won't be that funny. However, understand that the guy who drops the air conditioner on Tim Robbins is a really meek and quiet guy in the movie who is constantly bullied by Jack Black's character. When he smacks the dude with the phone and finishes him off with the air conditioner... well, that's just good comedy.

Meanwhile, if you haven't seen the movie, don't. Instead, read the book. It's for people who love music, especially my kind of music... that is, good music.

Look How They Shine For You

The second plane passed about 100 feet over my head on 9/11. I'll never forget the sound of it (first) and then the sight. I originally planned on writing a post about my experiences that day. However, it will have to wait. It will no doubt work it's way into a "history" post someday.

Meanwhile, I'll just post this video. After the attack, we got out of the city and were glued to the TV all day long in the panelled recesses of my in-laws basement. The next thing I knew, it was 5:30 at night. I couldn't believe an entire day had passed.

This video came on MTV. At the bottom of the screen, there was a scroll running and it said something along the lines of, "We want to express our sympathies for all of the families who lost their loved ones today in the attack on the World Trade Center..." Of course, I don't remember exactly what it said, but I'll never forget the "feeling."

And for good or for bad, when I hear this song I'm brought right back to my in-laws basement, scared, watching the TV with my wife and suddenly hopeful that everyone will band together and things are going to work out.



For now, let's forget about what killed that hopeful feeling.

Spent

I outdid myself during last night's surf session. When the alarm went off at 5:00am, I just couldn't budge. It didn't help that it was raining pretty hard and a strong cool breeze was blowing through the window.

I'm gambling that the swell will still be there at the end of the day. We'll see. There will be something at least... I may need to switch back to the longboard though. Yesterday was my first day out on the shortboard in a long time.

Anyway, as for trade it looks like we may gap up a bit. Frankly, I don't care if we go up or down I just want to see some good trading volume come back into the market. Still, I think we may have to wait until the Fed meeting for the real volume to return.

Looks like CFC needs more money... oh, brother!

Meanwhile, I can't believe I just linked to the Post... sigh.

The Beatles, "Across The Universe"

The surf was bigger here today than it's been in a long time. That meant that I got smoked out there from time to time. However, I also caught a great ride...

Point is, I'm fucking tired. I stayed out there until it was close to dark and I plan on going out again at dawn, so it's bedtime.

No daily post.

I'll say this though... I had 15 winners and 7 losers. My 7 losses only added up to $350. I really made some great trades today, but unfortunately, only with like, 200 and 300 share positions. It was a little frustrating.

Meanwhile, here's a great song about perspective if you're in need of some. HPT got a little smoked today so I'll dedicate it to him. Head over and send him some encouragement and positivity.

Virtual Office, $4784. Dow, +14.47, 13127.85.

Evolution, $4037 on 154,200 shares traded.
Me, $1157 on 21,800 shares traded.
Tapeworm, $336 on 14 contracts traded.
Bubs, flat on 50 shares traded.
OBAT, vacation.
Akalawoo, -$746 on 20 contracts traded.

I had to get out of here right at 4pm, so this is only a partial VO. I'll update it and my daily post when I get back from the surf. The swell is up!

UPDATE: Okay, so while I'm out surfing, Evolution turns in a monster of a day. Probably one of his best ever.

It was a good day for trading stocks today. Things were trending very nicely. However, the volume was light again as we only managed to push through 1,343,202,000 shares on the NYSE. The indexes were mixed (which I always hate) and volatile.

Things should be interesting for the next couple of weeks. We have the big brokers reporting soon and the FED day looming on the 18th. Get our your hardhats and be ready for some interesting trade.

Covered FED Swing Short, Short LAZ

Taking "the Fly's" recommendation, I short some LAZ today at $38.30. It's showing some good downside volume today.



Meanwhile, I've made a quick point in my FED short. I'm going to cover due to the large short interest (almost 60%).

In fact, next time we get a good bounce, I think FED will be a great stock to own for the short squeeze alone.

Funny Security Cam Videos

This poor guy tried to rob a place and just got the shit kicked out of him by his own stupidity.

Sure, it's not the norm here at Dinosaur Trader, but it might make a few of you smile here during lunchtime.

Black Moth Super Rainbow, "Sun Lips"

I haven't heard this song in a few months. I heard it today and I realized I missed it.

All I'll say about trading today is that I really screwed up a bit. I made like, 12 good trades but I never sized into any of them. In short, I'm up, but I could be up much more. Vacation is over and I need to start stepping up again.

Anyway, very catchy tune... you'll find yourself humming it and repeating the chant, "I love to be with you, and the sun will rise. The sun, will rise!"

New Animal Collective Album, "Strawberry Jam" Out Tomorrow

Be the first trader on your desk to own it.

Here's the glowing review from Pitchfork. In my experience, if Pitchfork rates it over 9.0 it's a "safe buy." Don't even worry about entry, just click it in there.

Also, here's an acoustic version of one of the songs off the new album. It can't be easy to cover an Animal Collective song, so this guy deserves from praise.

In fact, dude covers a lot of songs I like over on Youtube. Cheers, Cougarman7!

First Day Of School

As I type this, my daughter is sleeping peacefully in the room adjacent to my office. In 2 1/2 hours, I fully expect her to be in the midst of a "purple faced" freakout as I try to drop her off for her first day of nursery school.

People say she's still "attached" to Judy and it's something people say quite offhand with an, "awww... isn't that cute?" type of tone to their voice. However, in our case, when we say she's "attached" we mean it quite literally.

Most of the time, she is grasping onto Judy's lower leg like she's a spider monkey or something.

Hopefully, she finds my leg less appealing.

Over the weekend we were speaking with a friend who has an older child. We asked her how it was dropping off her daughter for the first time.

"Oh, no problem!" she said with a flip of her hand. "She got there, saw all the kids playing and in about 10 seconds flat forgot I was even there with her. Just keep her away from the screaming kids though," she warned. "There's always one or two of them."

Judy and I nodded with tight smiles on our faces.

So I'll be lucky to get back by the opening bell. But hey, if I miss it and get all screwed up, there's a nice swell here finally, compliments of Gabrielle.

UPDATE: I dropped her off and she was hesitant but fine. However, after I left, apparently she cried for an hour straight. That really sucks...