Minutemen, "This Ain't No Picnic"

This seemed fitting. I'm in a bad mood.

Who Loves The Sun?

I'm going to make this quick, because I'm still really pissed about what I just did to torpedo my day and I just want to get away from the computer.



A lot of my trades come from sectors. For example, I see all the fertilizer stocks on the move and I buy the laggard, or a sell the leader. Often, these trades will work (on a short time frame) and you can book decent profits this way.

However, now and then, you get smacked with this style.

I was up nicely at noon when I decided to head out for lunch and take a breather. I brought my board to the shop to get a fresh ding repaired and then I came back to look at the market at 2:45. All of my shorts from the morning (CF, LDK) worked like charms but I was already out of my positions.

I was pissed that I missed the sell off.

So I scanned around and saw that all the solar stocks reversed. Except TSL. So I started getting short into what I saw a little "squeeze" just after 3pm between $54 and $55. To make a long story short, TSL simply wasn't following the rest of the solars down. He kept going up and I got squeezed.

To make matters worse, I was trading this thin stock with too many shares. So, I completely blew up in the last hour of the day, wiping out all of my gains and starting the week with a bad one.

Here's the stats:

P&L, -$818
Best, LDK, $573
Worst, TSL, -$524

46,000 shares traded.
7 winners, 13 losers
170 trades.

Virtual Office, $7861. Dow, -61.13, 13,759.06.

Momojuicing, $4962 on 13,400 shares traded.
Misstrade, $3164 on 9000 shares traded.
Bubs, $290 on 3000 shares traded.
OBAT, $235 on 2800 shares traded.
Akalawoo, $152 on 41 contracts traded.
Denarii, -$6 on 1000 shares traded.
Tapeworm, -$118 on 18 contracts traded.
Me, -$818 on 46,000 shares traded.

You know, the last two times I've added new traders to the VO I've gotten smoked... Damn VO...

Anyway, some entrance! Momojuicing decided to juice enough Momo out of the market that he had to buy a second refrigerator to hold it all. Okay, awful joke. But give me a break, I just got smoked.

So to be honest, I'm a little too pissed about my own "fucktardedness" in the last hour of trade to dwell too much on the "bigger picture." I'll say this, volume still sucks in this market and I'm a little tired of it. We'll trade just over 1,300,000,000 today. Lame.

At least I'm reading a good book... Tapping The Source by Kem Nunn. I recommend it if you like surf novels. I'm going to go bury my head in it now and forget about the market until tomorrow.

New Member Of The VO

That's right. We're going to be adding and dropping members until we have the chemistry here just right. Expect more changes in the coming weeks.

Momojuicing has a new blog and it looks like it could be a winner. He's been trading for awhile, trades everyday, and more importantly, trades stocks intraday thereby making him a perfect fit for the VO.

So without further ado, please go visit his shiny new blog and see what you can learn from him.

I'm thrilled to have another intraday stock-trader in the office.

Day Trading Still Misunderstood

95% fail? I mean, where do these statistics come from? In my experience it's more like 50%.

Anyway, no gratuitous hot chicks in this video... actually, that's not entirely true. "Bambi" was pretty cute.



(h/t HPT)

Yoga That Everyone Can Enjoy

I don't have any great post ready right now, and since it's the weekend and I feel like relaxing, I figured I would just throw up this video of a hot chick doing yoga.

Completely gratuitous and cheap, I know, but worthwhile.

Preliminary Virtual Office

I'm out of here. I may not have a connection until tomorrow or Sunday.

So the VO will be very late, like, probably Sunday. Here's a quickie:

I made $427 on 15,200 shares traded.
Bubs, made $93 on 1200 shares traded.
Akalawoo didn't trade. His ass is on VO probation since he never trades.
Evolution is on vacation.

Have a good weekend everyone.

Dinosaur Comic

Hattip, Denarii.



You can check the comic in full size here.

Here's what the panels say:

Panel 1: I have an extra $50 that I have saved. I believe I will put it in my bank account!

Panel 2: No, T-Rex. That is a bad idea. (T-REX says) Explain!

Panel 3: If you leave money in your bank account it gets interest but if it's not as much as inflation, you're actually losing money plus your investments could be making more on the stock market. (T-REX says) Fine! I'll invest my stupid $50 in the stupid stock market. Okay? Happy? I'll invest my $50 in a company that makes neckties for underachieving dogs.

Panel 4: But before you do that, T-Rex, you should consider your investment goals! (T-REX says) Man!

Panel 5: Seriously! This is important. You need to decide: what do you want out of your invesments? Security? Rapid growth? (T-REX says) Listen, all I want out of life is for my bank account to have $58,008 dollars in it, so that when I read my statement upside down it says, "BOOBS."

Panel 6: Worst answer to "What do you want out of your investments?" question. Today's Champion.

NOTE: After getting smoked right off the open, I made it back and clawed my way into the green. I think I'm done for the week. Also, I added TSL to my swing account today at $50.11.

Ikea Lamp Commercial

I was trolling the internets for trading commercials yesterday when I found this gem.



For lack of a better tag, I'll just throw it in my "old trading commercials" bin.

Wacky $900 Million Trade

Check this out. Hattip to Bloggerdotcom.

Basically, someone bet $900 million that the S&P is going to drop hard and fast by the 21st of September.

Let's hope they're wrong...

UPDATE: By the way, gold hit a 28-year high today.

Edward Abbey, "A Voice In The Wilderness"

From some documentary that was made about him. In the beginning, you hear him reading from Desert Solitaire.

Good stuff. Also check out The Monkey Wrench Gang.

Damn Mexico And It's Homebuilders...

I had a great morning today. I was up a couple grand by 10:00am.

Then, at 10:00am, feeling confident, I short 1200 shares of HXM. This was right before the stock spiked up 80 cents on like 400 shares or something ridiculous like that... anyway, that kind of killed me.



I hear you out there saying something snarky like, "Well, duh! That's what he gets for trading thin stocks," and to that I'll say, "You have a point, but that doesn't mean your wife is being faithful." Think about it...

Anyway, so between HXM and a bunch of other trades that I shouldn't have made, I found myself up $150 by 10:30. Making money and then giving it all back is maybe worse than just losing from the beginning. It's a tough call though. Either way it just sucks.

The good news is that I didn't freak out too much. I still felt good about my morning trades (shorts in RDN, MTG, CNH, DSL) so I wasn't completely broken. I stepped away for awhile.

I came back and noticed that RDN was having trouble regaining the $26 price level.



So I got good and short around $25.70. As you can see from looking at the graph, this was a good idea. Of course, I managed to mess it up a bit since I covered the fat part of my position by $25. I let a measly 200 shares run down below $24.50. Ah, patience... I need some more of it.

Anyway, this brought me back to a respectable level on my day and so I decided to call it quits and check for surf (there was none... things have gone flat).

So on the way back from the beach I sat with my surfing buddy and had a frozen drink while the drunk proprietor of the establishment told us about his coming fame.

"I'm gonna be in a book... that's the author right there!" He slurred, pointing to a balding man.

He continued, spitting while he spoke, "I'm not going to read the book until it's published though. He gave me an advanced copy, but it's bad luck to read unpublished books. Anyway, I live in the Caribbean."

And with that, he stumbled away down the bar to hurl non-sequiturs at other patrons.

Here's the stats:

P&L, $1348
Best, RDN, $1026
Worst, HXM, -$734

54,600 shares traded.
21 stocks traded, 12 winners, 9 losers.
193 trades.

Virtual Office, $8300. Dow, -48.86, 13766.70.

Misstrade, $7049 on 19,500 shares traded.
Me, $1348 on 54,600 shares traded.
Denarii, $121 on 2800 shares traded.
Bubs, no trades.
Akalawoo, no trades.
Tapeworm, sick.
Evolution, vacation.
OBAT, -$218 on 5400 shares traded.

Don't think it's lost on me how lame the VO has been lately. Half our guys don't trade anymore!

Anyway, today was a low volume sell off. In the last few weeks, when we've had low volume days, they've come on the rallies. Perhaps this marks a shift in the market where we rally on higher volume and sell off on low volume. It would be nice, if the market is going to go up, for it to do so in a sensible manner...

I'm guessing volume will be low again tomorrow. Rosh Hashanah started tonight...

Volume Truly Blows; Yesterday's Fees

I just want to note how much volume sucks today...

Yesterday, by 2:30, we had traded, 1,204,017 shares. Today, at 2:30 we hadn't even turned a billion yet, chopping in at just 844,755,000 shares.

That, is pathetic... it also means that we could perhaps rally into the close.

Also, since the other day I said I was going to start keeping track of my daily fees paid to the NYSE and the SEC, I just want to note that yesterday I paid $39.20 split between those two.

Stewart of Ameritrade

You know, I posted this commercial way back on March 23rd, well before my blog reached it's current level of prominence.

So I don't feel too bad about sharing it again, it's a classic. If anyone knows where I can find some of the other old stock trading commercials from around the year 2000, let me know.



NOTE: I'm stepping out. Made a little money, but feel like surfing. So be it. I'll never be a millionaire with this work ethic... so expect a late VO and a later daily post.

Top Stock Market Blogs

If you have an amazon account, you can vote on this list.

You know what to do, people...



NOTE: I have no idea how this thing works... clearly, it is meaningless...

Feathers, "Past The Moon"

That's some monthly chart eh? "Past The Moon" indeed!

Over at Wallstreak, we always make the lame joke about the ticker symbol when someone calls this gem of a stock out.

"You're buying POT? How much? A dime bag?" "Next thing you know, you'll be buying ACID and LSD. After that, you'll be turning tricks and smoking crack." And stuff like that. We have fun.

Anyway, here's a song that will make you want to smoke some of the real stuff. If you like mellow moods, be sure to check it out. It's one of my favorite songs of the last year.

Dinosaur Trader's Golden Smash Hits

For some reason, if you click play from the window on the right sidebar some of the songs are only playing 30 second snippets. If you click "launch standalone player" this problem seems to go away.

Just FYI.

Too Tired To Surf

This is the first morning in a long time that I didn't wake up at 5 to get out and go surfing. I was just too tired. My arms are shot.

Also, I didn't throw up a daily post last night because I was just exhausted.

We went out for a hike after work and then had dinner at this great place where you can watch the sunset. It's always nice to appreciate a sunrise and a sunset in the same day. Helps keep you level.

Anyway, let's see if the extra time for morning research helps, or if I just waste it all reading other stock blogs!

UPDATE: I wasted a lot of time on other blogs... Bluedog has a "Flock Of Seagulls" video posted. "The Fly" has a post on the demise of Ducati. Good stuff!

Virtual Office, $14,889. Dow, +76.17, 13815.56.

Misstrade, $14,400 on 16,500 shares traded.
Me, $422 on 49,800 shares traded.
Denarii, $121 on 4300 shares traded.
Bubs, $0 on 800 shares traded.
Akalawoo, no trades.
Evolution, vacation.
OBAT, -$54 on 7000 shares traded.

Well today has to be one of the oddest VOs ever posted. Everyone basically treads water except Misstrade who turns in a big one. Guess he knows some people on the "inside" eh?

Anyway, so it looks like the market wants to keep going higher. For all the money going into mutual funds (according to Bob Pisani $10 billion in inflows yesterday), you'd think there would be a little more upside volume to this rally. We traded, about 1.6 billion shares today. Better than a couple of weeks ago, but still a fraction of what we were trading to the downside in August. Who knows?

Anyway, more earnings tomorrow.

Meanwhile, how about oil? $80.51. People are all talking about the rate cut and forgetting about oil...