Stocks Reporting Earnings, Tuesday October 23rd.

There are loads today. You can check this link for the whole list.

I'll be focusing on ALB, RE, PRE, CNH and PCP.

Also, I got an interesting email from "bloggerdotcom" today about profiting from the huge fire that is melting southern California. Considering that Bluedog and Danny are from SoCal, perhaps they can give us some information on which insurers we should be shorting here.

Or is that completely tasteless?

Meanwhile, R.I.P Clarence.

How does the "Lester, the Hairy-Nosed Wombat of Stock Market Volatility" roll off the tongue?

Ola Podrida, "Lost And Found"

Well, it was a freaking weird day... why not post a completely random video?

Dead Cat Bounce? Or Stock Market Stability?

I was all ready today to short the shit out of the market... luckily for me, I didn't. Otherwise I would have been demolished.

Still, I tried. For my efforts I lost $1000 between 2pm and 3pm, when the market was actually going down... that's when I decided to stop trading for the day, so I missed the rally from 3pm to 4pm. Frustrating way to end the day...

Anyway, I made almost all of my money getting long the shippers today. EXM, DSX, ANW. I mean, it's hard to be happy about it though. Take a look at DRYS. I feel like I let my bearishness really mess with my trading today... I didn't size up at all in these trades.



The stock bounced from $103 up to $120. Moves like that are "month-makers." Instead, I pulled $200 out of the stock. Depressing.

I'm not going to whine about how much money I should have made today. That's bad form. I'll take my gains and keep trying for another big day soon. My confidence is building again... that's normally a good thing.

Anyway, AAPL just reported and the stock is surging afterhours. Is this market going to go right back up again? What about the SIVs? Turkey and Iraq? Bob Dylan doing a Cadillac advertisement... doesn't this stuff bode poorly for the overall health of the world?

Looks like stock market stability for now.

Here's the stats:
P&L, $1533
Best, EXM, $545
Worst, UBB, -$552

64,000 shares traded.
30 stocks traded, 18 winners, 12 losers.
298 trades.

Virtual Office, $2,342,182. Dow, +44.95, 13,566.97.

Bubs, $2,312,454 on 872,300 shares traded.
Me, $1533 on 64,000 shares traded.
Dehtrader, $1359 on 7800 shares traded.
Evolution, $1116 on 57,600 shares traded.
Momojuicing, $488 on 3000 shares traded.
Denarii, $215 on 4000 shares traded.
Tapeworm, $140 on 4 contracts traded.
Akalawoo, no trades... lots of "staring."
OBAT, -$335 on 7600 shares traded.

Clearly, the veracity of Bubs final posting here in the VO will be some manner of controversy until the end of time... or at least until this blog ceases to be. As he put it when he was leaving, "I'm going out on top, bitch!"

Meanwhile, after the much talked about volatility didn't show up today at the open, I had a difficult conversation with Clarence, "the rodent of stock market volatility." I was like, "What's up? Where the hell is the volume, the volatility?" But it was clear that Clarence was already far away...

Rumors are swirling here at the VO. I've heard from a good source, OBAT, that Bubs got Clarence addicted to Macadamia nuts. Next thing I know, the stock market volatility is gone and with it, Clarence and Bubs... his dealer.

However, as sad as this is we welcome back an old friend to the VO, Dehtrader.

Dehtrader actually emailed me with a tip about the Macadamia nut thing a few weeks back after a post I wrote discussing the lack of volume in the market. He said that he wanted to be back in the VO but couldn't be "part of an organization that felt it was okay to addict impressionable young rodents to Macadamia nuts."

With the departure of Bubs and Clarence, the door was open to invite Dehtrader back in... he "gleefully" accepted.

But back to business. The VO had a pretty darn good day. Almost everyone made money. The one outlier, OBAT, was apparently so distraught by the shake-ups in the VO that he had a hard time focusing on the market. He took a half day.

Should be a very interesting week. I need to find a new mascot of volatility because days like today just aren't going to cut it long term...

Over The Weekend, Maria Didn't Get Any Smarter.

Maria Bartiromo: (with a real sense of urgency in her voice...)"Dylan, looks what's crossing the wires right now (3:40)... we have some imbalances... we'll tell you all about them when we come back."

Again. Will someone please explain to Mrs. Bartiromo that everyday there are (gasp!) imbalances that cross the wires at 3:40 and that they're not newsworthy unless you want to overuse the word "imbalance" to throw the newbies off.

UPDATE: Art Cashin diplomatically explained that the MOC imbalances really had nothing to do with the end of the day move. Instead, he said the market rallied simply because the bears couldn't take it any lower. AC is one of the only worthwhile commentators on CNBC.

FLASH: Big Virtual Office News

It involves Bubs... and Clarence, "the rodent of stock market volatility." They have disappeared together.

More later...

UPDATE: I found a letter from Bubs. It looks like he is leaving the VO. He is moving with Clarence to "Appalachia" where their "way of life" will not be "placed under a microscope."

Folks, this is as shocking to me as it must be for you... frankly, I'm a little speechless.

Phone ringing... it's Dehtrader. I'll be back shortly.

UPDATE II: Dehtrader is back in the VO. He said after hearing about Bubs and Clarence that he "had to do something."

Also, Clarence "the rodent of stock market volatility" has been fired as he failed to produce the necessary volatility this morning. I will find a new mascot for market volatility. Please submit your ideas via the comment section.

Bob Dylan Selling Cadillacs?

What?

The man who wrote "It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)?"

Indeed, not much is really sacred.

Messing Around

Since trade has slowed down currently, I'm messing with my blog template.

Sorry if you experience any "technical difficulties."

Also, let me know, via comments, what you think.

Thanks, DT.

Melissa Francis

She doesn't piss me off that much. In fact, I kind of like her. There! I said it! I like someone at CNBC.

Here's a picture of her from her days on Little House On The Prairie. No kidding.

A Bull Fighting A Bear

You see? They are both weak old men.

Stock Earnings Reports For Monday, October 22

No stocks I love to trade are reporting today.

Here's a list of some that could move.

ASTE, AUO, BOH, CHKP, ECL, GNTX, HAL, HAS, JAKK, KMB, MRK, PVTB, RGS, RCL, SGP, VECO, WFT.

By the way... enjoy all those links. Once I started, I just couldn't stop. Love that new widget!

Also, things heating up on the Turkish-Iraqi border.

Basically, I think the weakness in the US on Friday, the weakness overseas, the strength of the Yen (6-week high) and the Turkey-Iraqi tension will be more important than earnings reports today.

Oh, and don't forget the "Credit Crunch." Shouldn't that be the name of a cereal?

Paper Or Plastic? Canvas.

In the beginning the dude talks about Barack Obama. He makes a great point. However, what I find interesting about this video is the whole portion on plastic and the floating waste dump in the pacific that is TWICE THE SIZE OF TEXAS!

Disgusting. Everyday I go down to the beach and pick up ballons, the tops of 2-liter soda bottles, coffee cup lids... all plastic. As he mentions in the video, nothing can be done about the stuff that's already in the ocean. The only thing that we can do is USE LESS PLASTIC. Please heed his advice. There really is no political argument here... you may label him a liberal or whatever but that's not the point of me posting this.

The environment isn't a political issue, it's a human issue. So keep an open mind.

Black Monday, Terrible Tuesday, Wussy Wednesday

Here's an interview with the WSJ reporter who wrote a Pulitzer Prize winning piece on Black Monday.



Here are the actual articles written in 1987. One. Two.

NOTE: And here's the article referenced by bloggerdotcom in the "comments" section of this weekend's Open Thread.

FLASH: Adding fuel to the fire? Turkey getting pissed. Cheney being Cheney...

UNPRECEDENTED SUPER FLASH: Japan down 3% early...

FINAL WORD BEFORE ARMAGEDDON: Getting serious... I just cleaned my keyboard.

Open Thread: See? The Glass Is Half Full!

Tell us all something we don't know. Or, if you're a pack animal, say something really unoriginal.

NOTE: Here's a great link about "Black Monday" that I ripped off from "Rajun Gayjun." But since no one reads his third-tier blog, I thought it would be better served here.

NOTE II: I interrupt this "Open Thread" to deliver a link of Stephen Colbert on "Meet The Press" discussing his presidential candidacy. I can't find it on Youtube yet, so just click the link and you can watch it from that site.

Oh yeah, speaking of Colbert and his bid for the presidency, go vote on the damn poll.

Black Moth Super Rainbow, "Sunlips"

Excellent video, great song. Has a touch of Wes Anderson in some of the shots.

Blood On The Streets? Hardly.

Perhaps it was just too much to have the anniversary of Black Monday and the 50 year (or something) anniversary of the Wilhelm Scream fall during the same week.

Whatever. Relax. The market will go back up next week. It always does.

As "Tradercaddy" sagely pointed out over at "the Fly's" to make today like the Friday before Black Monday, the market would have had to close down 3500 points (or something).

Anyway.

I was largely out of the market today due to "technical difficulties" at my company in the first 30 minutes of trading. So I was actually on the phone with them at 9:31 when I should have been hitting the market with all of my force. I called in a "locate" on DRYS near $126 (no joke) and they never returned my call. It's service like that that makes a man consider trading for a new company.

My best trades of the day came in DSX which didn't really follow the rest of the shippers down early, but "caught up" around 10:30.


I also made a bunch of points shorting FXI and some good money shorting PMI.

That was it. And it sucked. Today is my type of day and I missed it.

Here's to Monday!

Meanwhile. It was a crazy week. I will put up an "open thread" this weekend. Come share your trading stories for the week. Tell a joke, link whore yourself, whatever.

Anyway, here's the stats:

P&L, $2314
Best, DSX, $1097
Worst, RWT -$218

45,600 shares traded.
14 stocks traded, 9 winners, 5 losers.
182 trades.

Virtual Office, $31,329. Dow, -366.94, 13,522.02.

Me, $2314 on 45,600 shares traded.
Akalawoo, $610 on 12 contracts traded.
Tapeworm, $320 on 4 contracts traded.
Denarii, $52 on 1600 shares traded.
Momojuicing, no trades.
OBAT, -$98 on 7800 shares traded.
Bubs, -$196 on 1500 shares traded.

Wow. If you thought CNBC was stupid before today then after today you must think the entire network has gone braindead.

Listening to Maria rattle off the Market On Close "sell" orders as if they were some new element of the market melting down really pissed me off. Every day at 3:40 the market get hits with these "imbalances" and every day by 3:50, those "imbalances" are corrected.

Today, Maria made a big deal of reading off the MOC orders (though she only focused on the "sell" orders) and then made an equally big deal when many of them were filled at 3:50 (this too, happens every single day). She claimed the fact that the MOC sell orders were being filled meant that the market was "stabilizing."

Pure and utter stupidity. The best thing was that you could hear someone trying to explain to her what an MOC order actually was in the background. Like, in her decade working on the floor of the NYSE she hadn't noticed these things before...

Anyway, sorry to go off on a tangent like that. The point is, don't get your information from CNBC. Watching the TV is only useful if things are blowing up somewhere.

Misstrade made almost $3 per share traded today. That's... amazing. Almost beyond comprehension. Perhaps he will share some of his trades today via the comments section down below. Congrats, MT. Send a steak, okay?

Meanwhile, the rest of the VO really fucked around. Every single stock I "borrow" was nearly impossible to "locate" this morning, pre open... next time that happens I will take it as a sure sign that the market is about to nosedive.

Have a great weekend everyone. I will have an "open thread" up late tonight. Please come by and tell us about your week.

NOTE: This from a comment over at the Fly's site. "Ragin' Cajun said... I happen to like Maria"

And this is why his blog is "third-tier. In fact, I refuse to re-link his blog here as a "punishment" for such idiotic support.

Why Is FXI Still Halted On The NYSE???

To borrow a phase from Trading Goddess, "Wow, look at that volume!"

And all without the NYSE.... hmmm!

Oh! Look Who Showed Up For Breakfast!

By the way... just want to say one thing to all the bloggers who are like, "I don't trade OpEx days." You're silly...



NOTE: My company really sucked today.

Office Prank Gone Terribly Wrong

Had a hard time waking with all the gray and the rain. Meanwhile, this guy will have a hard time sleeping anytime soon.



Anyway, nothing too interesting in terms of earnings stocks to trade. I'll watch CAT to see if it has any effect on DE, CNH and AG but other than that, my attention will be elsewhere.

I just don't trade GOOG or ISRG even though they will be the big story stocks today.

NOTE: Meanwhile, if things are slow today I may do a "spontaneous" live chat midday. Just to shoot the shit.