The Dinosaur Trader Personality Test

Not really, it's an external link to "the Spark" or something like that.

But whatever.

Look, I'm feeling introspective tonight after my staggering market loss. I want to know more about "you people." Also, I'll be surfing early and won't have a morning post up. This will have to do.

So take the test and tell the world what your personality "flaw" is, in the comment section.

It takes about 7 or 8 minutes to take the test. First, you have to sign up for an account... they want your email but you can opt out of getting bothered. The thing is, if you take the test and complete it, you can check at the end to see how compatible you are with other people who took it. So, if you want other people here to know how compatible they are with you, write the email address that you gave to "the Spark" in the comment section along with your test results.

Most of the time, I hate people... let's see if I hate you too.

Just follow along with the first comment... which I will post.

Click here to take the test.

UPDATE: I'm 35% greedy.
UPDATE II: I'll live to age 73.

Stephen Colbert For President Poll

With only 20 hours left to vote, my poll is showing it to be a dead heat.

Maybe you think having a poll about Stephen Colbert's chances at winning the presidency is stupid. Maybe you're thinking to yourself, "Man, that DT is a nitwit."

Fine, but is THE WASHINGTON POST a "nitwit" too then?

They ran a poll to see what his chances really were. Currently, among Democratic voters, he's at around 2%. Republican voters favor him less, at only about 1%. However, I think that the Republicans probably just don't know who the heck he is.

As you know, Republicans are old and out of touch.

Anyway, here's a link to the Washington Post poll.

With that said, go vote on our poll now. "Would You Vote For Stephen Colbert For President?"

Carlos Santana Shreds

This is hilarious. If you don't "get it" it's because there's something lame about you.

AAAAARRRGH!

Wow, I really, really, sucked today.

I trade actively in the first hour of trade. When that first hour is without good action, it normally means my whole day will blow. Today is the perfect example of the type of morning I should avoid trading the open though. A gap up morning.

More often than not, I find when the market gaps up a lot that it tends to flatline for awhile in order to digest its gains. So if you buy a lot of stuff at the open, you lose 10 cents, 25 cents, over and over again. I think in the future I'll try to have a little more discipline on these mornings, let the market gap up, digest and then try to buy when stocks break out after digestion.

So I lost a lot early. I knew my day was over at 10:45 when I made a nasty revenge trade in RDN.



It was actually one of my better stocks of the morning as I caught the short. But then I got short again, around $14. I short 1000 shares and got stopped out at $14.20 or, the high of the move. Next thing I know, it's back to $14. So what do I do? I short 2000 shares. When it dropped below the figure, I added, forgetting that the stock was worth only $14... I mean, how much did I think it was going to drop? Why add? So many mistakes. Anyway, It bounced and came up to $14 again, where I added more shares. I got out of all of the shares for a nasty loss at around 11:30 or, the high of the move and managed to lose $200 in a stock that I was up close to $1000 in earlier in the day.

I'm not even going to get into the latino banks. They all got me.

Anyway, my daughter just woke from her nap with a fever and a stuffed nose. Most likely an ear infection. Needless to say, I'm suddenly very busy.

Here's the stats:

P&L, -$2115
Best, DSX, $352
Worst, TBSI, -$345

71,800 shares traded.
32 stocks traded, 10 winners, 22 losers.
217 trades.

Virtual Office, $5507. Dow, 109.26, 13,676,23,

Momojuicing, $5199 on 21,000 shares traded.
Akalawoo, $1496 on 17 contracts traded.
Dehtrader, $1112 on 9300 shares traded.
Evolution, $608 on 48,600 shares traded.
OBAT, $95 on 5800 shares traded.
Misstrade, $0 on 1000 shares traded.
Denarii, -$25 on 2400 shares traded.
Tapeworm, -$255 on 6 contracts traded.
Me, -$2115 on 71,800 shares traded.

Well, look at that, Momo saved the VO. I was all set to sink the ship today and the mofo makes a trade in RIMM to salvage some respectability for the "office." Well done. In fact, most of the office did quite well today. A bunch of very nice numbers. You know how it feels to be on the bottom of the VO when everyone else "banks coin?" It feels like shit.

Anyway, so much for the goddamn Wombat. While there was a small pickup in volatility between 10:30 and 11:00 it quickly died and fizzled out. Volume blew today... but I mean, I guess nowadays I'm happy if it's over 1.3 billion. That's what we do now on the NYSE.

Another huge earnings day tomorrow. FCX reports. That could be fun.

I'm in a bad mood and my daughter has an ear infection. All hell is breaking loose.

Now It's Locked In Place...

This video is great!

I Hate Everything.

Specifically, the stock market.

Even more specifically, the latin bank stocks, ITU, BBD, BBV and UBB. I've lost over $1000 trading these fuckers today. About $250 in each, so they suck equally.

Currently, I'm in liquidation-only mode as this market has been chopping me up all day.

Tomorrow there's suppossed to be beautiful surf. I may just take a mental health day.

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.