Happy November Is Over

November was a messy month for me. It featured my worst trade ever, (losing 55 points in FSLR short) and also one of my worst intraday givebacks ever (over $5 grand in under an hour).

In the end, I have been making money more consistently, even if I haven't had huge up days recently.

I don't really feel like writing about my day. It wasn't bad, but that FED trade really pissed me off and I just want to turn off the computer right now.

The Hybrid Market is a disaster even if CNBC won't talk about it (since they broadcast from the floor of the NYSE I guess that could be awkward.) I have hope however, that it will get better.

Have a great weekend.

Virtual Office, $2666. Dow, +59.99, 13,371.72.

Dehtrader, $1726 on 3720 shares traded.
Sanglucci, $526 on 22,200 shares traded.
Me, $414 on 17,600 shares traded.
Akalawoo, no trades.
Evolution, no trades.
Misstrade, no trades.
Wincity, no trades.

I guess the VO members are so rich they don't have to work anymore...

Very nice to see Dehtrader up at the top today. He's showing some great resilience after getting smoked a couple of days back. That's not an easy thing to do... trust me.

In other news, nothing much happened until the very close... that's when we traded like 300 million shares in 5 minutes. I was all set to complain about volume and then it all came on the close. Must be an expiration or something. Anyway, volume during the trading day was crappy.

For all of the big talk coming from the bulls after the parabolic rise in the indexes, I'd love one of them to point out where the leadership is coming from. Looks like a bounce off of oversold levels in weak stocks if you ask me... not the thing raging bull markets are made of. Also, if this were the start of a real, new rally, you'd expect to see volume balloon. Instead, it was merely good, not great.

But we'll see. I expect us to be quiet these next couple of weeks. I welcome this quiet. I'm happy to see November behind us... it was a little too crazy, even for this trader.

Meanwhile, Sanglucci got his numbers in on time today... love that guy.

I will have a Weekend Open Thread featuring a little "Wise and Otherwise" up this weekend.

Come play, over 3 billion in prizes will be awarded. Honest.

The NYSE's Hybrid Market Sucks

Fuck you traders! That's what the Hybrid Market is all about.

I go in to buy FED at 3:42 or so, no indication, a 2 cent spread in the quotes and I'm filled over 2 points higher on a print of over 70,000 shares. Next trade is for 600 shares over a point lower.



It's sad and laughable. It's bullshit and they need to fix it. Half my daily profits gone in 2 minutes because their system is a piece of shit.

The Shining, Recut

"Troubled Subprime Borrowers"

This is a funny phrase being used over and over on CNBC.

I picture millions of poor Americans, "troubled" by their inability to pay back their mortgages.

I don't think that's the case. Instead, I think they're probably quite happy.

They're sitting there in their unpaid-for-homes while Wall Street freaks out. They don't have any investments, so, they win. And lets face it, they probably hate Wall Street people and "the rich."

Yep, "the subprimers" are out picking up their 6-packs of Bud while we speak.

Party on subprimers, party on.

The "Rally" Buyers

This Rally Is Silly.

Ridiculous also comes to mind. I'm happy I'm not short. By Tuesday however, I plan on nibbling short again.

Daily Show Remembers Alan Greenspan

So it's 2 years later... it's still funny. Especially the bit about him dropping rates 3/4 point in 1998.

Damn writers strike...

Spoon, "Jonathan Fisk"

Market Digests Gains; Dinosaur Trader Suffers Indigestion

What a boring day.



I actually made money between 10 and 12 but decided to place stop orders instead of selling positions at market. Almost all of my stops were hit as the market declined into the afternoon. Unfortunately, the money I made was only offsetting losses that I took at around 9:45 when the market dropped like a rock for 3 minutes.

See that big red bar at 9:45? Fuck the robots.

Anyway, my best stock of the day today was JLL.



I caught some of the trend, but only with a few hundred shares. This stock is thin and can sometimes drop (or rise) precipitously for no good reason. In the afternoon, all of the financial names continued their squeeze. I guess people got nervous going into Uncle Ben's speech tonight... anyway, that would have been a great place to make money in the afternoon. Unfortunately, I was already put to sleep by the market and just not feeling like getting actively involved.

Looking back, I should have been involved because all of the financials rallied into the close.

My worst stock of the day was EXM, which I tried to short in the morning.



You can see why that was a mistake. The good news is that I screwed up the trade and didn't keep at it with revenge trading or anything. I let it go. 300 shares traded, a half point loss, move on.

What more can I say? I spent the better part of the day drinking peppermint tea trying to recover from some gastro-distress.

Finally, Herb Greenberg is the kind of guy you don't want to get a beer with.

Here's the stats:

P&L, $17
Best, JLL, $293
Worst, EXM, -$157

26,600 shares traded.
21 stocks traded, 9 winners, 12 losers.

Virtual Office, -$4921. Dow, +22.28, 13,311.73.

Dehtrader, $305 on 7952 shares traded.
OBAT, $163 on 11,000 shares traded.
Sanglucci, $139 on 14,000 shares traded.
Denarii, $56 on 200 shares traded.
Me, $17 on 26,600 shares traded.
Akalawoo, influenza.
Wincity, -$35 on 100 shares traded.
Evolution, -$2566 on 45,600 shares traded.
Misstrade, -$3000 on 500 shares traded.

Clearly, the world must be about to self destruct.

Our resident robot, Misstrade, finds himself at the bottom of the pile today.

I never thought I'd see that.

Anyway, the VO got smoked. It was just one of those days where it was hard to make money. The futures were chopping around and there was no follow through. It just sucked.

Unfortunately, if you recall this is exactly what I expected. I don't think this choppy action is going away anytime too soon either. Might as well start your shopping because unless there's some type of interesting news, the market is going to suck until December 11th.

Go vote on my poll. Also, go vote on my Peanut Gallery post. "the Fly" has promised me $10,000 for each star.

Meanwhile, our new VO member must be some type of idiot for not getting me his numbers on this, his first day.

UPDATE: Sanglucci provided me with his numbers a half hour late... that makes him less of an idiot.

Melissa Francis >> Maria Bartiromo

She is so much nicer to listen to than Maria between 3 and 4pm, no?

Moths To The Flame

It's funny. People read this blog, they see the VO and they think, "Hey, I want to be a member of the VO. I want to share my stock market gains and losses with the world."

Then they join the VO and they get spit right out.

Well folks, we have a new member. This one seems a bit twisted, his name is Sanglucci.

I have no doubt that his tenure here will be short-lived, but I would love to be proven wrong.

Welcome to the VO, Sanglucci.

Tellurium Breath

I have written another post for The Peanut Gallery.

Clearly, I deserve to be paid.

Josephine Foster, "Little Life"

Great song for parents. Also great for ripping apart dead animals... try it!

Canned Goods For JJ

Remember a couple of weeks ago when I got smoked in my FSLR short and all I heard from JJ was that I was a jackass for covering at $219?

Well, don't look now but it's in the $230s.



Successful traders learn to take losses when they make mistakes, JJ. It's something you need to learn.

If you send me your address I'll start a canned-goods drive on this site so you can feed your (poor) family for the holidays.

Are You An Asshole?

Just in case you didn't check out Wall Street Fighter's daily links yesterday, here is a great one...

9 telltale signs that you're an asshole.

Is Daytrading Gambling?

I thought this would be a fun poll question since it's a debate people often (foolishly) engage me in.

Go vote.

REM, "Fall On Me"

Dow Gain Is Largest In 4 1/2 Years

Isn't that silly? C'mon. Are things that good? Has the dollar suddenly regained it's footing? Has everyone who was poor gotten rich overnight so that they can pay their mortgages? Is Maria Bartiromo going to take off forever?

Unfortunately, the answer to all these questions is "no."

I didn't get short into this rally even though I think it will ultimately fail. I mean, when the Dow finds the strength to rally almost 600 points in 2 days it throws enough bullishness into the mix to make the bears doubt their situation. It's kind of like Exxon spending all those billions to make people doubt global warming. But the reality is, things haven't suddenly gotten better (and indeed, global warming exists).

Instead, in a few months, we'll look back on these 2 days and say, "Man, that was a great spot to get short. Remember that? BIDU at $368? And hey, remember snow?"

Anyway, I didn't do too much today. I bought ALB at the open and held for a point and made a little over $500 in him.



I did the same in MTG and KMT and I was up a little over a grand by 10:30.

Then I went surfing.

Before I left, I bought a little OSK, CNS, and KMT expecting them to trade higher. My plan was to get home by 2:00 when they released the Beige Book. Unfortunately, all of my positions sucked and when I got back, I was up about $750.

I assumed with the market up a gazillion points into the Beige Book that it would have to sell off a little after the release. I short a little FLR into the number.



Wrong again. After that, I decided to stop trading and be in a bad mood.

Anyway, here's the stats:

P&L, $648
Best, ALB, $527
Worst, FLR, -$197

9600 shares traded.
8 stocks traded, 4 winners, 4 losers.