Virtual Office, $711. SPY, +2.72, $140.97.

OBAT, $1528 on 6200 shares traded.
Me, $161 on 12,800 shares traded.
Denarii, $80 on 3600 shares traded.
Retardo, no trades.
Ainkurn, -$370 on 700 shares traded.
Sanglucci, -$688 on 30,100 shares traded.

OBAT kicked ass today. Thank goodness too, because I was sick of having to sing Sanglucci's praises here everyday.

Meanwhile, special message from FSLR to Ainkurn... "No... you're MY bitch!"

Anyway, with the FED bullshit out of the way, the market finally got a little volume today. The "sell commodities and ag stocks, buy financials" trade seems to be well under way. And importantly for the bulls, we're over 13,000 again on the Dow.

What a turn of events.

I'll have a daily post up later this evening.

Meanwhile, the VO is hiring. Send me an email with your blog address if you're interested in joining. Oh, and I heard from Evolution. He's alive, just laying low and making cash.

How To Make $200 A Day From Stocks!

By Dinosaur Trader... the blingmaster.

Your Morning Propaganda Alert

"It has now been more than ten days since the New York Times exposed the Pentagon's domestic propaganda program involving retired generals and, still, not a single major news network has even mentioned the story to their viewers, let alone responded to the numerous questions surrounding their own behavior. This steadfast blackout occurs despite the fact that the Pentagon propaganda program almost certainly violates numerous federal laws; both Democratic presidential candidates sternly denounced the Pentagon's conduct; and Congressional inquiries are already underway, all of which forced the Pentagon to announce that it suspended its program."

Continue reading...

Los Campesinos, "We Throw Parties, You Throw Knives"

Some Thoughts On April And Moving Forward

I'm not really a guy who looks back on my earnings trends with any kind of regularity. Actually, I normally only check my "sheets" when I think an error has been made.

But tonight, since I barely traded today, I thought I would take the time to look back on the year and attempt to set a couple of goals for May.

Trading is about making money, yes, but I also am the head of a household here, so I need to think about my sanity. So, what kind of win/loss ratio would make me enjoy this job? Ideally, something like 90%. But, that's a little out of reach right now (I'm talking on a daily P&L basis).

In April, I was positive 68% of the time, roughly 2 out of every 3 days traded. That's okay. For May, I'm going to do something unprecedented for myself and set a GOAL. I'm going to shoot for a 75% win rate, that is, be positive 3 out of every 4 days traded.

Another thing I realized about April is that I had a couple of blowup days. You'll recall that one day, I lost $1889. That was awful. In the last two months, since I started trying a new way of trading, I'm averaging about $200 a day... so I wiped out about 10 days of work with that there blowup... frigging awful.

Since I'm not trading nearly as much as I used to, and definitely with less emotion and spontaneity, I'm going to set myself a daily loss limit of $600. And I'm really going to try hard to stick to it... without any large blowups, my monthly P&L should improve.

Finally, I've averaged $200 a day with this new system trading in lots of 200 shares mostly. I'm going to try and average $300 a day in May and up my share size again. There are 21 trading days in May, so I'll just say my goal is to make $6000 for the month. That may be somewhat ambitious given the Memorial Day holiday, but we'll see.

I'm rebuilding. Honestly, I didn't think it would be so hard, but apparently, it's a slow process.

Finally, I'm still trying to reconcile how to deal with events like the S&P upgrade of Brazil today. I want to be in on those trades. Today, I missed the news, so I can't fault myself too much. The way I'm trading now, basing daytrades on daily chart price action coupled with intraday setups is a great way to trade day in and day out, but it will almost always miss the odd event. For as long as I've been trading, the "odd event," be it the California power crisis or the subprime news of last August, has been a reason to trade aggressively.

So ultimately, I want to keep my daily sanity by trading methodically, making the game profitable and boring, but leaving the door open to insanity... that is, not be too strict with myself that I don't jump on opportunity when the market is screaming. I'm still working on this...

Virtual Office, $5026. SPY, -0.63, $138.47.

Sanglucci, $4100 on 38,400 shares traded.
Ainkurn, $550 on 150 shares traded.
OBAT, $334 on 10,400 shares traded.
Me, $124 on 2400 shares traded.
Retardo, no trades.
Denarii, -$82 on 4800 shares traded.

Well, apparently "cake city" is somewhere in Brazil.

If you're a prop trader and managed to hear the news about Brazil getting upgraded by S&P to "investment grade" status when it came out, you probably made A LOT of money.

That is, unless you got all smart and tried to fade the move... (Note: As I wrote this, UBB dropped 6 points from its high, so there was money made fading as well...)

Sanglucci, current "cake king" around here, is learning Portuguese and moving to Rio de Janeiro. Congrats, Sanglucci. But let's not overlook our boy down south, Ainkurn. He says FSLR is his "bitch." He's thinking of upgrading and moving to Jackson, MS.

Ah, to be young and trading in the spring...

Anyway, the FED cut 25 basis points. The market rallied hard on the news and then reversed, all on mediocre volume. I'm always happy when these days come and go. I really don't like news driven markets... makes me feel dependent.

Just give me graphs.

FED Cuts Another Quarter Point

The initial reaction was bullish. But these things often reverse.

The Daily Show "Does" Scalia...

Pretty much from 1:59 on is the reason why I love the Daily Show. Fucking perfect.

Taking A Bike Ride

It's a nice day, so I'm heading out to take a bike ride. No reason for me to fuck around pre-FED during lunch hour.


Biker Gets Hit By Speeding Car - Watch more free videos

I've made a couple of trades and I'm up $200. No matter what, given that it's the last day of the month, I won't go negative. So I may just be done for the day.

FOMC Meeting Day

I'm gonna be taking it very easy today. I figure it's a good day to surf the web until the FED, in all its bearded wisdom, throws us a bone. So here's some reading.

• Take a look at that sea of plastic bottles... seriously, that shit's not going away. (h/t Wallstreet Fighter)
• Mrs. Edwards has my vote. I agree 100% with this OpEd piece.
• Iran says "fuck Barbie," but not literally, because that would be against the Koran.
• I hate the war and I hate its architects, but it must completely suck to be over there. Last week, a kid from my town was killed by a roadside bomb. That shit ain't right. Send the troops some support, because they're not to blame for our government's bad policy.

Fleet Foxes, "English House"

Spend the $5 and go pick up this band's EP on iTunes. If you like 60s era rock, (think Crosby Stills and Nash), you should like this.

Virtual Office, -$704. SPY, -.55, $138.95.

Me, $250 on 6600 shares traded.
Ainkurn, $136 on 700 shares traded.
Retardo, no trades.
Denarii, -$1 on 2600 shares traded.
OBAT, -$59 on 11,400 shares traded.
Timmay, -$265 on 500 shares traded.
Sanglucci, -$765 on 23,400 shares traded.

So I only traded the first hour today. No color for you.

However, I'd just like to note that it seems "the Fly" effectively sold the bottom on his SMN. The ag stocks, recent darlings of the stock market, have been beaten down like Barack Obama getting beaten by Reverend Wright. And thus, SMN is rising faster than yeast. Fuck yeah! Yeast!

It's ugly and most likely, getting uglier.

I'm looking forward to getting tomorrow out of the way. May the FED, in all it's bearded wisdom free the market from these low volume doldrums.

Back to your regularly scheduled posting tomorrow.

Oh, and one last thing... may the Pittsburgh Penguins defeat the children of Satan, also known as The Rangers.

Vacation! Not Really....

I need to take a half day to attend to some "family business." I'm up $250. I will have the VO up later this evening. Enjoy trading.

Pulp, "Pencil Skirt"

If women "breast painting" bothers you, then don't watch this video. Great lyrics. The whole album is excellent, really...

Better Than It Looks

Longtime readers will notice that I'm trading far less shares, and that I'm trading fewer stocks, as well. This is all by design. I'm slowly gaining more confidence with this new style of trading (for me, anyway) and as I gain more, I will start upping my share size. Today, I had a good confidence day, even though I only pulled $245 out of the market.

Why? Well, because I'm starting to see trades correctly. My first trade of the day, in ARD, was well thought out and I even showed some patience. I was watching the $48 level on the daily graph. The stock opened and ripped right above the level. Instead of chasing, and getting caught in a nasty pullback, I waited and bid for the stock back down near the $48 level. I figured, if I got the shares, it was a low risk play, since I was going to stop just below $48. And if I didn't get the shares, I'd move on.



As you can see, I got the shares, and screwed up my exits. But I still like the trade because it shows I'm thinking right, even though I need to let my winners run.

My next trade was also okay, even though, once again, I didn't hold for the full move. I was watching NUE $76.50 on the daily, and liked it even more, since NUE was showing a little relative strength compared to the rest of the metals early today.



Then I dabbled in PCU for awhile, took some small losses and then made them back by finally catching the short I was looking for, down to the $116 level. This stock was showing good relative weakness for a short. He's just a dick...



Anyway, I haven't even gone over my best trades today... short BGC, long TEX and short AGU, but I'm doing a sunrise surf session (which now means 5:30am so I can get back to the desk by 8:45) and I need to get to bed.

I expect the market to be dead until after the FED decision on Wednesday, and will continue to trade tight and light until then. Also, looks like I'll be trading a half day tomorrow.

Here's the stats:

P&L, $245
Best, BGC, $161
Worst, RSG, -$37

9 stocks traded, 5 winners for $328, 4 losers for -$83.
6400 shares traded.

Virtual Office, $1766. SPY, +.01, 139.61.

Sanglucci, $1601 on 46,200 shares traded.
Me, $245 on 6400 shares traded.
Timmay, $135 on 1000 shares traded.
Denarii, $104 on 400 shares traded.
Retardo, no trades.
Dehtrader, vacation.
Ainkurn, -$120 on 500 shares traded.
OBAT, -$199 on 7000 shares traded.

Well, it was another low volume chopfest in the major indexes today. Today, it took until 3:50 to trade 1 billion shares on the NYSE... that's like a bad volume day back when I first began trading, in 1999...

At this pace, in mid August, we'll be trading 750 million shares a day on the NYSE. And NYX should be trading in the mid 40s... time will tell.

Anyway, after the close and into tomorrow morning there are a number of interesting companies reporting earnings, including V, MA, X, VLO and AG. Hopefully, this will give the market some "juice," however, I doubt it will. The big day (which too, I expect to be anticlimactic) will be Wednesday, when the FED, in all its bearded wisdom, releases its most recent policy statement.

Until then, I expect traders to keep their heads low. Be careful out there...

Oh, and someone is posting on Evolution's blog, although it doesn't seem to be him... the plot thickens.

Painful Fall

You couldn't give me enough money to do this... meanwhile, before the kid jumps, he says "this is for Burt's Bees." Is he talking about the chapstick maker? I mean, my wife uses that shit... I can't imagine this kid selling chapstick.


Crazy Kid Leaps Down Staircase - Watch more free videos

Blogroll Update

I've added a few new blogs to my blogroll and deleted a couple of others that have gone dormant. I try to keep the blogroll current, so if a blog I read stops updating, I'll remove it and add fresh blood.

First, here are the new blogs:

OONR7 This is a very informative blog with nice graphs and descriptions of trades. He also viciously attacked Jake Gint in my comment section... always a plus.

Dogwood Again, a nice blog with discussion of stocks and other random stuff. Also, I like Dogwood trees... and, he did a whole post about my trades... always a plus.

The removed blogs... mdawsz's old blog... Get Short! He turned this shit to invite only and had the audacity to not invite me. I'd link it, but you'll just get a page that says you're not invited... making you feel like a dick. He teased a few weeks ago about launching a new blog. When this happens, he will be reinstated.

Trade Like Mike... dude got a real job and has gone on permanent hiatus. If he follows through to turn this into a humor blog, it will be reinstated onto the blogroll... that is, if it's funny.

NOTE: Here's my Peanut Gallery post explaining the "work" I'll be doing for IBC during their election...

An Extraordinary Place, Dubai...

I found this incredible post about the growth of Dubai. I mean, the pictures were so amazing and the buildings so tall, that halfway through I started to think it was a big sarcastic joke... but it's not.

DT Wins Again!

I'm fucking rich! And famous!

"The Fly" is paying me A LOT of "dirty Internet money" to "live blog" his elections this May 6th.

This will perhaps be the biggest event ever on the Internets... think 2 girls one cup, but looser.

Since I will be "live blogging" for 8 straight hours, I will be drinking plenty of Powerthirst. After I blog there, I will go light buildings on fire and win at "art."