This collectible plate is where it's at, my friend.
There's a strict limit of only 2 victory plates per caller! And the entire issue has been limited to 65 "firing" days... after that, they're breaking the mold and NO MORE PLATES!
So ask yourself... if you're lucky enough to have $20 to spend, would you rather have 3 shares of Citigroup, or a collectible plate?
BTW: LOFL @ 0:12-0:13....
After Friday's "ass-blasting," I came in this morning a much-humbled trader. But you know, it's a good thing.
I spent the weekend reorganizing all of my sector lists thanks to my new favorite site, "Finviz." They really have a great screener. I highly recommend it.
The whole experience reminded me how often you need to re-start with this occupation. It's like none other. Everyday the market changes and you need to constantly adapt and remake yourself. You will be humbled and you need to learn from those experiences, or else you will fail.
Anyway, so I missed the morning carnage and have been trading very lightly. We've given back roughly a third of our run from last week. At 1:30, "Beardo" will be talking. The volume is light. In other words, there's really no reason for me to trade until the close at this point. See you then.
Meanwhile, get a load of the morning "heat map."
UPDATE: Also, nice post from Clusterstock comparing bad bear markets.
Here's a good one. Some poor soul out there was trying to search Yahoo for "scrotum" but misspelled it "scotrum" and found my illustrious site...
Clearly, my guerilla marketing campaign is working.
NOTE: "the Fly" has added a new tabbed blogger. Go welcome "Chart Addict" to the site. As I quipped yesterday, iBC has so many tabs now it's "too big to fail."
Yes, for most it's Black Friday, but for others it's buy nothing day.
I missed it, true, but you can make any day a "buy nothing" day. Go check it out.
Sorry, "Trader 10" that close was simply too gay for me to give you the song. Punishment must be rendered.
What an egregious waste of wealth there at the end of the day.
Apparently, there were many leftover Thanksgiving turkey legs... and whoever controlled the final prints in the REIT stocks decided to shove them directly up trader's asses.
Why do stocks with published buy imbalances print down multiple points when the market is ripping? What does it all mean? Cold winter? End of days?
Anyway, let's get back to our holiday. This day will go down in infamy. I'm sure none of us will be trading the day after Thanksgiving in 2009.
Out of 18 traders today, 5 were gross positive, or 28%. Pathetic. 8 traders lost over $1,000 gross, while 2 traders made over $1,000 gross. Worse yet, "Trader D's" bot is the "Lucky Pierre." I can't imagine the joy "Trader D" is feeling right now, reading this, knowing that he missed a disaster. I was #13 of 18 or really smoked. The Manservants rule.
"Chambermaid" - Trader A, -$32,076 on 504k shares traded.
2. Trader P, -$19,126 on 257k shares traded.
3. Trader Z, -$9,764 on 278k shares traded.
4. Trader V, -$4,912 on 66,800 shares traded.
5. Trader C, -$4,509 on 73,400 shares traded.
"Lucky Pierre" - Trader 10*, $8,092 on 2,000 shares traded.
2. Trader T, $1,043 on 0 shares traded.
3. Trader H*, $625 on 1,900 shares traded.
4. Trader U*, $174 on 0 shares traded.
5. Trader 6*, $79 on 0 shares traded.
Click here for today's "heatmap."
Sounds boring, but imagine you were leading an army to war each day... your troops get tired, they get unorganized, some of them "get gay." So it makes sense on a half day for me to just sit back and reorganize my screens and get my troops back together, so to speak.
In a way, it's almost therapeutic to make my sectors "tighter" and to make my layout more efficient. Crazy, but it's true, I find it relaxing.
If I bother to trade at all, it will be the last 30 minutes. And I could be wrong, but I don't think I'll have an RO post up this evening, because it looks like "Trader N" is being "all French" and taking a vacation day.
However, I will say this... I have a history post about 70% done. It won't be up today, but perhaps I'll work on it and have it up for next week. I'll make this promise... it will definitely be up by December 7th, because I can't go a full year without writing one.
Anyway, I hope you all had a restful holiday. Our family dinner featured a rousing discussion of squirrels... are they crazier this year than in the past? Most people at the table seemed to think that yes, the squirrels are "acting out" more than usual this year.
What does it mean? Cold winter? The end of days?
Today, the market was supposed to be slow and sleepy ahead of the holiday, but instead, we ripped. My bottom call from a few days ago looking safe for now.
We're 1200 points from the lows.
However, despite the market rip, I got shaken out in the morning. So I went surfing, got eaten alive by the gnarly waves, dinged my board, and came home to see the RO up size. Man was I pissed. But it just proves that you always need to keep an open mind in this job... I say it over and over, but it's so easy to talk yourself out of trading. The truth is, there's almost always opportunity. You just have to find it.
Moving on, anyone have experience with Turducken? Seriously? Not that I want to eat one or anything, I'm just wondering who I need to block from the blog.
I imagine that most of you are already getting ready to stuff your fat American faces with food, so I'm just going to get to the numbers. If you're not American disregard that comment.
Out of 22 traders today, 17 were gross positive, or77%. 14 traders made over $1,000 gross, which I find pretty amazing the day before Thanksgiving. Only 2 traders lost over $1,000. I was #11 of 22. Have a Happy Thanksgiving. Be safe.
"Lucky Pierre" - Trader D, $26,517 on 389k shares traded.
2. Trader B, $22,182 on 126k shares traded.
3. Trader 10*, $10,714 on 3,900 shares traded.
4. Trader P, $8,026 on 290k shares traded.
5. Trader J, $3,803 on 130k shares traded.
"Chambermaid" - Trader 7, -$8,274 on 10,400 shares traded.
2. Trader A, -$1,442 on 552k shares traded.
3. Trader Z, -$666 on 6,530 shares traded.
4. Trader E, -$92 on 10,200 shares traded.
5. Trader U*, -$87 on 0 shares traded.
This bald-headed dick seems to think so. (h/t "Pete")
BTW, sorry to link a video that features both Dennis Kneale AND Michelle ("I'm 97% plastic!") Cabrusa Cabrera.
Anyway, I tried to get "Trader A" to post a song but the man is too damned honorable. He didn't officially spray since he didn't beat Trader C by double, and so he wouldn't take the song saying he "didn't earn it."
And since I lost money, I'm now forced to post bad music.
I could see catching some flack for this one, but for me, this song marked the end of anything good that came from the Smashing Pumpkins. Two good albums then shit.
The report will be late tonight. Just know, DGX ruined my day.
UPDATE: So yeah, I was having a decent day and threw it all away on an end of day trade in DGX. The stock had a decent buy imbalance but basically went straight down. I had 4k of it. Painful.
But enough about me, the RO, once again, found ways to make money. And really, that's what trading is all about, finding a way to make money. I've been nervous recently just thinking about how people may step away from the market after all this lunacy, but all it means is that we'll have to find another way to make money. Perhaps we'll have to hold stocks longer term, who knows? I'm confident we'll figure it out.
Some dude was on CNBC today and basically said that proprietary trading was gonna die, and soon. The good news is that 99% of what you hear on CNBC is dead wrong. If he's not, this blog will quickly morph into a blog about anxiety.
Anyway, it's late and I'm tired. I've been suffering from a small bit of insomnia which began the other night when I left "Trader P's" place at 4am. I haven't slept since. Naturally, I blame him. So I'm going to go listen to some complex music in my headphones and get taken away by the trails.
Out of 24 traders today, 16 were gross positive. 7 traders made over $1,000 gross, and 3 lost over $1,000 gross. I was #15 of 24, gross positive, net negative. Very disappointing. However, on the bright side, I thought the market showed some very healthy action today. I, for one, am looking forward to more up days. Bosses win.
"Lucky Pierre" - Trader A, $26,682 on 1.1 million shares traded.
2. Trader C, $16,298 on 120k shares traded.
3. Trader P, $6,516 on 242k shares traded.
4. Trader Z, $5,901 on 348k shares traded.
5. Trader N, $3,242 on 177k shares traded.
"Chambermaid" - Trader B, -$4,391 on 141k shares traded.
2, Trader R, -$2,227 on 120k shares traded.
3. Trader N, -$1,029 on 39,000 shares traded.
4. Trader F, -$955 on 200 shares traded.
5. Trader L, -$918 on 32,000 shares traded.
I haven't watched CNBC for months and months. I just remembered why...
-Dennis Fucking Kneale
Obama just spoke on the economy again. He's going to hold a press conference each day THIS WEEK. He does this because it shows leadership... it gives people confidence. Someone is steering this fucked-up ship afterall.
(FYI, Bush held 17 his ENTIRE first term! A term that, never forget, included 9/11.)
Anyway, so immediately after the "presser" Dennis Kneale gets the first comment, "What happened to the great orator?" he whined. "He sounded like a boring technician up there."
It's a fucking PRESS CONFERENCE you fucking idiot! You wanted the "Yes We Can" speech again, during a press conference on the fucking economy that only months ago you were saying was in good shape? The same economy that you argued was being "talked into recession?"
You are irrelevant Mr. Kneale. Looking forward to seeing you hit the unemployment line sometime in 2009. Oh, and you're a dick.
Happy Thanksgiving!
I feel like this is probably a site that you all know about and I'm late to the party, but check out Finviz for a great page on Industry groups. (h/t "Trader C")
Just click "Screener" and then pick the parameters that you want to screen for. Here's a screen I made for "Residential REITs." Back in the day, we'd pay $1650 a month for Bloomberg terminals that gave us this information... now it's FREE!
Anyway, like I said yesterday, I'm tightening up my layout and my baskets. Knowing exactly which stocks do what, and what stocks they trade lockstep with, is important.
A lot of trading is about making good decisions in the face of constant market uncertainty. But a lot also comes from knowing your shit. You have to put in the work if you want to be successful.
(BTW, what the fuck is wrong with Charlie Gasparino? Charlie... why are you such a dick?)
Look back in my archives and you'll see that I've been bearish on this market for well over a year. I have to say that after I read the C news last night I felt bullish, in a giddy way, and that feeling didn't leave me all day.
Folks, I believe our long national nightmare may be over...
I'm impressed with the volume today, and I'm impressed with the leadership that Obama and his team are showing. I feel good about the market here and will be somewhat surprised if we see 7449 again. We'll see.
Despite my bullishness, I was unable to convert to big gains. I underperformed the RO all day, and underperformed them in the end as well. That's okay... the RO is so good, that you'd make a nice living underperforming them on a daily basis.
If you're a prop trader, these are the markets you wait for... stack it up and save it. We'll have dry spells again. If you want this to be a career, you need to be responsible with your gains and put them away... call it a confidence stack.
If you're working in a shitty firm where the majority of traders aren't making any money and everyone just worries about getting tenths of pennies shaved from their commission rates, drop me a line (email located under my profile), the RO is always hiring active traders who have their Series 7.
Finally, I'd like to highlight "Trader N" for a second. Here's a dude who started trading a year ago. He took some hits along the way, but he's kept a positive mindset throughout and he's been active with the group of traders we have. He's learned a lot and I can see him becoming a leader among our group in 2009. Trading is a very difficult job, and it's great to see a new guy succeed.
As for me, I plan on taking it real easy into Thanksgiving now that we've had a strong rally. I plan on tightening up my layout, getting some hot keys reconfigured, and basically getting ready for December.
I'll post the RO each day and comment, but otherwise, this blog will be quiet until next Monday.
Anyway, out of 22 traders today, 20 were gross positive, or 90%. 16 traders finished up over $1,000 gross, and 1 trader lost over $1,000 gross. In fact, the trader who lost over $1,000 gross was a "Chode" today, which means he went from "Lucky Pierre" all the way down to "Chambermaid." Ouchie. I was #9 of 22.
The Bosses dealt the Manservants a severe blow:
"Lucky Pierre" - Trader A, $54,636 on 1 million shares traded.
2. Trader N, $40,537 on 150k shares traded.
3. Trader Z, $26,579 on 261k shares traded.
4. Trader P, $18,849 on 316k shares traded.
5. Trader C, $12,424 on 157k shares traded.
"Chambermaid & Chode" - Trader D, -$3,665 on 349k shares traded.
2. Trader 3, -$532 on 10,000 shares traded.
3. Trader I, $57 on 800 shares traded.
4. Trader U*, $205 on 0 shares traded.
5. Trader 8, $238 on 3,400 shares traded.
See you tomorrow.
