The RO Report, "In Santa's FACE!" Edition

I know we have a few weeks to go before Christmas comes, but the market is trading like it's ready to take an early holiday vacation. Unfortunately, when I went neutral after we hit the 50dma on the Dow on Monday, the market decided to listen. We seem to be caught in this 8600-9000 "death range." Volume is slackening and the intraday ranges are getting smaller.

Of course, this could be contraction before expansion. It could be like, I dunno... the market could be swimming in a really cold lake, but soon, it's gonna get out of the lake, dry off, and meet its girlfriend in a cozy little cabin by the lake... hmmm...

I'm not taking that analogy any further. Frankly, I'm slightly bothered it popped into my head.

All day, the RO was hating on me because I made a little money in the morning in coal longs (which I shouted scums!) and they were busy getting smoked. Towards the end of the day, when I still hadn't lost my money to join them in their misery, they were like a drunken crowd of fat ugly women tearing some hot chick apart.

Or, maybe this Bob Dylan lyric is more to the point...

While one who sings with his tongue on fire
Gargles in the rat race choir
Bent out of shape from society's pliers
Cares not to come up any higher
But rather get you down in the hole
That he's in.

By the end of the day, they caught me and I wasn't even a boss. They're out there, reading this now, some of them no doubt snickering but here's why I win... I have a really nice blog. Like, it's really important and people connect with it. And you know, they're just jealous.

LOL in your FACE office!

Anyway, out of 25 traders today, 15 were gross positive, or 60%. 6 traders made over $1,000 gross, while 5 traders lost over $1,000 gross. I was #6 of 25. All kidding aside, kudos to Traders Z and N for their solid comebacks. Still, it wasn't enough to prevent the office from "manservitude" today.

"Chambermaid" - Trader D, -$11,627 on 561k shares traded.

2. Trader C, -$10,212 on 342k shares traded.
3. Trader E, -$2,034 on 69,400 shares traded.
4. Trader J, -$1,879 on 52,600 shares traded.
5. Trader H, -$1,379 on 8,700 shares traded.

"Lucky Pierre" - Trader Z, $6,191 on 263k shares traded.

2. Trader N, $4,314 on 214k shares traded.
3. Trader 9*, $3,748 on 1,800 shares traded.
4. Trader P, $1,781 on 288k shares traded.
5. Trader 6*, $1,643 on 0 shares traded.

NOTE: Tis the season for my annual Best Stock Market Blog post. If you're currently not on my blogroll and wish to be included, please email me and my "Best Stock Market Blog Post Committee" (BSMBPS) will review your submission. Thank you.

Auto Urine Therapy

"Trader E" sent me this pic... I thought that "drinking your own pee" was a fitting metaphor for the market. Meanwhile, I'm really hoping 8600 holds. If not, my new 8600-9000 trading range theory will fail.

A New Daytrading Bull Market?

Perhaps... Let's just hope that Timmay! isn't the face of it.

I'm not sure if anyone has ever noted just how arrogant this dude seems... well, let me be the first to say it, Tim Sykes is a dick. He's up 219% because he's trading a small account. If he had any real balls, he'd be in the RO and holding 2 or 3 million of stock intraday. Oh, I know he did that back in the day, when he ran his gay little hedge fund, but that's when a 200 point move was a big deal.

Man up, Timmay! And email me for office info.

Meals In Front Of The Tree

4 year olds are interesting creatures. My daughter has become obsessed with our Christmas tree and now takes all her meals at a little table (previously used for crafts) she set up about 4 feet away from it.

The first thing she does upon waking up is to run downstairs and turn on the lights.

But in a sure sign that she doesn't yet fully grasp Christmas cheer and the meaning of the holiday, last night she remarked that, "when people die, we can steal their houses."

The trader inside of me smiled, but the father was somewhat alarmed.

New Order, "Temptation"

The RO Report, "New Countertop" Edition

We had a new countertop installed in our kitchen today. Let me tell you, the epoxy those guys used to glue that mother down is some heavy shit. I was half high all day long, making non-sensical trades while assaulting "Trader D" via our office chat room.

It was fun. I traded lightly... I was happy.

Not everyone in the office had fun today. You'll notice that Trader C, "George Michaeled" himself by having both his intraday account and his swing account take the bottom two spots in the office. Many of you would say, "Wow, that's bad," but I'll have you know, Trader C is a sick fucker, and probably likes massive doses of pain now and then. It makes him feel more alive.

Otherwise, it was a fairly quiet day. The volume was light, and as I wrote yesterday, a pullback to this level would be healthy. We go lower on higher volume, and I'd be concerned about the state of the rally.

Anyway, out of 26 traders today, 19 finished gross positive, or 73%. 9 traders made over $1,000 gross, while 4 traders lost over $1,000 gross. I was #9 of 26.

I also want to point out that today marked the first trading day for "Trader X," a trader who found our office through this blog. There was an old "Trader X" but he quit to work another job full time. So I saved the excellent letter X for the first DT trader.

Hopefully, before long, he'll be a Boss. Godspeed, "Trader X."

"Lucky Pierre" - Trader Z, $10,699 on 153k shares traded.

2. Trader A, $9,111 on 120k shares traded.
3. Trader N, $8,432 on 146k shares traded.
4. Trader B, $8,001 on 538k shares traded.
5. Trader D, $5,793 on 137k shares traded.

"George Michael" - Trader C, -$6,233 on 156k shares traded.
2. Trader 9*, -$4,364 on 1,300 shares traded.

3. Trader 10*, -$3,788 on 3,300 shares traded.
4. Trader P, -$1,196 on 158k shares traded.
5. Trader R, -$642 on 34,040 shares traded.

Christmas Vomit

Take a look at the intraday heatmap, it's a mess. Volume is light and we've had a little pullback. I'm thinking nothing much going on and I'm trading accordingly.



Instead, I've been having fun hurling offensive comments at people over at "the Fly's" place.

Give Us Our Bike!

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Clusterf#@k to the Poor House - President Goofus and President Gallant

Barack Obama Interview
John McCain Interview

Sarah Palin Video
Funny Election Video

The Duchess & The Duke, "Mary"

The RO Report, "Solid Move" Edition

While I was expecting a run up to the 50dma in the Dow, I'll admit I wasn't expecting it to happen today. The 50dma was at 8,940. We hit that level in the first half of the day, pulled back, and then made an audacious stab at another important psychological level, Dow 9,000.

That's where the bears really took their stand at the end of the day throwing a 150 swoon into the Dow during the last 20 minutes of the day. I'd expect us to be a little sticky here.

In fact, a pullback to 8,700 or so would be great, if it came on low volume.

I don't watch the VIX much, but does anyone else find it suspicious that it only dropped a little today with all that upside on the indexes? Thoughts from any of you seasoned VIXers?

Anyway, the RO had a sweet day. To really make it special, Trader D "chambermaided" himself.

At one point today, it looked as if we might have our first 100% profitable day... for now, it'll have to stand as a nice goal. Out of 23 traders today, 20 finished gross positive, or 87%. 15 traders made over $1,000 gross while no trader lost over $1,000 gross. Nice. I was #9 of 23.

"Lucky Pierre" - Trader B, $30,684 on 501k shares traded.

2. Trader C, $23,586 on 528k shares traded.
3. Trader 10*, $13,689 on 8,700 shares traded.
4. Trader N, $12,888 on 176k shares traded.
5. Trader A, $10,757 on 105k shares traded.

"Chambermaid" - Trader D, -$959 on 446k shares traded.
2. Trader 3, -$169 on 10,400 shares traded.
3. Trader U*, -$31 on 0 shares traded.
4. Trader 11, $5 on 12,600 shares traded.
5. Trader K, $38 on 0 shares traded.

Here it is, your daily "heatmap."

John Thain's Brass Balls And Tin Ears

-Sure he looks dorky, but he has brass balls and tin ears.

Despite the fact that MER stock has plummeted from close to $60 to around $14 in 2008, John Thain is asking for a $10 million bonus.

They used to call him "robot" or something like that... and as I alluded to in the post title, there are some parts of his body that are indeed made of metal.

Anyway, I look forward to a time when bonuses are awarded based on performance again.

DT Wins Again!!!

While lesser bloggers talk about the end of the world, I'm over here wrapped in cozy winter blankets, wearing my Ugg slippers, sipping frothy coffee drinks and nailing bottoms.



As predicted, we've hit the 50dma on the industrials this morning. I now switch my stance from bullish to short term neutral. I feel we're going to do some consolidation here.

Unfortunately, I think this makes for some dull trading for the rest of the week.

Another Person Who Shouldn't Trade

A good stock trading rule is the old, "where there's smoke, there's fire."

In this case, you could say, "if someone is going to use your back as a springboard to do a backflip, AND they have barbed wire strapped around their foot, there's gonna be fire." Smarten up, dude.

Wire, "Outdoor Miner"

I offered Trader D the pick despite his non-spray, out of sheer kindness. But, luckily for you all, he never responded to my song request, so you get good music instead.

I can't get this song out of my head.

The RO Report, "Another Nice Reversal" Edition

You know what makes this rally more convincing than say, the two 900 point one day rips we've had? Both of those rallies were made from short-term reaction bottoms and you could say they were pretty obvious short squeezes. Our current rally is building from a test of a low, not the low itself and has been much more steady. The volume was better today than during yesterday's tank, and we're being led by the financials... even during yesterday's selloff, the financials were relatively strong.

If this market is truly going to rebound, the financials have to be front and center in its strength. I also like that we closed just above the resistance level of the last two days.

So I see a lot of positives, and again, I could easily see us running to the 50dma in the industrials soon. After that, I get neutral again, and would hope for a long boring consolidation there heading into the holidays, so that we could have a nice springboard for a January rip. That's the best case scenario for the bulls, IMO.

Anyway, it was a fairly solid day for the RO. Trader D made some solid decisions today, getting long the insurance sector and holding on for the ride. It's great to see, because as you'll recall, December hasn't been very merry for him. But there was a nice spread of success today, which is always great to see.

Out of 24 traders today, 20 were gross positive, or 83%. 13 traders finished up over $1,000 while only 3 lost over $1,000. Good numbers there. I was #8 of 24, in good shape.

Oh, sign up to "follow" my blog. You see that new little sidebar thing I have? Do it now.

"Lucky Pierre" - Trader D, $82,702 on 612k shares traded.

2. Trader B, $44,187 on 352k shares traded.
3. Trader C, $25,725 on 502k shares traded.
4. Trader N, $21,886 on 153k shares traded.
5. Trader Z, $8,222 on 411k shares traded.

"Chambermaid" - Trader A, -$58,856 on 736k shares traded.

2. Trader P, -$1,990 on 422k shares traded.
3. Trader 7, -$1,076 on 6,000 shares traded.
4. Trader K, -$827 on 16,800 shares traded.
5. Trader 3, $57 on 9,800 shares traded.

Here it is, your daily "heatmap." Compare with the intraday map I published earlier... nice reversal.

The Daily Show Take On The Big 3

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Clusterf#@k to the Poor House - Bean on a Plate Edition

Barack Obama Interview
John McCain Interview

Sarah Palin Video
Funny Election Video

A Depressing Market

I'm not exactly thrilled by the tone of the market today. Below is a 30-min graph of the Dow. It basically shows that we broke the uptrend I was hoping would stick.



The intraday heatmap shows that financials are relatively strong... that's the glimmer of hope if you're bullish.

Everyone Is Unemployed

The good news is that you can always be a proprietary trader...

Here are the grim details of today's job report.

Bette Midler, "Wind Beneath My Wings"

From Trader N to Trader Z... a dedication, if you will.

The RO Report, "Bears Are Lame" Edition

Here's the deal... ahead of a jobs report that is widely expected to be a complete disaster, all they could manage was a 200 point drop on the Dow? I'm not impressed. A month ago, they could have taken this market down at least 600 points. I guess I'm just really tired of being bearish.

I'm not saying it's easy being bullish here, because it's not, but I like the way 84 support held on the SPY. If we rally tomorrow on a weak report, bears will have some thinking to do over the weekend... especially if we could close above 8650.

Anyway, it was an interesting day in the RO. Trader N continues to show major progress as he seems to be developing into a bit of a monster trader. This is wonderful for the office dynamic. The best type of office doesn't just have one or two good traders, but a whole bunch with different styles. This way, when one guy is slumping, you still have a strong leader. Kudos to Trader N for his spray.

Out of 22 traders today, 10 finished gross positive, or 46%. 6 traders made over $1,000 gross, and 7 traders lost over $1,000 gross. A very mixed performance. Volume was pretty lackluster today and we seem to be waiting for that report tomorrow. I was #7 of 22. Happy to be green since I was bullish all day...

"Lucky Pierre" - Trader N, $33,838 on 111k shares traded.

2. Trader J, $11,411 on 116k shares traded.
3. Trader V, $3,550 on 93,200 shares traded.
4. Trader L, $3,269 on 53,000 shares traded.
5. Trader Z, $2,035 on 271k shares traded.

"Chambermaid" - Trader A, -$18,930 on 200k shares traded.

2. Trader P, -$12,238 on 261k shares traded.
3. Trader C, -$6,164 on 303k shares traded.
4. Trader H*, -$3,273 on 4,500 shares traded.
5. Trader D, -$2,974 on 467k shares traded.

Here it is, your daily "heatmap."