I've added a Stockalicious widget down there along the right side. It details my "swing" account.
Since I'm more or less detailing my financial demise here, I figured I might as well be even more specific.
Actually, I feel the need to head in more of a "swing" direction. So I hope by putting the widget up it will get me thinking more of "swing" trades instead of just thinking about day trades.
Next, a donation widget! LOL!
After finishing April strong and then starting May with 2 green days, I have fallen off a cliff. This is very tough to take.
March was my first negative month ever, April my second and I am in a good hole already in May.
The story of today is that I had no winners. I traded 16 stocks and had only 3 winners on the day, each of them small. I had no disastrous losers (although I barely avoided disaster today in TNH) just too many.
This game is so psychological and right now I am losing it.
I'm not going to over-analyze anything today. I almost think that I'm thinking too much. I'm going to try tomorrow to "just trade" again and let the chips fall where they may.
Here are the stats:
P&L: -$694
Best, HS $137
Worst, WCC -$243
shares traded, 39,400
stocks traded, 16, 3 winners, 13 losers.
total trades, 202
Misstrade, $1492 on 18,400 shares traded.
EvolutionTrader, $443 on 45,600 shares traded.
Denarii, $155 on 4600 shares traded.
Scalper, $139 on 23,400 shares traded.
One Bad-Ass Trader, $64 on 10,200 shares traded.
Me, -$695 on 39,400 shares traded.
A quiet, but overall good day for the VO today.
Misstrade continued with his winning ways and EvolutionTrader had a good number for such a quiet trading day. Everyone else (with the exception of me) finished slightly positive.
Never bad to be green.
I was surfing around the net this evening and came upon a new blog called Market Dharma. On it, was posted a movie trailer for a movie about the coffee industry. Great idea! I post a weekly music video, why not post a weekly movie trailer as well?
So from now on Sundays are movie trailer day at Dinosaur Trader. And, since I'll post the trailer on Sunday, it gives you plenty of time to order it on Netflix and have it in time for next weekend. What could be better?
Thanks for the idea, traderd!
People always ask, the "desert island" question in regards to music. What album would you bring? Well, I know what movie I would bring, Baraka, by Ron Fricke.
There was no real "trailer" on Youtube, but I found this, where someone took scenes from the movie and put them to a song by the band Tool. This "trailer" while interesting, does the movie no justice. If it seems at all interesting to you or if there's an image you think about for the rest of the day, rent or buy Baraka. You won't be disappointed, it's like nothing you've ever seen.
Misstrade, $4084 on 21,200 shares traded.
Denarii, $405 on 8600 shares traded.
EvolutionTrader, -$12 on 45,200 shares traded.
One Bad-Ass Trader, -$67 on 13,200 shares traded.
NYSE Scalper, -$505 on 15,400 shares traded.
Me, -$901 on 28,600 shares traded.
Not a great day for the VO unless you're name is Misstrade and you can turn water into wine.
Although honorable mention goes to Denarii who has been trapped in a slow grind lately. Nice to see him break out with some good profits today.
The rest of us were on the downside. Some of us, (cough, DT, cough) a little more down than others.
Have a great weekend everybody!
-DT
What a woman. If you don't know Joanna Newsom's music, you're missing out. She released one of the most amazing albums last year. She plays the friggin harp! I may be in love with her. It's cool, my wife knows... she's kind of in love with her too.
Anyway, music video of the week.
When I have time to start rhyming my post titles, you know it's been slow...
All the pain of my day was over by 10:00am because that's when I stopped trading AGU.
It's also a perfect example of why trading is a hard job. You have to stay focused. I had 4 up days in a row... first time that's happened in a really long time. And I think I got soft... that's how fast it can happen. I think I thought, "I'm Back!" and mentally, I went on vacation.
I didn't even know that AGU reported earnings today. Had I known, I probably would have avoided $276 in losses. At 9:45, the stock started to spike up to near the level of yesterday's close. So I thought I could throw in a short with minimal risk. Wrong... maybe on a regular day, but not on the day the company releases earnings... I short 300 at 38.80, covered 100 at 39.15 and then 200 at 39.27. Not a debilitating loss, but an ugly one.
And as it happens often... one bad trade led to another... still not aware of the earnings report, I threw in a "revenge trade" and tried to short again. This time, I short 400 at 39.17. Only seconds later, I covered 200 at 39.24, then 100 at 39.30 and the last 100 at 39.47.
Done yet? Nope. I went for it again... the trifecta. I short 300 at 39.47. 30 seconds later, nervous because I had been squeezed twice already, I covered at 39.49. Whew, I learned a lesson.
NOT!
I short again 2 minutes later at 39.55, 300 shares. I covered 100 at 39.64 and 200 at 39.88. Oh, and to add insult to injury... that 200 shares at 39.88? High of the day. I was that sucker.
3 awful trades that I may not have made had I done a little research. Those 3 trades accounted for more than half my total loss on the day.
Other than that, it was choppy out there. My best winner came in an early morning short in CIG. Nothing doing. I should have been outside enjoying the weather.
Here's the stats:
P&L -$540
Best, CIG $157
Worst, AGU -$276
shares traded, 33,800
stocks traded, 20, 6 winners, 14 losers
total trades, 177
NYSE Scalper, $512 on 29,800 shares traded.
One Bad-Ass Trader, $203 on 16,800 shares traded.
Denarii, -$19 on 2900 shares traded.
Me, -$540 on 33,800 shares traded.
Misstrade, -$2247 on 24,800 shares traded.
EvolutionTrader, -$2641 on 46,400 shares traded.
Bloody Thursday.
The VO got completely smoked today. At least the Scalper and OBAT were able to pull together for decent wins. The rest of us just got hit.
Tomorrow looks to be a slow day since we have beautiful weather on the East Coast and I expect to see a lot of people coming out to the "sticks" early to enjoy their weekends.
Maybe you're not lucky... Maybe you have to sit in an office all day. Here's a video and song that will make you feel like you're "outside" if you catch my drift.
It's a real snoozer out there today folks. So, after churning a little in the morning, I decided to take a walk.
Spring migrants are pouring in. I saw my first White-Eyed Vireo of the year. I don't see too many of these birds, so I was pretty happy about it.
With pics like this on my site, Trading Goddess has to be more than a little nervous about the traffic she's bound to lose due to the competition, no?
Anyway, volume is a little less than yesterday, and yesterday was already light. I have a question... WHEN IS THIS MARKET GOING TO DROP? Just wondering. If anyone knows, please clue us all in by means of that "comment" button down there. You don't have to tell us exactly when or why, just let us know your feelings.
A mysterious emailer sent me this link.
Great article on program trading, what it is, how you can recognize when it's happening, and how you can profit from it.
Beautiful morning here and my cable is back and running.
My daughter is downstairs playing the keyboard and singing at the top of her lungs.
I feel pretty good.
Well, since it's so late, I can no longer access my execution system to see my numbers. After a certain hour, my company won't let me back in... no idea why, but, whatever.
From what I remember, my best trade of the day was in WLL. I got in early on the day and sold in the .60s and .70s. I had a bunch of decent winners on the day, probably 6 stocks over the $100 level.
But on the downside, I booked over $300 in losses between TNH and CF trying, foolishly, to short them.
Since I don't have access to my trades to explain them adequately, I'm going to let it go.
So I'll tell a brief story about my Cablevision experience.
The problems really began yesterday. My connection was slow and I was dropped a couple of times. The same thing happened this morning, but the real party started at 2pm, when they went down for the count.
So, I did the unthinkable and called their "customer service" line.
It was great, I spoke to a polite, clearly well educated and sincerely sympathetic technician who knew exactly what my problem was. He walked me step by step through the problem. No attitude at all, clearly had been well-trained and enjoyed his job. Not. NOT!
After sitting through over 3 minutes of automated bullshit that didn't apply to me or my area, I finally spoke to a "technician" named Nicholas.
I told him that I couldn't get online and he said, "We don't have a modem associated with your account." What? Okay, well, I wasn't lying to him... I pay them over $100 bucks a month and I have a modem... I was staring at it.
When I got him to understand that I actually have a modem, he told me to unplug my modem and then plug it back in. Every time some idiot technician tells me to turn something off and then turn it back on I feel like brain cells, somewhere, are being slaughtered.
But as he told me to do this, the lights on my modem went out. I asked him if he had reset it. He said, "Sir, I can't reach through the phone and unplug your modem for you." I clenched my teeth and took a breath.
It's moments like these that I feel the mediation class I took on Saturday has actually helped already. Because instead of letting him freak me out too much, I simply realized that "Oh, I'm talking to a miserable fuck" and with that realization I was able to even have a little sympathy for the shit.
Of course I still had the problem. He then asked me how many splits I have in the house. I have one. He told me that was the problem. I asked him (calmly, calmly) why I've never encountered this problem anytime in the past 2 years? He told me the split went bad and that I should buy a new one. Okay, fine. I also scheduled a "technician" to come to my house tomorrow sometime between 10am and 8pm (LOL!) to fix the problem.
The best thing was that at the end of the call he actually said, "Sir, is there anything else I can do for you today to provide you with excellent Cablevision service?" As if by telling me that I just received "excellent" service that it must make it so...
Anyway, the end of the story is that I went to Radioshack and shelled out $12 for a new splitter. I brought it home and it didn't work.
5 hours later, Cablevision calls me to let me know there was a service outage today. Therefore, they wanted to "free up my day" tomorrow and not have me wait around for a "service technician" that I wouldn't even need.
So, thanks to Cablevision, I am free tomorrow, except I have to go back to Radioshack to return the damn splitter.
Misstrade, $4895 on 24,600 shares.
Evolution Trader, $1152 on 42,400 shares.
Me, $958 on 25,400 shares.
One Bad-Ass Trader, $270 on 30,200 shares.
NYSE Scalper, -$240 on 45,200 shares.
Dehtrader, -$1899 on 32,400 shares.
Sorry for the late and non-linked post. My cable connection went down at 2pm and hasn't returned. I have no idea when it will be back up. I'm doing this from a neighbor's house... hahahaha!
Anyway, since the cable company told me they'll be at my house between 10am and 8pm I have no idea whether I'll be trading tomorrow, much less blogging.
Check back.
Until then, trade well,
-DT
UPDATE: It's 9pm and I'm up again. I have no idea why which leads me to doubt this will last. Anyway, I fixed the links on this post. Hopefully I will be up and running tomorrow with no glitches.
Death to Cablevision.
UPDATE #2: It is now 9:15 and Cablevision called me to tell me that there were "outages" in my area today and that everything is cleared up now. So I think I'm back for good.
Still, Death to Cablevision.
"IS ALBERT BETTER THAN YOU?" Peter roared across the desk at me.
I was taken aback by the question and before I could answer, he answered for me.
"HE'S 3.8, YOU'RE 3.6, HE'S BETTER."
His office was small and cluttered. Or perhaps it just seemed small because his voice was so big, and his presence larger. I had taken a seat in the recently vacated chair. The hot seat. From the corner of his desk, he lifted a stack of resumes. On each were illegible scribbles in red pen. Peter's desk was littered with red pens. There was some sort of order in the office, though maybe only in the same way that wind has direction. He began to read the GPAs off the resumes to me, "3.8, 3.7. 3.9, 4.0... he must have read 30 different GPAs, and not one was lower than 3.5. He was proud of this stack of resumes. He was in control of this stack, these traders.
He patted the stack with his hand and yelled, "ONLY THE BEST! THE BEST!" Proud of his traders, like they were his children and he their twisted father.
Peter looked directly at me, breathing loudly through his large nostrils. Like bull-nostrils, I thought. His forearms were large but oddly, hairless, and they rested on the desk. His thinning hair was a mess. He had strange eyes... was he drunk? on some drug? There were sweat rings under his armpits even though it was the middle of the winter. I couldn't guess how old or what nationality he was. He was like no one I had ever met before.
"WHERE'D YOU GO TO COLLEGE?"
He held the stack of resumes up and shook it at me again before I could answer, "THESE GUYS WIN." He threw the stack of papers down. I didn't know if I should say anything, so I didn't. Peter stared at me, and without breaking the stare, he reached for a red pen, bit the cap off and spit it on the floor. He picked up my resume and started to dissect it, circling my GPA and making notations in the margins. What could he be writing down?
"GOOD SCHOOL!" He flashed the wolfish smile again.
But a second later he looked up at me shaking his head, and sneered, "BIRDWATCHING?"
Maybe I should have left the "Hobbies"section off the resume. "YOU'RE NOT GONNA MAKE A MILLION BUCKS WATCHING BIRDS. YOU SHOULD SELL BIRDS, THAT MIGHT HAVE SOME PROMISE!"
He snorted at his own joke but I wasn't overly amused. He looked at me like he had just bestowed some great truth upon me and I didn't get it. He seemed disappointed. A look of boredom crossed his face and his eyes moved and met the flashes on his computer screen.
The interview didn't seem to be going well.
He continued to watch the screen, eyes darting back and forth, up and down. Now he smiled, then, he frowned. His brow furrowed, then it went calm. He seemed to be on some kind of mental roller-coaster but he was just staring at flashing numbers on a screen. He was completely absorbed and seemed to forget I was even there. Minutes passed. He was watching trader's profit and loss numbers and Anvil's volume totals. I guess to him it must have been like watching a horse race where you see your winnings pile up regardless of who comes in first. The room was silent and the screams and clatter from the trading room outside the door which once were so disconcerting, now seemed comforting.
Suddenly, as if a spell had been broken his face snapped away from the screen and he began to scrutinize me with those crazy eyes. He had been gazing at the screen for so long that I thought I could see little numbers and blips of red and green reflected in his pupils. He was number-drunk.
"WANNA TRADE?" he bawled across the desk.
I hedged. "Yeah, I'm really thinking about it..."
"DON'T THINK." He interrupted. "TRADE."
And with that, he yanked open a drawer and produced a huge blue vinyl-clad binder with the words "Series 7 Examination Manual" embossed in gold across the front. He thrust it across the desk at me knocking red pens onto the floor.
"2 CENTS A SHARE, 8 DOLLARS A TICKET."
He stood up from his desk, swung open the office door and yelled "NEXT!" to no one in particular and then stormed down the hallway knocking thumbtack-stuck papers off of the cubicle walls.
EvolutionTrader, $304 on 33,600 shares traded.
Misstrade, $220 on 16,000 shares traded.
One Bad-Ass Trader, $110 on 13,800 shares traded.
Me, $16 on 38,200 shares traded.
NYSE Scalper, -$330 on 29,800 shares traded.
DenariiTrader, -$356 on 4000 shares traded.
Dehtrader, -$1170 on 30,500 shares traded.
The numbers tell the story today. Not much was happening. It was a yawner. However, it was a historic day, at least for the VO. It was our first negative day. It was also the first day of the month, so it wasn't the best way to start May. However, it also means we have a full month to get really green.
It was the kind of day where if you had something work, you had to take the profits and just not overtrade.
One note, TradeWhileWorking is taking a temporary hiatus from trading to work on some new systems. We wish him luck and look forward to having him back with us to bring us some green once he gets his systems in place.
I will be posting the VO after 8pm this evening.
Until that time, click around, listen to the forkcast, check out some music videos and reread the latest history post because tomorrow the next installment comes out.
-DT
