Giant Sand, "Shiver"
Great song, great album, great band.
p.s. the first 6 seconds of this video are just black screen
Monday, May 14, 2007
Fare Thee Well (for now) NYSE Scalper
I was a little shellshocked to receive email from the Scalper today informing me that he was suspending his blog for a little while.
He was the first person I invited into the Virtual Office and reading his blog inspired me to start my own, so I owe him some thanks.
Good luck Scalper! I look forward to seeing you resume your blog and only hope it's a short hiatus!
-DT
I Just Missed IT
My day was dominated by TNH, so I will post here all of my trades. This will give you an idea of how close I came to hitting this one out of the park today. I'm not taking anything away from my day today. I'm very happy with the results, but I just missed a real breakout for myself and I am a little frustrated. I'm sure that may sound a little obnoxious given the profits I made today, but when you trade day in and day out, it's also about trading well. I mean, just feeling like you did a good job, made some nice trades. There's a satisfaction in that separate from the money made. Yellow indicates short sales, my position size is reflected in the parentheses to the right of the trade.
9:37:33 Short 200 @ 99.72 (-200)
9:39:27 Buy 100 @ 98.88 (-100)
9:50:05 Buy 200 @ 98.85 (100)
9:50:17 Sell 100 @ 98.53 (flat)
9:51:54 Short 100 @ 98.50 (-100)
9:52:40 Short 100 @ 98.34 (-200)
9:53:59 Short 100 @ 98.06 (-300)
10:10:25 Short 100 @ 96.69 (-400)
10:13:45 Short 200 @ 96.95 (-600)
10:18:54 Short 100 @ 97.45 (-700)
10:30:56 Buy 100 @ 95.46 (-600)
10:33:06 Buy 200 @ 94.52 (-400)
10:35:07 Short 200 @ 96.20 (-600)
10:44:12 Buy 100 @ 95.26 (-500)
10:45:18 Short 100 @ 95.90 (-600)
10:52:01 Buy 300 @ 96.94 (-300)
10:58:46 Short 200 @ 96.31 (-500)
11:07:28 Buy 100 @ 94.83 (-400)
11:32:45 Buy 100 @ 96.20 (-300)
11:38:43 Buy 200 @ 94.99 (-100)
11:50:30 Short 100 @ 96.30 (-200)
12:00:41 Buy 100 @ 95.36 (-100)
12:50:38 Buy 100 @ 96.47 (flat)
13:27:03 Short 100 @ 96.79 (-100)
13:45:22 Short 100 @ 95.36 (-200)
13:52:35 Short 100 @ 95.68 (-300)
14:07:57 Buy 100 @ 93.48 (-200)
14:47:29 Buy 100 @ 92.24 (-100)
15:15:13 Buy 100 @ 92.24 (flat)
15:18:56 Buy 200 @ 89.10 (200)
15:19:06 Sell 100 @ 88.50 (100)
15:20:21 Sell 100 @ 89.36 (flat)
15:23:35 Buy 300 @ 88.80 (300)
15:24:26 Sell 100 @ 88.64 (200)
15:25:10 Sell 200 @ 88.41 (flat)
15:30:48 Short 200 @ 88.52 (-200)
15:35:35 Buy 100 @ 88.74 (-100)
15:36:09 Buy 100 @ 88.76 (flat)
15:47:49 Buy 600 @ 84.92 (600)
15:48:07 Sell 300 @ 84.56 (300)
15:48:31 Sell 100 @ 84.50 (200)
15:50:18 Sell 100 @ 85.53 (100)
15:50:35 Sell 100 @ 85.42 (flat)
Total Profits in TNH $2786 (net).
Anyway, so that was my day in TNH. For the record, I lost over $2000 in him on Friday. I was a day early on Friday. Looking back, that really screwed me up today because I was so nervous trading the stock. Had I not lost that confidence in him on Friday I may have had the nerve to hang on to more shares. It was so obvious to me today, even in the morning when he wasn't trading down aggressively that the buyers were gone. Bids would appear and then get hit, or step back. On Friday, a bid would send the stock up 80 cents...
This was a near miss. But I think I learned a lot between Friday and today. I hope it will benefit me next time I see a monster trade like this.
Anyway, here are the stats:
P&L, $3340
Best, TNH, $2786
Worst, AG, -$495
shares traded, 49,600
stocks traded, 17, 5 positive, 12 negative
total trades, 324
Virtual Office, $6807. Dow, +20.56, 13346.78.
Misstrade, $3730 on 2400 shares traded.
Me, $3340 on 49,600 shares traded.
Evolution Trader, $373 on 34,300 shares traded.
Denarii, $50 on 1000 shares traded.
One Bad-Ass Trader, -$305 on 14,500 shares traded.
Dehtrader, -$381 on 38,600 shares traded.
Besides Misstrade and Dinosaur there was not much happening in the VO today. For a beautiful spring Monday, there was some interesting movement, and that gives me hope that the volatility will begin to rise again. This is a strange market we're trading. Even today on a day where I felt the market was going down all day, it was up.
Something has to give soon... stay tuned and keep your ear to the ground.
Wilco, "Side With The Seeds"
I can't really explain this "video" that was put up on YouTube, but who cares, it's a great song. Their new album is due out soon, and even though Pitchfork panned it today, I still may pick it up. I just like this band.
Sunday, May 13, 2007
Friday, May 11, 2007
Jon Stewart For President
Okay, maybe that's going too far. But can he get an anchor position at CNN or something? It's ironic (and, I guess then perfect) that you can actually learn stuff about the world by watching the Daily Show. If you turn on MSNBC, FOX or CNN, you're probably getting news reports about a celebrity, a mass-murderer, or a lost child.
Anyway, great interview with Reza Aslan, author of "No God But God". They discuss Iraq and Iran and how everything we are doing right now in the mideast is just really the opposite of what needs to be done.
Virtual Office, $513, Dow, 111.98, 13327.11.
Misstrade, $1623 on 7800 shares traded.
EvolutionTrader, $984 on 42,700 shares traded.
One Bad-Ass Trader, $245 on 7000 shares traded.
Denarii, -$95 on 200 shares traded.
NYSE Scalper, -$177 on 40,000 shares traded.
Dehtrader, -$591 on 7500 shares traded.
Me, -$1476 on 51,200 shares traded.
A choppy day for the VO.
I'm outta here, enjoy your weekend!
-DT
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Whew!
Well, it's about time. Today, I made up my losses from March ($300), April ($1200) and May ($600) in one swoop and managed to actually get green for the first time since the end of February. That's right. If the month ended today, I would walk home with a check for $400. It's been a long time since I was paid.
Worst part about being in a trading slump is that you feel like you're working harder than ever but you're not getting paid. It's awful.
Anyway, I had a couple of good trades today. The first came right off the open. I saw that CBI was gapping up. I heard from Denarii that it was because of Cramer and so I figured that was as good a reason to go short as any. So I sold short off the open. What's annoying is that I wasn't filled at the opening price (I wasn't "entitled to those shares") but instead at 39.32. That was annoying because immediately after getting a fill I was squeezed. I sold again, this time 1000 shares, at 39.81. After playing around for a few moments, the stock broke.
I covered half at 39.50, but then immediately short a couple hundred more there. I covered some more at .40 and some more at .24. Then, I short 300 more at 39.22 and covered at 39.12 and 39.06. From there, the stock headed south and I was able to cover the rest at 38.62. It was a nice trade and it ended up being my best on the day, netting me over $700.
Other notable shorts were in AGU and Misstrade's excellent short call in FWLT.
My worst stock of the day was, again, TNH. And it's a shame, because at one point, I had some good paper profits in him. But paper profits are worthless. I was waiting for the thing to crack wide open, I was short 700 shares from above 88 when he broke 87 but I thought for sure that he was going to break and I was going to have a real sizzler. Instead, he ripped my face off. But really, because I had such good entry it never hurt me so bad... it felt worse than it was in actual terms. I lost almost $300 in the stock. He's a lunatic. I'm beginning to doubt if the stock will ever drop again.
Although, Cramer talked about it tonight...
Anyway, we've had the house painted all this week so I've been locked in this room with the windows closed all day. That's why I've been getting out of here immediately after the close, so it's been difficult to blog regularly.
By the end of next week, things should be back to normal around here.
Anyway, here's the stats:
P&L, $2508
Best, CBI, $707
Worst, TNH, -$293
shares traded, 65,800
stocks traded, 23, 16 positive, 7 negative
total trades, 353
Virtual Office, $8897. Dow, -147.74, 13215.13.
Misstrade, $5330 on 8100 shares traded.
Me, $2508 on 65,800 shares traded.
Dehtrader, $1148 on 14,700 shares traded.
One Bad-Ass Trader, $167 on 14,400 shares traded.
Denarii, -$4 on 2400 shares traded.
EvolutionTrader, -$88 on 33,300 shares traded.
NYSE Scalper, -$164 on 34,000 shares traded.
A pretty darn good day for the VO, some good gains and no big blowups. Unless you consider the Dow. About time we had a down day, no?
Misstrade continues to laugh in the face of the market, taking money from it and scoffing at P&L gravity. I have had a choppy week but today was on the right side of the trade. Dehtrader, back from a short hiatus, came back strong. OBAT was once again, quietly green.
I haven't heard from Scalper which is highly unusual. I'm assuming he took a day off, never a bad idea every once and a while.
My daily post will come later this evening. Sorry, been busy lately.
UPDATE: NYSE Scalper is alive and well. I've updated the post with his numbers. 8:31pm.
Wednesday, May 9, 2007
Smog "Rock Bottom Riser"
I'm feeling a little melancholy tonight... I'll get to my daily post later. For now, I'm having some wine and being contemplative.
Virtual Office, $176 Dow, +53.80, 13362.87.
Misstrade, $2319 on 5600 shares traded.
NYSE Scalper, $687 on 45,000 shares traded.
One Bad-Ass Trader, $124 on 17,800 shares traded.
Denarii, -$473 on 8000 shares traded.
Me, -$623 on 70,400 shares traded.
EvolutionTrader, -$1858 on 64,000 shares traded.
Well, it was an odd Fed day. Normally, I stay away from these days, but there were lots of stocks with big moves today.
The VO was as choppy as the futures were immediately after the Fed decision... what utter lunacy.
VO will post late today
Just as an FYI. We're having our house painted and my wife and I are going off to a secluded location with a bottle of wine to decide the color.
It could be the end of our marriage.
Anyway, think between 8pm and 9pm.
Tuesday, May 8, 2007
A Good Morning, A Bad Afternoon
At 11:00 I was going to name this post, "Fuck Yeah!" or something like that. Early on, I could do no wrong. I was making excellent trades. That's exactly when I should have stopped.
The morning started off well with a position that I held short overnight, TNH. I am holding it short again tonight. But I covered it close to the open at 78 and booked a few points in profits.
When I saw the early weakness in TNH, I checked out POT which had opened close to flat. I short 200 at 189.58 and about 5 minutes later, covered 100 shares at 189.11. He then made a freakish move above the 190 level. It just seemed all wrong, the market was weak, TNH was weak, CF was weak... so I short 300 at 190.20 to make my full position in the stock -400.
He scared me a bit when he went up to 190.61, but really not to much because the market was selling hard. He broke after that run up and never saw the 190 level until late afternoon. I covered 100 at 188.96, 100 at 187.58, 100 at 187.86 and the last 100 at 188.24. When all was said and done, I had over $900 in profits in the stock. One of my best winners in a while.
At about this time, I was also shorting AGU. Now, I think I may need to check AGU a little more closely, because perhaps it's not a pure fertilizer company... whatever the case, he wasn't selling off and I got squeezed in him. But instead of continuing to fight the stock, I noted the strength and bought.
And things worked well. I only bought a little because the market was still selling, but I think I made back my losses from my earlier short. At around 12:30, I made my last good trade of the day. I picked up a pretty big position at 37.20, 2500 shares and I sold most of it at 37.30 and then the rest a bit higher. At this point, I was probably up a few hundred dollars in AGU.
At the end of the day though, he became my worst loser, at -$218. My afternoon was spent churning him and GWW which was at one point a winner and became my second worst loser at -$202. Had I left these two stocks alone in the afternoon, I'd probably have another $1000 in profits on the day.
But, I can't have that money back. That's the way the game is.
Still, despite my bad afternoon, I'm happy with the day. I hope to build on it tomorrow. Here's the stats:
P&L, $1231
Best, POT $915
Worst, AGU -$218
shares traded, 72,200
stocks traded, 21, 12 positive, 9 negative
total trades, 386
Virtual Office, $5081. Dow -3.90, 13309.07.
Misstrade, $3358 on 10,900 shares traded.
Me, $1231 on 72,200 shares traded.
NYSE Scalper, $317 on 31,600 shares traded.
One Bad-Ass Trader, $184 on 10,000 shares traded.
EvolutionTrader, $76 on 56,000 shares traded.
Denarii, -$85 on 2000 shares traded.
Besides Misstrade, who, lets be honest now, seems to be a bit of a freak, things were somewhat quiet today in the VO. Although, I'll give myself some props for having a strong bounce day. I had a great morning and then probably gave at least half of my day back... in fact, I wouldn't be surprised if many traders were like me today, made early and then gave back.
This market is unbelievable... you just can't get it down!
Tomorrow is Fed day. Probably won't be interesting at all, but still, you have to watch... just in case! Man could this market use something to surprise it... one way or the other.
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