This is one of the more interesting videos I've seen in awhile.
I mean, I guess this guy was going to perform a song. But the "host" of the show starts off reading poetry or more like, yelling poetry. I don't know... I guess you'll just have to watch it.
Oh, and look for my guest appearance in the video.
Evolution, $1315 on 30,400 shares traded.
Denarii, $95 on 1400 shares traded.
Me, $19 on 2400 shares traded.
Bubs, $13 on 800 shares traded.
OBAT, -$240 on 5094 shares traded.
My goodness! I can't believe the Dow was up so big.
The Bulls apparently are not the ones vacationing in the Hamptons this summer. They are at work bidding up stocks on no volume while the Bears are sipping Corona's on the beach.
I tell you what... I think the Bears are getting good and rested. Once the volume comes back into this market I don't think it will be to the upside.
Anyway, Evolution decided he wanted to make some money today. He's been on a great streak and it's great to see because for a while he was on the rocks. Congrats ET.
Meanwhile, since I barely traded today I won't be posting a daily. See you Monday!
Mellow song for a summer Friday. As the traffic in my neighborhood shoots to a peak during the next week, I'll think often of this song.
Words of wisdom all around
But no one ever seems to listen
They're talking about their plans on paper
Building up from the pavement
There are shadows from the scrapers on the pavement
It's enough to make me sigh
But that don't seem like it would make it feel better
The words are still around
But the words are only sounds
And no one ever seems to listen
Instead they'll say
Well how could we have known?
I'll tell them it's not so hard to tell
If you keep on adding stones
Soon the water will be lost in the well
So we're off to a really slow start today.
10:00 yesterday: 204,379,000 shares traded on the NYSE.
10:00 today: 149,017,000 shares traded on the NYSE.
Things will slow further as this summer Friday rolls on.
People are already gone. Preserve your trading capital. If you have one or two good trades, call it a day. I'm out of here. I'll post the VO later but it may be late again.
Here's a slow motion video. Some of this stuff is really cool.
Okay, today I've actually made plans in the middle of the day so that I'll be forced to only trade a half day.
Meanwhile, not sure if anyone has noticed, but I removed the Stockalicious thing from my site. Really... who was checking it? I'm awful at the long-term stuff. However, that said, I'm very happy with how my GAIA has held up during this period of market turmoil.
Also, yesterday I purchased a little HCBK. I feel very responsible purchasing a bank stock in my long term portfolio. Banks aren't a fad.
Anyway, here's what I like about it. Check out all that volume that has come into the stock in the last 5 weeks. Basically, it is being accumulated by institutions. That's what volume like that tells you. Your run of the mill retail investor isn't purchasing bank stocks in the middle of the media frenzy over sub-prime. The stock is pennies away from an all-time high. However, look at a monthly graph and you'll see this stock isn't a "growth" vehicle. This is a safety play.
The stock was featured yesterday on CNBC. However, a friend of mine who is very successful in real-estate mentioned it to me a few days earlier. He said that it was the only bank he knew of that didn't sell it's mortgages.
So, if the polar ice caps don't melt and sink the US in the next 100 years, I plan on passing this stock onto my great-great-great grandchildren... that is assuming all of my children don't turn out to be gay.
DISCLAIMER: This post should not be taken as a recommendation for you to purchase any securities mentioned within. And, unfortunately, the polar ice caps are going to melt and all of my children will all turn out to be gay so I will not have any financial responsibility in 30 years. Therefore I can throw my money around purchasing "risky" stocks like HCBK.
I woke this morning a little depressed that I wouldn't be surfing. Getting up early to go surfing has been a great routine. Wake before the sun, drive to my friend's house, and then drive east to the break as the sun rises. I've seen many colorful sunrises these last few weeks.
So I crawled out of bed a little later and did some extra research. With the CFC and BAC news, I knew the market would be gapping up. I hate trading the open when the market gaps up. Why? Because I often feel all bullish and buy a bunch of stuff pre-open and then lose 25 cents over and over again.
Perhaps it's because I feel fairly strongly that this recent move up is a bull trap, I don't know, I decided to fade the gap up. It worked pretty well. There were two exceptions, I got long FED and DSL at the open because I knew both have large short interests and so I figured they would squeeze on the CFC news. Great logic right? FED worked like a charm but DSL spanked me. So much for logic.
Anyway, after those plays I started looking for shorts. My best of the day was in LDK, a solar company.
The rest of the solars were down or weaker than LDK, so I threw in a short for 500 shares and was filled at $45.20. That was the best part of the trade. My covers were bad. I took 200 off at $45.10 (I was nervous, okay?) 100 at $44.60, 100 at $44.03 and the final hundred at $43.39. I think when things heat up again I'm going to increase my position size a bit so that I can cover a chunk of my positions early and let more ride.
Anyway, I had a bunch of other good shorts too. RWT, AGU, BID and OMG. The problem with all of these positions was that I only threw a few hundred shares of each out there so I didn't really capitalize like I could have. But I wanted to take it easy... heck, I should be on vacation right now!
So by 10:45 I was done trading. I went with my wife and daughter to a natural history museum, a puppet show and out to lunch. After lunch I got a call from my friend saying that the winds had shifted in our favor and I went out to surf for the afternoon. Then, when I got home we had a good friend over for dinner. All in all, it was as great day.
Again, sorry for the lazy and infrequent posting. All will be back to normal here after Labor Day.
Here's the stats:
P&L, $1008
Best, LDK, $397
Worst, DSL, -$197
13,400 shares traded.
14 stocks traded, 9 winners, 5 losers.
81 trades.
Me, $1008 on 13,400 shares traded.
OBAT, $248 on 12,800 shares traded.
Misstrade, $118 on 600 shares traded.
HPT, $100 on 305 contracts traded.
Evolution, $43 on 28,000 shares traded.
Denarii, $30 on 400 shares traded.
Bubs, $20 on 900 shares traded.
Wow, look at all of that green! Everyone reported and everyone made money. Always nice.
The big news of the day was the Bank Of America investment in Countrywide. However, equally newsworthy has to be the way the stock reversed off of its highs to close at its lows.
Volume continues to be low. On the NYSE today we traded 1,375,722,000 shares. Since I think volume is so important, I'll start posting it here everyday.
Anyway, sorry for the late post. I was in the water...
NOTE: Daily post will also be late as we're having dinner guests.
Have any of you noticed slowness since I put all this new Feedburner crap on the site? If so let me know. It seems slower to me...
Winds are just messing up the waves right now. I actually wrote a fairly long post last night about the waves and currents but it's not ready for the blog yet. Too sloppy... like the surf.
So this was the first morning in a week where I didn't wake at 5am to go to the beach. While I missed getting in the water first thing, I feel I benefited greatly from the extra sleep. Winds will shift tonight and I'll be back in the water tomorrow.
As for trade, that BAC investment in CFC is huge. If we can close today with good gains on strong volume, I may have to change my tune about the direction of the market.
Meanwhile, the video below should act as a warning to those of you who pay too much attention to the market and not enough attention to the world around you. Kind of... not really actually. It's just a Monty Python thing.
Enjoy "The Dull Life Of A City Stockbroker."
Wow... that could help firm up this rally.
More info here.
A lot of you may not like this song. However, it's important for you to realize that that doesn't mean it's a bad song... it just means you don't "get it."
Anyway, it's the first "real" video from the upcoming Animal Collective album "Strawberry Jam." I can't wait for it to be released. However, despite my anticipation, the record company probably won't release it any earlier, just to be nice to me.
Anyway, this video features a love story between a girl with some "mouth" issues and a space alien. They go to a carnival, engage in some high-school type pranks, hook up, get caught by the cops and then blast off to space together.
If you don't cry when you watch this beautiful story unfold, you're one cold fucker.
Find a new Animal Collective mp3, at I Guess I'm Floating. The guy who runs that blog, incidentally, has almost my exact musical taste.
NOTE: Tonight my daughter should go to sleep early. That raises the probability of me writing a non-stock market related post later tonight.
Not really a half day. I traded very lightly from 9:30 to 10:30 and then from 3 to 4pm. I think that will be my modus operandi for awhile.
I had more important things to do... like, go to a vacuum repair store.
Surf has been rough lately. Need the winds to shift.
Now, back to the market.
I got really lucky with LNN right off the open. I bought 200 shares at the open and sold it about 3 minutes later for a point. Silly, I know. But whatever, it was my best stock of the day. I made $180 in it.
On the other hand, I took a little smack in AVB today.
The REITS were rallying early and so I bought some AVB around $118.45. It immediately dropped. Ugly. Anyway, I didn't get crazy or anything, I just sold. Meanwhile, I've decided this stock trades like shit and so I'll be avoiding it from now on. I mean, if the stock is doing one thing while the REIT index is doing something entirely different I don't want to watch it.
So it looks like there was good money to be made today. The solar stocks were strong, the metals were very strong, and... well, most everything was strong.
Still, I'm happy to watch this market largely from the sidelines right now. If I can manage to make a little bit of money each day from here until Labor Day while also enjoying time away from the screens I'll be ready for the "real sell off" in September.
To me, this feels like a bull trap. However, time will tell.
Here's the stats:
P&L, $108
Best, LNN, $180
Worst, AVB, -$140
shares traded, 12,800.
11 stocks traded, 6 winners, 5 losers.
87 trades.
Evolution, $459 on 24,900 shares traded.
Me, $108 on 12,800 shares traded.
HPT, $100 on 74 contracts traded.
Misstrade, $0 on 600 shares traded.
Bubs, no trades... becoming a suburbanite.
Denarii, -$42 on 1000 shares traded.
OBAT, -$312 on 17,200 shares traded.
Well I guess anyone can look at the Dow and think the witch is dead and all that but they'd be forgetting something really important about witches. Witches eat children.
And that's important, because if children are the future then this market is in trouble.
I mean, yeah, we've bounced from the "bottom" but on really low volume. I think the price action is great, especially in the metal stocks, but I wouldn't be out there buying this "rally" with both hands just yet. But that's me. I'm just a daytrader and therefore I suffer from chronic myopia.
However, I have to say the late-day rallies are encouraging.
Beautiful song, mellow video of some guy surfing.
Meanwhile, the guy with the camera annoys me too...
Yeah, it's feeling more like August now. In the market at least... what's with this weather? 57 degrees? Damn!
Anyway, I lost some money today. I never explained yesterday either, so I'll start with that.
See that second 5-minute bar? Well I got short around $104.50. The stock spiked up to $105 on like 300 shares. I was pissed and so I doubled my short. Then, it spiked up to $106.
Booyah.
So I hit my $1000 loss limit for the day. I called my company and asked for $500 more. They obliged. I got short again... initially, it worked, but then it ran to a new high and stopped me out up there. So, I lost another $500 and then the stock tanked.
Of course.
Anyway, I basically did all the wrong things on the trade. It set off all kind of alarms here and I came into today confident that I wouldn't do anything stupid again. However...
See how AG ran up to $40? Well the other stocks in the sector were weak (and AG is no leader) so I got short at $40. I covered at $40.30. I was pissed and then pulled a revenge trade and got long. I got out at $39.80. Ugly all around folks. I lost almost $500 in the stock.
Basically, my head is out of the game. I was supposed to leave for vacation on Sunday but cancelled and hung around in case Hurricane Dean hit the oil rigs and the US. Meanwhile, it didn't. So while I'm here physically, mentally I think I'm on vacation. Instead of beating myself up over these last 2 days, I'm going to focus on the last few weeks and take some time. Perhaps I'll try a few swing trades or take only a couple of longer term trades each day. We'll see.
Here's the stats:
P&L, -$640
Best, UBB, $241
Worst, AG, -$464
shares traded, 38,000
24 stocks traded, 11 winners, 13 losers.
244 trades.
Evolution, $548 on 37,400 shares traded.
HPT, $400 on 75 contracts traded.
Bubs, $241 on 1800 shares traded.
Denarii, -$2 on 1600 shares traded.
OBAT, -$375 on 13,000 shares traded.
MT, -$615 on 3000 shares traded.
Me, -$640 on 38,000 shares traded.
Another red day for the VO marking our second in as many days.
Once the FED cut that discount window rate the volatility dried right up. So for the time being, it's smart to be more careful with your trades. You can't expect the big moves that we had last week and the week before. You have to pick your spots better... and probably pick fewer spots.
Like I mentioned in my previous post, I'll be taking it very easy from here until after Labor Day barring anything insane happening. That said, I'll still post the VO every day. I'll also probably take one or two trades a day just to keep myself in the game a little bit.
So while posting will dry up with the market volume here, it won't be completely dead.
Yesterday, according to the IBD, the volume on the NYSE declined 38% from Friday's level. Today, I think we'll probably decline another 20% from yesterday's light levels... it's slow and choppy and time to either trade extremely lightly or just take off until after Labor Day.
That little piece of wisdom cost me $2500 over the last 2 days. Stocks are dead.
So here's the deal. I'll continue to post the VO each day however, don't expect much more stock news from my site for the next couple of weeks. I don't plan on trading much unless something wacky happens.
Instead, I'll be outside. I'll be surfing a lot and spending a lot of time with my daughter. She's starting nursery school in the middle of September. She's my first child and in a way, I'm a little sad that she's already off to "school." More to the point, I'm downright bothered by it.
Imagine how I'll be when she gets her first boyfriend.
Anyway, so if I post anything here it will be more like, "around the house" or "my history" posts.
Please don't let my feelings on the market effect your trade. Evolution and HPT are on a nice little streak and OBAT continues being quietly green on most days. I'm sure there is money to be made. I think that after the last few weeks I'm just a little burnt out. In fact, I was burnt out before the last few weeks. The last few weeks I was simply on overdrive.
See you.
I'm happy that in the midst of all my money-making in the last few weeks that I didn't lose clarity and think:
a) I'm a genius
or
b) The Hybrid Market isn't so bad after all...
Basically, I'm still an idiot and I still think the Hybrid Market sucks. Sure, maybe it's okay when everyone thinks the financial system is going to collapse, but when people relax, it sucks.
Anyway, after yesterday I'm taking it much easier today. The mistake I made was trading like it was last week. However, things have chilled significantly. I can forget about the multi point trades with size and get back to hoping for and taking smaller pieces of pie.
Back to the grind in other words...
