He will never be elected in our wonderful country. 54% of 37 readers of this fine blog think him unworthy.
So again, it's a landslide. Hopefully he finds this poll and drops out before things get too embarrassing for him down in S.C.
For the record, I would vote for him.
Today was not without it's dark moments, but in the end everything was great.
It started well, as I caught some nice short moves in the shipping stocks, most notably, DSX and ANW. I also made some money on the long side, in BEN.
But my favorite trade of the day came around 11:00 when MER ripped off the lows and I shorted it, right in front of a price I had written down this morning, $64.58.
I rode it down below $63 and covered, pulling in a little over $400 in the stock. What made me happy about the trade is that I almost felt like I had a "plan" when I made the trade. I don't normally trade with a "plan." In fact, I'm not really sure exactly how I trade, I think I've said that before.
Anyway, so I was up around $2,000 around 11 and I just really chilled out. I barely traded.
However, just after 2pm, it was very obvious that a real big buyer stepped into the market.
Normally, I'm pretty cautious when it comes to buying a market that I'm pretty bearish about when it's down close to 200 points, but not today. I stepped in and started buying stocks left and right. There was just a "feel" to the move in the futures that let me know it was the real deal. This is when things got interesting.
On Wednesday's, Judy teaches a "toddler yoga" class. As you know, our daughter has an ear infection and she was up ALL NIGHT last night. Normally, that's bad, but today it kind of worked in our favor because it meant that she would take an "intraday nap." (If you recall, last week on Wednesday I was watching Mary Poppins with my daughter and mother-in-law while trading... that was tough.) So today, I thought I was in the clear.
But she woke up around 2:15, just when I had loaded up and was carrying close to 10k shares of positions. Judy wasn't due home for another 20 minutes.
Normally, my daughter loves me. But when she's sick, she hates everyone except Judy.
So when I ran into her room and scooped her up out of bed, she was screaming for "MAMA! MAMA!" Since you can't really explain to a sick 3 year old that "Daddy is up to his neck in longs so you need to chill out" I didn't even bother. Instead, she sat on my lap screaming while I watched the market chop down... those 2 red bars at around 2:20 were unbelievably stressful for me.
Luckily, the market turned north again and I didn't have to do too much with my positions. Unfortunately, I couldn't do much to please my daughter either so she screamed until Judy came home while the market ripped higher.
Since today was bound to be a good day, the lord of the seas also graced us with some nice waves and a mild offshore breeze. Surf was better than it's been in weeks. I split right after work and head for the beach where I surfed until it was dark out. I will be there for sunrise as well... if it's really good, I may just stay there. We'll see.
Anyway, here's the stats:
P&L, $4302
Best, ANW, $1707
Worst, BIDU, -$344
92,000 shares traded.
39 stocks traded. 22 winners, 17 losers.
347 trades.
Me, $4302 on 92,000 shares traded.
Evolution, $2485 on 49,200 shares traded.
Dehtrader, $645 on 7700 shares traded.
Akalawoo, $442 on 4 contracts traded.
OBAT, $300 on 10,200 shares traded.
Momojuicing, $119 on 11,000 shares traded.
Tapeworm, no trades.
Denarii, -$1486 on 3400 shares traded.
Well, it was a wild one. We got the VIX back over 24 at one point today (though it closed below 21) and we finally got some respectable volume as we nearly traded 1.6 billion shares today on the NYSE.
Overall for the VO it was a good day, although Denarii pulled a Dinosaur and got a little smoked when everyone else did well. It really sucks, and I feel for him. I mean that seriously too, despite the fact that I'm almost always sarcastic.
Meanwhile, I want to point out one of the newer members of the VO, Akalawoo and his consistency. I don't know what the heck he's doing over there in Singapore, something with "strangles" I dunno, but he makes money everyday. Go visit his site. If you can figure it out, please tell me what it is. The most disturbing thing about Akalawoo is that I don't even think this is a full time job for him. I think he's a freaking student somewhere. Damn youth.
I also want to point out that Momojuicing blew chunks today.
Moving on, I can only hope that this type of crazy trading continues. We have a few days left in October and a few days left until the next FED meeting. Let's hope those days are filled with unsettling news and mini-panics, punctuated by rumors of the "Goldilocks economy" lasting forever.
Meanwhile, sorry that the "stats" are so late. Apparently for many of you the VO is the highlight of your day. All I have to say is I love it when "the masses" get all desperate. Remember, only 1% of you are more dominant than me... it only makes me stronger to have a bunch of submissives begging me to do something.
Finally, tomorrow we will have a new member of the VO. Someone who many of you know and love.
Since we're in the midst of a midday churn, I'll share a little story with you people... this happened about a week ago. Just when we were getting ready to have that garage sale I whined about.
Anyway, after getting smoked a couple of Fridays ago, I decided to go surfing, bad back and all.
The waves were still of decent size, maybe a 3 foot swell, but crosswinds were making them messy and very difficult to read. It was one of those days where it was hard to look good out there. The good news is that somehow, my back held up and has been 90% okay since. Perhaps all the surfing has strengthened it and my back problems will be less chronic now.
So when I got home, I had no excuse but to start bringing stuff out to the garage for the garage sale.
While I was doing so a mini-van slowly passed my house. The driver just stared at me, while rolling by at 5 mph. That was odd, I thought. A minute later, the same van rolled up (coming from the other direction) and parked at the base of my driveway.
A small man with thick, round eyeglasses hopped out of the van. He began speaking the moment his shoes hit my driveway.
"Got any antiques?" he chirped.
"No, and the garage sale isn't until tomorrow."
"Yeah, I figured... didn't see any mention of antiques in your ad. Sorry to come a day early, it's just my wife is really aggressive with these things."
I looked past him towards the van. I didn't see his wife there. The next thing I knew he was saying, "Dan Myers" and holding out his hand to be shaken. He then said, "Well, let me give you one of these" and gave me a very ornate business card.
Then he was gone... back into the minivan, speeding down the street.
I threw out his business card and went back to arranging the piles of crap we had in the garage. Judy pulled into the driveway. She opened the door and before she even got out said, "Mrs. Murphy has a dead possum. I told her you'd go over and get rid of it."
"What the hell? Can't she call animal control or something?"
"She's afraid of everyone... you know that. Just go over there."
I threw a pink stuffed rabbit onto a pile of other pink stuffed animals and walked down the driveway towards our neighbor's house, shovel in hand.
Mrs. Murphy has lived in our development for over 50 years. Her house was one of the first built here. As she has needed money, she's slowly sold off some of the land that surrounds her house and more houses filled with younger families have sprung up all around hers. Her house is in a state of disrepair but even though she's in her 80s, she refuses to hire landscaping people to come and cut her lawn or take her leaves. I rarely see her and her car never moves. One day she's going to die and no one will know for weeks. Anyway, Judy has gotten to know her because she routinely walks with our daughter past her house and I guess Mrs. Murphy found some comfort in their routine.
Before I even had a chance to knock, Mrs Murphy's front door swung open. The odor of moth balls collided with the fresh air I had been breathing and I had to catch myself in order not to wince.
"I heard this racket last night..." she started, "and then I woke this morning and found a dead possum on my lawn. His belly is ripped open. He's right over there."
Sure enough, a dead possum lay 30 feet away it's face locked in an awful grimace. Whatever killed it (another possum, a raccoon?) had done so with great brutality.
I tried to scoop the thing up on my shovel but it wouldn't sit right. A school bus pulled up across the street. Two young kids, the Harvey boys, got off and were immediately attracted to the dead animal, "Cooool!" one of them exclaimed. Now I had an audience. Although Mrs. Murphy skulked back into her home and closed the door.
The Harvey's had moved in recently into one of the new houses built on Mrs, Murphy's old property. Their parents let the boys wander all around the neighborhood unattended. Once, the kids came to our house to try and sell us a broken guitar. When I refused on account of it being broken, they told me it would make a nice decoration. They were persistent little kids and I knew they weren't going to leave me alone to bury the possum.
"I want the skull!" one of them said.
"Well, you're not getting the skull. I'm burying this thing whole" I snapped back.
I tried again to scoop the possum up onto the shovel so I could move it to a good location for burial. When I moved it, a whiff of death wafted from the moist underparts of the animal. The boys screamed. "NASTY! That's SO NASTY!" But the possum still wouldn't rest on the shovel.
"Get a stick or something and help me push the possum onto the shovel," I instructed.
The braver of the two brothers picked up a stick and poked and the animal. "Oh, NASTY! Check out it's tongue!" he said and tried to mash the stick into the possums mouth.
"Seriously, man... let's not play with this thing. I just want to get it buried." But the kid wasn't listening to me. He was now poking the possum's eyes. This was getting gruesome.
Just then, Mrs. Murphy swung open one of her heavy drapes and peered her bug eyes out a dirty window at the boys on the lawn who were busy probing the possum. She was wearing this crazy looking afghan. When they saw her looking out at them, they ran off, throwing their bejuiced sticks down on the lawn. I looked back towards Mrs. Murphy and she gave me a wink.
I got the possum on a shovel and buried it in her backyard. Head intact.
Okay, now the market can go back to the lows...
NOTE: Everything will be late tonight... the VO, the daily post. I'm going surfing.
Apparently, he doesn't fuck around.
NOTE: This "segment" on CNBC, the "White House Summit with Dylan Ratigan" has to be one of the worst examples of "journalism" I've seen in a long time. How many times have they said that we shouldn't raise taxes? Hey! Let's just broadcast the entire channel out of the White House CNBC! Way to challenge those guys, Dylan! If I wanted to be spun all day, I'd start taking drugs.
Not really, it's an external link to "the Spark" or something like that.
But whatever.
Look, I'm feeling introspective tonight after my staggering market loss. I want to know more about "you people." Also, I'll be surfing early and won't have a morning post up. This will have to do.
So take the test and tell the world what your personality "flaw" is, in the comment section.
It takes about 7 or 8 minutes to take the test. First, you have to sign up for an account... they want your email but you can opt out of getting bothered. The thing is, if you take the test and complete it, you can check at the end to see how compatible you are with other people who took it. So, if you want other people here to know how compatible they are with you, write the email address that you gave to "the Spark" in the comment section along with your test results.
Most of the time, I hate people... let's see if I hate you too.
Just follow along with the first comment... which I will post.
Click here to take the test.
UPDATE: I'm 35% greedy.
UPDATE II: I'll live to age 73.
With only 20 hours left to vote, my poll is showing it to be a dead heat.
Maybe you think having a poll about Stephen Colbert's chances at winning the presidency is stupid. Maybe you're thinking to yourself, "Man, that DT is a nitwit."
Fine, but is THE WASHINGTON POST a "nitwit" too then?
They ran a poll to see what his chances really were. Currently, among Democratic voters, he's at around 2%. Republican voters favor him less, at only about 1%. However, I think that the Republicans probably just don't know who the heck he is.
As you know, Republicans are old and out of touch.
Anyway, here's a link to the Washington Post poll.
With that said, go vote on our poll now. "Would You Vote For Stephen Colbert For President?"
This is hilarious. If you don't "get it" it's because there's something lame about you.
Wow, I really, really, sucked today.
I trade actively in the first hour of trade. When that first hour is without good action, it normally means my whole day will blow. Today is the perfect example of the type of morning I should avoid trading the open though. A gap up morning.
More often than not, I find when the market gaps up a lot that it tends to flatline for awhile in order to digest its gains. So if you buy a lot of stuff at the open, you lose 10 cents, 25 cents, over and over again. I think in the future I'll try to have a little more discipline on these mornings, let the market gap up, digest and then try to buy when stocks break out after digestion.
So I lost a lot early. I knew my day was over at 10:45 when I made a nasty revenge trade in RDN.
It was actually one of my better stocks of the morning as I caught the short. But then I got short again, around $14. I short 1000 shares and got stopped out at $14.20 or, the high of the move. Next thing I know, it's back to $14. So what do I do? I short 2000 shares. When it dropped below the figure, I added, forgetting that the stock was worth only $14... I mean, how much did I think it was going to drop? Why add? So many mistakes. Anyway, It bounced and came up to $14 again, where I added more shares. I got out of all of the shares for a nasty loss at around 11:30 or, the high of the move and managed to lose $200 in a stock that I was up close to $1000 in earlier in the day.
I'm not even going to get into the latino banks. They all got me.
Anyway, my daughter just woke from her nap with a fever and a stuffed nose. Most likely an ear infection. Needless to say, I'm suddenly very busy.
Here's the stats:
P&L, -$2115
Best, DSX, $352
Worst, TBSI, -$345
71,800 shares traded.
32 stocks traded, 10 winners, 22 losers.
217 trades.
Momojuicing, $5199 on 21,000 shares traded.
Akalawoo, $1496 on 17 contracts traded.
Dehtrader, $1112 on 9300 shares traded.
Evolution, $608 on 48,600 shares traded.
OBAT, $95 on 5800 shares traded.
Misstrade, $0 on 1000 shares traded.
Denarii, -$25 on 2400 shares traded.
Tapeworm, -$255 on 6 contracts traded.
Me, -$2115 on 71,800 shares traded.
Well, look at that, Momo saved the VO. I was all set to sink the ship today and the mofo makes a trade in RIMM to salvage some respectability for the "office." Well done. In fact, most of the office did quite well today. A bunch of very nice numbers. You know how it feels to be on the bottom of the VO when everyone else "banks coin?" It feels like shit.
Anyway, so much for the goddamn Wombat. While there was a small pickup in volatility between 10:30 and 11:00 it quickly died and fizzled out. Volume blew today... but I mean, I guess nowadays I'm happy if it's over 1.3 billion. That's what we do now on the NYSE.
Another huge earnings day tomorrow. FCX reports. That could be fun.
I'm in a bad mood and my daughter has an ear infection. All hell is breaking loose.
Specifically, the stock market.
Even more specifically, the latin bank stocks, ITU, BBD, BBV and UBB. I've lost over $1000 trading these fuckers today. About $250 in each, so they suck equally.
Currently, I'm in liquidation-only mode as this market has been chopping me up all day.
Tomorrow there's suppossed to be beautiful surf. I may just take a mental health day.
There are loads today. You can check this link for the whole list.
I'll be focusing on ALB, RE, PRE, CNH and PCP.
Also, I got an interesting email from "bloggerdotcom" today about profiting from the huge fire that is melting southern California. Considering that Bluedog and Danny are from SoCal, perhaps they can give us some information on which insurers we should be shorting here.
Or is that completely tasteless?
Meanwhile, R.I.P Clarence.
How does the "Lester, the Hairy-Nosed Wombat of Stock Market Volatility" roll off the tongue?
Well, it was a freaking weird day... why not post a completely random video?
I was all ready today to short the shit out of the market... luckily for me, I didn't. Otherwise I would have been demolished.
Still, I tried. For my efforts I lost $1000 between 2pm and 3pm, when the market was actually going down... that's when I decided to stop trading for the day, so I missed the rally from 3pm to 4pm. Frustrating way to end the day...
Anyway, I made almost all of my money getting long the shippers today. EXM, DSX, ANW. I mean, it's hard to be happy about it though. Take a look at DRYS. I feel like I let my bearishness really mess with my trading today... I didn't size up at all in these trades.
The stock bounced from $103 up to $120. Moves like that are "month-makers." Instead, I pulled $200 out of the stock. Depressing.
I'm not going to whine about how much money I should have made today. That's bad form. I'll take my gains and keep trying for another big day soon. My confidence is building again... that's normally a good thing.
Anyway, AAPL just reported and the stock is surging afterhours. Is this market going to go right back up again? What about the SIVs? Turkey and Iraq? Bob Dylan doing a Cadillac advertisement... doesn't this stuff bode poorly for the overall health of the world?
Looks like stock market stability for now.
Here's the stats:
P&L, $1533
Best, EXM, $545
Worst, UBB, -$552
64,000 shares traded.
30 stocks traded, 18 winners, 12 losers.
298 trades.
Bubs, $2,312,454 on 872,300 shares traded.
Me, $1533 on 64,000 shares traded.
Dehtrader, $1359 on 7800 shares traded.
Evolution, $1116 on 57,600 shares traded.
Momojuicing, $488 on 3000 shares traded.
Denarii, $215 on 4000 shares traded.
Tapeworm, $140 on 4 contracts traded.
Akalawoo, no trades... lots of "staring."
OBAT, -$335 on 7600 shares traded.
Clearly, the veracity of Bubs final posting here in the VO will be some manner of controversy until the end of time... or at least until this blog ceases to be. As he put it when he was leaving, "I'm going out on top, bitch!"
Meanwhile, after the much talked about volatility didn't show up today at the open, I had a difficult conversation with Clarence, "the rodent of stock market volatility." I was like, "What's up? Where the hell is the volume, the volatility?" But it was clear that Clarence was already far away...
Rumors are swirling here at the VO. I've heard from a good source, OBAT, that Bubs got Clarence addicted to Macadamia nuts. Next thing I know, the stock market volatility is gone and with it, Clarence and Bubs... his dealer.
However, as sad as this is we welcome back an old friend to the VO, Dehtrader.
Dehtrader actually emailed me with a tip about the Macadamia nut thing a few weeks back after a post I wrote discussing the lack of volume in the market. He said that he wanted to be back in the VO but couldn't be "part of an organization that felt it was okay to addict impressionable young rodents to Macadamia nuts."
With the departure of Bubs and Clarence, the door was open to invite Dehtrader back in... he "gleefully" accepted.
But back to business. The VO had a pretty darn good day. Almost everyone made money. The one outlier, OBAT, was apparently so distraught by the shake-ups in the VO that he had a hard time focusing on the market. He took a half day.
Should be a very interesting week. I need to find a new mascot of volatility because days like today just aren't going to cut it long term...
Maria Bartiromo: (with a real sense of urgency in her voice...)"Dylan, looks what's crossing the wires right now (3:40)... we have some imbalances... we'll tell you all about them when we come back."
Again. Will someone please explain to Mrs. Bartiromo that everyday there are (gasp!) imbalances that cross the wires at 3:40 and that they're not newsworthy unless you want to overuse the word "imbalance" to throw the newbies off.
UPDATE: Art Cashin diplomatically explained that the MOC imbalances really had nothing to do with the end of the day move. Instead, he said the market rallied simply because the bears couldn't take it any lower. AC is one of the only worthwhile commentators on CNBC.
It involves Bubs... and Clarence, "the rodent of stock market volatility." They have disappeared together.
More later...
UPDATE: I found a letter from Bubs. It looks like he is leaving the VO. He is moving with Clarence to "Appalachia" where their "way of life" will not be "placed under a microscope."
Folks, this is as shocking to me as it must be for you... frankly, I'm a little speechless.
Phone ringing... it's Dehtrader. I'll be back shortly.
UPDATE II: Dehtrader is back in the VO. He said after hearing about Bubs and Clarence that he "had to do something."
Also, Clarence "the rodent of stock market volatility" has been fired as he failed to produce the necessary volatility this morning. I will find a new mascot for market volatility. Please submit your ideas via the comment section.
What?
The man who wrote "It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)?"
Indeed, not much is really sacred.
