Radiohead, "House Of Cards"

The RO Report

The numbers today are staggering...

Out of 26 traders, 23 were profitable, or 88%.

Top 3 break down like this...

1. $42,549
2. $26,849
3. $22,615

The bottom 3 (the only negative numbers, in fact):

1. -$2275
2. -$325
3. -$35

I was 18 of 26.

What's amazing about the numbers today is really how broadly the wealth was spread out... 17 traders were up at least $1000 today... I was the 18th... sigh....

Oh, and no surprise... it looks like the volume is back in the market. The NYSE traded over 1.7 billion shares today.

Another Lesson In Perspective

Last night, I caught the best wave of my life and it taught me a lesson.

The wave taught me the following, (I'm paraphrasing) it said, "DT, stop being such a dick."

All day, my head was full of fuzz because some poor Hispanic dudes were outside cutting down trees. All day I forgot that I have a healthy family, live in a beautiful spot in the world and altogether, have it pretty damn good.

I just forgot and I let some bullshit trump the larger picture.

I paddled out into uncomfortably large surf. The report put the swell at 5-7 feet but it was clean and deep (high tide) so it felt even larger. All of my close friends were on the beach as were my wife and daughter. We were all eating dinner when I decided to "go take a few."

Earlier, some kid in a pink ocean kayak tried paddling directly into the break. Within 2 minutes, he was separated from the kayak and getting sucked out by a strong rip current. On the shore, no one seemed to notice.

I was talking to a friend about nothing... he was there, talking about real estate, and I just started walking away, following the kid's head as it was pulled out deeper with the current. He was probably 20 yards out, past the main shorebreak, but getting rolled by the constant white water from the larger waves breaking further out. I watched, feeling pretty helpless, as I walked down the beach closer to where he was.

He started to flail his arms and panic.

Jesus Fucking Christ, I thought.

I bumped into a hot blond in a pink bikini taking pictures of the whole thing with a fancy camera. I couldn't take my eyes off of that head. I was just walking completely transfixed and terrified. I couldn't swim out there and get him, even though I surf, I'm just not the strongest swimmer. I mean I can swim well, but I didn't have a board, or any flotation device... it would have been a questionable procedure.

There were surfers out to the right. That's where the "takeoff" is. The wave rolls in and peels to the left (surfers right) and basically ends close to the where the rip current was pulling. So it was maddening to watch 3 or 4 surfers pull off of waves not 20 feet from the kid and not even notice him there.

Thank goodness for the fat longboarder.

Honestly, I had never seen this dude before. He was fat like a dumptruck and on a huge yellow and pink longboard. The thing must have been over 10 feet long, wide, and thick. The first thing he did after splashing off the wave, was to go over to the kid and let him grab onto his board. Then the two of them proceeded to kick together out of the rip and towards the shore. They got completely pummeled by the shorebreak... but made it to dry sand.

The kayak kid just bent over at his knees and heaved for about 30 seconds. The fat longboarder walked right by me. He had a face, wide, dark, and deeply carved, that had seen a lot of sun.

He came from the ocean and he saved the guy's life.

There was no applause. No one slapped him on the back. No one had even noticed. And I was lost in a state of bewilderment. I couldn't believe that someone could just die like that, so easily, on a perfect summer night, on a beach full of people eating grilled chicken and drinking white wine.

But man, people die all the time. And why should we deny it?

I couldn't stop talking about it for the rest of the evening.

"Did you see the dude on the pink kayak?" I'd say.

No one had.

So I had this all on my mind when I took that same rip current out to the lineup. I paddled right over the spot where that kid had flailed. The surf was big for me and my heart was beating faster than it really needed to.

Just then I heard a familiar voice. "Hey DT!" It was a relatively new friend of mine and he was paddling up next to me. "You look like you saw a ghost, man. What's up?"

"It's huge out here. I'm just a bit out of my league." I explained.

"Ah, you're fine. Enjoy this. It's not going to be here much longer." And off he paddled, the picture of insouciance.

As he said this, someone in the lineup yelled "Outside!" and the horizon seemed to lift. A huge set was feathering out there and was sure to break before it reached us. It did, heavily and with a rumble that gave the water some extra texture. With a deafening hiss, the white water rushed to where I straddled my board.

Now I have a longboard. It's thick and buoyant. When a large wave breaks over me, I have to "turtle roll" which means I paddled towards the white water, take a deep breath, and then grasp both rails of my board, and roll over with it into the wave, fin side of the board facing the sky.

Then, with my legs, I kick towards the wave for all I'm worth.

I rolled through that first wave and looked around. Heads were popping up here and there, many separated from their boards, and a foam was sizzling on the surface. Oddly, and I remember this exactly, it smelled of fresh laundry.

The second wall of white water rolled toward me with the same force and speed as the first and I "turtled" under it as well. Man, my heart was thumping. I saw my friend paddling further outside, i.e., away from the shore, towards the open ocean horizon. The third wave just swallowed him and I was forced to roll again.

After that huge set, a calm descended onto the scene.

In the setting sun, most surfers looked kind of yellow. Due to all the white water, the surface of the sea was soft and foamy and the rising air bubbles touching the face of the water made a cool "shhhhhhh" sound. In this peaceful moment, I began to paddle for the next wave.

After the last set, the wave didn't seem like much. But it was my perspective playing games with me. It was large enough. I paddled and the wave picked me up easily. I slid down the drop and just saw it stretch out ahead to my right. A slowly building wall of light green water, and white foam.

I didn't "work it" by tearing up and down it like a maniac. I managed a couple of turns up and down the face of the wave but quickly realized I needed more speed if I was to continue along the line without getting "closed out" on. So I stepped up on my board, gained speed, and tore down the line.

The wave changed character as I moved closer to shore. What really happened, is that I had reached the rip, and so the water rushing out to the horizon from the shore met the wall of water that I was on, which was racing towards the shore. At this point, I got completely "destructed" as the wave picked right up and threw me down, hard.

Under the water, which was now, quite dark and gloomy, I searched for light to find the "top." It seemed like forever under there, always does, and I wondered if anyone was watching my drama unfold from the shore, as I had watched the pink kayak guy. But you know, it wasn't all that dramatic afterall, I quickly surfaced, in the rip of course, and was lucky enough to jump onto my board just before another avalanche of white water pushed me to shore.

That one wave was my entire session.

I pulled myself out of the water (which, given the circumstances of the shorebreak and the rip, was quite difficult) slid my board under my arm, and walked over to Judy.

"You see that?" I said, all excited.

"No. What?" She was brushing some sand off our daughter's butt.

"That wave I caught! It was massive! My best ride ever!"

"No, sorry... it's hard to watch all the time. By the way, Frank's birthday is gonna be this Saturday. Jill just told me."

And I thought then about that kid on the pink kayak again. And about perspective. And the difference between being out in the rip, in the waves, and standing on the shore. And the horizon, and how even it changes and is inconstant.

And just writing this now, I think about my best friend, who died almost 9 years ago, suddenly, and I wish that he could've been there tonight, standing on the shore with his kid and Judy, not watching me catch the ride of my life.

And I figured that most of the time I'm a selfish fuck, but every now and then, you catch a glimpse of light. And how important it is to remember what the light looks like when things go dark so that you know how to find your way back up to the "top."

Fuck Tupperware

Seriously, I just spent 10 minutes trying to find a lid to match a bowl. And the whole time, as I knelt on the floor wading through our Tupperware collection (which has now been infiltrated by Gladware and shit like that), the sink was running.

But I couldn't tear myself away to turn it off.

I had to find the lid. Had to.

In the end, I didn't find the lid.

Instead, I had to use a piece of Tupperware that was really far too large for my needs and has now stressed out the refrigerator situation.

I hate the shit, and tomorrow, purely out of revenge, I plan on selling short 100,000 shares of the company.

UPDATE: Had I sold that 100,000 shares, I would have made $77,000. Ah well...

This About Sums It Up...

I lost a little money today... and a lot of stored reserves of sanity.

Time Waster / Spirit Lifter enclosed

Watch the following over and over for the contagious reaction:

Just Bad...

Not so much my trading (although I'm down a little today while the RO rips it...) but my neighbor clear-cutting the half acre behind my house.



The local government is corrupt, I'm sure of it... they have all sorts of "review boards" and shit that are not supposed to let this stuff happen. After all, if people want to live in suburbia with an above ground pool 20 feet from their house, they can do that... just about everywhere. It's these last spots that have a somewhat rural nature that should really be preserved.

I feel very dark today after I had a great start to the day at the beach.

The sound of chainsaws 30 feet from my office is getting a little old, so I'm getting out of here. I'll have an RO post up later this evening...

I will be putting all my spare energy going forward into selling my house. It's been a long time coming.

The RO Report

I gave up a lot when I tossed the VO onto the Internet trash heap. Lots of traffic, apparently lots of commenters... but you know what I gained?

My soul.

True story.

Anyway, whenever I have access to the data and the time, I'll do an RO report. This could happen nightly. Thing is, I started the VO because I didn't have an office to compare myself to... and now I do. So here you have it, the first RO report. Each report will be tagged under "proprietary trading." All numbers are gross.

Out of 29 traders today, 15 were positive, or 52%. The top 3 traders made the following:

1. $31,133
2. $11,864
3. $1454

The bottom 3 looked like this...

1. -$1471
2. -$1394
3. -$1075

I was 14 of 29 today, or, in other words, barely positive.

It's possible that in time I will be able to at least associate nicknames with these traders so that it's easier to follow along... we will see.

Bank Run!

First of all, kudos to "the Fly" for not only minting coin in this market, but for "getting it" as well.

I'd love to buy that guy a beer. However, I'd be fearful the whole while for my eyebrows... not to mention, my mustache. Actually, my entire beard would be terrified.

So wow... everything is going straight to hell, including my neighbor, who was out with powertools at 9pm last night. You go to hell, Mr. Neighbor.

Where's the nice place to move in the Canadian Maritime Provinces? Anyone? I'm serious.

Okay, I digress.

Today, for all the freakiness of the market, and for all the bank runs, and fear, I had a relaxed and uneventful day. Profitable. Boring. Stable. What I'm after.

I didn't trade well. My best stock of the day, BIDU, was difficult, and I left a number of points on the table. However, since it was the first time I've ever traded this monster, I was happy to get in and out with profits.

My first trade was a little premature, and I lost a quick point. However, minutes later, the stock based again, and I sold at $305.02 and then added to the short at $303.50. So I was short 200 shares which I thought was nicely aggressive on my part.



The stock dropped nicely through the HCPG target of $303, but then bounced hard at $302, all the way back up to $307. I covered my shares at an average price of $303, so I managed to make a little over a point on the 200 shares.

After the stock bounced, it crept lower again. I debated getting involved at $302, but decided against it, because I thought $300 could be supportive and the market was actually bouncing at 10:20 or so, when $302 traded. In retrospect... but anyway... I made some money there.

I also had a decent trade in the morning in CSIQ, but I was ultra cautious on the trade since the stock was up so much early...

Finally, I took choppy losses in ENER and V. Also, I took a stab at a long in FCL through $80, which ultimately worked, but not before stopping me out for a small loss.

So, altogether, it was a green day for me. However, I left a lot of money on the table.

I will report on the RO, in a separate post.

When Did Everyone Get So Lame?

The humor here is obvious... and everyone is all up in arms about it? Chill Barack.

Silly.

Bush, Bernanke & Paulson Take On The Credit Crisis

I've Been Sick...

That's why the blogging tailed off there. We also had a very busy week here.

However, I did lose money on Friday, for the first time in over 2 weeks. Just a little... Anyway, because of that, I feel compelled to post some bad music.

So here you have it.



Now I know a lot of you are like, "But I like that song... the Counting Crows rock!" and that's exactly my point. See, that's what happened when I posted my last two bad music videos, by U2 and INXS.

Bad music is distributed and burned into our heads by excessive airplay. It's actually not good... you've just become inured to it.

Dennis Kneale A Bigger Dick Than Larry Kudlow

-dick

Well, the votes have been tallied and the world agrees, Dennis Kneale is a bigger dick than Larry "pink tie" Kudlow.

I think they're both dicks, so I was surprised at the landslide "victory" that Kneale enjoyed.

Here's how it went down... 83 of you voted. 53 or 63% thought Dennis Kneale was a bigger dick, and 30 or 36% of you thought that Kudlow was the bigger dick.

A Very Scary Headline...

A trader in my office pointed this headline out today...

"Moody's says US government debt 'well within' AAA range - Bloomberg"

Strange Days Indeed

Gonna be a scary day. What's going on? How you feeling?

June 2008 Stock Trading Review

A bullish chart, no?



Compare it to last month's chart and it looks like progress has been made.

I'm happy with a number of developments from June. While I missed my monthly profit target of $300 a day, or $6000 for the month, by a wide margin, I made significant progress in other areas.

First of all, I was positive for 14 of the 21 trading days, or 2 out of every 3 days. That's getting close to my 75% win rate target. Also, considering that I only had 2 days where I lost over $100 bucks, those 7 loss days weren't that bad overall. In fact, 3 of those loss days were for under $25.

I limited my losses nicely and I'm happy about that.

I also had a setback midmonth and I successfully put it behind me, as I finished the month at my highs.

Finally, I passed the goddamn Series 55 and started trading Nasdaq stocks... in short, I made a little money, but made a lot of progress.

Going forward, I feel good setting the same profit goal of $300 a day for July with the 75% win rate. I'm lowering my max loss day to $400 from $500 and actually, hope I don't even get close to it.

Here's the full stats. Next month, I'll include "shares traded" in the stats... I'm pretty sure my average shares traded per day went down again from May to June.

Sonic Youth, "Purr"

My June trading review will be up tomorrow...

Steel Stocks Rise

Today was kind of lame... one dude in my office made bank, but a few others are currently getting clipped... hard.

Anyway, for me, it was a day full of small losses, with one redeeming winner to keep me green. The winner was a short on X. However, this trade doesn't fit into my recent HCPG type style. As I've improved my win-rate and P&L of late, I've also opened myself up to taking more risk again, which is essential on some level. So when I saw X running all morning and then print huge volume on a spike, I took a shot on a short.

It wasn't without any type of merit as far as "daily spots" goes... here, I was taking a bet that $169 would hold as resistance, at least for the short term, and it worked.

When it was turned back at $169, I short 100 shares at $168.23, but my buy stop up at the fig, and went downstairs to make myself a cup of green tea.

Lo and behold, the trade worked.



I also made a few trades in VRTX, from the HCPG list.



So I ended up slightly positive. Which I'll take, because I thought today was rather muddy. Plus, that means I get to continue with the string of good music that I, of course, drop with the sun.

Tomorrow I will not be trading. Good luck. If you happen to be at the Fleet Foxes concert tonight, I'll be wearing a t-shirt that says "No One Knows I'm A Lesbian."

NCR

Bought this for the LT account. Saw the huge volume in it yesterday, like the way it's held up, and just felt like going in... stopped at $24.

REITS

Take a gander at the way the REITS closed yesterday's session...

Check, SSS, KIM, VNO, SPG, MAC, CBL, etc.

Sizzling.