Whenever someone makes a good trade on our desk a common retort from another trader is “How do you do it?” I received two of these today from ALJ, who sits next to me. DE was the culprit. I was the protagonist. Profitable trades were my reward.

DE was in play today. They reported. DE opened down. It’s first moves on the open were weak. DE was starting an intraday downtrend. And then all of a sudden at 31.75 some bids got whacked and DE exploded to the upside. DE exploded to 32.80ish. OK so now we have a level in DE, 31.75.

Later DE now in an uptrend fought the 33 level. This was Ali-Forman. The Thrilla at 33. There was huge volume done at 33. The offer would not lift. And then finally it did. DE traded up 70c. OK so now we have another level, 33.

Now let’s fast forward. DE traded lower. It traded below 33. DE was weak and firmly below 33. 33 is now resistance. Some Tier 5 firm, I am being generous here, upgraded DE and DE exploded to the upside. I was jotting down notes for one of our presentations at the Trader Expo and listening to some hip hop (I will have to blog about the music placed on my shuffle in a later blog. Let’s just say that I don’t have complete control over the music.) ALJ taps me on the arm and points out the DE move.

Look I wish Sterne Agee the best of luck. I hope they become the next GS. And for all I know they do excellent work. Let’s assume that they do. But why the heck would anyone in this environment care what some Tier 5 firm thinks about DE? For that matter, why the heck would anyone care if MS had upgraded DE? Do you really think that Sterne Agee can get a ton to start buying DE based on their research? Again this is totally not a statement about them. And the new market is gonna need new leaders. This would be true of just about any upgrade in this market.

Now we know that 33 is resistance. And DE for some reason has now spiked to 33 and just a little through. There was no other news. The market was not exploding. So I hit DE at 33, put in a stop, put in a cover near 32.50, and went back to the nonsense I was listening to on my shuffle. I got hit on the bid. “Bella how do you do it?” asked ALJ.

Before the Close DE got weak. And traded near our support level from the Open. DE stopped at 31.83. Steve and I got long. If DE traded below 75c we would have exited. We expected DE to trade near 32.50, the next intraday resistance level. I sold near 32.40. “Bella how do you do it?” asked ALJ.

BTW ALJ made five points in BIDU in the After Hours by placing an offer way out of the money. He got taken and then covered five points in the money. “ALJ, how do you do it?”

Idol tonight for me. Though much much later as SMB has a ton to finish before it gets to go home. But this season is loaded with the most talent ever. And I love the new judge. Feel free to make fun of my past comments in any posts below. Our desk never misses an opportunity to poke fun at me for enjoying Idol.

Enjoy your evening!