It was a long day yesterday for me with all things partner on my calendar. One meeting meshed into another. A new meeting overlapped a planned one, which followed a new new one, followed by another planned one. You get my point.

I was ready to start yet another meeting with the peeps who help us run SMB Training and SMB Capital, about a new section of our training program on subsets, when I was reminded that RIMM was reporting. Meeting cancelled. I sprinted to my trading desk.

RIMM had gapped up seven points. Had I missed all fun? Nope. For two hours I grinded away trying to catch a significant move in RIMM. I caught exactly one. After 50 trades or so I might have netted $100. But I did gain something valuable. With my time I purchased Afterhours information. And I blogged about this before I left to go workout. 70.50 was a huge level. And 71.50 was a huge level. This was very valuable information.

This AM I woke, headed towards the subway and then saw something quite humorous. I spotted Steve (my partner), with his winter ski hat and jacket, sprinting to the subway. It was 7:30AM. He was doing his best Usain Bolt because he wanted to be at his trading station before 8AM, and the real trading in RIMM started.

Steve was a little faster than me, but I made it to my desk in good time as well. We watched RIMM trade in the Premarket. What is the point of working so hard, grinding it out in the Afterhours, and then missing the Premarket? If you are gonna hit one then hit the other. The move may come in the Premarket based off of info gleaned in Afterhours trading.

In the Premarket we wrote some more tickets. I was slightly negative as was Steve. So now I had traded for about 3 hours, made almost no money, and was still quite pleased with myself. I had the info that I needed. It was just a matter of time before I took that info and made some money for myself.

In the Premarket we learned that 70.30 was a very important level and 71.65 was as well. I got long in the Premarket when the bid held above 71.65. I was long three lots and expecting 74. That didn’t happen. The 65c bid dropped and left me with the option to whack the 30c bid or try and weasel out on the offer. The offer it was flat 49c cent. I lesser rip but none the less, I was now firmly negative.

RIMM essentially traded in a point spread. There was a ton to be lost thinking it was trending. It wasn’t. It was in a simple range. But then came a no-brainer trade. Then came the easy money. Next came the moment worth all that trading, watching, and grinding. RIMM broke 70.30.

I started a core short. This was a Trade2Hold. I caught the downmove to through 69. I got stopped out of a trailing stop at 69.30 for the last of my core. I had lightened up at 68.60 when I saw strength.

So that was my Afterhours, Premarket and AM. Lots of work. Lots of trading. And overall net positive. RIMM is a very difficult stock. I was only going to make money if I sat there, gathered info in the Afterhours, Premarket, learning important levels. This was not an intellectual test created by Mother Market. This was a test in patience, hard work, grinding, and waiting till we finally had our moment.

Best of luck with your trading!

Flat RIMM