This AM I tweeted that VMW was a long if it was holding above 80. VMW got on my radar last night when I saw an article on the WSJ site that it was investing in the “cloud”. For those of you who aren’t aware of the “cloud” it is the buzz word du jour with respect to technology firms. … Read More
Open Your Mind
Truth be told I am somewhat amused each morning when our intern AGray pops by my station seeking our “Best AM Idea” for the Open. I am a trader and not a predictor. As a trader part of your job is to identify the MOST important prices in a stock and if a stock touches one such price you are … Read More
The Bottoming Process
There is a lot of money to be made in a stock that has been beaten down. Generally, after a stock has been destroyed for some fundamental reason it will have some type of longer term bounce where traders can gather information from its price action over the course of several weeks. In the case of RIG it bottomed back … Read More
Don’t Give Away An Edge
The market had a broad rally on Tuesday. When we came into the office on Wednesday we cautioned our traders against chasing moves in stocks that could be a bit overextended when the market opened. Our thought process was to look for safer long entries based on the prior day’s support levels. I think you probably know how the rest … Read More
Intraday Trading Principle
Basic Principle: If a stock moves quickly in either direction accompanied by a huge surge in volume then all trades placed in that stock should be made on the side of the initial move. Examples: MON (11/9/09) TIVO (3/4/10) (5/14/10) V (6/21/10) GS (4/16/10) (7/15/10) BP (6/9/10)
A Small Rip Can Lead To A Big Chop?
I foolishly decided that buying NTRS on a pullback to 48.50 this morning was a great risk/reward trade. NTRS had broken its recent downtrend yesterday and closed at the high of the day on good relative volume. In my many years of trading this has proven to be a high percentage play. BUT during the past three weeks I have … Read More
Unusual Prices Are A Better Bet In An HFT Dominated Market
I was trading FCX this morning. I noticed a clear buyer at 60.90 during the Open. In the late morning the buyer dropped and I got short. FCX traded down about 30 cents over the next ten minutes. It then did a bit of a short squeeze up to 61 before trading down to its opening price of 60.20 From … Read More
Be Careful When Your Routine Changes
I have a fairly set schedule each trading day. But on Thursday morning my routine changes as I have a pre-work obligation that changes my schedule. I generally arrive at the office one hour later than usual and do not run the AM Meeting. This change in routine has had some fairly negative consequences on my trading PnL. 90% of … Read More