Today is the kind of day that those who trade intraday dream about.  Most of our traders were at the office by 7:30 this morning preparing for what ended up being one of our best days this year.  As the United States financial system continues its downward spiral the level of intraday volatility is moving towards a crescendo.  How this ends is anyone’s guess.  But it isn’t my job to figure out where the market is going to finally put in a bottom.  The job of an intraday trader is to recognize when the market is presenting great opportunity and to pounce.

The focus of our AM Meeting today was the financial stocks: BAC, GS, MER, MS, and JPM.  The LEH bankruptcy and the BAC/MER merger were going to put these stocks “In Play”.  A trader is only as good as the stocks that they are in.  I spent an hour talking to one of our best young traders on Saturday at the office (he came in to review his trades for the prior week).  Last week was his worst week since he began.  Basically what I said to him was that he was in stocks that weren’t In Play last week and that is why he struggled.  Today, he focused on BAC and had his best day in his short four month career (over $4K).

Tomorrow, should be another great trading day.  Maybe a large rally?  Perhaps a 1987 type meltdown?  Will the Fed cut short term rates?  Regardless of the answer to any of these questions the traders on our desk will be prepared.  And that preparation will show in our collective results.