One of our new traders asked me whether yesterday was like trading “Back in the Day” (think Internet boom). I quickly said no and explained that spreads were wider and programs were unborn. But I thought about his question some more that night and recognized that yesterday did offer the trading opportunities that we often saw during the late 1990s. … Read More
Movie Premiere Market Talk
Last night a few of us from our desk went to a movie short premiere, “$ Game,” written by Maureen Holohan and directed by Tom Cavanaugh. Great time and excellent short. At the after party many who I did not know but who either found out what I did or recognized me from “Wall Street Warriors” approached me to talk … Read More
Day Trading Dream
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 … Read More
How to Make that Jump to the Next Level
This past week was a great trading week for me personally. And another example of how I have made a jump to the next level as a trader. I put up bigger than normal numbers on a considerably larger than normal share count. But putting my results aside and the volatility seen in the financial stocks, I traded a lot … Read More
MER and Oil
MER’s price action is very bearish. Yesterday there was a huge intraday battle in MER at 20. The sellers were in control into the Close as MER traded weakly to 18.65. MER found temporary support there. I started a short position at 19.74 into the close. I covered some at 19 and was holding the rest. And then a rumor … Read More
May You Live in Interesting Times
My partner has been highlighting the weakness in LEH for weeks. And a few days ago this blog suggested to watch for weakness in LEH when it was 17. As I write LEH is 4.24 bid. LEH did have trouble trading below 4 premarket. It is time to start wondering if LEH will receive a bid. Make sure your are … Read More
Lehman Support
Just wanted to write a quick note that LEH has been showing support around 7.50 all day. It spiked down there a few minutes ago and I got hit for 1,000 shares. I have a stop order below 7.45. If sellers come down aggressively below 7.40 I will change my bias to the short side again. Above 8.15 I will … Read More
Resilience
As a trader, you have to be very resilient. There are times when you go into a slump and you question your ability to make money. There are times when it’s so easy to make money that you wonder how you could ever lose money. You have to be able to weather these ups and downs, and remain sane at … Read More