Our managing director has decided to have this weekly meetings for traders to discuss various topics. It's at 6:45am... yeah, it's early, even by my current "getting to work at 7:30am" standard. But if it's gonna help me make money, sure, I can wake my ass up an extra half an hour early.
Gardner is an obvious fan of discipline and routines. He mentioned that no professional athlete would scroll into the stadium or arena 2 minutes before the game, having not watching any film or preparation. And that's so true. Although we're in Austin where everything is relaxed and chilled, not to mention on top of that our company culture is very college-esque, this is still a job, we're professionals. We need to have the discipline to limit our losses and maintain the focus so that when the opportunity presents itself we can fucking kill it.
Some of the other quotables from the meeting...
"The market can stay irrational a lot longer than you can stay solvent. Yeah sure... you might be right but you might not be around long enough to see it."
"You can't win if you don't play. You can't play if you don't have money."
"For some of you young guys out there, that likes to, bar hop... please, protect your hands. If there's a fight breaking out... get out of there! How are you going to put orders out if something happens to your hand."
... If you gotta hit them, hit them w/ something else except your hand right? I was thinking it, I didn't say it. I can just imagine myself in a cockroach position going: NOT THE HANDS! NOT THE HANDS! instead of NOT THE FACE! NOT THE MONEY MAKER!
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Man Dies in Crocodile Orgy
January 29, 2008 10:24am
AMOROUS crocodiles are causing so much havoc to a Papua New Guinean coastal community that authorities have ordered a cull.
Police on the northern PNG island of Manus asked licensed firearm holders to form a hunting party after mating crocodiles killed one man last week.
Earlier in the month a youth from nearby Kali Island was diving with friends when he was attacked by crocodiles.
Manus administrator Wep Kanawai told PNG's Post Courier the cull was necessary as the reptiles were breeding in great numbers and causing harm to villagers.
Kanawai warned locals to keep away from mangroves and river estuaries, which are common hunting grounds and nesting sites for crocodiles.
``I told them the sooner they go out there (west coast of Manus) and clear the place, the better it would be,'' he said.
Kanawai said crocodiles become agitated when humans venture into their breeding grounds during mating season.
.... I feel bad for laughing, but this is really pretty hilarious.
AMOROUS crocodiles are causing so much havoc to a Papua New Guinean coastal community that authorities have ordered a cull.
Police on the northern PNG island of Manus asked licensed firearm holders to form a hunting party after mating crocodiles killed one man last week.
Earlier in the month a youth from nearby Kali Island was diving with friends when he was attacked by crocodiles.
Manus administrator Wep Kanawai told PNG's Post Courier the cull was necessary as the reptiles were breeding in great numbers and causing harm to villagers.
Kanawai warned locals to keep away from mangroves and river estuaries, which are common hunting grounds and nesting sites for crocodiles.
``I told them the sooner they go out there (west coast of Manus) and clear the place, the better it would be,'' he said.
Kanawai said crocodiles become agitated when humans venture into their breeding grounds during mating season.
.... I feel bad for laughing, but this is really pretty hilarious.
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Frick on a Stick!
Dammit! I didn't pass my Series 55 exam today. I got a 67 and I needed a 70 to pass. Although majority of the people in the company fails on their first try and it has the lowest average score I thought I'd be able to tackle it despite many warning from other traders on how inadequate the study material is. While the test questions are still somewhat fresh in my mind, I'm going to write down stuff that I wasn't sure or had to down right guess...
ADF
TRF
Limit order rules
Which of the following can trade on Nasdaq - NYSE, AMEX, ETFs, NSE, OTCBB?
Regulation NMS - WTF is this? This wasn't even in the book
Earliest you can enter an IOC
MOO - earliest and latest you can enter them
earliest to enter imbalance only orders
short sales - what qualifies as short sale
affirmative determination (convertible, options, warrants/rights)
market maker bid and ask for equity and rights separately and receives and order w/ both
trading halt order imbalance indicator
trade indicators such as late trade or bunch trades
errorneous trades after market hour
clearing arrangement - institution w/ one agent but instructs to compile at another broker/dealer?
trade shredding
legal change in quotations
entering orders at the close to effect the price at the bid or offer?
Reg SHO doesn't apply to what?
VWAP
few questions on safe harbor
customer enters a limit order that's better than the current price and then another customer enters a market order
customer order at $50, willing mark up/down of .50, protect and report at 50 or 50.5?
order instructions, which doesn't apply... GTC, Day, IOC or MAQ
who can access ITS/CAES - specialist?
cross and ACT
block order and options
what qualifies and what doesn't qualifies as excused withdrawal
NASD quarterly examines something...
cash settlement = 2 days before record date?
what qualifies as institution... accredited investor? rep adviser?
ADF
TRF
Limit order rules
Which of the following can trade on Nasdaq - NYSE, AMEX, ETFs, NSE, OTCBB?
Regulation NMS - WTF is this? This wasn't even in the book
Earliest you can enter an IOC
MOO - earliest and latest you can enter them
earliest to enter imbalance only orders
short sales - what qualifies as short sale
affirmative determination (convertible, options, warrants/rights)
market maker bid and ask for equity and rights separately and receives and order w/ both
trading halt order imbalance indicator
trade indicators such as late trade or bunch trades
errorneous trades after market hour
clearing arrangement - institution w/ one agent but instructs to compile at another broker/dealer?
trade shredding
legal change in quotations
entering orders at the close to effect the price at the bid or offer?
Reg SHO doesn't apply to what?
VWAP
few questions on safe harbor
customer enters a limit order that's better than the current price and then another customer enters a market order
customer order at $50, willing mark up/down of .50, protect and report at 50 or 50.5?
order instructions, which doesn't apply... GTC, Day, IOC or MAQ
who can access ITS/CAES - specialist?
cross and ACT
block order and options
what qualifies and what doesn't qualifies as excused withdrawal
NASD quarterly examines something...
cash settlement = 2 days before record date?
what qualifies as institution... accredited investor? rep adviser?
Friday, January 25, 2008
8 Days to Take Off Work
By: Steven Stiefel, Mens Health Magazine
1. The Day After Your Boss' Day Off
He'll come back with a pile of work he doesn't want to do, and he'll unload it on you--unless you're out of the office. Let some other sucker do his dirty work.
2. Groundhog Day
Prep for taxes on February 2. (Your documents should have arrived.) Investment-wise, compile all your stock trades, remembering to carry forward losses from the previous year, up to the limit. And hey, if you pull a Bill Murray and repeat this every year, Uncle Sam won't be investing your refund.
3. Your Wedding Anniversary
Tired of rushing around on your lunch hour to pick up some flowers and a bauble? Take the whole day off and nail the details: gifts, card, sitter, dinner reservation, and a special bottle of champagne.
4. Opening Day of the Movie You're Anticipating Most
Relive your previous life as a Star Wars nerd. Rise early and go to the first showing. If it lives up to the hype, watch it again.
5. Your Kid's Birthday
Tell your child that turning 6 or 8 is a real mile-stone and that you want to spend the day with him or her. Plan an event that you know will go over big.
6. Car-Buying Day
Decide which car you want and get quotes from a couple of dealers. Then take a day off on a slower sales day (we like Tuesdays) to hit up the dealers early. Better yet, go between Christmas and New Year's--it's the end of the month and the end of the year, the best of both worlds for securing the best price.
7. When You Oversleep
Forget to set your alarm or slept through it? Either way, you're probably tired and overstressed, so call in sick and chill for the rest of the day. Do some light exercise--go for a hike, take a spin on your bike--and then have a massage.
(Unofortunately I might've done this a few times too many already...)
8. Day 2 of March Madness
You spend all of opening day sitting at work, refreshing Yahoo! for up-to-the-minute scores. Why not stay home and enjoy all 16 games played on the second day? Request a vacation day in advance. The boss will suspect what you're up to, but at least there's plausible deniability in saying you asked for the time off last month.
(Sweet! I might just do that this year)
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Self Destruct
So stupid today... I was up about $400 before I hit what seems like the self destruct button around lunch time. I shouldn't even be trading at that time when things are trading in such a tight range and not much action going on. I lost probably $1,000 within an hour. Dumb!! Never again!
It's like going on tilt in poker. You can go from chip leader to busting out of the tournament in 2 hands. Your head just gets clouded... you need to walk away. I still have problems with this.
It's like going on tilt in poker. You can go from chip leader to busting out of the tournament in 2 hands. Your head just gets clouded... you need to walk away. I still have problems with this.
Are You Ready to STEP UP?
Step Up 2 is coming out and I'm actually... excited? I have to say that I did enjoy the first one but every hollywood sequel is pretty much just an easy way to make more money. I don't know what to expect from this one, which I suppose is a good thing. Pleasantly surprised is better than a beautiful let down any day. As long as it's not an 90 minute music video I think I'd be ok with it.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Don't Call it a Comeback...
... b/c it wouldn't be one if I didn't trade pre-market today.
What an interesting day (to me at least. I know someone of my friends read this and I might as well have written it in Chinese). MLK Day, market closed. Meanwhile, Europe and Asian sells off hard. Hong Kong had a 8% down move. Everyone was bracing for a huge down day. Thanks to Australian Open, my sleep schedule is completely messed up and I got in the office early. I see my coach's car there in the lot already, which is rare. He was short some SPY. I kept watching and finally when it broke a support level I shorted some EEM. Since I heard it on CNBC earlier, that if the Fed would come out w/ an emergency rate cut, today would be the day so I asked Lawrence on what he thinks the market's reaction will be. Sure enough, about 5, 10 minutes I got in my EEM position the announcement came out. Mother f-er.... seriously. I tried getting long EEM after that and sure enough the market started reverse. I was down about $800 before the market even opened. Get ready for a rough day...
Well, I traded EEM a little bit after the open and once I feel like I got my confidence back and can read the stock a lot better, I traded a lot more and with more size. It was sort of a three steps forward, one step back and eventually I climbed back into the positive. Besides EEM, the only stock I traded was the LEH break out especially when the financials are making a rally (but I chumped it though... things were so whippy that stops would get hit sometimes and that really pissed me off). I had a few other good trades and I ended up the day probably up $750 or $800... it's really hard to tell now that I'm trading so much. I think I traded over 65,000 shares today.
Starting tomorrow I will probably tone it back a little bit. I should be trading about 25,000 shares. The way I'm trading EEM I don't think is worth it... a few cents profit every time. I should be a lot more selective and when I'm sure I'll trade a bigger size and scale out of my position.
On a side note... my calves are uber sore. I did calve raises the other day to the point my legs were shaking. I think I've lost about 5 lbs this year and I can tell I'm definitely much stronger than before. I can do much better.
What an interesting day (to me at least. I know someone of my friends read this and I might as well have written it in Chinese). MLK Day, market closed. Meanwhile, Europe and Asian sells off hard. Hong Kong had a 8% down move. Everyone was bracing for a huge down day. Thanks to Australian Open, my sleep schedule is completely messed up and I got in the office early. I see my coach's car there in the lot already, which is rare. He was short some SPY. I kept watching and finally when it broke a support level I shorted some EEM. Since I heard it on CNBC earlier, that if the Fed would come out w/ an emergency rate cut, today would be the day so I asked Lawrence on what he thinks the market's reaction will be. Sure enough, about 5, 10 minutes I got in my EEM position the announcement came out. Mother f-er.... seriously. I tried getting long EEM after that and sure enough the market started reverse. I was down about $800 before the market even opened. Get ready for a rough day...
Well, I traded EEM a little bit after the open and once I feel like I got my confidence back and can read the stock a lot better, I traded a lot more and with more size. It was sort of a three steps forward, one step back and eventually I climbed back into the positive. Besides EEM, the only stock I traded was the LEH break out especially when the financials are making a rally (but I chumped it though... things were so whippy that stops would get hit sometimes and that really pissed me off). I had a few other good trades and I ended up the day probably up $750 or $800... it's really hard to tell now that I'm trading so much. I think I traded over 65,000 shares today.
Starting tomorrow I will probably tone it back a little bit. I should be trading about 25,000 shares. The way I'm trading EEM I don't think is worth it... a few cents profit every time. I should be a lot more selective and when I'm sure I'll trade a bigger size and scale out of my position.
On a side note... my calves are uber sore. I did calve raises the other day to the point my legs were shaking. I think I've lost about 5 lbs this year and I can tell I'm definitely much stronger than before. I can do much better.
Friday, January 18, 2008
Breaking the $1,000 barrier
Let me just begin by saying that when my dad woke me up this morning, I seriously considered not going to work. After the shitty day yesterday and not being able to sleep after picking my parents up at the airport at midnight when I woke up at 7:30am I though... eh, fuck it. I actually debated about going into work or not the previous night. On one hand, it is prudent to take it easy after a rough day. Then again, Monday is MLK Day and I would have to wait until Tuesday to trade again. Thank God I decided to be a man and go out to face what could be another disastrous day.
Market gapped up and looked like finally some buyers are coming in but then much like yesterday President Bush came on TV and I guess people didn't hear much hope of government stepping and doing what's necessary for the economy it started selling off again. Well, I got short my trusty EEM again for some good profits. I don't know what else I traded but I felt like I was churning EEM a lot. It's hard you know... when you are in for 800 shares, a slight pull back is like $50 and it was hard for me to let me profit run away. So I would get in, take my profit, look, and decide to get back in. I think once I get more comfortable with it I'll be able to hold it better.
What I've been noticing about EEM is that it sort of over react according to futures chart I think and it tends to be a few seconds slower then SPY. So if I'm in a winning position and SPY is reversing slowly, I should wait very briefly to get a price and if after that few seconds it started going my direction again then I should definitely keep holding on to it. Also b/c of this "lag" I could wait a little bit and get a better price for my entry and approximate what price level the stock reached before making its real move. Otherwise I've found sometimes I get in right away but then it behaves like the previous move and hit my stop loss before continuing in the current direction. That probably doesn't make a lot of sense the way I described, but at least it makes sense to me.
I hit a cross through INET for $60. The first time that I was fast enough to hit a cross. Although I could've loss a lot of money on it since the volume is so low and the book is thing.
I don't like MOO. It's really thin and my profit or stop outs could evaporate very quickly. Although it's an agriculture index, I found it tends to correlate better w/ POT.
My highest point before the close was probably up about $1,200 before I gave a bunch back to EEM b/c the stupid son of a gun wasn't really making a move and I keep getting stopped out.
I didn't get hit on any of the closing prints (Pat did though for 12,000 shares... scary). But I was kind of watching the futures chart and it made a significant, not big, but sizable move and SPY reflects the same move but EEM was just sitting still. I watched and watched and after having my outs determined and someone else taking some of the bids on ARCA I decided to short 400 shares of it myself, risking about 15 cents. All of a sudden I see the ECN offers have been dropped. I remember seeing something .20, which I though was 135.20 b/c I was short from 135.35 and I just immediately pressed my direct ECN key but when I look back later.... it was 133.20. Holy crap! I hit a cross and I made about $850 on that.
Traded over 50,000 shares... I have no idea what that's gonna come out to be for my commission but I'm guessing I'm up about $1,500 or $1,600 for today.
Market gapped up and looked like finally some buyers are coming in but then much like yesterday President Bush came on TV and I guess people didn't hear much hope of government stepping and doing what's necessary for the economy it started selling off again. Well, I got short my trusty EEM again for some good profits. I don't know what else I traded but I felt like I was churning EEM a lot. It's hard you know... when you are in for 800 shares, a slight pull back is like $50 and it was hard for me to let me profit run away. So I would get in, take my profit, look, and decide to get back in. I think once I get more comfortable with it I'll be able to hold it better.
What I've been noticing about EEM is that it sort of over react according to futures chart I think and it tends to be a few seconds slower then SPY. So if I'm in a winning position and SPY is reversing slowly, I should wait very briefly to get a price and if after that few seconds it started going my direction again then I should definitely keep holding on to it. Also b/c of this "lag" I could wait a little bit and get a better price for my entry and approximate what price level the stock reached before making its real move. Otherwise I've found sometimes I get in right away but then it behaves like the previous move and hit my stop loss before continuing in the current direction. That probably doesn't make a lot of sense the way I described, but at least it makes sense to me.
I hit a cross through INET for $60. The first time that I was fast enough to hit a cross. Although I could've loss a lot of money on it since the volume is so low and the book is thing.
I don't like MOO. It's really thin and my profit or stop outs could evaporate very quickly. Although it's an agriculture index, I found it tends to correlate better w/ POT.
My highest point before the close was probably up about $1,200 before I gave a bunch back to EEM b/c the stupid son of a gun wasn't really making a move and I keep getting stopped out.
I didn't get hit on any of the closing prints (Pat did though for 12,000 shares... scary). But I was kind of watching the futures chart and it made a significant, not big, but sizable move and SPY reflects the same move but EEM was just sitting still. I watched and watched and after having my outs determined and someone else taking some of the bids on ARCA I decided to short 400 shares of it myself, risking about 15 cents. All of a sudden I see the ECN offers have been dropped. I remember seeing something .20, which I though was 135.20 b/c I was short from 135.35 and I just immediately pressed my direct ECN key but when I look back later.... it was 133.20. Holy crap! I hit a cross and I made about $850 on that.
Traded over 50,000 shares... I have no idea what that's gonna come out to be for my commission but I'm guessing I'm up about $1,500 or $1,600 for today.
Thursday, January 17, 2008
A $2,400 Keystroke Error
Sigh... I'm really pissed off right now. I have never been this upset since I started working. All those times where I had a bad day trading before I was all ok. I hate it when everybody gets all concerned and asking me if I'm ok. Shit, I sold books and dealt w/ Mrs. Jones for 80+ hours a week for an entire summer. This is nothing. I'm a mellow guy, you know? I don't get too upset about anything. Today? Today is different. I'm upset. I'm talking about steam coming out of my ears upset.
I was doing all right. I got hit on some scalp and I was up maybe couple of hundo's. I then longed EEM, thinking it's gonna bounce and then my stop got hit... Bernake is on TV testifying at Congress. I looked for a second and I went: "hmm, this is not good." so I got short instead. Well, that turned out very well for considering that I made well over $1,000 on it on 800 shares. I continue to do very well. At one point I was up about $1,400 or $1,500 depending on how my commission come out (I was trading a lot. I hit 10,000 shares well before lunch time). Then comes lunch time and I decided to stay at my desk a little bit longer b/c I had gotten some nice prints earlier and I was going to see if it would do again. That's when the ADS news came out. I had some bids out way low for 800 shares and I got filled. Nice, I was up another $400, $500. Yeah, that would've been nice. I pressed the wrong damn key and longed another 400 shares. Before I can react, I was losing over $2,000 on that trade. But I held on. Judging by the action I felt it was gonna bounce back.... and it did, but just not high enough for me to get out. Counting in the money I could've made... one damn key stroke cost me about $2,400.
Well, I made a slight come back w/ EEM. As usual when I have a bad hit I chump my trades so instead of holding on to my position in EEM I got in and out three times. The third time I lost money and I was just numb and lost about $300 on it.
That's the biggest problem I have right now. I need to get a grip on my big losers. Familiarize myself even more with my keys and change my ECN crosses from 5 to 10 cents... I dunno. This 800 shares business is kind of tough.
I was doing all right. I got hit on some scalp and I was up maybe couple of hundo's. I then longed EEM, thinking it's gonna bounce and then my stop got hit... Bernake is on TV testifying at Congress. I looked for a second and I went: "hmm, this is not good." so I got short instead. Well, that turned out very well for considering that I made well over $1,000 on it on 800 shares. I continue to do very well. At one point I was up about $1,400 or $1,500 depending on how my commission come out (I was trading a lot. I hit 10,000 shares well before lunch time). Then comes lunch time and I decided to stay at my desk a little bit longer b/c I had gotten some nice prints earlier and I was going to see if it would do again. That's when the ADS news came out. I had some bids out way low for 800 shares and I got filled. Nice, I was up another $400, $500. Yeah, that would've been nice. I pressed the wrong damn key and longed another 400 shares. Before I can react, I was losing over $2,000 on that trade. But I held on. Judging by the action I felt it was gonna bounce back.... and it did, but just not high enough for me to get out. Counting in the money I could've made... one damn key stroke cost me about $2,400.
Well, I made a slight come back w/ EEM. As usual when I have a bad hit I chump my trades so instead of holding on to my position in EEM I got in and out three times. The third time I lost money and I was just numb and lost about $300 on it.
That's the biggest problem I have right now. I need to get a grip on my big losers. Familiarize myself even more with my keys and change my ECN crosses from 5 to 10 cents... I dunno. This 800 shares business is kind of tough.
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