anatomy of a meltdown

well i've done it again...gone from a Hero to a Zero !!!

here's how the meltdown happened. last week the much anticipated, at least by me, rally finally came. we made handsome profits on our BNI longs. we left a bunch on the table, because frankly i just don't follow trends too well. i jump around too much. also, because a lot of this rally is gov. meddling driven, not just fundamentals, and as such i really think it's getting to be over blown. anyhoo...

so on the first day of the rally, i went short GS. bad move. should have sold it the next day. didn't. shorted some more. should have sold that. didn't. end of the day i have a massive position in GS. looking at the charts it's looking bad. financials are rallying. i had some few chances to sell. take the hit, my head said. i couldn't pull the plug. net equity went from 38K to 32K to 26K...last chance, day trader status going underwater...didn't do it. it was horrible. my net equity went down to 18, then to 12K. i was so depressed. the weekend was one big bloodbath of drinking.

on monday i came to my senses. GS was supposed to report earnings on Tuesday. i thought they would be good. if good, i would have no money left, these puts would go to near zero. i'm not taking any chances. better to have something, rather than nothing. luckily, GS started going down Monday and i saw that it would continue going down for the rest of the day. i sold all of them around 4. not a bad sell...i was worried about any last minute jump ups.

the aftermath, they didn't report earnings. don't know why. no news on that. they went down just a little bit more the next day in the morning and then a massive reversal. i sold on monday and since then they have broken 100 conclusively. my puts would have been worthless. thank you GOD>, u saved my worthless ass.

PHEW !!!

great day for bulls

it was a great day for bulls. the rally we had been waiting for the last week, finally arrived.

when i checked the futures in the morning and saw them up 100, i had a feeling we would get a killer day. mentally i set my BNI call sell levels for 53.5 / 54. unfortunately, i was in a meeting all day and that distracted me so, that i sold early. the people next to me must have been wondering what's with all the charts. i left at least 2 points on 4k shares = 8k down the drain and all i had to do was watch a fucking computer screen all day. it would have been that easy ;/.

i scalped GS for some cash in between, other than that, the meeting consumed me. it was one of those days where after the initial runup there is very little move to the up or down side. the day is mostly done. i shorted GS in the afternoon, when it was up around 14%. i could have collapsed the trade later, but got too greedy. later it ran away from me...so i am kinda worried. GS is fairly oversold and that fucker can move. i will sell it ASAP tomorrow on any weakness. oh, i also shorted X for a low volatility end of the day (EOD) play.

otherwise, it was a great day. great profits. some beers are in order :)

slow day

woke up late, had a hangover, since i am trying to quit smoking, so i didn't feel like trading, but i still kept on checking the charts / prices, because i am a pro. and finally around 3:20, i got a good feel for the market. unfortunately, it said go short, but the market was already down and i just wasn't feeling it. i wanted to go long, which i did on BNI. not the best entry price on the first buy, but i thought it might spike at the end of the day, which it didn't.

i am holding a very large position as you can see and i have butterflies in my stomach. i feel fairly confident, but the tape action has been pretty negative for some time now. too many people are expecting the short term pop. anyway, tomorrow's a new day. it sucks that i have an all day meeting. it's like every critical day, i have work related shit blocking me.

if i was as good at macking chicks as i am trading...

i would be FUCKING BRAD PITT !!!

look at my trades. serously, look at them ;-/

the sell on my BNI longs was put in the system the night before...i hit it on the head...only a differential of .25 from the absolute top....how awesome is that ?/

i got back to work and looked at my quote station and it was a sea of red....my heart sank...i looked at the BNI graph and saw that it had gapped up at open...feverishly, i checked my trades executed window...LA LA LALA !!

the market tanked the rest of the day. due to my massive profits on BNI, i am now once again a full fledged DAY TRADER. yay!

i bought some BNI longs in the afternoon and to test / flex my day trader muscles...i entered into a quasi irrational GS long. i made money on both and collapsed them both, since now that i am a DAY TRADER, i don't need to take the unnecessary risk of holding over weekends.

2 weeks to options expiration this month....get ready to kick ass...cue techno !!!!!!

jammin...but not so jammin'

like i said yesterday, my gut feeling was yelling long, but i was short BNI at the close of the day, with a bad strike price and not the best buy levels. so i was kind of sweating it yesterday night, but when i woke up this morning and checked my computer, surprise surprise, the futures were down quite a bit.

i wasn't sure why, but i didn't want to hold on to my shorts and sold them straight away at the open, although i didn't get the best open prices, but i mean BNI gapped down over $2...which is quite a lot and i thought don't be greedy. then i dressed up and zoomed to work.

i get to work and the whole market is tanking bad. GM is dead, which is the official excuse. but all traders knew that GM had been dead for a while. i don't know why, but the market went down hard and it stayed down hard all day. very little chop. just downward trajectory. i had a feeling we would retest the lows one more time, before we went higher and i think this day was it. should i have held on to my BNI's ? honestly, i didn't expect such a big day down on large volume and no big reversals of any kind. very surprising.

so, being the dolt that i am, i decided to go long. usually on such major drops i wait for the end of the day to enter...but, i broke the rule and bought BNI calls around 11 and then some more just a few minutes later (that's a big trader's no-no) and bought some more 2 hours later. basically, i used up my whole account to buy BNI calls. how do you spell BAD MOVE ;/

actually, i am not too worried...stocks generally held up much better than the index's point drops show. i bought BNI pretty near the bottom and the last hour's action was OK...it didn't gap down a couple of points on me. and i'm still feeling LONG...this is bullshit overselling...i just hope i have the balls to hold this position for longer than a day...but i doubt that :)

the only bad news is that i have to travel for work tomorrow and will be out of action from 10-11 atleast...peak hours. i really wanted to watch the opening tape...because, you know what we say, fuck gut feeling...the TAPE is GOD> or this may be GOD>'s way of telling me something......HELP !!!

i'm really starving for some low down, smoky, drinky, fun :p

i'm back

ok like (toss my black hair) i thought this blog was a waste to time, nobody reads it and i just blabber on and on anyways....it's not like i post any useful trading ideas or thoughts....or atleast i don't try to....haha....but then i got an email from these ad's people and they had 150 hits from my pages....so naturally i was impressed....my other blabbering sites rarely break 2-3 a day. so i decided to continue the good work and keep on posting.

as for the TRADING...i never STOPPPEDD.....and i've been kicking ass. i started out with 50K got decimated to 3k and have resurrected it from the ashes of November to 25 K. I KICK ASS, SEROUSLY>

basically, i have been shorting stocks, but a couple of longs in there also. the main thing that has changed about me is my willingness to cut loose my dogs. if a position runs against me i watch double intently and close it as soon as possible, even for a loss. before i would hold on hoping for dear hope it would come back. no more. just a few days ago, my MON long got crushed overnight...in the morning futures were down 100+ on the dow and i thought it would get crushed....and sold a few minutes into the open. i just didn't want to take the risk. better to lose 2K than lose 4K and frankly when i am well tuned into the market i can easily make 2K in a day. so i don't hold on to the dogs anymore.

today was a good day....i had gone long yesterday, because i felt everything was oversold and i bought right at the end of the day for seriously killer prices. even so i was stressed last night....the selling pressure is insane right now. i get to work, check the stat's....HOORAY....futures up big time....i calculate sell levels, decide to sell at the open, i was afraid of the fade, and thought if the fade ain't that bad, i can re-enter my long's.....i was bullish about the day.....so i get good sells at the open, 9:32 for X and 9:36 for BNI and i'm LIQUID....how's that for fast trading !

rest of the day i spent watching the market. i felt things overall would go long, but was so afraid of the afternoon drop, i ended up not buying anything. because my account is still under 25K, i only had one trade for the day.....otherwise you know how i play the chop....so i have to double think everything. i really wasn't feeling it, but like a bonehead i shorted 20 BNI at 56.75 at 1:19pm....jesus christ an afternoon trade....before 2pm....what an amateur trade. BNI went up $1 duck for the rest of the day and ended the day back at my entry price. actually, i really didn't like this trade at all and i am still feeling long inclined....i wanted to get rid of it, but also i didn't want to waste my day trade....near the close it was fluttering right around my buy level....i set it to sell for what i bought it for....it was very close, but nobody took my bait....WTF, i'll just hold it overnight, if i take a hit, i take a hit. fuck it.

i pray to the futures god's to be kind to me, and give me an intial drop or even better for some european bank to go belly up or some other kind of human misery to crush the stock markets.....wicked aren't i ;p

shitty day

i stupidly drank too much last night, celebrating the election victory and it was a real challenge to wake up this morning. which is why i dumped my BNI puts at the open. made nice coin on them, but if i had held to the close....

then i went back to sleep and woke up at 1:30pm.

the market looked awful. my gut said that we would sink all through the day. but, i broke my discipline and bought some AAPL at 106. the market absolutely tanked as i predicted and my AAPL calls are now in deep water.

i bought some NUE, RIMM and BNI at the close, hoping for a bounce tomorrow. they are at low's of the day...good prices, but not fantastic.

i have a feeling we might open up and trend lower before bouncing up for good. or we could open lower and bounce up....which would not be good...that's a bearish signal.

busy day

i had a job interview at 1pm so that was majorly messing up my day. i had to leave at 12pm to get there and god knows when i would get back.

i still had my RIMM position from yesterday and that was looking to be some major damage control. down 1 at start and RIMM quickly ramped up. eeks....i had been looking to short the gap up and went double short RIMM. usually, in the past this has spelled trouble, but the trades were a day apart and i really had a good feeling about today. i also shorted MON, albeit not at the best price. i had the price target 94.25 set but got greedy.

i was watching the ticker on RIMM and it was strong. the entire damn market except for AAPL was strong. there was hope. all of sudden around 10:15, RIMM broke and i was able to liquidate my positions. i took a loss overall, but now it was a bearable loss.

i was hoping for MON to break majorly, but it just wouldn't budge. i had about +700 on that trade, but i got scared, very rightly so and closed it for +200. very good call on my part. i'm a day trader, if the position doesn't feel right, let it go....live to fight another day.

i still thought MON was overbought and reshorted it around 94 and a little later i doubled down. now time is running out...it's 12am already and MON just won't break. i could collapse the whole position for a small gain or do what? the unthinkable. go to my interview, come back and trade it. i must have been crazy. but, get this i set a sell level about a dollar lower, to where i thought it might break for the day at least and go to my interview, where they eat up my head and i tell them i have to go, drive like crazy through DC and jump to my computer and VOILA....it sold at the level i set and that was the LOW of the entire afternoon. i couldn't have gotten a better price. man, i really rock.

that is some super fine day trading, folks...killer stuff.

i watched the market some more, later afternoon has been fluctuating like crazy and i'm not really digging that today, but BNI shows unusual strength and i dip in for a short. i set a sell for +0.5, but it won't budge beyond +0.4....illiquid stock options are so hard to trade. no matter, it's a good position and tomorrow is a new day. i usually don't like to hold overnight, but volatility is low these days and the overall sense of the market is pretty clear. the upside on these puts i bought also seems somewhat limited and the level of risk is not too much. overnight is okay.

btw, i now have a job, starting Thursday....i wasn't so happy about it earlier...goodbye to sleeping late....but i need some stability...let's just drink some beer and get happy :)

all liquid....phew

i woke up early and plotted my strategy, which basically was all about selling everything. only question was prices.

i sold NUE at open for a small profit, although it spiked higher by $1. that was on news on STLD, which i missed. i sold BNI at a pretty fair price. I sold DRYS at a fair price. AAPL spooked me at the open when it dipped like mad. i sold it when it stabilized but not near the best prices of the day.

in the afternoon i slept to give the rally some time to form.

late in the day i shorted GS. not the best move, given that the weekend will eat some premium, but it flew so high that i felt some action was necessary. also, by mistake i bought July puts, so i will be lucky to break even on Monday.

it's fridayyyyyyyyyyyyyyy........

just awful

i sold my MER calls at open, was trying to sell my NUE but got too greedy. NUE crashed, AAPL crashed bad (on little news), BNI went down and DRYS went further down.

basically, i was long all of these and everything has drastically gone against me. so now i am in the red on my initial investment.

this is so like the decline in Feb., everybody kept on thinking now things will get better, but every damn day was a downward spiral.

i am liquidating everything tomorrow. start fresh next week.

getting screwed

well i wished evil and it came true. i was talking to my family over the weekend and i told them i wished for a complete meltdown of the markets, so that people could suffer. well, my wish came true as the market melted today. unfortuanately, my account was one of the one's that melted also.

what can i say ? i woke up in the morning and i could feel the storm building and i just couldn't sell, especially BNI down a $1 in premarket, i felt, i hoped that somehow we would pull through. total catastrophe. BNI dropped $4 in 30 minutes and overall dropped $7...unbelievable move !

DRYS also went down $4 and NUE is barely holding it's head above water. add to that i bought some AAPL calls, which are under by $2 and some more MER, under by .50. i just thought we would rally at the close...instead we went lower.

awful markets....BUT, i think we are oversold...i only wish i had more than 1 week till options expiration. that's gonna be killer.

now to get drunk, because you don't lose money like this every day :)

more laziness

i slept late and upon waking up at 11am was pleasantly surprised to see my RS puts had been sold at the price i had set yesterday. nothing like profit early in the morning.

i bought some DRYS calls but $2 from the low. it's made a strong move to the low. eeks ! bought some NUE calls at the bottom. it was down $3.5 and at that point i felt it was majorly oversold. i tried to sell them at the close, but i just didn't get my bid and since i am already up on them, i don't mind holding them another day. i bought some BNI calls at the close, but i think this stock is trending down also.

i get the feeling people are unsure of direction. oil IS breaking though.

it's so hot and muggy in DC. such is life.

WOOT

i was in the IB chat room and i saw the unemployment report and the oil action and i knew this was going to be a huge down day, one of those, where we go down the whole damn day....and i called it 400 points down on the DOW.

did i get it right ? Hell Yeah !!!

as you know, i had a bunch of puts and i made money on all of them. i didn't make mad money though, because some i sold too quick, like BNI and NUE and others like STLD, just wouldn't die. infact, in the morning both my STLD and MON positions were well against my position. MON in particular caused me a lot of heartburn and actually did not break till the end of the day, although i sold earlier for nominal gains.

while, i knew that the full impact would come at the end of the day, but still it was a tough day to hold through, so what little (NOT) i made is still welcome.

i would have made much more playing the volatility, but my family kept on distracting me with chatter. SIGH !!!

BTW, oil over 130 is very bad for US economy and around 150 is complete decimation of current levels of the GLOBAL economy.

now we go out to Yuva, for some nice Indian cuisine.

i kick ass

i didn't wake up on time. i woke up at 12:30pm. for some reason i decided to go out for a beer at 12 am in the morning. there were no seats at the bar. i sat on a stool by the wall. like a freak. i don't know why i enjoy doing things like this.

i was sitting there, wondering what to do, when the entire market started tanking hard. i had no idea why. CNBC had no idea why. the interactive brokers chat room i hang in, had no idea why. i don't stare gift horses in the face, so i got rid of my crappy BNI positions right away. then i looked for stocks to short and AAPL was a prime candidate. i shorted and covered 4 minutes 13 seconds later for a $600 gain. then i switched gears and went long MER and MON. i did good on MON, but got scared with MER, what with the whole Lehman thing. i sold that for a tiny profit, although it ripped up fairly nicely later on. i also shorted some Netflix (NFLX), but i think it was a bad position. NFLX is showing upward momentum and if there's something i have learnt in the last 2 weeks, it's DON'T FIGHT MOMENTUM.

overall, a good day.

new start

i feel like a new start. last week i just wasn't into trading.

i sold off 20 BNI 120 put's for break even. i still have 10 of 120 and they are fairly out of the money. also, 10 more of 115 puts which are the worst of the lot. really awfull positions. i forgot there was the last 10 of 130 puts, which actually came through decently.

i sold off my IBM puts for a nice profit, although i left over 1.5K on the table. it dived so much.

i still own my MER calls. it's getting close to getting into financials time.

i tried to scalp BNI for some downside action, but the stock behaved like a young drunk girl. wanting to put out, but not actually doing anything :)

fin. el morto.

screwed up big time

i drank like crazy yesterday and did not wake up in the morning. given the amount of exposure i had that was just plain crazy, but i'm tired of trading and i just didn't give a damn. i've had a great time doing this full time, but it's clear to me that it's time has come and i need to get a full time job and do this on the side. i am pretty sure that i will be a much better trader, if i don't think about this the whole time. plus it will be nice to work with other people again.

anyhoo, i didn't wake up and paid a heavy price. i would have broken even on IBM in the morning. i would have made a small profit on BNI and could have closed my entire position in that stock. IBM is still within target range, but BNI ran up another 2 dollars. it's on a monster breakout and my position in it is definitely hurting. but, i have 3 more weeks and this stock can tank just as fast as it's run up. hopefully, oil will make another run above 130, which is likely, and the stock market will dive one more time (for me). but, overall i am not making profits and that is pissing me off. maybe it was just a tough week, but i haven't been able to tell where stocks are going. all rationale seems to be out of the door.

i am burnt out. i should have taken that vacation to Jamaica like i wanted to. i would have only spent 2K on it and i already lost more than that dicking around.

too early

i started shorting BNI too early...it ran up something huge today. i might break even on it, but if i had waited i could have made some serious money on it. i got rid of my HPQ position, just couldn't wait any longer for it to turn the corner. plus with the coming weekend...oops, in the case of HPQ there would have been very little premium to lose. in any case this dog has had his day and we need to invest in other venues.

i have been sloppy in trading lately. my heart has not been in it. don't know what to do.

maybe this weekend i will go somewhere. or nowhere.

good start to new monthly cycle

the day went well. i took it easy in the morning and went to Murky's coffee shop. i proceeded to get 2 more parking tickets, despite getting the same two last week. damn that heartless parking bitch to hell. i know it's my fault, but cut me some slack fellow soul fucked human being. anyway i thought the market would go down and shorted BNI and RS. boy was i right. i sold RS too cheaply, but held BNI decently enough. market tanked big time. i bought some DRYS calls at the close. their earnings report was good and they are up after hours, but it's anybody's guess what will happen tomorrow.

coffee, my poor stomach. and now i pour some beer into it.

big day friday

i have a bunch of positions both long and short and they all EXPIRE on friday. ah, the magic of options !!! i made a nice profit on my STLD calls and then shorted it when it rose later. ok position, i started shorting too soon. i also shorted RS and BNI at the close. these positions are not so bad. plus, still holding my HPQ calls and they report after close...quick let me check....nope no earnings yet...so as you can see a lot hangs on the balance of one day. not the best situation, but i am starting to see that i am not as much of an accountant personality as i presumed...i am more like a maniac gambler...and they always meet a grisly end.

sigh!!! i did grocery shopping, pasta with vodka cream sauce, then some cola and now i am going out with a friend to some show :) la dolce vita (while it lasts).

i need more fans

one of the day trader blogs i follow is http://beanieville.blogspot.com, infact he is the inspiration for this blog. beanie has many good points and some bad ones. good is he posts recommendations and has a huge fan base, who all post fairly good recommnedations. bad is beanie rarely tell's of his losses and seems to make insane amounts of money. he also flips on his positions quite quickly and pumps stocks fairly often a la Cramer. but, overall he's a good guy. also, his "buy this stock" links are quite informative and rumor has it he feeds pain killers to his dog (see his avatar pic).

in comparison, my main good point is that you know exactly what i bought, when and how much for and ofcourse my profit/loss. bad is i post after the trading close and often ramble on.

today was an EMO day (note i skipped the tional, that's because i'm the real deal). i woke up and hpq went down $3 more...disaster...bni was showing strength and i couldn't tell if the market was gonna go up or down. i felt it was a gray day. i felt i should write off the morning and come back in the afternoon. but, first i got rid of BNI, i didn't even like it when i bought it yesterday. i got into bed and i couldn't sleep. i kept seeing my account balance. no more eating out. fking bread and water from now on. maybe i should get a job. activate my resume's. actually, two headhunters had just submitted me for jobs. i had flunked the java test for one of them. none of my references seemed to be alive.

but, from my bed the sky was clear and the rose i had stolen yesterday from somebody's garden was blooming. i said to murky coffee it is. murky had a good effect on me. maybe i was just people starved. but, seeing everyone there, girls and guys, cheered me up. i was ready to fight. i tracked HPQ and bam got some right at the bottom. but, mostly i screwed around and checked out the chicks. me so horny. it's the reality. fuck it, i'll scream it in this crowded murky room right now. prozac anyone. i liked the restraint i showed towards the end and very selectively bought some RS shorts, which is breaking out, but should be good for an overnight dip. also bought some more HPQ calls, because i think the bottom has been set. or so i hope, please GOD.

i had silver diner for lunch...so so...i'm gonna go drinking tonight...4 days of rain fuckers...plus somebody i know it's their birthday so that's like, you know, flick my blond hair, another reason :-)