Hitman Nice story! Took my mind off of trading for a while. I have the hardest time making money when the market goes straight up, thank goodness there was a sell off otherwise it would have been an ugly day. Anyway, who taught you how to trade? I have read some of your posts, maybe you mentioned it in those posts. I am wondering, because your method is borderline scalping/tape reading, with all the volume you do? Have you ever thought of becomeing a pure scapler/tapereader? From reading your other posts you have the mindset of a scalper. You mentioned early that you could never make the 7 figures trading with the high volume. I believe that you could. I know several guys that have done this as scaplers and tapereaders. Keep posting your daily trading, it is interesting to see you develope.
The power of Bloomberg once again saved my day as I turned a blah of a day into a very nice finish. 23800 shares each way on 13 of 22 shooting, +1934 before commissions, +1478 after, 1 bullet. Lately I have forced myself to get at least 7 hours of sleep a night and it definitely helped. With the kind of work load I have right now as a trader and a leader, by the end of the day I feel completely drained. Whatever extra work done late at night simply can not make up for a well-rested mind and body for that matter. Pre-Market: Again quite uneventful as far as news plays are concerned and I went for my open strategy. 9:30: Filled on BMY/JPM and got out flat on both. I personally really like this open order routine now, even if I have not made any real money off it yet. Putting in 40 orders at 9:15, double check to make sure all the numbers are right at 9:25, it is an excellent exercise to make me completely focused with the task at hand. By the time I finish checking my orders, the bell rings immediately and I roll right into it. Right off the first print I will have some relatively low risk positions and it feels almost like a shoot around before a basketball game. I mean if I don't have those positions, I may hesitate a little or take some very small positions when I see set-ups just to "break the ice", having already taken 2-4 shots first 60 seconds of the game, I am already "warmed up" and I am in the best possible condition to roll into my main game, as by the time I get out of these open orders the market already settled a little bit and I can look for 10AM moves from there. Having to manage 2-4 positions immediately also speeds up my brain and removes brain locks, a great warm-up routine for rest of my game. 9:35: Had an open short on DVA and lost 24 cents off that as the stock went up despite of the weak daily. Went long DNA and scored 35 cents. Then with futures ripping and biotech running, DNA gapped down half a point and I went long again immediately for another 30 cents, futures tanked and I got out wish I held half as it went up a point from there. 9:52: Went long BWA and scored 50 cents. Went long SLG as a daily play and eventually lost patience and closed it for 6 cents profit. The thing with this kind of stock is you just gotta buy and hold, forget about the tape as it won't print once in a very long time. 10:00: Went long CCU and took a nasty 30 cents hit plus the churns as the stock doesn't seem to be moving with futures anymore. Went bullet SPF on home builder sell-off, barely got my bullet cost back, went long and scored 40 cents. Home builders, I don't know why they are the strongest sector in the entire market, it seems like everyday you can buy and hold and do well, or bottom pick any sell-off's. 12:05: Based on daily's went long ODP/PPD, broke even. Went long KSS but he had a huge seller in him, churned him until he took out a 100K offer at 3PM and got a quarter pop out of that, churned again and lost a little money overall. That seller will not give up. 2:00: Bottompicked DNA on a super size sell-off, probably some institutional seller there, wish I held tho, got a quarter left a point on the table, too nervous about this kind of plays. 2:05: The natural gas numbers seemed favorable, Bloomberg gave us at least 20 seconds to get into mid-caps, 10 seconds for big caps, too bad I was not used to being the first kid to go long and did not go full blazing until stuff started ripping, gas futures went up and I just loaded up on energy stocks, HP, SGY, BJS, DO, TDW, EP, left quite a bit of money on the table as I misjudged the strength of this move, but on a day like this you can not complain. Team Stats: 9 of 9 active traders today 105400 shares each way on 47 of 91 shooting (51.6%) +5384 before commissions (6 of 9 positive before commissions) +3020 after commissions (6 of 9 after commissions) Top 3 Symbols: EP, DNA, CAL Bottom 3 Symbols: DYN, SDS, CCU
Hitman, Did you win based on data from the AGA reports? If so how do you play it based on today 132 bcf drawdown of Natural Gas inventories. thank you
Bloomberg TV or the Bloomberg terminal?? If the former, doesn't Worldco rate CNBC enough to show it to its traders?
Bloomberg terminal. What do you mean "how do you play it" ? I saw inventory reduction, I saw gas futures go up, I bought oil/gas, I saw oil/gas stocks ticking up I bought more, pullback I got out some, another leg up I bought more then everything ripped and I bought more and more . . .
Hitman, although having heard of the Bloomberg terminal, I don't know much about it. How much and what type of an advantage does it provide? I know it's quite pricey but do you have to be a professional trader to use one? Have you found it to affect your P/L in a significant way? Thanks in advance.
Bloomberg runs about $2K/month....Hitman, what are reading off Blooomberg to follow oil/gas futures closely...other than normal indicators that you can get from most providers? Thanks.
women are great inspirational stimuli. but as pops once told me, they can wreak havoc onto one's life, if and when she turns her mind. kinda like the markets, eh? be weary, young lad. get a copy of barry lyndon by stanley kubrick.
To put it plainly, you can get news from Bloomberg 10-20 seconds faster any other news provider. That 10-20 seconds can be an eternity when something comes out. You will be competing with insiders who already know the news, other traders with Bloomberg, but it is still a huge edge. The draw back is of course that the thing pumps out hundreds of headlines per hour, and it is impossible to follow them all. Our team currently has the slave terminal, and hopefully when I get the full terminal I will be able to program it better. The full Bloomberg also comes with a set of research tools not found anywhere else, it is an incredibly powerful tool and worth every penny when used properly. As an individual I simply don't make enough money to use it, as a team leader it is a very nice asset for the team.
Very tough game as I churned all day. 19700 shares each way on 10 of 17 shooting, +713 before commissions, +264 after, 2 bullets. Pre-Market: Positive news on RLX. 9:30: Filled on 3 short open orders, HON, AOL, C, got 10 cents out of HON, 25 cents a piece from AOL and C, but didn't realize MER had news and lost 35 cents on that, very dumb as when the stock opened I actually saw the news but didn't dump it immediately, would have greatly reduced the damage. 9:35: A little too anxious as I went long S and pyramided then turned a decent profit into a small loss. Tried ALK on XAL move and got just 10 cents. Had LAB and took a nasty 25 cents spread down as futures/financials finally pulled back hard after many many days up in a row. Went bullet LM/SPF, scored 50 cents on LM but churned too much earlier in the day in consolidation. SPF spreaded me down 30 cents for the fill and I covered too early there. 10:10: Went long SGY and after many attempts barely got a few 10 cents scalps out. Churned CRA all day as the stock was weak and could not bounce with the BTK. Went long DNA as it was super strong and caught a 70 cents move but too bad I only had 300 shares. 11:50: Went long WFT/EP, wish I held WFT as it went up 50 cents and I got out for flat. Churned EP as it could not do anything. Bought SLB and this stock's specialist is really unforgiving, one little hesitation he spreaded me 30 cents. 2:30: Churned my bullets some more, went long AIG and got out flat, wish I held a little bit, insurance stocks seemed to have recaptured that range lately and I will definitely watch them more. Team Stats: 9 of 9 active traders 87700 shares each way on 39 of 69 shooting (53.6%) +1894 before commissions (5 of 9 positive) -150 after commissions (4 of 9 positive) Top 3 Symbols: TLB, APA, EP Bottom 3 Symbols: AXL, KSS, CAL