Mr. Sub Just noticed your journal and read it beginning to end. Good stuff indeed. Very entertaining distraction thanks from all of us. Regarding PD, try their 877-47direx number as this is always answered on the first few rings from my experience, though I suppose its too late now that you have left FLA.
The holiday weekend seems to have dulled my already feeble mind. Ignoring an unwritten rule about not trading the open which I normally have no trouble adhering to, I found myself long 1,000 PSFT (avg. 20.60) by 9:30:19. Five minutes later with PSFT at 20.40 I decided to bail and bought another 200 by mistake. I then hit Shift-N (buy closeout) twice and thought the system was acting strangely when greeted with two "Nothing to close out" messages. After what seemed like an eternity, I realized I had to sell to close my position. This I did, and after an additional 15 seconds went short. The time was barely 9:45 and I had already involuntarily made up for last Friday's inactivity. From then on, however, everything proceeded smoothly and by mid-morning I was wearing the self-satisfied smirk that only a very low 3-digit positive P&L can bring. I refrained from beating up on myself for the many faux pas, but rather reflected on the positive - I didn't stubbornly hold on to my initial position, I didn't average down, I reversed not because I desperately wanted to recoup my loss but only after a pause in which I ascertained that the trend was indeed down.
As you may have already gathered, I am an avid soccer fan and for the next few weeks will be faced with late night live broadcasts of the World Cup matches from Korea/Japan commencing at 02:00am (USA ET) and conveniently ending at about 9:20am, together with the usual daily trading. They say politics should be kept out of sport, yet as I watched Germany trounce Saudi Arabia 8:0 this morning, I could not help but associate the Saudi players with the 9/11 hijackers. On a different note, the following true stories illustrate the current public sentiment towards Wall Street : 1. The US Post Office just recalled their latest stamps which had pictures of prominent stockbrokers on them. Apparently people couldn't figure out which side to spit on. 2. For many years, Merrill analyst Henry Blodget would plan a yearly weekend getaway at a mountain inn, where he would rendezvous with the innkeeper's daughter. Looking forward to this year's trip, he departed with his suitcases in hand. When he arrived at the inn, he made his way up the stairs to his usual meeting room. The door was open and he walked in glancing at the innkeeper's daughter sitting on the bed. There she sat with an infant on her lap. "Who is that?" Henry asked. "It's your son," she answered. "Why didn't you write when you learned you were pregnant?" he cried. "I would have rushed up here. We could have gotten married, and the child would have my name!" "Well," she said, "when my folks found out about my condition, we sat up all night talking and we finally decided it would be better to have a bastard in the family than an analyst."
Mr Subliminal you're too funny. You need to keep everybody up to date on a more timely basis as everybody can use some more comic relief.
Thanks, js1257 for the encouragement. Yes, we all need comic relief these days, though what I'm about to relate is of a more serious nature and unfolded not a few hours ago... The harsh ring of the phone interrupted my Sunday morning reverie. It was Gretchen Morgenstern, Pulitzer prize-winning New York Times journalist and Wall Street watchdog. GM : "Subman, Gretchen here. Are you free this Wednesday at 12?" Me : "Hello Gretchen (hot sex). I'll have to check with my secretary." Gretchen had interviewed me in my office during the halcyon days of 1999 and perhaps she would swallow my attempt at pretense. GM : "I'm having lunch with Carly Fiorina and want you to join us." Gretchen often had me accompany her to important meetings as she appreciated the rare combination of a razor-sharp mind and lightning-quick wit. I appreciated the free food. Me : "I'll cancel all my prior commitments for that (menage a trois)." What prior commitments? There were no yellow PostIts on the wall above my bed so that meant the rest of 2002 was free. Nevertheless, my initial reaction to being in the company of two of the most powerful women in American business was somewhat disturbing and in complete contrast to what they taught me at Wharton (http://www.wharton.isd.tenet.edu/campus/WJHS/index.htm). GM : "See you then." It seemed as if the Money & Business section of the Sunday New York Times, which I had been reading earlier, had taken on a life of its own as it was now precariously balanced on the edge of my bed. I stopped the freefall and resumed daydreaming...