Bullet shoot-out but I missed a critical fill in the morning to make this the easy K that it should have been. 6800 shares on 3 of 6 shooting, +959 before commissions, +599 after, 3 bullets. Pre-Market: A batch of downgrades on energy stocks, tons of shooting stars on charts said this is going to a bullet day. 9:30: I almost never put up bullets before market opens because I hate gaps, and in this case most of the energy stocks gapped down (DO didn't, but 2 prints later it went down 70 cents), picked out SGY, KMI, and LM, 3 stocks that didn't gap down much. Sold SGY above 40 and scored almost half a point on 1000 shares. Took KMI short and he did a mini squeeze which I covered half and sold a little more, but he had little volume in the morning and was a very slow downtrend, ended up taking half a point but on far less shares. As soon as I started those two positions I flipped to LM but he already went down half a point, and it went down 2 points with hardly an uptick, and it was too late to put up a fourth bullet. With only two active bullets my performance really struggled. 10:00: Churned a lot of SGY and KMI, and too a little DO long on what I thought was a OSX bounce, out for a nickel loss. 3:00: CCU had a huge offer and I took a bottom bounce play, I thought he wasn't done selling at 37 but he was, and I took a quarter profit and left half a point on the table. Took a little GE on futures bounce and out for a dime loss (could have took TYC/IBM, etc, GE was weak today). If the pay period ends here it will be my third best month of the year and I fully intend to add to it tommorrow with another win. Strength and courage!
The energy sector has been my best sector as of late and it happened again today. I expect to focus heavily on this sector through the winter to next spring as almost all energy stocks follow their indices closely, and it is completely independent of S&P and Nasdaq futures. Unfortunately I had just 300 shares through the 2PM gift energy run and I sure hope I can play better next time. Finished the month with a solid game, +1232 before commissions, +1027 after, 5900 shares on 6 of 8 shooting, 1 bullet. I should have scored so much more but I will accept today's result and move on. Stay tuned for November thread. Pre-Market: What a surprise, I thought it will be a sell-off, I guess I was wrong. There was some investigation at 34th Street which caused yet another transit delay and I ran into the office 2 minutes before the market opened. 9:30: BTK up a lot and I took CRA long as it gapped down without any offer, he filled the whole gap and I took a nice 70 cents, wish I bought the pullback but by then I was all over the energy stuff. I thought OSX will sell-off but a huge squeeze hit and I took BJS at 25.87 and got a quick 20 cents scalp, KMI at 49.15 and a 20 cents scalp. Took CVX but he spreaded me 30 cents and I got 20 cents scalp. OSX hit yesterday's resistance and bounced off, I immediately switched to short mode, my bullet was up on WFT and when OSX re-tested intraday low I really thought it was time for another squeeze, one hesitation and I covered for a 30 cents scalp and the thing tanked 1 point. I covered just as energy made a new leg low. Very bad trade. 10:22: Took BWA long at 42.65 and dumped for a dime loss, my auto part index hit yesterday's high and bounced off resistance. 2:00: Took 300 shares of DO at 27 as energy started to move up, I really should have took more but I thought it would be like a Fed. meeting where they would buy on rumor and sell on the news. I sold flat and as soon as I saw SLB showing half a point higher I knew I was too late, had 300 BHI and I made a sweet 80 cents in just a few seconds. When I thought OSX peaked I shorted a little WFT and took another quarter scalp. I wish I was long a few K energy like Mrs. F, she has more courage than me on this kind of news plays
If I was forty years younger I'd be there with you and kick Mrs. F's butt, financially speaking, of course.
She is my best friend at work, and at some point we will definitely team up. She is more specialized and I am more diversified in term of sectors, but it will be a good combination for sure. It is a tons of guts to hold a few K shares through news release, and she earned every penny in that move.