I thought I'd start a journal to try and accomplish a few things: 1. Vent my daily frustrations with work and markets 2. Voice my views and trades in my personal account 3. Document my progress toward my year end goal Ok, so what do I do for a living? I'm a portfolio manager at a hedge fund but I won't be discussing the trades I do in the fund(which is in an asset class thats not readily accessible anyways). And what's my year end goal? Well, the family is growing and I'd like to get us a new house. If I don't get that, hopefully I'll have made enough for a nice big SUV. In additon to making money, I may need to fall back on my PA trading as the hedge fund I'm at might cease to exist in short order!
I'll start by saying that there's nothing more miserable than knowing I won't be getting any bonus at the end of the year even if I am the only one making money so far! Currently portfolio ~$125k Long Oil -10k Long Wheat -4k Short FNM -1.5k (Couldn't get the borrow yesterday at 18 bucks, how FRUSTRATING!) Short ES - 1k Long 10yr UST - 3k Although I'm bearish oil I think this down move is too much. I think wheat goes much higher but I might change my mind tomorrow. I can't stand whats going with the GSE's I think they should be trading at a buck. I'm fading this bounce because everyone seems to be eyeing the 1275-1300 area. I hate the USD and UST but with commodities coming off and my outlook for S&P/US growth, I think UST trade higher in the near term.
HBOS rights issue that failed miserably and left Dresdner and Morgan Stanley holding nearly $5bn in stock very conveniently has a buyout rumor circulate today. Stock up over 10% on BBVA buyout rumors and comfortably above the 275 rights issue price. The ponzi continues... Meanwhile, suffering pain in all my positions. Added to my ES short and will look to get more agressive in this 1280-1300 area. Long Gold at 945, EURUSD 1.578, GBPUSD 1.992 early this AM. Portfolio Value: 111k
I've never been more bearish but trying to keep agnostic about actual trades and following the program. Account dipped to just over 100k but came back strong by the end of the day, currently at 126k. Took my small loss in Gold, small profit on GBP, added to my EUR, CL, ES, FNM trades. Did I mention I think FNM goes to 1 buck? Should be just like MBI/ABK, put these guys into runoff. Just closed out my long 10yr UST for a small profit and my Wheat Long for a loss. I'm concentrating my firepower on CL as the grains look like a dead market for a while. Going to start trading individual stocks off a blackbox/autotrading algorithm next week. Let's see how that pans out.
Not too much change overall. Should have waited another day to get out of wheat it looks like. Took profits in FNM but looking to reset shorts today. Also bot back 10yr UST and added a CL contract. No trades in FX, still long EURUSD for target up to 1.59 area. Will be delaying my equity blackbox until i iron out some datafeed issues. Account Value = 120k