tampa's "short skirt" trades...

May I assume that you are still taking shots at me due to that unfortunate string of losses suffered in my chat room?

Anyone unable to withstand a minor 163% drawdown has no business trading.

 

...could be, but you gotta admit that it was good analysis

 

12:00 In the hindsight department, my short this morning had some potential, but with 15-minute and 30-minute support just below, coupled with a TRIN showing more strength than I was comfortable with, I did what I did.

The least you can do is give me some credit for the analysis and discipline in waiting for an indication of it being correct – God, you’re a tough crowd to please! Look, the sucker is headed lower, and I’ll get a piece of it later – geesh...

12:16 Sold @ 1113 Lunchtime trades are not my favorite kind. With 4 points of profit I move the stop to breakeven.

12:51 Covered at Breakeven Everything went my way, but the price.

01:06 Now I don’t know what to think – probably should have taken a nap. Picking the top was an academic thing – I don’t trade tops or bottoms. But the gosh darn TRIN has done me in so far today. I still like the short side – I think...

Here’s the bottom line – we put in at least a near-term top this morning – period, end of story. But now I am beginning to fear a flat, stagnant market, possibly for the rest of the week. Oh Fudge

02:47 Did you ever hear the old joke that ends with: I just know that there’s a poney under all that horseshit? It’s kind of the way I feel right now.

03:15 Well you can’t deny my remarkable call for a top at 1135 NQ earlier this morning (actual 1135 1/2). In fact I was so impressed with it’s accuracy that I did not believe the validity of the afternoon rally.

Excuse me, I have been give a homework assignment.

Trade what you see, not what you think.
Trade what you see, not what you think.
Trade what you see, not what you think.
Trade what you see, not what you think.
Trade what you see, not what you think.

(to be continued – 495 more times)

Two trades – both Breakeven.

Excuse my haste in posting this, but I've got to get it on before we take out the 1135 1/2 high!

 

Way back during the Stone Age, I dabbled in market prognostication – everyone did. It was a different time and place. It was a respectable pursuit back then.

But times have changed, and so have I. There are only two kinds of people who try to forecast market movement – fools, and those who sell predictions to fools.

My “market call” cost me today. It kept me from the early up move – too close to the expected top. And it cost my participation in the afternoon rally – my bias was to the downside.

You know the old saying: Trade what you see, not what you think. I know the old saying. I make a lot of mistakes in the market, but that is one I don't often make. It was the only one I really made today, and the Market Gods extracted their price – damn-it.

 

...but on the bright side, you're only a few posts shy of 600.





(brought to you by: SilverLinings-R-Us)

 

08:15 What is this world coming to? This morning I awoke to the following headline:

AL QUAEDA HOLDS CAMEL WASH TO RAISE FUNDS FOR NEXT ATTACK ON AMERICA!

The dastardly bastards! There’s no telling how the Street will react to this hard to believe news – but there it is in The Weekkly World News. As usual, the fools on CNBC are not breathing a word of the story. But the Big Boys on Wall Street surely have all the skinny, and Lord only knows how they will react.

(I drop 5 Alka-Seltzer Tablets into my morning cup of coffee)

I should expect a sell-off of at least three to four thousand Dow points on the open – no matter what, I am ready, because I am informed!

 

09:34 The news of the scheduled Camel Wash to raise funds for new terrorist activities took it’s toll on the opening. But subscribers to Trading the News with tampa had a heads up, and took nice profits.

09:51 Sold @ 1117 This is a “classic” rookie kind of a mistake. I simply forgot the report due at 10AM. It cost me.
10:00 Stopped out – 5 points

10:35 Sold @ 1108 ½ It should have been better.
10:50 Covered @ 1106 ½ +2 points

Now we have a couple of things going against us; 1) I am pissed at forgetting the report. 2) There are more than a few distractions going on around here this morning.

10:59 Sold @ 1104 ½ I think this one qualifies as a get even trade – and you know what happens more often than not with these.
Stopped out –5 points.

All in all a rather bad morning.

3 R/T –8 points (NQ)

 

Tampa

I have an alarm clock set to go off at 9:56 am every day. Simple but effective. It has saved me a lot of money.

 

Instead of setting a separate clock, I use Trouts Internet Clock.

Its a free program. I have it go off a minute before each hour and half hour - it jars me awake in case I am forgetting something.

http://chemware.co.nz/tic.htm#shareware

 

Did I ever tell you about my breakfast buddy?

Almost two tears ago my wife was in a snit, and wouldn’t let me smoke in the house. So if I wanted to light one up I had to go sit out on the front porch – like some kind of a leper.

Day or night, rain or shine – I would sit out there puffing away. One morning I went out and found this stray cat sitting in my chair! Of course I chased the little bastard, I hate cats. Well the next morning he’s back – only now he’s in the other chair. I chased him any way. The following morning the little bastard is back AGAIN. But now it’s raining – I chased him anyway.

I felt bad about running him off. He was dirty, skinny as a rail, and obviously homeless. That night I picked up a bag of cat food. The next morning I went out, and sure enough he was sound asleep in the chair. So I brought him a bowl of water, and the cat food. This went on for weeks. He became my breakfast buddy.

Slowly, very slowly we became friends. I moved the food and water just inside the door - –then a few feet in side, and finally all the way down the hall into the kitchen. He’d be out front every morning, like clockwork. And then for lunch, and then for supper, even a late night snack. I came to look forward to his visits, and then one day he never left.

Believe it or not, a few months later, it happened again. Another stray just showed up, and now she lives here as well. I went from cat hater, to the proud owner of the two finest felines on the block. These stupid cats have come to mean the world to me (us).

Last night my former breakfast buddy was sitting in my wife’s lap, and the little girl was over by me as we watched the news. For no apparent reason, he jumped down, and casually walked out of the room. Within a few seconds we heard this awful crash, followed by these god-awful screams. My buddy was having a caesurae. It lasted for about ten minutes.

He’s done little more then sleep ever since, and I am worried sick. It was foolish to even think about trading today – how the hell can you trade when your best friend is hurting so?