Today is Friday the 13th

Discussion in 'Trading' started by michaelscott, Jul 13, 2007.

  1. Michael, how are your shorts doing? I'd love to hear an update.
     
    #31     Jul 16, 2007
  2. agreed
     
    #32     Jul 16, 2007
  3. Considering how warm it is here in Manhattan and I assume he's gone homeless if he followed through on his positions his shorts are probably a bit sweaty but it's a lovely time of year here for the homeless....although most are still wearing jeans for some reason.

    :confused:
     
    #33     Jul 16, 2007
  4. Simple yet so powerful. Unfortunately so many need to feed their ego by making predictions and then, when things dont go according to plan, they cling to the few pieces of info that do support their position while ignoring the great majority which doesnt. This is precisely why I dont bother to forecast more than a few minutes/hours out (based on whats going on) and why I dont watch CNBC, read the WSJ or really know much about anything besides getting to the nitty gritty of reading price action correctly. Personally, I dont care what the news is that moves the mkt, I want to know how the people who matter read it and then play accordingly. I think anyone who trades for a living and does well is comfortable with the fact that they wont know whats going to happen rather they know what their edge is, when to act on it and when to sit on their hands. Hey, I'll be very happen to milk several G's from the mkt everyday while never knowing or caring where the mkt is going the next day or the next day after that :)

    Ok, enough ET for me, gotta catch a plane to Prague in a few hours. Will be mia for a couple weeks. Happy trading everyone.


     
    #34     Jul 16, 2007
  5. I am almost 100% in puts and short. One of my best put plays for the day was Baker Hughes. Made 50% on those puts alone today.

    Baker Hughes wasnt my idea though it was TraderTims. I dont want to take the credit for it.

    I have puts all over the place. Too many too list, however, I'll give you a quick take on the industries where I have puts layed out:

    $BTK
    $INSR
    $OSX
    $RLX
    *****$UTY****BEST PICK!!!!

    There is a problem here. The problem is that you guys see an index going up, but thats all you see. Your like a deer in the headlights. You see a stock go up 10% and then try to crowd into the trade then you wonder why your down 10 grand at the end of the day.

    I have recently copied TraderTims strategy in that Im finding stocks that are breaking down, buying puts and watching the money come in. There are always stocks breaking down even in a rising market. In fact, a stock that is breaking down within a rising market will usually fall further then one breaking down within a falling market.

    Im not riding the puts though. Once I see a profit on those then Im out and dont look back. The profit is often substantial though if done right.

    As for TraderWill, I think I have found the "easy money". Shorting and buying puts on stocks that are going down. This is a much easier strategy then longing stocks and waiting for them to go up.

    I woke up this morning to see a windfall profit on my Baker Hughes puts, 50%! I didnt use margin even. It cant get any easier then that.

     
    #35     Jul 16, 2007
  6. michael, why lie? What purpose does it serve? You work a freaking day job for crying out loud, how good of a "trader" could you possibly be?

    Did you ask me for $1 earlier when I walked by, I thought it might be you. :p
     
    #36     Jul 16, 2007
  7. Sounds like you are the deer in the headlights, waiting to be rolled over by the market.
     
    #37     Jul 16, 2007
  8. Excuse me, but working a day job doesn't mean you're a bad trader.

    I've been a upper mid level exec for a large pharma/cpg company for the last 8 years, while trading commodities and FX for the last 4. Of those, The last three years have seen me put my salary in the bank (or other investment places) and the FX has been paying my mortgage and bills.

    So please don't generalize.
     
    #38     Jul 16, 2007
  9. Why not? If you're such a great trader you should be able to work ONLY trading in my opinion. I really don't mean to offend you as you're one of the few posters on this board who I have respect for. But if you can't trade and generate enough profit to grow your trading base and put money away in the bank then you shouldn't be doing what michaelscott is doing and tell people how stupid they are and yada yada yada.

    My point was that someone who has to work a day job, as michaelscott clearly does, has no room to lecture about other people's positions.

    Hope you don't take too much offense as none was meant to someone or to mean that they couldn't trade. :D
     
    #39     Jul 16, 2007
  10. Many of the guys on here work dayjobs. This is far from a professional trader's forum. In fact, I think most of the posts in the trading section are simply some guys fooling around and blowing off steam. The trading section seems more like a Soccer game in Mexico then an actual forum for professional trading. You cant tell me that some serious professional traders are actually posting up here

    In fact, here is one guy that I know of who works a dayjob and seems to have good trades all the time. He posts all his trades up before they happen and sometimes he throws up a blotter when he has spare time. Most of his trades are automated. He works an IT job. This is a good example of a guy who is able to balance work and trading. I follow his blog closely and have learned a lot on how I can balance my own lifestyle.

    www.pinoytrader.blogspot.com

    Here is some advice. Do not look at the indexes going up, they do not tell the whole story. I look at how many stocks are advancing and how many are declining. The indexes may say green, but the advance decline says otherwise and short opportunities can be identified.

    Look at this:

    Advancing Issues 1,319 (41%) 571 (46%) 1,240 (41%) 542 (32%)
    Declining Issues 1,799 (56%) 574 (47%) 1,688 (55%) 735 (43%)
    Unchanged Issues 118 (4%) 86 (7%) 124 (4%) 419 (25%

    So even though the indexes are green, there are more short opportunities in today's market then longs.

    There are about 3000 stocks on the nasdaq. Even in the best of times, about 70% are moving up. In the worst of times, about 20% are moving up. Everyday there are shorting opportunities and what do we know about stocks? They move down a lot faster then they go up and thats no lie.

    Look at my chart and this tells you the percentage of stocks moving up over the 50 day moving average at any time.

    As for me feeding my ego, you see a post and you make an assumption on the character of the person typing it. Most of the time that assumption is wrong. For example, do you really honestly believe this trading section is full of professional traders? Maybe I am just having my fun or maybe I am very serious in typing or maybe Im some guy kicking back with a rum&coke watching you guys take this soooo seriously. Who knows....

    However, what I do know is that only 55% of the stocks on the Nasdaq are moving up while the indexes are showing green. You play the long end and Im playing the short end.

    The short-end is the better end to play because its easy to identify a stock in a down-trend where as you never know when the up-trend will stop for certain stocks. Its also easy for me to look at a balance sheet, a profile, etc. and say aloud that this is just crap.

    Look at my chart, now how bullish are you? Only 55% of the Nasdaq stocks are moving up and who knows when they will stop????
     
    #40     Jul 16, 2007