11-14-13 I can't call today the most active day this month, but I can call it one of the best. Knowing that stocks like (GOGO) often gap higher as the last blow-off top, i was ready to pounce on it during the open. I wasn't able to directly short it as I didn't have shares available, but I was able to find a half-way decent put to buy. One would think as active as (GOGO) is and few shares to be found to short that options would be more active. I was only able to find the $25 Dec strike price as anything close to what I was willing to trade. It wasn't great, but it was something. Between all my accounts I accounted for quite a fair share of total contracts traded today and luckily there was enough other traders that I usually didn't have to use a Market Maker for a counter-party. It was a long road to paradise as I had to wait until about half an hour before the closing bell before I could exit the final contracts. I priced it out right too, because almost as soon as my final exit was complete the shares jumped higher and actually closed up for the day. I will watch during the open tomorrow to see if the price still has strength and may re-short once again. Between all the accounts I put in (GOGO) puts, I was able to extract a wheelbarrow full of cash. There are lots of shorts getting their collective heads handed to them, but sometimes the second mouse gets the cheese. Next big trade today was (ARCW) that was brought up in the chat room today. At first I didn't notice it because the person who typed it in didn't put it in caps (no rules to say he should, so it's my own fault for missing it). Apparently "Superman" wrote an article on Seekingalpha about ARCW and how it could double and that started the ball rolling. I was told he was also touting it in some forums etc... and being such a small float caused it to spike higher. He has some impressive numbers on profitly if I recall correctly. I haven't read anything else besides the SA article (after I was already out of the trade), but it does appear to be quite the profitable business model. By the time I pulled it up on a chart it had already given a short signal just under $40 and I was lucky enough to see it trading above my short entry minimum price needed. I quickly took a look and shorted above $40. I continued to enter in orders as fast as I could while also trying frantically to enter in covering buys (knowing how fast stocks can move I have been caught without orders during fast moves down only to see it bounce back again while I'm still short). My highest short executed was at $42.98 and I quickly put a large covering order just under $41 and moved back to trying to get large with my short when the floor fell out and within one second time I had five separate covering orders from $40.83 down to $40.02 execute and flatten me out with a sweet gain that was more than my target gain. I also watched the shares continue downward to $35ish a share, but that's ok, I wasn't trying to get much more than my target. It was one of my best trades this week and maybe a top producing trade for the month because it set me up to have one of the top days of the month. My last two trades were tiny and only paid for lunch. I shorted (ANGI) when it rebounded from falling after (EBAY) was reported to enter the space. I also shorted (EJ) for an overnight swing, but decided I would wait until tomorrow near the open to try to work it. (EJ) fell right before the closing bell so we will see if it has any life in it to get it back up or not. (EJ) + .08 (ARCW) + .95 W (GOGO) Puts + .35
11-15-13 Crazy day today. Lots of shares traded, but I wasn't able to monetize much of it. From the glass is half full point of view, I didn't take a hit like I may have. I started with VNDA in premarket and it went great. Made a bunch of cash and thought today had strong possibilities. In the end I can't say it was a bad day, heck, it was a fairly good day of profits, but it wasn't anywhere near what I thought it could be. My next short was (CADX) and it really moved past me and I became pretty heavy in it. I was adjusting my bids and didn't calculate it out properly so I had too much too high and ended up closing out almost all of my position slightly above break even. I covered the few hundred shares I had left mostly near $8 and managed to slide a very small gain, less ECN and commissions. I don't know exactly where I am at, but I'm gonna just call it a wash. My platform says a small gain, but most or all of it will be eaten up. Very disappointing and had it bounced at all before blowing right though I may have turned the mistake into a good thing, but alas, it wasn't meant to be. I traded (VJET) for a quick above $59 scalp that lasted less than one minute from first short to final buy. Later I did the same with (ICLD) shorting a scalp above $10. I didn't have much size, but I'm sure a lot of shorts wish they did as well as I did with it today. That stock was up around 280% when I shorted (yes 280). After I was done fooling around with CADX I received a Brenton short signal with (FMI). At first it really moved and I scalped it back and forth for some decent gains. Then the volume dried up and there was nothing to be done with it. Within a minute of the closing I covered a few hundred shares about a dime above my cost basis which brought my realized in the red with that ticker. I intended to hold the rest over the weekend when a 24K offer came just above my bid. I didn't exactly believe the offer, but I decided to move my bid lower because "you never know". Sure enough, the offer hit my bid on the way down to $24. I wish I would have covered at $24 instead of $24.26, but it was enough to allow me to call that one a scratch too. I closed out the (SRPT) covered call from Wednesday, that worked well. I also covered my (BBRY) calls at a penny with the intention of rolling over. I didn't like the premiums so I let that one simmer until next week. So I didn't need to waste the money or commission, but oh well. (BBRY) is trading basically at break-even so no rush there. (BBRY) $7C +.40 (CADX) be (FMI) be B (VJET) + .24 (ICLD) + .22 (VNDA) + .39 (SRPT) covered call net net + .89
11-18-13 Quick report today because I am preparing for two conventions this week in Vegas. First is the Social Media Marketing convention and the second is the Trader's expo. Look for article at TheStreet (TST) about each. Four tickers traded today. Two of them (ICLD) and (VJET) I traded more than once as they broke into new highs of the day. They delivered the bulk of the gains and made for a great session. (CSTE) and (EDU) gave William signals and made the standard profit goal each. (CSTE) + .53 W (EDU) + .51 W (VJET) + .45 (ICLD) + .57
11-19-13 No trades today. I'm in Chicago airport on my way to Vegas. I looked for trades at the open but no signals triggered, although one did come close. I probably won't make many trades if anyuntil Friday. I'm also not sure how many trades I will make on Friday. I did bring three laptops and an extra monitor (along with a HDMI cable to connect to the room's TV), but that still won't compare to my home office with 14 monitors
Thursday 11-22-13 slow day of sorts, I attended the SMX Social Media Marketing show in Vegas for the second day. The show was great, but I only traded the open and only had one quick trade before moving on. (WSM) + .19
About five years ago you told me I needed at least 6 monitors to trade, preferably 8. Did your trading strategy require you to adjust to changing market conditions?
My signals are so much different today than they were five years ago. Much better (albeit less frequent) and they allow me now to lower my variance considerably. I guess we all keep adjusting to the present market conditions or risk getting left behind. Wouldn't you agree?
11-25-13 Back home from Vegas and I'm glad to be back. One of my suitcases was delayed, but United (UAL) was good enough to have it delivered to my home today. The bummer though was my mouse was in the suitcase and I had to use an old one that wasn't as good. For most people that may not be a big deal, but I use a special "roller mouse" by Contour because of wrist issues so that wasn't fun. The case also happened to have a keyboard and power supply for one of the laptops so I was without Hold Brothers news service becase my only laptop with it is of course the one missing. Otherwise and even including the suitcase issue it was a great day. One of my best days in a long time and it was picture perfect from the opening bell until the last trade in afterhours with (NUAN). My broker made out ok too because I put a decent amount of shares through. I'm not sure if the number of shares was a high mark for the month, but I would guess it was up there. I didn't receive any William or Brenton signals, but I did trade based largely on a set of mechanical rules based on over extended and crossing above a round number or a morning gap higher. The first trade of the day was (CAMT) and it could gave me several kicks at the can and I was able to freely put size on due to the ticker price. By noon I had over $1K in gains from this ticker alone, and CAMT gave a couple of setups in the afternoon to add some icing on top. The $5 mark was breached several times with me shorting heavy with each and while I didn't get the full pullback of each move, I managed to get huge gains as a percentage and a decent amount of the meat. I wish every trade was half as great in terms of pain and gains as (CAMT) was today. (SHLD) was up strong and for such a big store, it sure has a thinly traded ticker. I kept that in mind when I faded it and so I was never very far in the red when I guess some news hit the wire (according to someone in the chat room) and it fell hard and fast. I happened to have my covering bids there to capture most of that first wave of selling and I closed out the rest shortly after for a sweet gain. (CBST) was like (SHLD) and I faded it with a rather quick ringing of the register I just finished "Keene On The Market" from Wiley Finance. It was an ok book for someone starting out. Keene knows his stuff really well, that's obvious, but I don't fully share his risk analysis criteria. If you want to start learning about options, it does have some useful tidbits that you won't find in any other options book I have read. For that reason I think the cost and time investment to read it is worth it. (CAMT) + .21 (SHLD) + .30 (NUAN) + .30 (CBST) + .37
11-26-13 Overall the day was ok. I didn't have any really solid winners, but I did manage to grab enough from several trades to put together a halfway decent day. I started out shorting (JOSB) shortly after the opening bell when it appeared the open would be at or near the high of the day. I scalped it when I covered some shares near $56 and added again at $56.89. I held it and closed half at $56.06 and the other half at $55.52 for an oversized gain over a point, but it was on small size. I next shorted (PBYI) when it went over $51 and covered near the round number in a retracement. My next short was a trend following short that I should have kept going, but was faked out of a couple of times. I shorted (NUAN) last night and covered for a small gain in the $15s. I shorted again when the 10 min 9MA was touched near $13.78ish, but covered shortly after for a very small gain when the 9MA was breached. Once (NUAN) started demonstrating weakness again i shorted around $13.59 to $13.66 and put some size on it. My next trade with (IMPV) wasn't going well and I deceded to close out (NUAN) before it really needed to get closed out (it was still green and no signs of stength), but at the last sale I was down to 100 shares and figured the little I could make from there wasn't worth the distraction. I faded (IMPV) from lower $44s and hit it heavy above $45.45ish area. That brought my average to over $45.10 and from there I worked it higher by covering some near $45 and subsequently adding above my break even point. I picked a good time to get out because it never broke down and I was glad to take home a gain from it. I didn't make a lot today, especially compared to yesterday, but it was ok. I changing over to gross gains for now, but may switch back to per share at some point. It's just easier to enter the raw number instead of calculating the per share. (IMPV) + 85 (JOSB) + 247 (NUAN) + 145 (PBYI) + 68 + 545
11-27-13 Ok, I have to admit, I wasn't expecting much today,and I did receive much more than I was hoping for yesterday, but as today played out I really wanted more. The big play of the day was with (OCZ) and I "Hunt For Red Octobered" it. After it was halted and gave a press release that it was going bankrupt, I prepared to short the hell out of it when it opened back up. I was ready, or so I thought when the trading resumed. Remember near the end of Hunt For Red October when the Soviet sub shot a torpedoo at Red October and Sean Connery orders the sub to go towards the sub because he assumed the safety devices weren't turned off? Well that's the same mistake I made, I forgot to turn off my limit order % difference safety off and missed out on shorts in the 40 cents plus range. As if that wasn't enough, I missed out on some upper 20s too. Instead of killing myself though, I killed my profit potential. Anyway, I did manage to make a few cents off the sinking of $OCZ, but not as much as I had hoped for. I managed to do well with my first trade of the day shortly after the opening bell with (ELTK) and I traded quite a few shares.I also traded it back and forth for most of the day. It worked out pretty well, but it wasn't my best trade of the day. (BIOS) was my best trade and it was called out in the chat room. That's the nice thing about not being alone, I find out about a lot of trades I wouldn't have otherwise, even with 14 monitors and a bunch of computers scanning the market. Considering its price, I did pretty well on a per share basis also. When (BIOS) cracked, it fell fast and hard. The trade was based on a retracement to the $7 level area and it worked like magic. In fact, the magic happened twice as I was able to get a second kick at the can. That makes (BIOS) the stock play of the day. My old friend and one time perma-long (HPQ) came into play today. I didn't trade many shares, but it worked out ok and added a little cream to the pudding. (BIOS) 566 (ELTK) 534 (HPQ) 73 (OCZ) 210 (this may end up to be closer to 200 after commissions. I don't get ECN rebates removing almost all my commissions so I will have to wait and see how this comes out in the wash) 1383