What the $%@&* Trading!

Well, except for Thursday it was a crappy week. On Friday I let GREED get in my way. I was sitting on a decent profit of $1K by mid-afternoon and decided to just take it easy and watch the market. Near the close I was getting itchy to make one last play into the close. In seconds I went from a +1K to a -$600. I got burned fast and it is sitting in my craw, totally pissed, and nothing I can do about it until Monday! How the hell did I let myself get away from my plan…I should have left my computer and gone to do something else. Oh well, I learn from my mistakes not from my successes.

Have a great weekend everybody…and thanks for reading!

Traders are still being shaken out of playing this game. When will it stop? The futures tested the October lows after the cash markets closed today. Will this be enough or do we crash and burn tomorrow…and eventually rise like a phoenix from the ashes?

Relentless selling all day today. My first trade went sour this morning so I figured I’d sit on the sidelines. My indicators don’t work anymore, charts are crap, and sentiment down the tubes. I guess I could short, but as soon as I do, the market turns for one of those make-believe rallies that lasts 5-10 minutes before moving down again.

Asian markets are following our lead, opening 5% down at the start. Russia has stopped trading after a 12% drop. No economic news is slated for Thursday except for initial unemployment filings for last week. Hell, I don’t know what to do…anybody got ideas? Guess I’ll keep my powder dry to play another day…but I’m watching you market

What’s there to say? Another ugly, ugly day…with a tiny bit of hope in the mid-afternoon with a mortgage bailout.

I got bit when I was long and again when I was short. F%#k it! I’ll try again tomorrow

It was a lousy day, but looking at the charts, I can’t see why! It was a very ambiguous day. Both the Dow and the S&P500 had higher highs and higher lows compared to Friday, but still closed lower than Friday’s close.

The good news, I guess, is that we tested last week’s S&P500 lows and we didn’t breakthrough….so maybe we bounce on Tuesday. Y’know, the last 2 Tuesdays have produced big up days…we don’t want to break that pattern, do we?

Yes, I know we’ll have to test, and probably break the recent lows, but not now and not this year. We need the rally we so justly deserve….no, demand! There are lots of charts, all that look good…oversold and ready to pop. So, like microwave popcorn, I’m waiting and eager to hear those pops to start. Happy Trading

Oh No! for the non-Yiddish. That was one helluva train wreck….and I couldn’t see it in any indicator…those indicators haven’t been working well in this environment

It was impressive! 2 back-to-back 4+% down days…relentless selling! Today I saw the wisdom of always being both long and short so you can take the loser off and let the winner run.

I did get in to some IWM calls. I first tried to get some 6 months out, but couldn’t get a fill. So I grabbed some in the short term near the low…and they’re still at the low.

I did a scan after the market closed and couldn’t find any stock chart that looked interesting. Oh well, some days are like that. Keep the powder dry

We actually put 2 back-to-back up days in October!

Happy Halloween!

Woke up to another ugly market. Boy, futures really deteriorated after going to sleep. Here’s some fuel for the fire…NYU Professor Nouriel Roubini :

“We’ve reached a situation of sheer panic. Yet I fear the worst is ahead of us. Don’t be surprised if policy makers need to close down markets for a week or two in coming days”.

I’m still basically bullish, just not buying much

The markets are too crazy to try to predict something or to try to read something into all this technical analysis. Futures had a nice evening, but have turned down as I write….same for Asia markets.

Guess I’ll go practice my chart scanning. Happy trading!

The global financial crises will add at least 20 million people to the world’s unemployed, bringing the total to 210 million by the end of next year.

That one is from the International Labor Organization, a U.N. agency. Now here’s one from ABCnews.com:

In 2007, WallStreet’s five biggest firms, Bear Sterns, Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, and Morgan Stanley - paid out $39 billion in employee bonuses. Their shareholders lost $74 billion over the same period.

May you live in interesting times!

I moved from being a day-trader to being an hourly trader. It was much easier to control my emotions, and thus made mo’ money. Today was actually a good day for me until they closed the index futures markets. Oh well.

This is gonna hurt a lot of people, IRA’s and 401k’s. Keep your powder dry. The time to start buying for a longer term may be at hand

Limit down day on the indexes. I guess my indicators are only good for a couple hours….but then again I was trading futures at 3 o’clock in the morning

“This is worse than a divorce; I’ve lost half my net worth and I still have a wife!