Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Anatomy of a Trading Day

I was fairly bullish going into today because the overseas markets looked good yesterday and our futures were up nicely pre-open. Although the market was going to open higher, the leaders up were oil and minerals.Not necessarily the industry groups you want to see lead. I would much prefer the financials and technology to lead the charge. Around 10:30 AM there was chatter from some overseas hedge funds concerning Blackrock and the possibility of $ 8 to 10 billion in write offs due to CDO exposure/sub prime. The financials again reacted negatively and proceeded lower. Two, maybe three hours passed with no denial from Blackrock and the financials were still acting lethargic, to down. I was short Blackstone, up about three points when the company came out and finally denied the rumor. I immediately went to cover but my keys locked, because the rest of the planet was trying to cover as well. My trading platform sometimes does this. My 3 point short gain is now a 1 point short gain and I proceeded to go long the name for about 3 points up. Phew!! Crazy freaking morning and a crazy freaking trade.

The rest of the day was slow until we started looking heavy in the afternoon. I bought the SDS and QID, the ultra short etf's for the S&P and NAZZ ,and I did ok there until the close. I put out about five names yesterday that did fairly well with the exception of one:

SIGM- down $4.50-i thought it could explode-it ended up being a wet firecracker
CREE- down .30 cents,its getting ready though
AKS- up $ 2.50-the group was hot
ATW-up $3.03-the group was hot
PVH- Short idea-was down $1.08

I'm not all impressed with this market and it was just another miserable close. I am so rooting for a swoosh, a washout, a capitulation, because this is a tough man. Volatility reigns.

5 comments:

Stewie said...

Forget the bulls, they got nothin in the tank. let's see some nice selling now.

upsidetrader said...

you're right bro-i'm sick of trying to rationalize this crap-trend is down and i ain't fighting the tape--it is what it is-looking at anyting?

upside

Stewie said...

i am just eying inverse funds again now. I don't want to commit to the bear side until i see some of triangles break to the downside(check my blog for charts).

Anonymous said...

I agree with Stewie on SIGM, nothing left in the tank. The guys at bigwavetrading called it a short two days back an I'm up 17%...looking for more selling on monday.

Anonymous said...

i couldn't agree with u more about sigm-i never bought a share as it immediatley scared the shit out of me on the open next morning-i did short today for a quick deuce-stock going lower i would imagine unless there is any short squeeze after todays late action-but i doubt it,stock in ugly downtrend

upside

About Me

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I am a former hedge fund manager, broker and capital markets dude who now trades for his own account. I love what I do. I will try to post some stocks and an occasional chart that looks attractive for entry.I will also try to point out the idiocy of conventional wisdom and the lack of value added by the mainstream financial media. These postings should not be viewed as recommendations.