Monthly Archive for December, 2010

Weekend Reading 1/1/11

Published on December 31, 2010, 4:12 pm in reading and Trading. Closed Tags: .

OK I’ve been caught keyboarding while intoxicated… so wishing everyone here a very healthy, happy and prosperous New Year to you and your families! hic!

Why I blog and visit many others. 99 Percent of Traders Are Missing Out

Non-humans subscribe to newswire services. Algorithms Take Control of Wall Street.

Municipal financial failure starts with pensions. Pension “Armageddon” in Pittsburgh; State Threatens Takeover of City Pension Plan.

It’s official: more of you are visiting Facebook than conducting Google searches. Facebook Got More Visitors Than Google Search In 2010.

What will be the big IPO of 2011? Is 2011 the Year of the Blockbuster Tech I.P.O.?

The end of an era! For Kodachrome Fans, Road Ends at Photo Lab in Kansas.

I have noticed that many who text messages & e-mail, have forgotten the “art” of capitalization. Capitalization is the difference between helping your Uncle Jack off a horse, or helping your uncle jack off a horse.

And with that little tidbit, I popped the top off another one. See you next year!

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Is the paint dry?

Published on December 30, 2010, 4:55 pm in Opinions and Trading. Closed Tags: , , , .

Today we had the highest volume this week! Gee, is that why we were down? Sellers came back for a day?

Spent a few dollars for a couple puts on REE. This “rare earth” stuff is getting ridiculous. Went out a couple of months so I’ve got some time for these stocks to correct. MCP and SHZ are all getting too far from their moving averages. SHZ had a down move today.

Other than that, is the paint dry yet? This time of year is so boring for traders.

New Year’s Eve is a full day for traders. For futures traders, all equity indexes close at 4:15PM EST on Friday and have a regular open on Sunday.

Some interesting research from Wayne Whaley, “the next 5 days have been down in 20 of the last 33 years and the last day of the year has been down 13 of the last 18 years for an avg loss of 0.35%.”

Next week should be interesting! Speaking of interesting….Here’s what’s wrong with our government:

For the first few months of her co-op position for the state of Georgia, my sister had nothing to do, so she surfed the Web or did crossword puzzles. One day she expressed her boredom to a co-worker. “I know,” he complained. “Everyone thinks state workers have it easy. But there’s only so much you can pretend you’re doing.”

Plus they get a pension for doing this for 20 years!

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Same old, same old

Published on December 29, 2010, 10:08 pm in Trading. Closed Tags: , , .

As the markets have done for most of December, they pulled out another slow grind up on low volume…boring! The interesting thing today is that they all ended with a shooting star candle or doji. Both need some sort of confirmation, but it may be hard to tell with all these narrow range days we’re having this holiday season.

My short positions are sickly, but the most damage I got today was from my TBT March 35 calls. They had a small pop at the open and probably should have cashed out then. But no! Greed took over and I held too long. Reviewing my trading for the year, I see a pattern that I will work on in 2011. I’m holding my losers longer than I’m holding the winners. There’s always room for improvement! 8)

Here’s a funny….

I was visiting a friend who could not find her cordless phone. After several minutes of searching, her young daughter said, “You know what they should invent? A phone that stays connected to the wall so it never gets lost.”

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Just waiting

Published on December 28, 2010, 8:14 pm in Trading. Closed Tags: , , .

Well another mixed up day. Yes the markets are inching up, but volume very low. You can’t trust the technical indicators because of the lack of volume and momentum. All the indexes are just hanging around waiting for the year to end.

And you can’t tell anything from the advance/decline lines or new highs or new lows. The entire market is going nowhere fast, and since my technical indicators are based on the underlying market, they may not be saying anything of any value. Oh well!

Looking over my small positions I’m carrying, I am short the market…nothing leveraged or over-indulgent…but still getting ready for the crash….well a correction anyway.

This next year, both Groundhog Day and the State of the Union address occur on the same day. “It is an ironic juxtaposition of events; one involves a meaningless ritual in which we look to a creature of little intelligence for prognostication while the other involves a groundhog.”

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The year that was

Published on December 28, 2010, 7:47 am in reading and Trading. Closed

It’s that time of year when you should look back at your trading to analyze and learn from your mistakes and successes. We’ll also be getting a lot of “year in review” type articles in newspapers, magazines and on TV. So here’s one to get you rolling: 10 trading events that changed 2010.

Hope you had a happy old year and wishing you a happy new year!

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Ho Hum

Published on December 27, 2010, 9:23 pm in Trading. Closed

If you enjoy choppy, low volume days, today was your day! Otherwise, there was just nothing to do or look at. While watching the markets I’m organizing the office, catching up on some reading, reviewing my trading year and preparing for 2011 with tuning up my trading plan. So it should be a calm week that I hope will help me next month/year.

Here’s a funny one: My Blackberry Is Not Working!

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A Sign of the Times

Published on December 25, 2010, 4:05 pm in Opinions. Closed Tags: .
As a little girl climbed onto Santa’s lap, Santa asked the usual, “And what would you like for Christmas?” The child stared at him open mouthed and horrified for a minute, then gasped: “Didn’t you get my E-mail?”

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Weekend Reading 12/25/10

Published on December 24, 2010, 4:13 pm in reading. Closed Tags: .


One of the most glorious messes in the world is the mess created in the living room on Christmas day. Don’t clean it up too quickly. – Andy Rooney

High-Frequency Traders Elbow Aside Day Traders

Obama FCC Caves on Net Neutrality.

No inflation!…unless of course you need to eat. Food prices rise sharply – and there’s more to come and Corn Rises to Highest in Almost Six Weeks in Chicago on U.S. Ethanol Usage.

Tax Cutters Set Up Tomorrow’s Fiscal Crisis.

Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful. – Norman Vincent Peale

Everyone enjoy the holidays and your families as we look towards a prosperous new year. Health, peace, and prosperity to you all from me and my family. Happy Holidays!

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Coming in for a landing?

Published on December 22, 2010, 9:33 pm in Trading. Closed Tags: .

As the indexes make new highs the volume makes new lows…also 52-week new highs is not keeping up. Is the market getting ready for a correction?…or some sort of down move? Looks like it, but the wacky price/volume relationship is wreaking havoc on the charts.

One more day of trading this week. There’s enough news to make some sort of reaction. The question is will there be enough volume to make a difference? According to the Stock Trader’s Almanac, the last trading day before Christmas, the Dow has been up the last 3 years but down 4 out of last 8.

Oh well, I’ve still got some Christmas shopping to do.

“Perhaps the best Yuletide decoration is being wreathed in smiles.”

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Lower Volume

Published on December 21, 2010, 9:10 pm in Opinions and Trading. Closed Tags: .

So far, Monday is the high volume day of the week. SPY volume today was -52% below the average daily volume!

It’s scary seeing the indexes reaching new highs on such low volume. But then again, that’s what Christmas is all about.

Remember, it’s okay not to trade and just enjoy the season! So go do some Christmas shopping!

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