Pakistan Stock Exchange Riot

Checkout The BIG Picture to see some pictures where riots took place at Pakistan's stock exchange over a drastic decline in the stock market.

Trader of the Week

Trader Stewie has been killing it in the market lately and has received the BSD award for the Week.



BSD stands for Big Swinging Dick. Here is Trader Stewie taking a walk in the park after taking it to Ms.Market.

July 18 OPEX Friday 9AM reversal

I took a short on NQ around 8:30am but it didn't fall; however, YM dropped 45pts during the same time period. This had me worried, so when I saw a potential bounce setup in YM I exited my NQ short.

Right after 9am, SMH (tech sector ETF) broke and NQ dropped sharply catching up with YM's decline.
I'm not sure if the 9 AM hour has significance, but it may with the overseas markets closing, so in the future I will track this time period on future OPEX days.


A Choppy OPEX as usual. I'm mad about my NQ trade, but I Hit my goal for the day so I'm done. I'm working on refining some indicators as a result of seeing Richards new Volume splatter indicator.



Here's a long scalp I got on ZB when I saw what looked to be a top in the stock indices.


This is a picture from my Simulated account. Remember a few months ago when I made the Poll asking if AMR was a buy at $7.00. Well I held that position for 2 months and actually closed it out for a profit today. I also made $3,000 this week trading 1 contract on YM and ZN, one of my best short term swing trades I've made in the simulator in such a short period. Over 350pts made in YM this week with just 2 trades.

HPT's Pictures

A picture I took of What use to be Washington Mutuals Home Loan center. (took this pic a few weeks ago).


Beazer Homes is in the same complex, and CENTEX homes is across the street.
All these Mortgage houses are near my work, in the beautiful city of Roseville, California. Nearby is the City of Granite Bay. The people in Granite Bay are rich. The kids all drive BMW's and Mercedes. Walk into the nearby Chipotle and its always packed with teens and a parking lot full of expensive cars. I see a lot of commercial real estate coming to sale in Roseville's Financial sector besides Washington Mutuals old place.


You had to walk into the frame and ruin it didn't you?


A cool bumper sticker from somebody at my gym. I noticed a lot of the hot girls go to the gym around 10:30am. I normally go to the gym around 3-5pm depending if I have to go to work.


My computer is running good. No BLUE SCREENS of DEATH. I reduced my RAM and it runs better, weird, but I wont ask questions.

July 17 Rally continues as Oil drops

The Dow is up over 200pts right now. You knew this was going to happen. Oil tanks and Banks rally right before OPEX. Option traders love this. They lock in hefty profits from selling calls and letting the theta (time value) decay. Then when OPEX week comes around, they exit there positions (covering there short calls), and in some cases reverse and go long. Can you imagine the money that was made if you went long AMR or any of the airlines on Tuesday and held into today?



What's with WM? It's holding at $5.00 all day. I'm still concerned about this company.


Came back and did some afternoon trading and made a couple extra bucks. I should have shorted the bond futures this morning as I planned. I just hope next week they pop up so I can short ZB or ZF.

The Oil and Airline Pair Trade unravels

What better time to Unravel this long standing trade between airlines and Crude Oil then OPEX week, a week characterized by extreme moves with options expiring on Friday.

Crude Oil started the week above $146 a barrel and is now at $130 a barrel. A $16 drop in 3 days. Meanwhile the airline sector has rallied hard the last 3 days in direct relation with the drop in oil prices. AMR is up 70% in the last 3 days alone.

July 17 Mixed Trading after big rally

I kind of expected choppy action today after having a large bounce in the markets yesterday and it being the day before Options expire. I was up as much as 600, but then I lost some profits after I tried shorting(reversing from a long) too soon around the signal at 8:30am. I ended up losing about $180 on YM on that trade. The NYSE A/D ratio is slightly bullish today.



I got a 20 cent scalp on Crude Oil before we sold off. My scalp on Crude Oil was a long, and my trade on Gold was a short. Both positions would have been wrong if I were still holding them.



The bond futures are down again today. I expect Bond Yields to rise over the next few months. I'm not sure whats a better bet, (ie long term bonds or short term bonds). I think the FOMC will raise rates at the next meeting, and as noted in some of their FOMC minutes, they may raise rates aggressively to combat inflation and a crumbling US dollar. The effect of raising rates on Mortgage rates will probably make the housing market even worse. This is probably why Bernanke and Co have been holding rates steady, moreover; I imagine they see the housing market as a bigger threat to the US economy right now than the US dollars decline.

How to trade stocks overnight

Trader Stewie has put together a great post on what he looks for when picking a stock to hold overnight with the plan of making money at the next mornings open.

DT's best wave of his life

Checkout DT's best wave of his life (Surfing).



DT, this music video is for you. (TokyoTrader, take note my good music)

I look forward to seeing these guys in concert this summer.

Life is Beautiful by Sixx AM-

lyrics-

You can’t quit until you try
You can’t live until you die
You can’t learn to tell the truth
Until you learn to lie

You can’t breathe until you choke
You gotta laugh when you’re the joke
There’s nothing like a funeral to make you feel alive

Just open your eyes
Just open your eyes
And see that life is beautiful.
Will you swear on your life,
That no one will cry at my funeral?

I know some things that you don’t
I’ve done things that you won’t
There’s nothing like a trail of blood
to find your way back home

I was waiting for my hearse
What came next was so much worse
It took a funeral to make me feel alive ....

A solid Short Covering Rally