One thing that I realized a long time ago was that emotions/psychology are what determine prices of stocks in the short term. The average stock on the NYSE fluctuates 50% in any given year. Does anyone really believe that the fundamentals of each company gyrate to the extent necessary to justify that level of volatility? (maybe in this environment but … Read More
Current Market Conditions
This is the weakest market I’ve seen since 2001-2002. Mike and I took many extended vacations in 01 as it was far more profitable to be on the golf course than trade a market that severely limited our ability to short stocks.The good news is that unlike 01 we now have the ability to trade both sides of the market. … Read More
Earnings Season Pattern Emerges?
Each earnings season I look for discernible intraday patterns to emerge. As earnings season begins in about two weeks I’m already on the lookout. Two stocks reported numbers last week that may have given me a clue as to what to expect in the coming weeks. The first stock to report that I traded was Nike. It gapped up several … Read More
Making the Adjustment
One of the things that I spoke to the desk about this past week was being prepared to make the necessary adjustments in their trading as market conditions change. Last week presented the greatest intraday volatility in US equity markets in about a decade. Our very young desk took incredible advantage of the opportunities that were presented to them. I … Read More
Day Trading Dream
Today is the kind of day that those who trade intraday dream about. Most of our traders were at the office by 7:30 this morning preparing for what ended up being one of our best days this year. As the United States financial system continues its downward spiral the level of intraday volatility is moving towards a crescendo. How this … Read More
Lehman Support
Just wanted to write a quick note that LEH has been showing support around 7.50 all day. It spiked down there a few minutes ago and I got hit for 1,000 shares. I have a stop order below 7.45. If sellers come down aggressively below 7.40 I will change my bias to the short side again. Above 8.15 I will … Read More
Morning Meeting
One of the greatest advantages each trader on our desk has is being able to listen to the exchange of ideas from our AM Meeting. At the beginning of each meeting Dov gives the Big Picture, which is an overview of world markets and both macro and micro events that may create intraday trading opportunities for our desk. After Dov … Read More
The Absurdity of MER
I really wanted to write this post after the market closed today. But I have been literally working on other projects for our firm for the past seven hours (11:50pm EDT now). So I’m going to share my thoughts on what I believe is a very good risk/reward trade in Merrill Lynch. MER issued a secondary about two weeks ago … Read More