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
Comfort Zone
In this market you must get outside of your comfort zone. We preach this at this time to the traders on our prop desk. And anecdotally, Steve and I were at dinner the other night and one of the best day traders from another firm made this same point. You must get into the financials if you do not regularly … Read More
Capitalize
One of our new traders asked me whether yesterday was like trading “Back in the Day” (think Internet boom). I quickly said no and explained that spreads were wider and programs were unborn. But I thought about his question some more that night and recognized that yesterday did offer the trading opportunities that we often saw during the late 1990s. … Read More
Movie Premiere Market Talk
Last night a few of us from our desk went to a movie short premiere, “$ Game,” written by Maureen Holohan and directed by Tom Cavanaugh. Great time and excellent short. At the after party many who I did not know but who either found out what I did or recognized me from “Wall Street Warriors” approached me to talk … Read More
Super Bowl of Trading
Tomorrow is our Super Bowl. LEH may file for bankputcy. MER may be bought. Oil is below $100. AIG is seeking capital. We not gonna get all those funny commercials, chips, pizza and cheap beer. But we are gonna get some serious price action tomorrow. Can we just go to the office and start trading now? OK so what do … Read More
May You Live in Interesting Times
My partner has been highlighting the weakness in LEH for weeks. And a few days ago this blog suggested to watch for weakness in LEH when it was 17. As I write LEH is 4.24 bid. LEH did have trouble trading below 4 premarket. It is time to start wondering if LEH will receive a bid. Make sure your are … 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
LEH, Financials, and Oil
LEH was crushed yesterday. The price action screams that the market has lost confidence in LEH. We saw foreshadowing of this as my partner, Steve Spencer, has been highlighting during our AM meetings. And today LEH preannounced. LEH traded above 10 and then went negative. They are on a conference call as I write. What a great trading opportunity. So … Read More