Dec 28 $320 on 5c and 800 shares

Traded patiently today-Net P/L= $320 on 5c and 800 shares

I went on vacation this week and came back to trade the last 90 minutes today. My monitors weren't working this morning, so I looked for a solution. I found a Vista 64bit update for my nVidia 8800 GT video card. Hopefully this corrects my monitor problem. I like some of Vista's new applications and features, I just need to make sure my monitors work or else VISTA is going to start costing me money by not allowing me to trade.

Dear MSFT,,,,VISTA SUCKS

I'm still having issues with Vista. I never know when this problem is going to occur, it could be 30min from now or 4 hours, but there is a problem running dual monitors on Windows VISTA. I can't trade with confidence when my monitors decide to stop working with no warning.

As soon as I get my computer working,, maybe I can log into my broker and short MSFT,,
probably some time next year the way things are going....



The security warnings are annoying.

Day Trader Blogs

Trading Axiom- A collaborative Trading Blog started by FlatWallet that shares trading ideas and setups from a number of seasoned traders.

TraderGav- A long time blogging trader, TraderGav is back to trading Currencies, after previously trading other instruments such as stocks and futures. He's also made a challenge for himself to double 13k with prospects of reaching 100k in the long run.(Currently 3.42% of the way there)

Timothy Sykes- The Trader that turned 12k to 1.65mil that you love to hate, you dread to see on discussion forums such as EliteTrader, can't bear to watch on CNBC, and who recently wrote his own book; An American Hedge Fund. What's interesting this time is that Timothy has a new challenge to turn 12k into that same 1.65mil, but in 10years time being more conservative. I'll be keeping an eye on him and TraderGav to see who doubles there account first.

Kevin's Market blog- Gives good Technical Analysis of various sectors and commodities and shows us some charts.

Stock Day Trading- Chris gives us his daily trades with excellent charts, win loss ratio, and talks about some trader psychology. He looks to be a QuoteTracker user and trades MORNING GAP PLAYS, DUMMY TRADES, and some other setups as explained in his Trade Setups.

Check back next time for some more Trader Links........

Dec 21 $500 on 64c and 1400shares

Could only trade the last 3 hours due to monitor problems. There was an OPEX related divergence between ER2 and the rest of the indices at market open ,(the shorts really got creamed on ER2).

Overall- $3,100 for the week.

Problems-Vista?Monitor?Drivers?

I'm still not sure what the problem is with my monitors flickering. I'm almost at the point of switching to XP because I think Vista is causing dual monitor malfunctions. 40 minutes after market open the monitors start to blink while I'm trading. Here's a video of what its doing.

OPEX Friday

The first 15min of market open are going to be critical today, with a GAP up on ES about 12pts right now, there is definitely some Bear Option traders getting beaten up. Watch for a falloff after the first 15min to see if this GAP holds up.

Dec 20 $1,001 on 146c

Traded ER2 today. Took a huge intraday drawdown by leveraging a SHORT divergence between ES and ER2 during the start of the afternoon reversal. ES moved down 1.5pts but ER2 kept going up. I didn't exit according to plan and I ate a big loss. Luckily I realized what I was doing wrong and I reversed positions. ER2 has been VERY STRONG the last 2 days, likely due to year end short covering.

Dual Monitor Problem

I'm having problems with my dual monitor setup. Before I was using a matrox dual head video card on Windows XP OS with 2 CRT monitors. Now I'm using two 22'' LCDs on Windows Vista Ultimate 64bit, with a Nividia 8800 GT video card. The problem is, when ever the machine goes goes into sleep mode and I have Quotetracker and Interactive Brokers active, and I awake the computer, the monitors will flicker every 3 seconds, showing my desktop, then going to black. And it repeats this until you restart the computer. Apparently there are issues with Vista and dual monitors, because I did a search and there are many other people out there with similiar problems. In attempt to solve the problem, I have changed the power settings (under screen saver settings) to never allow the computer to go into sleep mode and for the monitors to never go into sleep mode. Also I set the screen saver wait time to 9999 minutes. The problem is probably Vista related, but hopefully this will work for now.

Reversal Coming?

We have OPEX this Friday. The question is,,,

,,,is there going to be a big move Thursday?

The Trend has been down, will it continue?

Dec 19 $1013 on 62c and 700shares

Churned 1k on YM and AMZN by being long in the dulldurms. Caught the afternoon bull rally reversal by going long ER2. Should have held AMZN long and ER2 long into the close but had computer issues. Just installed SnagIT on the new CPU to show you guys the pics.

ATTACK OF THE TRADING ROBOTS

Traded for about 30min. I've been busy setting up MY NEW COMPUTER!

P/L=$232 on 4c and 900shares

I'm TRADIN on TWO,22's,,,Intel Quad processor,,8800 GTS Video Card,,Vista Ultimate 64bit,,, IT'S SWEET!!

I'm going to try to make a video once I get all the software loaded.

Dec 17 $414 on 15c and 400 shares

Traded well today. Skipped the first 2 hours of trade, listened to Bush's speech on CNBC, and scalped the afternoon for 2 hours. Kept contract size below 3 contracts on ER2. Took a few losses by trying to scalp long on ER2, then reversed when I saw ZN catch a bid.
Net P/L= $414 on 15c and 400 shares

Dec 17 week outlook

Chart of March ES (SP500) futures Contract

Short term 3 month bill yields dipped last week, while the rest of the longer term bonds didn't follow to the downside as would be expected with another 25bp cut, meaning the interest rate cut was already weighted into bond futures going into the FOMC announcement. The yield on the 10 yr last week closed at 4.23%. I think Yields will be going down this week or stay flat. I've noticed as yields go down (bond futures up), you tend to see stocks go down as well.



Chart of March 10 yr bond futures contract

Overall, bullish on ZN, and bearish on ES. I could be totally wrong though, as some might see stocks a little "oversold" going into this week.

Dec 14 $-925 on 195 c and 200s

Let me just say that the only reason I make money is when I follow my own strategy that I have planned out before hand. I got my ass kicked today, from not following the plan.


I Was up 6 bills in the first hour, then started breaking rules and ended up down 1k.I caught the morning rally, pushed by Citigroup and financials. I then thought it was overdone and tried shorting. I quickly lost my money I made by getting stopped out of my short.
Then the worst thing that happened,,REVENGE TRADING,,,I WANT MY MONEY BACK!! I BROKE THE RULES,,AS USUAL....The market reversed and I tried going long, because I had already tried going short. I lost a ton of money averaging into a crappy long on ER2. I got fed up with the long, realized I was on the wrong side, because my system never once gave a long signal all day, and I went short. I recouped from my big drawdown and ended with about a 1k loss. Had I held my position from where I reversed short, I would have made a few grand, however, I started getting fancy with trailing stops, and adding to position at price peaks, and I ended up with a loss for the day. At least it wasn't a huge blowup.

I can't wait to get back into the markets next week and start trading and folowing my rules, almost done with finals and having all this studying behind me. For the week, I still was able to make $2,700, which is the main thing keeping me in a good mood after screwing myself over today.

HPT

PS- DT, keep your chin up bro, this week was tough.

Dec 13 $325 on 6c and 1800 shares

Today was Choppy for the time I traded, which is to be expected after the last 2 days of market volatility. I got 2 good scalps on ER2 from my trade signals, and I took a few discretionary scalps on crude oil, USO, and XLE. I'm quiting early to study for school FINALS.

Net P/L= $325 on 6c and 1800 shares.

ATTENTION FUTURES TRADERS- REMEMBER TO ROLL OVER to MARCH CONTRACT (December contracts expire soon and liquidity is greater on the March contract now)

HPT's Daily News

Jessica Alba is pregnant. Expect VIAB (viacom) stock to tank.




I played CALL OF DUTY 4 on PS3 this weekend and beat it in about 8 hours. The Game is Bas Ass. Expect ATVI (Activision) to continue higher.

Dec 12 $627 on 127c and 800 shares

The Day after FOMC the market opens with a huge gap up after a selloff on yesterdays 25bp interest rate cut. The market then travels back to the previous days low , selling off almost all day.

Besides churning through 108 contracts on NQ, I did good today. My loss on NQ was due to using bad trade management and adding to the position with stops that were at price spikes and by lowering my sell stop when the market turned bearish in the afternoon. My initial trade entry on NQ would have been a good winner if I had used the correct position sizing an added to the position correctly. Adding to positions is my biggest challenge as a trader. I need to stick to my signals and work on position sizing rules.

Net P/L= $627 (127c and 800 shares)


Missed Trades-
1.While typing this I missed a sell signal on ES, however, after seeing this I saw another good scalp and got an extra $200 by staying focused and getting a long scalp on ER2 and a short scalp on NQ.

2.Should have held short on CL, sold the high at $94.56 and only took 20cents, it is 75cents my way right now if I had held, or an extra 1k lost(the profit was decent so I took it,,IDIOT, just like yesterday, should have waited for the reversal signal.)

3.Should have reversed and went short on NQ after I got stopped out.(that huge spike down on NYSE A/D is not very common, however is not unusual being the day after FOMC, the type of volatility and crazy action I was expecting yesterday)

Rules I need to work on-
1.Keep taking trade signals until the last 30min of market open.
2.Look for exit signals and use trailing stops logically
3.Keep your stops(don't move them from that impeding spike)
4.Turn on audible alerts
5.Eat breakfast before trading
6.Get at least 7 hours of sleep (got 3hr last night)

Human Super Soaker Video

Human Super Soaker ! - Awesome video clips here

Pretty Amazing!

Dec 11 $2,500 on 28c and 700 shares

I was short pre-FOMC announcement. And it payed off. However I lost a potential $5-10k, by having pre-set BUY limit orders. I didn't expect ER2 to move down 18pts so quickly. I should have held onto some contracts. However, I'm just glad the day is over, because I was trading like crap before the announcement, and FOMC days are tricky to trade, so I've decided to stop trading and lock in my profits.

Net P/L= $2,500 on 28c and 700 shares

Update:
I'm so dissappointed I didn't hold that trade, $10-20k opportunity thrown down the drawn from not following trade signals. Who would've thought the market was going to tank this hard. Dam it.

F@#K YOU MR. MARKET.

Dec 10 $206 on 7c and 200 shares

I knew today was going to be slow and choppy with the FOMC announcement tomorrow.
I traded light and waited for decent setups. I took a little too much heat on my FXI trade, but overall the market was beginning to weaken at the time of its pop (FXI was below VWMA and has had a negative bias the last few days, so I figured it was just short covering), so I held the short and covered near the LOD. I used a limit order to Cover for 1pt on my ER2 short trade after I got a weak buy signal. I should have re-entered the short because I got another sell signal minutes later.

Net P/L= $206 on 7 contracts and 200 shares

Tomorrow I'm not expecting much volatility from the FOMC interest rate decision. The market seems really quiet the last few weeks. The Bond Futures are holding flat ahead of the FOMC announcement after taking a big dive on Friday.

Dec 7 $7 on 87c

Laugh all you want at the P/L, I'm just glad I'm breakeven for the day.
Traded terribly today,due to over leverage, and not using tight enough stops at volatility spikes. I'm thankful to even be in the black today, because I went well over my loss limits due to my own intuition telling me otherwise(thinking ZN would reverse sharply and ES would reverse accordingly). It did work out, but I should have kept size down and exited at price extremes.

Net P/L= $7 on 87c (terrible) I'm just glad I'm out and done for the day

Overall, the market is trading on really light volume and is dangerous IMO. ES just held 1510 for the longest time while XLF and C were rolling over, finally I got my break for my short when ZN popped, and I got back to break even for the day. Something that made trading very difficult today, was seeing BOND FUTURES TANK HARD, as a result of the mortgage interest rate bailout and bond traders selling. ZN just kept going down, with the 10yr hitting November lows. BOND TICKER has been giving a good summary of the action-
11:08 am - Taking Hits: Prices have been held lower as the market took its 1st hit on the better-than-expected payrolls report, although the much hyped ADP reports 189K guess was well off the mark, while mixed back end revisions also weighed. An uptick in inflation concerns is also hitting the longer end, taking the 10-yrs off to the worst levels since mid-Nov while the shorter maturities have only hit Nov 30 levels. Traders report very light action & the typical drop-off in options volitility levels -post-payrolls. The dollar is still mostly lower against the majors but still bettering the yen as the currency suffers in carry trade.

Dec 6 $330 on 38c and 3300 shares

Well today's review can be summed up in 2 words- Missed Trade.
I didn't take a lot of signals today, due to getting chopped up trading the dull drums. I didn't take advantage of the afternoon rally because I was trying to manage a small short position in C (bad trade), and having that one stock position tied up my focus on what the indices and the whole market was doing as a whole, and as a result, I missed the boat to the bull rally. NYSE A/D was above 2 all day, clearly a day to look for long signals. This should be the #1 factor in deciding your stock trading setups, and I myself messed up by not going long. About the time I made the post about CROX tanking,,the stock reversed and rallied $3.00 into the close. I missed the boat on that stock even though I got a buy setup. The market rallying 2 days in a row like this isn't what I was expecting today. I thought traders would have already factored in "the NEWS". There are some huge short coverings taking place in home builders today and mortgage related stocks.

Net P/L= $320 on 38c and 3300 shares (crappy profit to contract ration)

THE CHOPPYNESS COMETH

Today has been difficult so far trading the stock indices, especially NQ. With NYSE A/D over 2, the market is pushing higher on lite volume. The oil sector, namely, XOM is strong this morning. Meanwhile, the bears are eating away at CROX, and SOLF is trading all over the place today.

I placed a SHORT LIMIT ORDER on SOLF at 24.29 for 200 shares, and got filled for 5 shares. WTF is that? I add 100 shares to the crappy fill and covered around 23.54. Right now I'm just looking for trade setups. This market is very choppy right now.

SOLAR STOCK PICK

I'll tell you what, I have got the stock pick of the century.

This is a CHINA based SOLAR COMPANY, that is using NANOTECHNOLOGY, to create the most advanced SOLAR products ever. On top of that, this company just went public and very few people know about this rare opportunity to buy the stock. The ticker symbol is SHET....also listed on the LONDON stock exchange under CRAP....and listed as TERD under the shanghai exchange. Please act now, because if oil goes up another cent you will be sorry you weren't invested in this CHINA NANOTECHNOLOGY based SOLAR company.

SOLAR HYPE-

Will people please get off the whole SOLAR HYPE. The SUN wasn't invented yesterday, and the last time I checked people were still driving GAS based vehicles. Telerium? WHAT? I bet AL GORE has an all time fan base right now, and more people than ever are concerned about Gas Prices. What's the publics way of dealing with high gas prices? LOOK TO BUY ALTERNATIVES. Buy useless solar companies that they think are going to be profitable, because if oil goes any higher, the whole world is going to switch to solar, LIKE TOMORROW, and you will be rich from buying XYZ solar company.

BUSH BAILOUT

Bush Administration Mortgage Plan Will Freeze Certain Subprime Interest Rates for 5 Years

The question is, do stocks rally tomorrow?

It seems to me this news was already priced in. California was the first to take action on the housing mess, then Hillary threw up her arms a few weeks later and talked to BUSH about holding rates steady until the turmoil had passed. Finally PAULSON and BUSH are taking action on the housing mess, but has the damage already been done? Certainly there are some P-ED of people that wish they could've got those teaser rates on their mortgages. I'm glad that BUSH is taking action. This may benefit the US economy and prevent something worse from happening.

Do we need to cut interest rates again? What for? With BUSH intervention on the housing mess, is there really any need? We already got the big write downs from all the major US banks. Cut interest rates again?

My new Computer

Well, after searching the last 2 days for a good computer, I've decided on this one from E-BAY.

From Ebay- Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Raid Ready Mini System w/8800GT video card (512mb), 4GB DDR2 memory, and 640GB hard drive, all in a pretty case. Add in Windows Vista Ultimate and I'm looking at $1,500, not including a new monitor.

I might change my mind and get this one though- GAMING COMPUTER WITH QUAD CORE+ NEWEST 8800GT 512MB


If anyone has any better ideas, let me know, I'm buying tomorrow.

Dec 5 $704 on 37c and 5,499 shares

Traded much better today. Focused on not adding to losers, and waiting for trade setups. Much better profit to contract ratio today. Once I hit $500, I went into profit protection mode and switched to trading IWM and NQ instead of ER2(so my leverage was reduced and I could scale into trades without having to take as much heat).

NET P/L= $704 on 37c and 5,499 shares

I went short first on XOM in the AM because I saw relative weakness in the oil sector compared to the other sectors, however this trade wasn't smart in retrospect at the time, because NYSE A/D was above 3 and XOM was above VWMA. I should have looked for a long in financials or tech in the AM. I got a small profit on XOM in the AM by using good position sizing and then it wasn't until the afternoon (after the bond reaction to NBI) that I got a good short setup on ER2. After that I scaled back position size and scalped IWM and NQ. I didn't trade the last hour, as I normally try to avoid this time period even though it can be quite volatile.

Dec 4 $525 on 87c and 800 shares

Considering I missed the first 3 hours of trading, I faired OK trading the CHOP-FEST.
I almost got myself into a bind, because I was loading up short ER2 at the close because ZN was rallying, but ER2 just kept crawling higher from weak short covering. Thankfully the inverse relationship panned out and I was able to cash in.

Overall, trading the stock index futures was tough today, which is reason for me to start scanning for stocks IN PLAY if this choppy action continues. Tomorrow brings a number of reports coming out in the AM, which should hopefully bring some volatility back for us Day Traders, as DINO has already noted on his blog as well.

P/L= $525 on 87 ER2 contracts and 800 shares

My new Trading Computer

Is it my computer, or has this market slowed considerably.

I'm looking for a new CPU, as some of you noticed my system dates back to the times of the great Dinosaur, so its time to update, and I want some feedback in picking my system.

Requirements-
Cost- Keep it between $500-1,000

Processor- Intel Core 2, Quad, or AMD x2 64, or the new quad phenom
Ram- minimum 2GB DDR2, between 2-4GB ideal
Hard drive- Preferably 250GB-500GB, with at least 8mg cache
Video Card- Needs to be dual head- preferably Nividia brand and minimum 512mb
Operating System- Doesn't matter, People say XP is still faster until the next Vista update comes out, but buying the "backbones" without an OS installed is an option that will save money.

What I'm looking at-
Fry's: $499- HP a6177c Refurbished (Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor E6550, 2GB, 400GB, Vista Premium)

ebaY: $659- Intel Quad Core Q6600 Custom Gaming PC System, 3 year warranty, DVDRW, 2GB DDR2, 320GB HDD, GeForce



eCost: $849- 2.4GHz Intel® Core™ 2 Quad Q6600, 3GB RAM, 640GB Hard Drive, Dual Layer DVD±RW, HD DVD-ROM, Wireless LAN 802.11 b/g, GeForce 8400GS, TV Tuner Card w/ FM Tuner, Windows Vista™ Home Premium (HP Recertified Model)

ebaY: $948- AMD QUAD CORE PHENOM 9500/ 4GB DDR-2/500GB HDD 512MB 8500GT / 20X DVD-RW/BRAND NEW/3 - YEAR WARRANTY



I would prefer to go to a store and buy it, such as buying a refurbished model from Fry's, but I'm looking into buying one online if the deal is good enough.

Please leave your comments on which one you think I should get, or if you find something better below $1,000, leave me a comment. THANKS!

After I get a new CPU, I'll be looking to get some new monitors.

Guy on bike gets hit by a car,,,,

Pretty crazy stuff,,,,,,the guy isn't even phased.

Breaking NEWS---RECESSION is announced

Dateline- with Brain Williams- just announced that because the RV industry is declining, this has signaled a recession, because each time this has happened in the past, recession has followed.
I wonder if gas prices being at all time highs' has anything to do with this.

Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton HITTING THE SHEETS

A slightly different version of Rhianna's "Umbrella" hit song.

Hedge funds betting big on US presidential race

RON PAUL endorsed by the BUNNY RANCH

Trading from the LAZY BOY, Dec 3 Choppyness

Didn't do any real trading today as I'm working on my system.

$13 on 200 shares (100share winner short on C and 100 share B.E. Buy on XLE)

Attention Futures traders- It's time to rollover Bond futures contracts to MARCH (ZN,ZF,ZB,) because DEC has lost volume and is going to expire soon. Watch for Stock index futures rollover later this month too.

Daily ES chart-



I'm TRADING FROM A LAZY BOY NOW..........OH,,,,,YEAH!!!!!!

TV Commercials you gotta love

You gotta love Comcasts Slowsky's- (Video; Slowsky's raw and uncut, not a commercial)



Geico's Caveman, so popular they made a TV show-



I haven't seen this commercial before, maybe it was too cruel to animals to televise in the states.