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Many traders out there (including myself) use the benchmark Dow Jones Industrial Average as a measure of how the market is doing at any given second. However, it is arguably the worst average to use. It is a measure of the value of 30 stocks in various sectors with a divisor thrown in. A much...

The deal closed yesterday with shareholder approval. It's done. Not good for the GW shareholders who did not do their homework, but it is done.

This is one from the “When you think you’ve seen it all, you really haven’t” file. Precision Drilling (PDS) has had an offer on the table to acquire Grey Wolf (GW) for several months now. Stick with me. Through Friday, shareholders of GW could have elected to have received $9 a share in...

One of the leading discussions around trading rooms nation-wide was the sudden advance in oil Monday morning. Except of course that was no decline in oil Monday morning. Many entities speculate but many more hedge their positions using futures and options contracts. Well, the contracts expire on...

Last week (Monday and Tuesday), the Dow Jones Industrial Average had its first two days of back-to-back double digit moves since mid-September. It has been nearly six months since the benchmark average had three consecutive double digit moves. However, the VIX (a prominent measure of volatility)...

When the stock got to unchanged at 8.20 around 10:10AM after being down, I bought it. it could not go down on the bad news so I went long at that point and sold it out a few minutes later a bit higher. My average time horizon for holding a position is right at 2 1/2 months so I may not be...

One MAJOR correction...on the RIG, it should have read..."looking to BUY thru 37.90..."totally totally totally my fault and I apologize; I hope everyone udnerstood what I meant as it was trading down early this morning in the pre-hours. Too few hours of sleep. The people in my office did as we...

One knows the old saw ‘a watched pot never boils.’ Well, that is the same thing with the stock market. And guess what? It inevitably works in the stock market. Last Friday, when the Madoff news broke along with the failure of the GM legislation to pass, I joined the minions who’d...

Any person who has even a rudimentary understanding of economics much less the markets has come to know the phrase “risk-reward ratio.” But most people do not truly understand the term. And very few day traders even realize what this term mean because when they enter a position that they...

I appreciate the heads-up, but my point remains the same- this is a board in which we should all try to learn from one another. I do not know who's who, but if I can help (and vice versa, hopefully), this is all I want. I've been doing this for 12 1/2 years (although it feels like 50 years!)...

If you don't want to read what I have to say, do not read it. I have been asked to make these posts by many people; I reluctantly agreed to do so when I saw it truly did help those with less experience at day trading than I. Note I don't say "less intelligence" than I per se, but "less...

Not so long ago, markets were paralyzed whenever a certain ‘event’ occurred- (cue “Twilight Zone” music): The Fed meeting. Even yesterday, although the markets chalked up some hefty gains before the 2:15 announcement, everything was relatively quiet with the lone exception of the steady...

Many of today's day traders do indeed trade futures in particular. But a very significant number are trading equities. Furthermore, generalizations such as 'day trading stocks in tech stocks is passe' besides making no coherent sense could not be more away from the point I am making. I am...

There was a very curious article amid all the gloom; the piece appeared on Yahoo Finance via CNBC on Thursday mid-morning: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Theyre-Back-Day-Traders-cnbc-13806529.html The tag to the article is: “After largely fading from public consciousness following the...

A rather interesting thing that is gaining traction since the presidential election is the exodus of companies from such places as Bermuda to Switzerland. The main issue is one of tax fright. The trend started with insurance companies such as Flagstone Reinsurance to bigger entities such as ACE...

I really do not know...I do a blueprint of the day, but then truly focus on trades which last 1-3 minutes. For now, I am watching the market rally and simply trying to get in and out of positions on the long side...philosophical discussions like the Madoff thing are beyond my intellectual scope...

This is what I wrote: "Most notably is that it will be rumor-driven. Prices are likely to stage a small rally mid-morning as shorts take in some of their good fortune, but if there is no major development to shift sentiment intra-day, the sell-off will likely gain steam as the day...

Sorry...GM Preferred is GPM...not GMH. Been a long night of homework and preperation.

I alway trade what I see; it is just that I try to set a bit of a framework for myself going in; for instance, I shorted that GPM early this morning above 3.50 (3.74 actually) and covered an average of 3. I just jot down my thoughts and ideas and use the if-then algorithms the best I can...

There have been two major developments overnight which have rocked Wall Street. Shortly after the close yesterday, it was announced that Bernard Madoff was taken into custody by the FBI. Madoff was the former chairman of the NASDAQ stock market and the owner of Madoff Investment Securities, LLC...