Solid game today as I finally nailed that bullet on a gift trade. Back in the black for the month and while it is only $200, psychologically this is huge for me with 4 games left during the first half.
3600 shares on 2 of 2 shooting, +1024 before commissions, +800 after, 2 bullets. It is summer time and having one or two quality ideas and hit them with size is far better than going for a basket of plays and spread myself out.
Did a lot of work on my watch list today and cleaned it up further, that said, I think I will always be going to my sentimental favorites. My top-down approach is great off the open, but I think I need to find some bottom-up approaches that starts from specific stocks, preferably stocks that don't move with the futures/indexes, to round my game out . . .
Pre-Market: Massive broker downgrades
9:30: Saw BSC/AGE opened unchanged while every other brokers opened down 1 point. Put up the bullet on BSC immediately but it was right off the open, a lot of other people are putting up bullets (this is why many traders put up their bullets before the market even opens, while I prefer to put it up only when I see something happens). It took 10 seconds to confirm, instead of the instant confirmation I am used to. There were 1000 shares at 58.40 and unfortunately I didn't grab it in time. Me, Mrs. D., and another trader on my team all got .10 cents (a good feeling that they took my call). I was getting a little nervous because it was the equivalent of chasing a stock 30 cents. 1000 shares was too big of a hot potato for me and as soon as he hit .10 I covered half of my position at .10. The fact that he didn't spread me with some serious slippage told me this is probably a good trade. XBD looked really weak, as soon as the offer showed up at 58.10 I sold 500 shares at 58.04.
9:40: Haven't had this good of a feeling about a trade in a while, the offer stepped down to 58.04 x 100, and the BID at 57.99 was just x 18. I sold rest of my bullet for the full 1500 shares position, but I had 500 shares ready to be DPed to 58.04 as futures started to squeeze, fortunately it was a silky smooth trade for the next a few prints, the offer stepped down taking out BID's with authority. Whenever I pyramid I keep a very very close mental stop typically at the current BID/ASK, I never pyramid without something to lean onto, especially off the open . . .
9:46: B 57.50 A 57.81 5x200, the greatest feeling in the world. This would have been a much much bigger trade if the futures didn't rip straight up just then. Just as the stock was about to be destroyed, futures hit a new high and I covered everything at .50. Stock squeezed to .70, XBD was so weak it didn't even make any serious bounce during that entire futures run-up, as soon as futures came back in and offer re-appeared in BSC I DPed again, unfortunately, I only got 200 shares filled. Still a wonderful trade as I took an average of 45 cents out of my 1500 shares and almost half a point on the 200 shares . . . My AGE trade did not work well, while the stock fell a point there never was any real size on the offer so I pared in and out, still managed to pull out 30 cents on 900 shares . . .
Mrs. D. was short 2500 shares and pyramided into the squeeze to .70 for a monster trade . . . She even told me "do not cover", and like an idiot I was shaking in my boots as the futures made a new high. She told me "who cares, XBD is still going lower", and I covered anyway, too happy with that $600, pure blue collar stupidity. She was also short DNA. Feel ashamed of myself for being only 3 months short in term of experience and plays like a total amatuer compared to her . . .
I think emotionally I am quite a bit more relaxed today compared to earlier in the week, when the anticipation of seeing my sister certainly put a ripple in my heart. There was a high degree of anxiety and I lost focus before I even knew it. It is very, very important to stay focused, I won't be able to fulfill the wishes of my loved ones until I am strong myself . . .
