All good things eventually come to an end, and I simply could not make that one shot to push me into the black today. The 15 games winning streak finally came to an end as I dropped my first game of the month after a frustrating defeat.
7 of 16 shooting on 15800 shares, +99 before commissions, -340.34 after, 1 bullet. I was down double digit twice in the afternoon and I simply could not get that one trade to go black. Had I been up $10 I would have stopped. Unfortunately in an attempt to salvage the streak I cut myself a greater wound in the process, as I really didn't see anything worth trading in the afternoon. Up $300 this week, and I must win next two games to maintain momentum . . . Still up $5000 for the month which is my monthly goal, do not ruin it, I can't wait for tommorrow's opening bell, today my offense was completely shut down as I could not catch a single big winner.
A few of my co-worker trader friends are definitely getting better, and I must take my own game to the next level. The firm had a better day than Monday and Tuesday, my performance didn't kick in. Even the guy next to me who is down close to 18K 6 months into the game had a great day today thanks to home builders, I must bring my A game tommorrow. My opening game has been weak this week, tommorrow I must play a better first half.
Pre-Market: Very mixed, upgrade + downgrade on MER, a quality list of earnings beaters including INTC/AAPL but questionable forecasts. Mixed news in DRG sector as well, and last but not least home construction went up, I have a list of home construction companies and I should have used them, they all shoot up 1 point or more today with no gap-up's. Stocks that most other day traders don't trade tend to be much smoother and make for great gifts, and I need to work on those.
9:30: MWD gapped down 1.8 point (which I knew was total bullcrap given the overall market atmosphere) and I bought off the open, stopped out for flat because I just didn't have the confidence when the offer showed up, and missed a 80 cents move. Started churning in my HP bullet on OSX weakness, this stock doesn't trade like it used to anymore, very choppy and wiggles a lot. Saw SOX rebound and took IRF, got out for a nickel profit when the SOX faded at unchanged. By now, I have missed CRA/DNA on morning BTK pop, and a drugs rally. SOX is getting untradable lately, have to avoid that sector most of the times. The futures totally tanked but for some strange reason I had a long biase today, and that biase prevented me from going short.
10:38: When I am down this late into the game, I know I am in trouble. The market pretty much stalled and I wanted to make something happen. Tried to bottomfish MRX/MIR and got nowhere, very low volume and very tough trades. Since I took a lesson yesterday in churning during the dead zone, I went for a great honey club sandwich. Saw a half million print on DNA just before I left, and stock went up 1.5 point. You have to give him a lot of wiggle room, a tough specialist to trade unless it is the open (this is why I love the open so much, everyone shows up with real sizes even if it is a gap and trap, at least the sizes don't lie). Unfortunately I was long ROH on a CEX rally, and I lost patience and sold market, stock ran up 1 point when I came back . . .
2:00: Energy rally, took APA and all of a sudden it tanked. I thought it was just a specialist shakeout but the prints were getting larger and larger, all 3 indexes were getting hammered and I lost 30 cents. Since I had that bullet on HP, and the momentum looked very real, I sold HP short and pyramided into 1200 shares at 29.5, back then when this stock gives you a BID/ASK, you can lean on him, nowadays, you can't, I was quarter point on the money and I put my stop at the offer for half of the shares, he took it right away by hitting the offer and triggering my stop. Then showed a large spread, because I wasn't having a great day and OSX was squeezing a little, I covered the other half, had I held the other half a little longer I would have got back in the black. I was down $125.
2:40: Horrendous play. I was looking at the list of biggest losers on NYSE again since I really didn't have anything else to go for, saw MTD, the stock hasn't been moving at all last week or so, and today it wasn't doing anything until a sudden seller appeared to kill the stock. The specialist is very crafty, he doesn't allow you to lean on the ASK if you are short, he will hit the ASK with 100-1000 shares every one or two ticks down to trigger stops, he will even lift the ASK 20-30 cents higher every half a point down to trigger stops! For the most part however, he was stepping the ASK down with authority and taking out BID's like crazy. The guy who bought all the home builders in the morning was pretty damn cocky, he bought 600 shares when the BID/ASK was 12 x 300 at 42.06 because the volume was peaking. Still, why didn't he wait until someone actually hit that 30000 shares offer before he jump in? Too much confidence, and why didn't I trust my own judgement? I bought 300 shares and I said I will buy more if he hits the offer with size, not going to happen with this guy, he is way too crafty. BID gets taken out and I should have DPed out immediately, but I had this feeling "300 shares, volume is already peaking, how much lower can he go?" I watched him step down tick by tick and got out at 41.70, 20 more cents than neccessary. I had a lot of time to get out as soon as he broke the figure and stepped the offer below the figure.
3:00: Some serious size went off and I tried to get MTD at 41.45, like magic, he pulled the size offer as soon as I went for the shares, without cancelling my order I went for another limit buy at 41.6, as 15 cents is the max spread I am willing to pay. I only got 200 shares filled and made half a point out of it, a waste as the stock went up another half a point. The specialist must been a day trader himself, the one thing that will make me getting out of a bottomfish position is the sight of a large offer, and he showed one at every level then lifted it as soon as someone hit it with 100 shares. It is incredible, there were a lot of size that went off on the way down, but at same time he did a tons of shakeouts and truly played a world class game. Talk about abusing his power! Took MMC and PGR on IUX rally, PGR went up first and I pyramided and it tanked immediately, I lost 30 cents in the trade. MMC went down first and I sold when I could have got out near flat, it went up 40 cents. I should have took neither one of those trades, there were no volume, but I wanted to do something to save my streak, and it didn't work. Took ADI as a last ditch effort but the SOX was stagnant, plain stupid trade as I paid commission for a flat.
There are so many things I didn't do well today particularly off the open, I didn't go after the energy shorts until it was too late, and I didn't catch the easy BTK lay-ups. Also, I need to pay attention to those home builders, when there is news, they move.
