The power of Bloomberg once again saved my day as I turned a blah of a day into a very nice finish. 23800 shares each way on 13 of 22 shooting, +1934 before commissions, +1478 after, 1 bullet.
Lately I have forced myself to get at least 7 hours of sleep a night and it definitely helped. With the kind of work load I have right now as a trader and a leader, by the end of the day I feel completely drained. Whatever extra work done late at night simply can not make up for a well-rested mind and body for that matter.
Pre-Market: Again quite uneventful as far as news plays are concerned and I went for my open strategy.
9:30: Filled on BMY/JPM and got out flat on both. I personally really like this open order routine now, even if I have not made any real money off it yet. Putting in 40 orders at 9:15, double check to make sure all the numbers are right at 9:25, it is an excellent exercise to make me completely focused with the task at hand. By the time I finish checking my orders, the bell rings immediately and I roll right into it. Right off the first print I will have some relatively low risk positions and it feels almost like a shoot around before a basketball game. I mean if I don't have those positions, I may hesitate a little or take some very small positions when I see set-ups just to "break the ice", having already taken 2-4 shots first 60 seconds of the game, I am already "warmed up" and I am in the best possible condition to roll into my main game, as by the time I get out of these open orders the market already settled a little bit and I can look for 10AM moves from there. Having to manage 2-4 positions immediately also speeds up my brain and removes brain locks, a great warm-up routine for rest of my game.
9:35: Had an open short on DVA and lost 24 cents off that as the stock went up despite of the weak daily. Went long DNA and scored 35 cents. Then with futures ripping and biotech running, DNA gapped down half a point and I went long again immediately for another 30 cents, futures tanked and I got out wish I held half as it went up a point from there.
9:52: Went long BWA and scored 50 cents. Went long SLG as a daily play and eventually lost patience and closed it for 6 cents profit. The thing with this kind of stock is you just gotta buy and hold, forget about the tape as it won't print once in a very long time.
10:00: Went long CCU and took a nasty 30 cents hit plus the churns as the stock doesn't seem to be moving with futures anymore. Went bullet SPF on home builder sell-off, barely got my bullet cost back, went long and scored 40 cents. Home builders, I don't know why they are the strongest sector in the entire market, it seems like everyday you can buy and hold and do well, or bottom pick any sell-off's.
12:05: Based on daily's went long ODP/PPD, broke even. Went long KSS but he had a huge seller in him, churned him until he took out a 100K offer at 3PM and got a quarter pop out of that, churned again and lost a little money overall. That seller will not give up.
2:00: Bottompicked DNA on a super size sell-off, probably some institutional seller there, wish I held tho, got a quarter left a point on the table, too nervous about this kind of plays.
2:05: The natural gas numbers seemed favorable, Bloomberg gave us at least 20 seconds to get into mid-caps, 10 seconds for big caps, too bad I was not used to being the first kid to go long and did not go full blazing until stuff started ripping, gas futures went up and I just loaded up on energy stocks, HP, SGY, BJS, DO, TDW, EP, left quite a bit of money on the table as I misjudged the strength of this move, but on a day like this you can not complain.
Team Stats:
9 of 9 active traders today
105400 shares each way on 47 of 91 shooting (51.6%)
+5384 before commissions (6 of 9 positive before commissions)
+3020 after commissions (6 of 9 after commissions)
Top 3 Symbols: EP, DNA, CAL
Bottom 3 Symbols: DYN, SDS, CCU
