Mr Subliminal's Remote Trading Journal

Originally posted by Mr Subliminal
yet I was put off firstly by the reply I received, and secondly by the fact that I couldn't get hold of a human on two separate occasions - not the sort of thing you want when you're long 150 SEBL and the old Presario crashes.
More...

Mr. Sub

Just noticed your journal and read it beginning to end. Good stuff indeed. Very entertaining distraction thanks from all of us.

Regarding PD, try their 877-47direx number as this is always answered on the first few rings from my experience, though I suppose its too late now that you have left FLA.
 
Originally posted by Mr Subliminal
Thank you, AAA. As a rule, I will not divulge my daily P&L - suffice it to say that I'm satisfied with today's performance both from a financial (dug myself out of a two-digit hole) and discipline (no margin calls or broken equipment) viewpoint. I religiously update my trading log daily and append a JPG as proof.
Finally, before I go out clubbing (www.dcdancenet.com/wheretodance/) till the wee hours of the morning, I shall leave you with some statistics I took off my broker's website - draw your own conclusions. Where data seems incomplete, that's because it is. This includes about 8 offices and remote traders.

Code: 
                       Positive          Active       % Positive 
                       Traders           Traders
January 99                257              384            67 
February 99               178              411            43 
March 99                  241              473            51 
April 99                  313              466            67 
May 99                    248              520            48 
June 99                   246              569            43 
July 99                   189              574            33 
August 99                 279              585            48 
September 99              258              591            44 
October 99                301              583            52 
November 99               409              591            69 
December 99               445              597            74 
1999 Total                457              825            55  
January 00                411              594            69 
February 00               477              630            76 
March 00                  472              674            70 
April 00                  476              681            70 
May 00                    412              690            60 
June 00                   383              723            53 
July 00                   342              709            48 
August 00                 352              696            51 
September 00              304              723            42 
October 00                425              737            58 
November 00               362              729            50 
December 00               382              711            54 
January 01                382              691            47 
February 01               270              689            39 
March 01                  266              688            33 
April 01                  341              657            52 
May 01                    261              636            41 
June 01                   286              585            49 
July 01                   196              559            35 
 
March 02                  186              430            43

Me and my trading log :
col-log_jpg.jpg
[/QUOTE

I was curious where you got these stats and of what firm(s) were they pulled from. These percentages are very high IMO. Thanks.
More...
 
The holiday weekend seems to have dulled my already feeble mind. Ignoring an unwritten rule about not trading the open which I normally have no trouble adhering to, I found myself long 1,000 PSFT (avg. 20.60) by 9:30:19. Five minutes later with PSFT at 20.40 I decided to bail and bought another 200 by mistake. I then hit Shift-N (buy closeout) twice and thought the system was acting strangely when greeted with two "Nothing to close out" messages. After what seemed like an eternity, I realized I had to sell to close my position. This I did, and after an additional 15 seconds went short. The time was barely 9:45 and I had already involuntarily made up for last Friday's inactivity. From then on, however, everything proceeded smoothly and by mid-morning I was wearing the self-satisfied smirk that only a very low 3-digit positive P&L can bring. I refrained from beating up on myself for the many faux pas, but rather reflected on the positive - I didn't stubbornly hold on to my initial position, I didn't average down, I reversed not because I desperately wanted to recoup my loss but only after a pause in which I ascertained that the trend was indeed down.
 
As you may have already gathered, I am an avid soccer fan and for the next few weeks will be faced with late night live broadcasts of the World Cup matches from Korea/Japan commencing at 02:00am (USA ET) and conveniently ending at about 9:20am, together with the usual daily trading. They say politics should be kept out of sport, yet as I watched Germany trounce Saudi Arabia 8:0 this morning, I could not help but associate the Saudi players with the 9/11 hijackers.

On a different note, the following true stories illustrate the current public sentiment towards Wall Street :

1. The US Post Office just recalled their latest stamps which had pictures of prominent stockbrokers on them. Apparently people couldn't figure out which side to spit on.

2. For many years, Merrill analyst Henry Blodget would plan a yearly weekend getaway at a mountain inn, where he would rendezvous with the innkeeper's daughter. Looking forward to this year's trip, he departed with his suitcases in hand. When he arrived at the inn, he made his way up the stairs to his usual meeting room. The door was open and he walked in glancing at the innkeeper's daughter sitting on the bed. There she sat with an infant on her lap.

"Who is that?" Henry asked.

"It's your son," she answered.

"Why didn't you write when you learned you were pregnant?" he cried. "I would have rushed up here. We could have gotten married, and the child would have my name!"

"Well," she said, "when my folks found out about my condition, we sat up all night talking and we finally decided it would be better to have a bastard in the family than an analyst."
 
Mr Subliminal you're too funny. You need to keep everybody up to date on a more timely basis as everybody can use some more comic relief.
 
Thanks, js1257 for the encouragement. Yes, we all need comic relief these days, though what I'm about to relate is of a more serious nature and unfolded not a few hours ago...

The harsh ring of the phone interrupted my Sunday morning reverie. It was Gretchen Morgenstern, Pulitzer prize-winning New York Times journalist and Wall Street watchdog.

GM : "Subman, Gretchen here. Are you free this Wednesday at 12?"

Me : "Hello Gretchen (hot sex). I'll have to check with my secretary."
Gretchen had interviewed me in my office during the halcyon days of 1999 and perhaps she would swallow my attempt at pretense.

GM : "I'm having lunch with Carly Fiorina and want you to join us."
Gretchen often had me accompany her to important meetings as she appreciated the rare combination of a razor-sharp mind and lightning-quick wit. I appreciated the free food.

Me : "I'll cancel all my prior commitments for that (menage a trois)."
What prior commitments? There were no yellow PostIts on the wall above my bed so that meant the rest of 2002 was free. Nevertheless, my initial reaction to being in the company of two of the most powerful women in American business was somewhat disturbing and in complete contrast to what they taught me at Wharton (http://www.wharton.isd.tenet.edu/campus/WJHS/index.htm).

GM : "See you then."

It seemed as if the Money & Business section of the Sunday New York Times, which I had been reading earlier, had taken on a life of its own as it was now precariously balanced on the edge of my bed. I stopped the freefall and resumed daydreaming...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top