8 As I laid my head upon my pillow last night, I stared into the darkness and thought: “what the fuck are you doing?”
After lying awake for a time reflecting upon my decision making and a ruinous future, I was able to squeeze out a few hours of sleep. My heart rate was abnormally high for 6:20 AM PST. Seeing the futures green granted me mild relief.
Hope quickly faded after the first hour, when it became painfully clear that there was little steam behind the rally.
Nevertheless, I used this opportunity to reduce my $DIA call position by 2/3. Selling half of my contracts at 2.85 and the rest at 2.70…booking a loss on both (cost basis was 3.14).
I knew that I was ENTIRELY too fucking levered coming into today and needed to lighten up, for my own sake if nothing else.
Last night, my thoughts mostly drifted into pondering how I was going to dig myself out of two consecutive horrible trades. First it was the $SLV calls, now this. Thus, it was an easy decision to retreat and live to fight on with what I have left.
Late in the day, I had seen enough from $YELP and sold out at 20 on the nose for another small loss.
The slump continues.
Personally, I think Yelp could be an amazing resource, but I also have experience with running a business and them suppressing positive reviews because we chose to not support their ‘marketing’ efforts. Thankfully, it’s not a big deal for our business, but there were definitely some shenanigans going on with reviews that we know people submitted.
Fuck me, I’d pay them an annual fee just so I NEVER had to speak with one of their telemarke…errr…sales associates again.
I find consumer reviews to be invaluable for just about anything you can purchase. On Amazon, I’m 100% more likely to buy the item that has a 4.5 star rating with a shitload of reviews versus the one that has fewer/lower score reviews.
Right now $YELP is really the only game in town for what they do. Sure there could eventually be some overlap with $ANGI, but that’s a problem they would probably like to have. $GOOG eventually acquiring them ($YELP) would make the most sense, no?
Anyway, since I’m an avid reader here, I’ll be following $YELP out of curiosity alone…if I see a setup I like, I’ll be more than happy to jump back in.
I think a really interesting angle of the $JPM situation is the ridiculous number of Weekly 41 puts that were transacted today. That has to raise some red fucking flags with the SEC, right? I mean, either that’s some serious fucking intuition or someone knew something. I’m leaning toward the latter. Nevertheless, I have little doubt that this part of the story will conveniently ‘disappear’ in the coming days.
Marc David had a great rant/comment today about this nonsense. No one has learned a god damned thing. It’s the same people doing the same shit and experiencing the same fucking results. 2 billion dollars…fuck me.
What if this is just the tip of the iceberg?
Brutal.
Right now, my positions, by weight: $THLD, $EXTR, $MO, $DIA Calls, $CREE, $LIZ, $COF Calls.
I almost bought more $THLD today, which would have given me a full position there (I’m at 60% now), but I wanted to see how the market closed.
I decided to hold off.
$EXTR is teetering on the edge…I think I’m going to start heading for the exit on any weakness tomorrow.
Hell, I’m tempted to grease up the “wheeled chair” and add to $MO here.
I’m glad that I held on to the other half of my $LIZ position.
I didn’t really have any expectations as to the direction I wanted this blog to take…but it has become a nice way to blow off some steam at the end of the day. One thing that my writing does not lack is transparency. I’m in the midst of a nasty slump right now. I’m of the opinion that anyone who claims to have never gone into a slump either is a) not a trader, or b) has not been trading long enough. It’s part of the package. Learn to adapt or get fucked. Eventually I will get my game back…we will all rejoice in the splendor that is the stock exchange.
Back at it again tomorrow.
My best to you all.
-EM
“All this machinery making modern music can still be open-hearted. Not so coldly charted, it’s really just a question of your honesty, yeah, your honesty. One likes to believe in the freedom of music, but glittering prizes and endless compromises shatter the illusion of integrity.”
8 Responses to “The Spirit Of…”
zenhunter
“I’m of the opinion that anyone who claims to have never gone into a slump either…”
It is all about keeping your losses small. Slump doesn’t need to be heart-wrenching.
When price go against your position, reduce your size instead of averaging down- that is my motto.
Good Hunting!
elizamae
Well, my strategy is based on mean reversion, so I don’t have a problem with scaling into trades, even if price is falling. I always have a ‘line in the sand’ so that things don’t spiral out of control. I do take on more risk than is prudent sometimes, but that’s usually when I feel like things are setting up favorably (which is what has happened recently). If I’m wrong, I’m wrong.
Yogi and Boo Boo
Two “bad trades” is a slump? Were they losing trades or bad trades? What’s your definition of a “bad” trade? Did you make a mistake?
elizamae
No, I’ve been cold since March.
I’d qualify them as bad not because they were losing trades, but because I took on too much risk.
I was trading my strategy, but after having been cold I was trying to get back quickly instead of chipping away. So, in that way, yeah, I made the mistake of going too large.
Thanks for reading
drummerboy
hey em,cof calls? really.
elizamae
Ha, the position is way in the money and very very small.
noodleboy
Interesting, My friend who owns a coffee shop feels the same way about YELP.
elizamae
Yeah, it’s a tough spot if you own an eatery. It seems as if you are forced to bend to their demands if you want to have your place of business fairly reviewed. Like I said, I’m not sure why they don’t just charge a fee to list a business. Send businesses that purchase ad space to the top of results or something, but the practice of withholding positive reviews is dogshit. My hope is that this behavior is more heavily scrutinized now that the company is public…but that’s not always the way things go…cough$JPMcough.