I have somewhat made my bed over here in the old port. I thought about adding to QID today, then I wondered what the point of it even was? We would need some horrendous dislocation from intermediate term value to even budge my balance sheet using this slug.
So I started doing research into some option products and did not like anything I saw.
Then I figured, to hell with it and bought more GOGO.
I am still reeling from selling all (NO SCALES THIS TIME BUSTER) my FSLR call options at 10am yesterday. The potent ones, the March $60s, all gone in one foul swoop, like a clown baby. So I am staying out of the way a bit until I feel the urge to go bananas again.
I need this intermediate term balance to resolve and provide directional guidance.
I am down a touch today, but it has been a very fruitful week for the benevolent and persistent Raul (extra self aggrandizing via the third person). As exciting as the runs have been this week, pinpoint sniper shots like BAC, GOGO, RGSE, and SINA to name a few, my greatest successes continue to be in the futures market. Years of dedicated study to the ways of order flow are starting to produce the wonderful fruit of trader competence.
It is getting to the point where I sit through noise, gingerly, until my algorithms and I agree it is time to get involved. I am fine tuning 4 different setups, capable of trading both long and short (symmetry, very important in order flow trading) and the results have been impressive.
Pair this with my morning contextual work, and I am well on my way to being one of the most proficient traders this world has ever seen. If you think I only kid when I say I intend to be a major player in the markets, my friend you are in for a rude surprise. What I do here for free is worth tens of thousands of dollars in college tuition. The process is here for one reason, to extract organized-crime amounts of money from the electronic markets—all of them.
Progress is what keeps me going. If you are hitting a roadblock in your trading game, try out a new strategy, especially a different timeframe. Look at what BAC did this week or BBRY last….reverse engineer these order flow driven moves and make them your own. Then do it on weekly charts, minute charts, range charts, renko charts, volume charts, etc studying the minute nuances that differentiate a winner from a loser.
Then do it all again with a new setup, or picture. This is the process, and it makes money.
That’s my rant going into the weekend. It looks like I pulled out a win in the second round of March madness by losing less then my competition. This means next week I get to come in with a chart positioned to rip heads off. I like my odds.
I am still long in the book, but I cashed up to about 15% during the week. That is plenty of dry cabbage in desperate need of a new home. Fortunate for me, I am surrounded by a team of diligent stock pickers. I will be shopping over the weekend. You should too.
Favorites from my current book include SINA, BBRY, GOGO, and OESX
Now I must depart, early from my new office, like a boss because well…I am the boss.
I love people who catch a great entry into a setup, the setup finally confirms, and they take profits. That is like driving to an amusement park and then staying in the parking lot to listen to AM radio. Sadly, this greed to snatch at table scraps is how most deals are blown. Go for the big deal—slowly if you must, but always with a strong sense of urgency.
I was out of cash at one point today, but decided to scale off some profits in LO. I have no idea whether the news is of the rumor variety or not, but word is someone wants to gobble up LO. And I can’t blame them, Lorillard separated from the herd charging the pot of gold at the end of the vaporizing rainbow with their Blu product offering. The fact that they sell delicious and powerful Newport’s in the meanwhile is moot—everyone knows that. The key is to parlay your cash cows into new evil ventures, like a doctor…evil inventions like disposable atomizers which allow humans to inhale nicotine and airplane deicer. It was an excellent allocation of resources and the execution was top notch. These are the types of management teams I want to be involved with.
So I have some cash now, and want to get it back into the game. I started getting into some ASCO stocks this morning, whetting my beak with shares of IMGN. I have another name on my radar, too.
I back to basis with my newest cannabis positions PHOT and GRNH. This is technically my “second entry” into this trend/pump, because I started by ripping a big win out of MJNA. This is the most absurd thing I have ever done, holding degenerate OTC paper on companies engaging in criminal enterprise. But, hell, people have earned fortunes doing worse things then speculating. I just want my piece.
“You dig?”
There is a big, dark cave crevasse just below where the market stands and everyone is jumping up and down like BassNectar just dropped the grimiest growl of bass in his repertoire. I suppose this has me keeping a clear eye on the LED lit Exit signs.
Want to see the cave? Here, ga’head:
My hands are shaking, my hearts beating, but I am still moving, and I am still getting headshots.
I love when people misuse a technology to the point of frustration until they criticize it as being broken or even stupid. The results can be significantly more amusing when the technology is mechanical, like hands free faucet, because you get a very tangible experience of human failure. I long ago swallowed the pill and accepted that we are servants to our technology unless we reach the status of robot overlord. Once robot overlord status is achieved, one becomes something much more powerful—a small cog in the process, the invisible ghost who directs the technology with symphonic harmony. This should result in my success in breaking the traditional 30 year work mold and liberating my time to explore other life interests.
Anyhow, I was frustrated with my computer processing power all week and trading naked and without robots. The reason was a new bit of trading logic which I bolted together and unleashed on 2.5 years of data for backtesting/optimization purposes. After 94 hours of peaked i7 quad-core processing I was delivered the output, which looked like this:
And in that moment, rather this entire last week, I learned a lesson about coding logic and testing and life in general. Before you strap on a jet pack and attempt to cross the Grand Canyon, go hop the drainage ditch in your back yard. You can work the kinks out much quicker and safer.
I worked out the kinks and tested the logic on 20 days of data to make sure it was working correctly. Now I am back in the lab, peaking out the processors. This time, with a bit more thought and proper use of the technology, I can test out 2.5 years of data in 56 minutes. LOL
Failing is learning, but if you want to shorten the learning curve, spend a few minutes talking with someone who has expended their life years already failing in the same field.
It is no secret that February has been a cold month for everyone’s favorite Russian diplomat, Raul. My home country, MOTHER RUSSIA, is being ridiculed by media pundits, many who would reduce this country USA to the same disheveled conditions if they could succeed in pressing their socialist agendas. Remember that when you consider disposing of used toilet paper in a waste bin instead of flushing it down the pipes built by the strong hands of immigrants.
I am holed up in the subzero north myself, laboring tirelessly under the oppressive grip of the arctic vortex. It would seem most of this work has been without fruit as I have been chosen as the sacrificial lamb to the stock market gods twice in one week.
I give my left limb to AMBA and my right to OESX. Last week, I offered a hunk of my torso to the gods via an Apple call option into earnings. What the hell was I gambling? Stupid.com
Anyhow, I will not dwell but only point these losses out for the sake of full disclosure. I have two strikes and common in FSLR. I have incredible conviction in this name, until I do not. They are doing a wonderful job boiling me, slowly, so I stay in the pot.
Elroi was doing well in February, and then the marketplace tripped him up. Now I his entire credibility has come to question. He may not be robust enough. The shorts he entered today were not trades I would ever take on a discretionary basis. And if I did, they would be exited well before they hit stop loss. Thus at this stage, Elroi must be a helper robot, walking alongside me during the hunt, as opposed to an autonomous hawk, circling the prairie grass and fetching me varmint to eat. If anyone has taken their algos fully autonomous, feel free to discuss your successes in this forum. Sharing is caring.
I am thinking either a timed stop or a max intraday drawdown.
To keep this trading endeavor rolling, I had to find some juice intraday. I took a solid entry on some Z yolos early on. This trade has the look, and if right promises to recapture all the other yolo losses undertaken this year. I like my odds here.
I took a large position in KNDI too. It has the right look.
What can I say, the day session in NASDAQ looked like a trend day, but we could not find any initiative buying during the afternoon. Thus we printed the infamous P-shaped profile. We will cover this further in the morning.
Finally, LNKD is getting crushed after hours because the market has decided against aggrandized resumes and endorsements. When someone can endorse me a hoagie, I’ll flip to bullish on LNKD.
I bought some TWTR at the bell, bringing my cost average up to $46 from $41. I have more buying power idled and ready to buy additional TWTR blood because this is a real disruptor—misunderstood like a vapor pipe.
Crack to smoke, chocolate to eat gents…are you still hungry?
My time is limited, finest people of the interwebs, but I am happy to report on the successes of the week as well as the failures. They started shaking my very long tree yesterday and “they” managed to rattle a few of my coconuts loose…I covered most of my TSLA long and reduced it back down to core size. I could not stomach the massive size I had built in the name and the potential risk down to $130 without the trade even breaking. Now that I am back to my core size, I could stomach such a move whilst being team Elon and talking smack on twitter.
I milked most of this huge move in YELP this week, bailing only yesterday when I got an itch to over manage my winners. I could see YELP quickly squeezing into $100 roll regions given the strong weekly close, however onward and upward, there are more deals to be had.
Finally, I found a spot to sink my teeth into RVLT. I cannot say I love the management team at RVLT, but I do love how they have positioned themselves in this space. The chart has come into the old Raul honey hole, and I have made it a point to get large. Very large, in fact it is my second largest position. I consider this a victory that RVLT was unable to get moving before I could properly size into it.
I bought X yesterday, in the pits of despair. I like the way it came off of support today and I want to see if it can build upon this strength into next week.
If you read me on the twitters, where I tend to be much more colorful, you would be hard up to find someone more clearly calling for strength into the bell. You will always find the after the fact folks groaning about afternoon ramps, but none of them toss their proverbial unit on the table. My robots liked the action, I liked the sentiment, and I made an educated guess with confidence. This is how successful traders think. This was my largest victory on the day.
To sum things up: this was a great week for Raul on the iBankCoin. I really am just happy to be here banking coin with my people.
Top five holdings into the weekend:
CREE, RVLT, LITB, MLNX, and BALT
May the market be blessed with a fresh batch of bearish bets to squeeze, be well.
Christians must have done a fine job celebrating the birth of the almighty one up here in the Great North, for their Lord is blessing them with heavy blankets of the white and fluffy. Dashing through the snow are disgruntled motorists who swarm on their nearest grocer like locust.
Costco was totally wiped out with checkout lines rounding the apparel section making me a captive audience to the Vitamix presentation. Frustrating it was, because I am a proud Bledtec owner. Similar mania was enjoyed in Kroger and oddly enough Dick’s Sporting Goods?
Nothing says, “go out and consume, my children” like 24-hours of snowfall. The economy is ripping on all cylinders with biblical backing.
What’s on your radar this week?
I like my LEDS. If Friday’s pop in low brow RVLT and LEDS does not get the standardized fade treatment, we are at the early stages of something beautiful. RVLT is the best positioned company publicly traded company, with OESX second in command. OESX ran into year end and I feel like a chaser but I love the story, love the company and I see huge demand for their products and their publicly traded stock.
Remember folks, I have existing and rather larger positions in CREE and RVLT. We keep disclosure full only over here. But I am a stubborn futurist who sees LED lighting as one of society’s first major infrastructure advancements. The numbers on retrofits make far too much sense for businesses to ignore any longer. These savings only improve every six-to-nine months through the intense research by our friends at CREE, Gods work if you will.
I like plenty other stocks based on charts alone.
Watch FB closely this week, it has been flagging, bear variety, just below its daily 9 period EMA. If it breaks down, then I am keen on how my YELP, Z, TWTR, and ANGI perform. If they brush it off, great. Otherwise, I may reduce exposure. If the bear flag fails to break lower, then we must turn all this thinking on its head.
It sure would be nice if FB tanked, putting all the stupid fund managers who positioned in the behemoth in the hole. I just don’t want it to drag down my holdings, naturally.
If you find yourself avoiding social interaction this month, perhaps opting instead to stare at hundreds of lines on a computer screen, you may be suffering from a rare condition known as Social Media Under Exposium (SMUE), a serious allocation problem affecting millions of Americans.
While the cause is unknown, SMUE may be related to an imbalance of natural chemicals in your brain. Prescription Twitter works to correct this imbalance. You just shouldn’t have to feel this way anymore.
While the cause is unknown, SMUE may be related to an imbalance of natural chemicals in your brain. Prescription Yelp works to correct this imbalance. You just shouldn’t have to feel this way anymore.
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Only Le Doctour can diagnose SMUE. Twitter is not for everyone; either is Yelp or Zillow or LinkedIn or Facebook or Trip Advisor or…
People taking long dated leaps or solar inhibitors shouldn’t take Social Media positioning.
Side effects may include dry mouth, insomnia, sexual side effects, diarrhea, nausea, and sleepiness. Social media stocks are habit forming.
Talk to your Le Doctour today about Social Media Under Exposium!
Being young has its perks: strength, vitality, ease in courting, and lots of time to capitalize on disruption. Disruption takes time because it must combat stubborn old folks, hell-bent on preserving their precious cash cows.
My book is a snapshot of the biggest disruptive forces right now. Let’s have a look, shall we?
LO – electronic cigarettes, big tobacco
CREE & RVLT – LED lighting, 9 billion aging lamps
YELP – food and service review, Zagat and Google and traditional advertising
TSLA – electric cars and the supporting infrastructure, big auto
TWTR – I have no idea what twitter is, disruptive
AMBA – high definition cameras for cheap, expensive cameras and professional filmmakers
AMBA had a solid beat on earnings yesterday, but is getting the fade treatment today. Just this morning I procured shares near the highs. They are off a quick 4 percent. The question is, do I care? It is always a good time to buy a winner. It will go lower. I will take heat from folks on the internet, buy more at some sweet inflection point, and then ride into the sunset on the bucking bronco. It is always a good time to buy a winner.
I am all in, 100% long for the time being. There are other names—companies much less disruptive then the above who I hold as trading vehicles (cough cough solars) that compose the rest of my book. But I am 16 longs, 0 shorts. I have now made my bed atop a pendulum high on the upswing. Can it levitate higher, or will I fall off when it swings lower? TBD
I lost my instrument controls around 1:30pm when my stealth assault system initiated self-destruct leaving me without a connection to the mother ship. As a result, I was flying VFR throughout the afternoon with nothing more than an iPhone to monitor our environment. This also meant I lost communication channels with the financial ninjas inside 12631. Sometimes you have to just go with the flow and trust that your instincts can salvage any missteps while systems are down.
Given these conditions, I started the process of violently slashing twitter followers off my stream. It is clear many of the people on the twitter are noise, a tad too esoteric, or downright villainous. If you happen to find yourself on the receiving end of my draconian cuts and care to make a case for me to follow again please state your case. Something tells me nobody cares. And that is fine, because I only care for a few of you.
I am tired of talking my book. It was green again today and I haven’t been tossed into a furnace in a while. My positions had me up over 1.5 percent today but slowly faded as the day progressed. I ended up making 0.75 percent. The force behind this move was likely indecision, and perhaps a touch of fear—fear can be an excellent motivator on the general population.
I find people are more irritable during this grey period between Thanksgiving and Santa. I have to drive extra gregarious, else find myself victim to maniacal road rage encounters. Perhaps it is because I live amongst the lower-middle class—a people who overspend and smoke and fatten their children with saturated potatoes then poison their minds with medicinal narcotics. A hairy man went completely berserk the other day because I was following too closely. He swerved at my subcompact, repeatedly, until we met at the next light. I had to reach over and roll my window down. He was screaming at me, mostly in caveman talk, while his partner begged him not to get out of the car.
“Let me explain” I plead several times. He could not be reasoned with, instead he just shouted over my voice. I reached over and rolled the window up then offered him a solomon middle finger.
Life is much better when I do not think of others; therefore I will cease said thoughts immediately.
I have about 50 good years left in me and I want to work for most of them. Therefore I must find a work I love. Talking to nefarious internet folk and banking coin alongside them is a joy. I will continue trading on the internets. However the corporate model has worn me thin. My mind grows tired of the monotony and boredom is the truest form of depression. I will never succumb, no matter how many contrails are dumped on my person. Instead it is time to take a leap of faith.
The joy of the New Year is almost upon us. Who wants to make some life changing moves?
