The S&P is trying really hard to form a tradable range here.  Talking ETF SPY, the brackets would be 158.50 – 165.50 give or take.  The mouth pieces are trying their best to help, coming out of their smoky offices and jawboning in the middle of a quad witching.  PPT wants a range low too.  Everything is pointing to a range low—except SHIBOR rates and suspender-wearing bond traders.

In the spirit of our gaptastic, have fun sleeping, stock market, we need some ridiculous headline out of Asia over the weekend that wastes no time, gaps us above the midpoint of our range, catches everyone out of position, and forces your hand to buy at a higher risk.

It would be fitting given the recent nature of this choppy courrrection.

I could see us coming into the office Monday to a huge gap lower too, that’s the environment we’re in.  That’s the environment Chess objectively describes to members on Sunday night when gentlemen take to their studies and make preparations for the week.

So I’m keeping position sizes smaller, cash higher than I would like to, and limiting the number of positions I hold.

I took a SODA long this morning.  It’s looking really good.  It’s only half size.  If it goes lower, I’ll double down.  If it gets to $74 I’ll scale ¼ off and let the market pay me.

I’m a proud bag holder of $423 dollar AAPL shares.  I bought them in the middle of the FED announcement yesterday.  I was completely swept up in the hype.  $420 is an important price level for AAPL because the degenerates who trade it think Phish plays good music.  Maybe they should stick to Chief Keef.

I’ve decided to stick with TPX through this indecision.  I hold a ½ position here also.  I want to make it 2x I love these beds, especially as the adjustable bed market continues to boom.

Holy Mt. ZION is trading well as are many other regional banks.  Holding.

It’s finally summer hallelujah.  We shouldn’t even be holed up on our computers but there are moves to be made.  Get your pasty ass outside and don’t forget the sunscreen.

 

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I’ve come to live by one saying in today’s markets and it’s, “get it while it’s here, boy.”  Because in complete honesty, any spectacular hype surrounding pockets of momentum won’t feel the same next year, week, or even hour.  When a stock is hot, it’s hot.  Higher highs, higher lows, and cocaine dances.  When it’s not, it’s National Bank of Greece.

We are undergoing a slight bounce back after a brutal five percent correction.  Did you blink?  You may have missed it.  As investors peer out of their bunkers, weary from the bombs dropped on their person, they see a strange sight.  It’s Sir Raul, dressed in ceremonial red marching regalia, tap dancing through a mine field.  The sight is so unexpected, so beautiful, they don’t even reach for their gun, they simply watch.

Just as I clear the field and hunker down into a foxhole with many women and Chairman Mao! You come to your senses attempt to clear the field.  You saw the path I took, you see how effortless it was.  You go for it.  Only at that very moment a B-52 bomber blankets the entire field with liquid hot napalm.  You’re dead.  Keep that in mind.

I’m nearly filled to the gullet with high spec, high momentum names.  Names like YGE, FSLR, DDD, YY, LEDS, and more.  I’ll either party all week long with The Chairman, or suffer the very possible drone strike after the NSA hones in on my cell phone whist I order pizza.

It appears the market has gone completely stagnant as I write. Regardless, PRESS THE BOOT!

The only stocks sold were those that will not aggressively appreciate in value.  I cut AAPL and TSLA.

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On losing days, my old routine used to be calling up some buddies and having a few beers, chalking it up as another hard lesson from the market.  I can always have this mentality because the money, I don’t depend on it.  I’ve always been told consistent profitability in the markets requires a low stress money situation.  I agree.  I absolutely can’t imagine being in a financial pinch and trading.  As for the jumpers, they’re simply cowards who can’t swing the poor life, thrift shopping and such.

Today really wasn’t as bad as I’m making it out to be, but frustrations were quickly compounded and before I knew it I was going ‘Full Gibson’ beating people over the head with rocks and such.  I played back the tape of my futures trading just now and the mistakes didn’t start until I made it about me.

I made it about me.  Not the markets, because some crazy shit went down that rattled me.  Let me explain:

I took planned trades, trades with statistical advantages.  The first two win.  Good start.

The second trade takes off as soon as I get it in, looking great, gets to my exit, prints my target a few times, I don’t get filled and it slams down and takes me out break even.

At this point things are looking REALLY choppy and moving REALLY fast.  For the next 30 minutes all hell breaks loose, Raul taking funky ass unplanned trades.  Good God, it looks like I fired a machine gun at the screen.

Funny thing is, my last trade, a long…something was still firing in the old noggin…my exit looks like the most beautiful short entry you’ve ever seen.  The floor fell out seconds later for five handles, then many many more.

This all happens very fast you see.  I lost sight of the market.  I started having a very real and very strong feeling that the algorithms knew exactly where my stops and targets were, and they were fucking me. That’s paranoia…fear based nonetheless. Me, me, me, that’s what my internal dialogue sounded like.

Recognizing this, I cut almost all my risk out and pressed my cash to 65 percent.

Some names I just couldn’t let go of.  Here they are, presented by size (biggest-to-smallest):

AAPL, CREE, IMMR, RGLD, HMIN, DANG, and FB

I also hold some cheap lotto tickets in HPQ weekly calls and NFLX.

My fate as a trader lies entirely on backing off when conditions don’t favor my style of trading.  It’s something everyone has wrestled with I’m sure.  It’s never hit me this hard in my life, even though I’ve taken much larger financial blows.  I was furious.

It’s a learning experience as always, but this one left a lasting impression.

BOTTOM LINE: ALWAYS LIVE TO FIGHT ANOTHER DAY

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Yes, there was a selloff this afternoon.  Indeed, the NIKKEI is doing scary things.  Sure, there’s lots of uncertainty in the bond markets.  And certainly, we’re knee deep in month end foolishness.  But why not have fun with it?

I know everyone’s different in their approach and I respect that.  The buy and hold investor who got involved any time in the last 5 years is probably crushing, if he picked good companies.  The swinger who is patiently waiting for cleaner conditions is probably preserving a nice chunk of earned capital, waiting for her next opportunity.

I’m trying a little bit of everyone’s soup.

So far, my first two attempts at this option game have appeared well timed, SNDK and NFLX.  I’ve taken scales in both.  Aside from the paper gains I’m sitting on, which are very real money, I have a free ride on my lottery tickets, silly contracts set to expire tommorow.  There’s something to be said about this approach.  If either one of these continue higher tomorrow, we’re talking about 30-40 percent gains.  I never considered such speculation until “The Fly” brought OptionAddict into the mix.

I traded the spooz so poorly this morning, I can’t wait to review the trades while slamming my thumb in a door jam.  I need my pointer finger for clicking.

I HAVE MY CHINA FIX: Long shares of HMIN and DANG

Let me talk about DANG a bit.  My good friend @stockcats suggested the name via fortune cookie.  One thing stood out to me, the near geometric perfection of the triangle up here.  The Chinese, they love structure, symmetry.  Their leaders will point to this chart whilst we sleep and demand it resolve higher, as a show of power and formation.

I nibbled on the little bank that could, NBG.  I can’t pass up a good joke, even if it’s on me.

See my Dee’s?  DDD looks fantastic up here.  So do AAPL SNDK CREE and NFLX.  FB doesn’t look too shabby down there, either.

I’m feeling lucky, so I’m pressing my bets all over the place.  I can assure you some of them are wrong.  Until we decidedly trade lower, I’ll keep dwelling in the speculative components of the market.  But hell I’m young, I can afford to lose it ALL.  Fuck it.

Should I fall square on my face tomorrow, this post will serve as a jagged reminder of my insolence to the cautionary winds.

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There was a nasty selloff in TLT but you can read “The Fly” to get a better interpretation.

RGLD and miners as a whole continue to be a beaten down sector.  Optimism in the space fades to indecision and back again on an hourly basis.  Such is the case when you’re tra la la-ing across the bottom.  It’s scary, especially if you’re a political investor.

We had a huge range today in the S&P.  That meant only one thing, opportunities.  I continued trading the mini contract all session, mostly to the short side and then long again approaching the final half hour.  It was by far my best performance in the index yet.  All hail the memorial weekend!

After taking some paper trades in the AAPL weeklies over the weekend and seeing what type of beast it really is, I’ve dabbled in a very small way by purchasing some SNDK May week 5’s on the $57.50 strike.  They’re really cheap, and it makes sense to risk the entire amount, essentially.  Feel free to throw rotten tomatoes at my virgin attempt using options, I normally trade common.  I’m a trial-by-fire learner so after I understood the risk, why not?

Other stock action included selling NXST.  Fly popped into 12631 and sold a few low conviction names.  If you read my reasoning behind NXST you could easily conclude my conviction level was low low low.  Sold for a small scratch loss.

I also bought some NANO today.  Nano technology is one of those things that promises so very much, like a politician.  I did a PPT dig on all company profiles featuring “nano” and simply put I settled on NANO and UTEK.

I’ll be back around, same time same place, to gather some insight into the markets with these profiles in the morning.

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Sometimes you have to let a trade effervesce, gently bubbling higher.  Such is the case with LOCK, apparently.

Other times you give the trade room, and only offer it your left hand.  This is how I’m getting back into my good friend RGLD, our favorite Senator’s mining situation.

Then there’s downright degeneracy, demanding nothing but instant gratification because well, you’re a degenerate and want it NOW!  If you bought SCTY this afternoon and didn’t have this mentality, I tip my hat to you and your courage.

Let me be frank for a moment.  This has been a fantastic, albeit slightly frantic, day for the bulls and America in general.  These markets are enfuego, IN MAY.  I really hope portfolio managers took their stupid axiom to heart and missed all this capital appreciation.  For I hate them, mostly.

Raul worked in the financial services industry once.  Let’s just say there wasn’t enough trading, if you know what I mean.

My happy place is buying and selling things, all the time, like one of those Pawn Star folk.

Into the weekend, my cash is down to 30 percent.

I’ve put a shit ton of longs on, more than I can properly manage.  This weekend, I’ll be ranking these and consolidating them down.  But as it stands, here’s the look, by size:

Trades: FB, ANGI, SCTY, JRCC, RGLD, GS, HAIN, LOCK, RGR

Investments: SAM, CREE, AAPL, AWK

If you follow along on the Twitter you’ve seen these things come on, you’ve seen me scaling them down, and now I bid you adieu.  I’m off to fillet and eat one of my minons.

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The market is digesting the gains bulls achieved earlier in the week with a consolidation today.  There isn’t a doubt in my mind that we’re overbought here.  But we simply haven’t seen any high volume distribution.  It’s just one rotation after another from extended stocks to the ones setup below.

I’m putting money in several names, looking to catch the next rotation.  I’ll be honest.  I don’t know where it will be.  My two primary rotational plays are LOCK and JRCC.  Lock is up over 10 percent this month but hasn’t pumped alongside the overall market this week.  JRCC is coal, so who the hell knows if it will catch a solid bid?

HAIN keeps marching ahead and I’m giving it space, but may take another scale soon.  I can’t resist booking gains.  The downside is I wind up with little fragments of runners in my books.  Current runner fragments include FB ANGI GS and RGR.  I’m considering adding to FB and RGR, but not ANGI up here.

My long term plays are AAPL AWK CREE and SAM.

My dog today is JOEZ jeans.  It needs to shape up soon or I’m cutting.

Cash is dwindling, down to 38 percent.

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I have positioned myself in these markets exactly how I didn’t want to—long this HDGE cheese and bologna sandwich with a side of stocks and cash.  What a shame it is.

This is how the week has played out for the Raul:

I’m trading this ES_F in the mornings.  I enjoy the process and planning.  My win rate is 70 percent meaning I’m right WAY more than wrong.  This is a critical component to consistent profitability.  However, I’ve deviated from my plan a few times this week and it has resulted in me losing money.  I’ve lost over 600 dollars, a gift to the market gods.  I kid you not, EVERY time I deviate from my plan I lose money.  Every time.  Next week, my goal is simply to not deviate from the plan.  If I stick to my plan 100 percent next week, I’m going downtown and getting a steak the size of a toilet seat.  Until then, no red meat.  I’ve been too aggressive.

I’m red on stocks too.  Unreal right?  Stock market went up five days straight!  My CREE is up 6 percent.  I’m still red.  I had a losing trade in ANGI.  Other notable weakness in my book includes FB and SAM.  BBRY is new and still looks decent, same with new long YELP bought this afternoon.

I have this damn HDGE.  It hasn’t bothered me all week, until today.  I bought this position as insurance for my book.  Much like real life, the insurance just costs me money and I receive zero benefit beyond homo peace of mind.  I’ve accepted that.  I even expected that.  But my patience wears thin.  My cost basis is $18.30 and it’s unlikely we see that level any time soon.  HOWEVER, it’s so very oversold here.  “Markets—rational—irrational—solvency”  bla bla bla.  I know…I’m not adding to this name, I’m simply managing my way out of it.  I’ll close on the next bounce.

As bad as this all sounds, my book is hardly down.  As a matter of fact, I’m 12 percent YTD.  Last year about this time I had already given back all my double digit gains on the year.  Perhaps memories of that savage dick punch are what have me positioned oh so homo.

All-in-all I still consider this week a success.  Sometimes you just have to pay the troll toll to get out of a market hole.  I’ll be burning thickets of sage to cleanse my home of demons and digging into The PPT for clarity.  Best part: we get to come back Monday and do it all again.

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