Hello fellow traders, from the beautiful island city of Honolulu Hawaii! Where it’s 80 degrees in the winter, and where there is always a spot to surf around the island no matter what time of the year! Beautiful women… wide variety of ethinic foods and cultures … perfect weather … crystal blue ocean water, and the spirit of “Ohana” where everyone is your auntie and uncle (“Ohana” means “family” in Hawaiian, you’ll be learning more Hawaiian words here out!) … you know you want to be here! Stick with the talent at iBC, and maybe you’ll be able to afford to! (Warning: we got $5 gas on one of our islands)
Alright, so now let me tell you a little about myself. Who is Gio anyway? Well, first of all, I’ve been blogging the financial game for quite some time. You can find my original website at thehawaiitrader.com. I have some great memories with Broker A that go way back. I’m actually proud to say, I was the first or second blog that flyonwallstreet.blogspot.com linked to! Yes, I remember those good old days when the Fly got the “cease or desist” threats from the Cramer police for posting all of Cramer’s trades; or how about the chats with Broker A and Broker B .. who is Broker B anyway? That will always remain a mystery and a myth, but I have sometimes believed it to be Ragin. Nah, Broker B wasn’t as intrepid. Anyway, as for my resume, I graduated with a double major in Computer Science and Accounting. Yes, I can be a nerd. My accounting and finance background make me a fan for stock fundamentals, while my computer science and probability background make me a believer in technicals. Hmmm, what else, I’m pretty good at chess, and that helps me to calculate so many what-if scenarios in the market. I don’t know, I’ve just always liked the stock market. I like the principle of finding a company that knows how to satisfy a demand and can make money off an idea. Ideas = money!
Style of trading: I don’t know what I am. I would say I lean more to a short term swing trader. I choose not to be a day trader since that would mean I would have to be up 3 a.m. Hawaii time in the morning to catch the opening bell. I do daytrade occasionally, but it always comes at a cost- for example, I basically destroy the rest of my day, all red eyed and stoned.
Strategies of trading: I’m a big IBD fan. I read Investors Business Daily every night. I study and make most of my trades from the IBD100 list and IBD’s top sectors list. I like to find correlations within a macroeconomic context, like how the trends in oil, gold and the $ have an effect on the broader markets. I also like to use a lot of techinical indicators when the market gets volatile. For example, I love using the Vix!
Market Outlook: What a time to debut on iBC! I think oil will rally back to its channel before making a breakout. With oil rallying back, I think that will hurt the market big time. Not a good time to go long aggressive. Right now the Vix is at a pathetic price, and I think we don’t bottom until Vix40.
My Goals here at iBC: I just hope to have a good time here, learning from you, and sharing whatever I can to encourage you as a trader. Some of you may know me as “Surfer” or “Hawaii” over at WallStreak, probably because of all my surfing analogies to trading stocks. Well, I’m just trying to make trading momentum stocks fun and easy to understand. Trading should be enjoyable, that’s why I’ve always had an affinity to iBankCoin. You won’t find any other investment website that is as fun/funny as it is here!
Anyway, let me just say I’m so excited to be a part of the iBankCoin team! I humbly accept this task to help youBankCoin! Really, from this day on, I stand in the midst of greatness, and on the shoulder of one giant fly.
Now, let’s get out there and surf the markets!
-Gio-
The Hawaii Trader
Hell yes!
Give us some red dirt on the market.
No packalolo while blogging.
Welcome.
Onipa’a!
Welcome aboard, been keeping an eye on you since you opened the Wavetrading room.
Never did figure out if you were bullish on CALM…
Welcome Gio!!
Welcome to IBC. Love your strategies, and it’s nice to find another person who also thinks of the market as a bunch of waves to be surfed on (not that I’m a surfer), but I’ve always liked the analogy.
So basically Gio is the Maui Wowie of the stock world? Works for me.
GW- “red dirt”… aw, Kauai boy. Nice! Red dirt sounds bearish, I like it, I’m gonna use it as in. Pakalolo… lol! That would be bullish, since naturally you’d be “high.”
Cubs- my sentiments on CALM?! Read the first 4 posts on this link to my blog. CALM is hot! STILL like it 😉 If you like CALM, I got two more for you this weekend that I will re-feature here on iBC.
Woodshedder- glad to be here! I’m not a true technicals guy so I’ll definitely be learning from you.
GIO,
Are you a member of chess.com? if so, send me an email with your screen name and i’ll play some chess with you. I am a former blogger at ibankcoin, if you don’t recognize me. but i love playing chess
Yes BOCA! The market is just a giant beach. I’m a big fan of Elliot’s Wave Theory, and I know it’s somehow related to Fibonacci number sequences for you techicals-traders. But yeah, there’s ALWAYS a wave somewhere, and there’s always some tourist getting wiped out. I like to use this analogy because sometimes some can get into the habit of trading just to trade, when in fact, the best move was to just “sit on the sand.” For example, this week was the “choppiest” week in a long time. We all know how hard it is to paddle out in choppy waters… it can be done, it just takes a great deal of effort.
Gunners… I remember yah. Sad to say I have a Yahoo Chess ID. Lol! Worst yet, my ranking is above 2000 there. Can you handle that? hehe. Nah, I’m weaksauce now. I haven’t played competitive chess since high school. You’d smoke me easy.
Congrats Gio on the new position. I assume this will be your new permanent place on the web now – no more thehawaiitrader.com? I’ll update my links accordingly.
Best of luck and I’ll check you out on IBC from now on.
Gio–
Welcome! Looking forward to your posts and comments!
I like the combo surfer / chess player / computer science / accounting thing you got going.
hmmm…a thinker with the balls of an adrenaline junkie.
The Fly has made another great call.
Another Oil Bull…wonderful. Well, welcome anyways.
hey buddy,
i woke up… i feel that pain on the 3 am. today was the first day this week i DIDNʻT wake up before 330 am HST. i am here to tell tell other traders here that Gio is one ʻsickʻ trader. i have learned alot from this cat and tho we are friends (i am a few years his senior) i have the utmost respect for his ability in this field, in that way i look up to him. I dont think his other friends or even his parents have any idea how good he is. but hey, he is a real trader that messes up sometimes, but he sure knows how to switch gears in a hurry.
so official congrats to you Gio… btw, will you do my taxes for free now? j/k
-stucktrader
Welcome. Just don’t be gay like Woodchedder. He’s the worst.
hey, gio. loved your other blog. nice to see you here.
Welcome, Gio. But everyone knows San Diego has the best waves out there! 😀
Congrats man, I’ve been following your trade ideas at your blog.
Gio, don’t mind Buster. He’s mad because his hair cut sucks and he “can’t understand the kidz these days…”
Mac, my man! I still have the other blog. I will post weekly updates there and mirror some “important” posts on both sites.
Bluedog… we don’t surf with wet suits. Hehe.
Wood… his hair sucks? Did u see MY avatar for iBC?! That’s a mug shot.
hey gio,
check out VISN today… they really got pounded… so i finally bought shares. imagine that, actual shares… no options…
He bra, u foget to say u can suf (expected by mainalnders-they think we all surf)nah! I hope u don’t use the word “egregious” in ur messages….word is WAY overused by Fly and now Alpha. Your picks should be tailored to words like Spam Musubi, shave ice, tita, & mahu! Anyway, good luck here….check in ltr after I look at BABY.
Didnt realize that FXI split 3:1… trying to grab buyers when all the China propaganda starts with the Olympics…
I may indeed fund one of my accounts just for this reason alone… to buy puts…
well I’ll be the Hilo Hattie surfing the Banzai Pipeline – welcome Gio – have a Lei on me and its Onaga and Kalau off the Imu at the Luau for dinner tonight l~l Aloha!
you should join chess.com… free and way better than yahoo. I’m only a lowly 1700 +/- 50 player.
Mahu! Hahaha! You did grow up here. And thanks to you, I think I will have a spam musubi for lunch. Now that’s just egregious.
(For those who don’t know, “mahu” = gay. Use “mahu”, pronunced “ma-hoo”, in a sentence and use it on your friends this weekend.)
Hi Stuck VISN is a rocket, make sure you average in, like 5 times. Great to see you here!
welcome broseph.
Welcome Gio … I’m proud to say I almost drownded on your once beautiful isle paradise … The place was Waimea Bay, 1986 .. I remember it like it was 21 years ago. I was a pretty good swimmer back then, in my relative youth. Swam out past the break, approaching the end of the horseshoe that forms Waimea. Some guy on a surfboard paddles by “you ok, get carried out here?”. I say, “no prob, I swam out, thanks.” So I start swimming back & realize I’m not making a whole lot of progress. The current must have picked up. 1/2 hour later, I make it back to the break area. Needless to say, the waves have picked it up a couple notches. What once were 5-8 foot faces are now 8-12, looking & feeling like 15, a little over my comfort zone. A big one, looking like the side of my house breaks over me head, sending me off to the bottom somewhere. I get back to the faux surface but can’t quite get all the way as I’m stuck in the foam, 1/2 water, 1/2 air. Finally, I get my head up, take one breath & the next mongo wave trashes me. Rinse & repeat twice more & I wash up on the safe sandy shores. Didn’t go back in that day.
Gotta respect mother nature.
$5 gas – Yes.
I got hosed for $5.10/gal in Maui this week.
Must be the price to play.
Hey Juice, that’s a crazy story, and it looks like it stuck with you. Gotta respect your mothers! Mother nature, mother market.
PCX selling off. Hit days low. I’m covering swing short soon.
SID looks like a good swing short on POT’s weakness. I just sold my SID.
Oomah Paluma Glunka, Gio!
OIH going the same direction as MOS, down.
Selling RIG again.
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Initial query — wtf time do you have to get up in the morning to trade this mofo?
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Covered coal, now I’m shorting the shippers.
SINO as well?
enjoy the last half hour… the market is just plain whacked… thought i got the semi bottom on VISN. its on its way back down…
Jake… I’m not really a day trader, and if I do day trade, I do so in the final 2 hours of trading. I only wake up 3AM if I did an earnings play and I want to cash out from the open. As a swing trader, there’s no real reason to watch the tickers blink red and green arrows. I just scan for interesting sectors (“surf spots”), and read the price volume action to see what stock I want to trade (“which waves I want to catch.”)… watching the day tick by as a swing trader is equivalent to watching the ripples in the ocean as a surfer. By the end of the trading day, which is by the time I finish breakfast, you pretty much know where you want to trade. Know what I mean? So, its not how early I have to wake up, its how early I get take the day off! Sometimes I think we’re at a disadvantage trading in the far West (NY is 6 hours ahead), but in actuality, our strength is we have more time to research and digest the market.
If anyone here trades with IBD let me know!
I need to move to Hawaii.
hey Gio,
look out… Cramer recommends PCX… watch for that HK if your long
gio I trade sorta like IBD, I guess you’d have to be more specific. I use Telechart and blocks to construct scans that either find IDB like stocks, or rank the ones they already like.
Stuck… I coverd PCX today. PCX was my contrarian hedge I made when oil spiked $4, and it actually outperformed my energy longs.
Danny… you’re my kind of trader. I like telechart traders (like Mac), because they usually are professionals. I trade within the IBD100 because they do all the work for you in digging into fundamentals.
Gio, I sometimes use the IBD top 100 to make a shortlist of stocks to trade. But… the last several months the market has been so bearish I stopped doing that. When I turn bullish again, I’ll start up again with that.
With you on the shippers, I think DRYS has some more downside.
BTW The Rise of the Silver Surfer was a great movie.
yeah I like IDB for that reason too.
And I love TC. Now that I use it, I don’t think I would ever give it up.
Being a surfer and just getting in to trading I look forward to your analysis and commentary while tying it in to surfing!