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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Guys, there must be down days.  And when we’re in the stratosphere, atop the treacherous K2, guided by our Sherpa—gentleman Ben—and a group of extorting Sherpa come and kick your pack mule down the mountain and demand monies…there’s going to be some casualties.  You may need to hunker down low and take some hits.  You need to be ready to sweep the leg.

As traders, we’re paid to take daily beatings from the market.  It hardens you.  HDGE was my worse loss of the year, trimming a cool three percent off my high water mark.  Guess what?  I crested my portfolio over that mark since then, and now I’m off my new peak by two percent.  It happens fast.   You have to keep your wits about you.

This may be the start of a peak-to-trough environment.  This can last weeks.  WEEKS!  Oh the humanity.  But before we can say that with any kind of confidence we need to see price acceptance below TWO, you heard me right TWO major areas of balance which are way above where this market could pull back and still be considered VERY constructive.

I’ll look at the primary and most actionable balance distribution in the morning.

These Stocks:

I booked some winners that were lingering, some losers that were fingering, and some scratches that were carrying curious implications.

YELP was cut early.  It was crowded, that’s how crowded flag breakdowns play out.

RGR was an early sale too.  I caught the swing low, it’s been dead fish forever, when that first crazy sell frenzy happened in the spooz this morning I booked it.

I sold JRCC as it butted up against resistance.  The Plan says I must sell logical price levels, even if it’s my last piece.  I can always buy it back at a better price, at least that’s my mentality.

I booked GS because the devil’s been shorting it, I had 6 percent plus gains, and the daily candle looked nasty.  Financials have been a big driver of this move, we could rotate out of them and still see the tape flat/higher.

I sold SCTY late afternoon, after adding to my position early.  Net-net I make over 10 percent playing this crack rock.  Awesome, except it was good for over 20 percent at one point.  A win is a win, I suppose.

I added to my CREE investment.  They’re a great company.  Remember, this is a multi-quarter hold after booking massive gains in the name trading style Q1.  I’m wearing my investor hat on this one.  That being said, it also printed a nasty daily candle.

I caught the breakout in IMMR early.  It’s this type of aggression that allows me to not experience much emotion when the breakout sputters out like this one did.  It has Fly power behind it, so I’m giving it room.

Bottom line: you’re surrounded by algorithms wielding meat cleavers, protect your neck with profit scales and stop losses.  My cash pushed way up into the bell, damn near 50 percent.  I don’t like lazy cash so I’ll be hunting tonight.

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Firstly, it should come as no surprise to most that although my current habitat is a small grey cube I’m best suited for the circus.  One of my specialties is spinning nine plates while tending to nine irons in three fires while riding a unicycle.  As such, I’m not caring so much when I’m wrong on a trade or business venture because three others are putting bread on my little clown table.

In the past, I could be found on the twitter early in the morning, guns blazing like Yosemite Sam on these juiced up stocks like ZNGA or BBY.  I like swing trading little 5-8 percent bangers and it’s treated me well since like August.

But sometimes you have to find another cat, and skin it naked.  Aside: I love cats.  I keep two of the outdoor variety for keeping the damn squirrels out of my walnut trees.  Back on the topic: I like the S&P future contract.  It’s the most liquid financial instrument in the world.  It is the essence of pure order flow.  Any hand big enough to sway this market shows a big harry footprint.  I like order flow, so I’m teaching myself to trade it.

The plan calls for me to trade the e-mini S&P from 8:30am-11am.  I trade this market without external influence.  No blogs, no twitter, and most certainly no teevee.  It’s just me and my robots.

So don’t go looking for me so much around those hours.

The way I trade stock swings, I need a good look at the close to solidify the signal.  However, I like getting in early sometimes, and since I won’t be as active in the morning, only 25 percent of my capital will be tied to these types of trades.

The rest I’ve begun dollar-cost-averaging into names I really like.  My two absolute favorites are CREE and AWK.  Light emitting diodes and water.  Both are vital to our future.  I started buying SAM, but I’m not as solid on this thesis yet.  I may just cut and regroup.  I’m trying to get excited about AAPL, seeing as I bought the bottom, but it’s hard to call this an investment yet.  I could cut at any moment.

So I’m an investor now, a swing trader, a morning scalper, an accountant, a business owner, and a blogger.  Fly will tell you to temper your expectations on life, but my father was a day laborer and I’m already upper-middle class looking to get rich as fuck.  Straight up, I won’t stop until I have a stable of cars, a Lenny Dykstra-Wayne Gretzky house, and one of those vanishing edge pools.

Last thing: many respectable players recommend keeping separate accounts for different strategies.  I’ve never tried putting them all together, but I DO keep separate accounts for all of this trading activity.  I can imagine it could get harry having it all in one place.

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It really is odd how only missing four days of market action and a weekend of study has me feeling weak handed.  It’s no surprise most of the best never take vacations and are a constant fixture on the internet.  So much happens in a minute.

Many incorporate a systematic approach to trading which allows for the monitoring of multiple markets and timeframes.  Most of trade location and setup can be mechanical, but entry and exit are what can be more of an art.

I think I could travel freely so long as I have a reliable connection and travel during non-market hours.  I like having reliable infrastructure so the plan is to keep within the boundaries of it while the market is open.

So now the important task is getting back into my stride.  I have some charts I’m liking and I’m glad that I got very small on VHC before vacation.  Had I left my stop in place I would have been out already, however, it wasn’t much better of a pricing then where we landed today.  I’m not caring too much about this.  It needs to be cut but I got distracted talking to a coworker as the market closed.  Excuses, Excuses, it needs to be cut.

The real ace-in-the hole I have for getting caught up this weekend is ChessNwine’s Weekly Strategy Session.  Believe me, this post is entirely without incentive.  When it comes to premium products I keep the purse strings tight.  I got a taste for the strategy session while I was interim blogger and I can say without doubt that it gets you where you need to be.

Plus, once I’m plugged back into the market I don’t necessarily need another strategy session. Chess understands this, and offers a onetime pricing option. Bravo good sir, I’ll take one, perhaps two or three.

I’ll be working on damage control tomorrow but I’ll be back full swing come Monday.  Vai con dios amigos.

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Good morning to you!  We’re waking up to mildly green futures this morning, mildly green as we once again stretch our reach toward the peak of “momo-mountain”.  The terrain is jagged up here and it looks like our only way out of it is up, up, and away, like He-man.  Or Super Man.

There’s something important for me to address today, and that’s the big long exposure I have.  You see, I only have today and tomorrow morning to decide what to do with my positioning before I head deep into the jungle. That’s right!  Raul is taking this show on the road baby!  And why the hell not, we make all of this money for a reason, and that’s to LIVE!

The timing of my trip is in alignment with future traders rolling over to the June contract.  Once you begin trading futures, you’ll get a feel for the mild frustration that is rollover.  I personally don’t like the rollover period whatsoever, so I figure pare that with the sub-arctic weather canvassing the north, it was a perfect time to hit the high heat, high humidity.

Enough about my escape, let’s look at some important developments within the daily auctions.  The globex session pushed the market to fresh highs, peaking out at 1530.25 and I don’t have much to cue off of above that level. It’s open air, trade accordingly.

Below I’ve only noted the key zone that needs to hold.  Things get VERY slippery below there and it’s a major blow to confidence.  Should we sustain trade below there, I’m cutting back big time, keeping only my ace names, NAMES LIKE CREE, who took it upon themselves to make Edison’s stupid incandescent bulb and that goofy squiggly CFL OBSOLETE!  Adios bad tech, hello good.  Tesla is a smiling mass of electrons somewhere today.

Bottom Line: Raul is heading into the jungle and will bring it to you live.  The only way out is up.  The profiles point to higher prices.  Thomas Edison was a corporate hit man.

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Sometimes we work hard at something because it’s our passion.  Other times we bury ourselves in the mundane, perhaps something easily delegated or put off, because it takes our mind off other parts of life.  I like both of these.  It’s hard for me to call trading work.  The research doesn’t bother me either.  All the data gets fed into my mind, and then I apply it to my whole life.  As hard as life can be in America, if you diligently make good decisions there’s no better culture to thrive in.  Studying successful businessmen and their companies gives me confidence to walk into any boardroom, mobbing my boots rugged, and throw down.  My life is improving rapidly, and 2013 is my busting out year.

This is about the point where my handsome face gets shoved in a blendtec.

My readership reached record lows this week and now I’m getting fired. My blog isn’t something people want to read and share with their friends.  I act weird on the internet.  I’m the first to admit that.  It’s fun and ads color to my otherwise grayscale day.  I really don’t think that should matter.  You should see some of the characters I do business with in real life.  I wouldn’t take them to a baseball game with my corporate coworkers but I trust them in their profession.  I rely on people to be good at what they do, so I can be great at what I do. Contrary to what commenter “Fly Fraud” would have you think, I trade well.

The hits are rolling over here.  I really thought being right more times than wrong would build readership.  I’m not going to lie, I pumped the election boxes a bit.  Do you really think I had a shot at being top three?  Obviously you weren’t hanging around the blogger network where I rarely ranked top ten.  I figured grab the stage, crush some trades real time, and sit back and watch my viewership explode. Boooooom, didn’t happen.

With all of that in mind, I’m lightening up most of my positions these next few sessions, and strategizing March.  Being right—doesn’t matter.  Juggling hand grenades—not impressive.  Funky You Tube grabs—yawn.  I’m going to get increasingly selective with my positions even if it means delaying gains.  To keep your interest I’m taking this show on the road, and heading back to the dark dungeons of the Blogger Network.  Stay tuned.

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After not battling but going with the flow as my afternoon commute home morphed into anything but normal, I fed the animals and grabbed my gym bag.  As I headed back to my car I recalled earlier when I saw a Dodge Ram blow a tie-rod on the highway.  Wobbly, wobbly, piece of shit, I thought.  I had a lovely swim and it was back to make preparation for my three hundredth post.  There was much work to be done.

First and foremost, a heavy salad was prepared.  Arugula, kale, and mixed greens were a bed for a large cut of turkey breast (modern grocery=heaven).  After dinner, sufficient wood was gathered and a modest fire was built in the hearth.  Three thickets of sage were lit ablaze from the young fire and used to smudge the parameter walls of casa de Raul.  A liter of Pellegrino, a glass with three ice cubes and three tablespoons of Sicilian lemon juice, and a cup of blackberry sage tea steeped thirty seconds sit beside me.  Hello everyone, welcome to the very ceremonial three hundredth post.

I’ve learned much in three hundred posts.  And things have been pretty awesome since I picked up the pen.  I have more ideas in my mind now, they’re becoming tangible, I’ve met some brilliant minds both on and off the internet, and I’m banking coin in the stock market.  I’m swimming better in the pool then I have in my entire life.  I’ve always been more of an open water guy, thus my game at the walls is weak.  For a long time, I just accepted it and stuck to perfecting my stroke mechanics for when I got back to open water in the summer.  I decided recently to make my greatest weakness my greatest strength.  Now the wall is my favorite part!  This is very anecdotal to trading.  For me, perfecting one trade strategy and repeating it over and over and over until muscle memory clicked is what got me cash flow.  This is the second of three steps for any successful business.

There’s a three stage progression to build a business: capital, cash flow, go for the jumbo.  That is it, any business, all kinds.  Now that I’ve progressed into stage two I can build a plan to address my greatest weakness.  Then I diligently execute that plan through a series of good decisions.  You don’t need to be a genius to make good decisions, but you do need good data.  Given the right information, most of you are smart enough to make enough correct decisions to be successful.

“Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face” – Mike Tyson

When you get punched, don’t fight back.  Be water, amorphous.  A good plan has the ability to change as conditions merit.

I suppose these are some of the bigger themes I’ve been executing lately.  And groundwork is being made for the big salami.  The leap of faith to pure entrepreneurship.  You’ve met me at a strange point in my life.  A transition phase so planned for, so diligently executed, that the year 2013 was pinpointed.  I’m 27 (divisible by three) which is damn near a perfect age.  2013 is of course divisible by three.  There was that whole galactic alignment to start the year.  It’s my busting out year.

So an interesting archive this blog makes.  Unless The Fly vaporizes my entire existence into dust, which he may, I can always come back to these most noble halls and see my words spread across the screen like aged scrolls. Suppose The Fly does vaporize everything, perhaps it’s for the better?

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