I spent most of the day at the hospital, and traded from there. I managed to catch a nice move on the S&P, buying the open, and selling it at the close. It was intended as one of those 10 contract scalps for a point, when the market started to firm up. I held it all day, pitching the position at the close. I don’t often have such a good trade, with virtually no pain. However, I should have sold half of my position on the close and held the rest overnight, but this was intended as a day trade. Sugar held up nice, and I ended up buying a few more contracts….I’m starting to build up a pretty big position in sugar. Grains all went up, but I made no money there. Gold was up again, and I thought about buying some more, but wasn’t able to pull the trigger. All in all, this market is easy to trade, but is really confusing when I try to predict what will happen next. Past performance tells me that I’ve never been good at predicting anyways. It was an odd day, as not one of my positions lost money.
The waves are about shoulder high, coming in nice sets. They’re breaking outside the sandbar, and the surface is glassy. Nobody is out surfing and I’m going to go out right now and surf till dark.
Jeff
Today was a non-eventful day in the markets for me. My hedged grains went down with the exception of beans. Sugar is really showing strength, and I bought a little more. My attention has been directed towards my wife, and I have had trouble focusing on the markets. I got my new “Chicago Board of Trade” Leroy Neiman seriograph today via Fed-Ex. They left it on my porch…I hate Fed-Ex.
After the markets closed, and I left the hospital, I managed to squeze in a little surfing. The surfing was good for my soul.
My extensive number crunching has pointed me to a great trading opportunity. I’ll let you know what it is…after I put on my position.
Jeff
Today was another day that I didn’t need to do to much in the markets. I bought some sugar to add to my position, and watched the grain markets go down a bit more. Luckily for me, I’m hedged in my grains. I watched gold make new highs, and have been plotting my exit point, while buying a couple more contracts, then buying some puts. It’s confusing, but I know the quick downdrafts that the metals markets can have, and have experienced them first hand. My lovely wife is still in the hospital, and I hope to bring her home later this week.
Jeff
Sometimes, it seems I do the best in the market when I don’t do anything at all. I spent most of yesterday at the hospital, with my laptop (loaded with TradeStation) keeping me abreast of the market action. I love those wireless cards…although they’re a little slow, they do work. My grain positions remain hedged, where I would have been better off remaining at risk, as they’re poised for a nice rally. The spread portions of my grains are actually working. Gold and sugar keep going up, and I plan on buying some more sugar to add to my position. I remain confused about the stock market right now. The stock market has always been such a pain for me. I keep watching copper, and removed it from my screen to keep me away. Copper has always brought out irrational behavior in me.
I did wraparound today on all of my positions that weren’t hedged, in order to protect them from market volatility. I did this because my lovely wife’s going back into the hospital, and I need some room to breathe. Despite the squirrelly market action of the grains, I still have some small, small, gains on the outright longs, aside from the slightly profitible spread positions..I’ll post later to give y’all an update on her condition. It’s not so serious that our son is flying back home, but is serious nonetheless.
Good trading to y’all.
I’ll post later
My grains nailed me today. My gold is going down, and so is sugar. However, I’m not wrong, and will sleep like a baby tonight. Still, I have made decent money this week.
I’m very confused by this stock market.
I almost shorted bonds today, but didn’t like the action. I’m glad I didn’t, and will get a chance to put on a short position probably next week.
Jeff
After staying up all night trading, I closed my S&P position, and went to bed shortly thereafter. I guess I didn’t leave money on the table after all, as the stock market performed reasonably well. My grain positions, and sugar are causing me concern. I locked in a profit on my sugar, and I think it will still go up with my options expiring worthless. My grains are another concern, as I am spread on most of them, but still long. The spreads actually moved in my favor, by the way, but the long contracts were down significantly. As I am carrying a pretty big line of grain, I feel the pain. I’ll have to revisit the trades, and work on a strategy that will allow me to protect my capital. I just wish I would have pulled the trigger on a long USH contract on Friday, like I had planned. However, that being said, the high prices of the 30 year make me look for a point to sell bonds. I will be looking for that point. My wise old grandfather, who lived to be 104 years old, once told me that in a lifetime you’d get three chances to buy bonds at 60, and three chances to sell at 120. He said that if I followed his advice, I’d get rich. His advice is definitely on my mind.
My performance in the S&P was remarkable, pulling out a lot of money for a trade that was on for less than a week(I did have a pretty sizable, for me, position on) My grains, although positioned right, gave up a lot. I made money on gold, and sugar was a scratch. All in all, today was profitable, but I’d rate my performance as a C+ at best. I’ll have to do much more homework tonight and for the rest of the week, and get my A game going. We still have some volatile times ahead, and there will be many good opportunities. I’d like to see it they try to take out today’s low. Right now, I’m back to my usual state of confusion as far as the stock market is concerned.
I covered my S&P short position about a half hour after the NY open. I got a pretty decent fill and was happy with that. After staying up all night, exhaustion finally got the best of me and I had to get out of the trade. I made money, but am now confused about the market direction. The market’s reaction to the Fed’s action had me thrown for a loop. Like always, I probably left a lot of money on the table. I was playing the dollar all night, getting stuck pretty bad until the Fed did the 75 basis point cut, after which I covered my positions at a small gain….very small. Now, I have to worry about my grains, and gold. I’m long grains, and am down for the day pretty good over the entire complex. I like the action of the sugar, as it hasn’t gotten hit as bad as I expected. Although I am hedged in the sugar with a profit, I might buy some more depending on the price action.
There might be some good bargains in the stocks, but then again, there might not.
Time to catch a couple of winks, and set my alarm for an hour before the close.
Jeff
I’m doing something I haven’t done in a few weeks…I’m staying up all night to trade. I’ve got the coffee pot going, plenty of M&M’s, and am listening to the music of Phish. Tonight and tomorrow’s trading soundtrack’s are going to be full of energy….no classical music for me tonight.
Gotta go.
Jeff
Tomorrow should be an interesting day. Although I’m short the S&P, I’m long gold, spread the entire grain complex with a long bias, long sugar that’s protected on the downside, and my stock portfolio is hedged. I’m worried the most about the grains. We’ll see. I’ll either be drinking Remy Martin XOP, or Mad Dog tomorrow night, depending on how it goes 
Jeff
