These All Nighters are Killing Me
I stayed up all night last night trading the Asian and European markets. I sold a lot of euros…a lot. I put on a lot of option positions, and bought treasuries, and traded a lot of swaps. Today, I puked out of my grains and sugar, needing to free up some cash to extend my euro line. So far, so good.
Although I like to cover profitable trades with options, sometimes it doesn’t work to my best interest. I wasted a week and a half in the grains and pulled out an average profit of a nickel/bushel after it was all said and done. My money could have better served me somewhere else. However, it still doesn’t hurt to take a profit.
As I’ve said before, I feel like I’m a hamster running on one of those little wheels.
That being said and done, now I’ll have to get my position back in the grains when this settles down.
My protegee has done well trading the e-minis with my direction, and is mentally taking credit for his success. He’s getting arrogant again, and finds my fear of the markets to be unfounded. I got rather heated with him when I mentioned his blowing out half of his account a few short days ago. I like his cockiness, and that’s one thing that made me agree to give him a hand. He gets mad at me that I don’t like to have CNBC on while I trade. He also doesn’t like my choice of music I play when trading, as I choose music to complement the tone of the market. Sometimes, my music therapy works, it certainly doesn’t hurt.
I’ve been rather focused, as of late, and need him to do research. He doesn’t like to do what he calls “scut work.” Scut work is asking him to run programs analyzing data, looking stuff up, and getting me answers to my questions.
I’ve been trying to figure out what level oil will finally settle at. I also am wondering about the oil vs. natural gas, and where that will settle. I wonder where the dollar will seek a level. How high can treasuries really go? How low will the gold go? I think that I know where the stock market is going, and have a huge bet on that.
My fade indicators haven’t given me any signals yet, and I’m patiently waiting.
I’ve got so many questions and so few answers.
GE selling stock isn’t a good sign.
Jeff
agreed about GE! that is a WHOLE lot of shares at a low price; that cannot be good for anybody.
http://jwojdylo.wordpress.com
jwojdylo
October 2, 2008 at 7:05 pm
Jeff you mentioned your protegee had been trading the emini’s… ym,es? Your blog has great stuff but none of it means anything to me unless I get an idea how big we are playin. When you said he had a good day trading the minis, just what is a good day? Thanks. Go get some sleep.
G
October 3, 2008 at 12:24 am
jwojdlyo
I don’t care about the common stock. It’s the preferred’s at 10% that got me spewing coffee. If the cost of capital for bedrock GE is 10% against a 2% Fed funds rate, what hope is there for the other poor bastards out there?
Jeff,
I was buying your grains! Thanks bud.
And that Potash was a hell of a buy. I’m down 10% right out of the chute – but I’m OK …
I tell you I think I’m falling in love with my short gold stocks ETF (TSX:HGD). That puppy keeps going up and down like a yoyo and cranking out profit after profit. I sold some more today and rolled it into a high-yielding oil and gas trust. The other signal I got was to cover some of my S&P500 short ETF and roll it into my ag long ETF. (Given where grains and beans have historically traded, a may swimming in the stuff before there’s a turn.)
Still keeping quite a bit of powder dry.
Cheers,
George
allocator
October 3, 2008 at 12:39 am
He sold a couple ES the other day, sold a couple more yesterday, then sold one more today, and has 5 contracts on right now. That’s a large size for his account and I don’t want him to assume any more risk. He has stops in, and is learning discipline….I hope. I’ll help, but he has to learn his own way, how to find an edge, his comfort zone, and develop an ability to minimize risk.
I never trade the minis, preferring the standard S&P contract. As for size, it depends on how the much I can get down.
In the grains, I always trade a pretty big line.
Jeff
masteroftheuniverse
October 3, 2008 at 12:42 am
Thank’s Jeff. I just starting reading your blog from vic’s site and was curious what size line you carried, as Jesse would say himself.
G
October 3, 2008 at 12:56 am
G.
I read both of Jesse’s books by the time I was 14, and he changed my life.
Jeff
masteroftheuniverse
October 3, 2008 at 1:08 am
George,
Grains will probably go limit up tomorrow because I sold:)
Time for me to sleep. I’ve got the alarm set for 3AM to see if I’m still alive.
Jeff
masteroftheuniverse
October 3, 2008 at 1:22 am