The Market Was Crap Today

Gross: +$259.59
Net: +$86.14
Loss From Top: $327.81
Trades: 72
Shares Traded: 195886

Stocks Traded Today (net profit/loss):
Corning (GLW): +$110.07
Citigroup (C): +$65.28
Walmart (WMT): +$13.90
Micron Tech (MU): -$1.31
Advance Micro Devices (AMD): -$2.08
Pfizer (PFE): -$99.74

What the hell! Why does the market sometimes decide to move the way they did today? There was no trend what-so-ever and we were stuck in tight trading range all day. As a momentum trader, nothing could be more boring and I ended the day just like the overall markets - up only slightly.

I found myself getting into positions anytime the market decided to hiccup, hoping that it would be the beginning of a trend. But alas, no. I ended up taking some big winners, along with some big losers.

Today I felt much more comfortable trading big size and I put on many 10,000 share positions. Unfortunately the markets decided to go nowhere today and as a result, I wasn't able to make much.

In the next little while, I will be increasing the number of 10,000 share positions, which means I'll have to trade PFE, GE, and MOT a bit more. I'll still trade my usual stocks, but I'll try to increase my share size more frequently on them.

Today there were 2 bad trades versus 1 good trade.

Good Trades
11:52AM - Pfizer (PFE) and the Futures were rather flat. Futures popped down, so I went short 10,000 shares. I got out as follows: 2-cent winner (3000 shares), 3-cent winner (7000 shares) ($270 profit before fees)

Bad Trades
10:04AM - Pfizer (PFE) was uptrending while the Futures were in a tight range. I saw a level break on PFE, so I went long and got partially filled for 9400 shares. Just then, the Futures popped down and I was forced out of my position. I got out as follows: 1-cent loser (2000 shares), 2-cent loser (2000 shares), 3-cent loser (2000 shares), 4-cent loser (3400 shares) ($256 loser before fees)

• On a day like today, you'd exect a lot of these kind of trades...since the Futures were in a tight range, this kind of jiggle will occur
• Don't know what else to say about this trade...I guess the Futures weren't on my side
• I guess I can say that I was trying to make things happen...since the Futures were not really trending, I shouldn't have done this trade (but then again, the Futures were like this the whole day!)

1:49PM - Pfizer was uptrending, but the Futures were flat. For some reason, PFE just started rocketing up, so when I saw a chance, I went long 10,000 shares. Well, I went long at a local high and prices came back down. I was hoping that the Futures would move in my favor, but it never happened. I got my entire position out for a 3-cent loser ($300 loser before fees)

• Not good at all - this was another case of trying to make something happen...the Futures were not moving and I thought PFE would continue rocketing up