An NYSE Scalper's Tale - A Trader's Diary

Thursday, November 02, 2006

A Penny Here, A Penny There

Gross: +$647.41
Net: +$512.41

Loss From Top: 0

Trades: 105
Shares Traded: 138614

Stocks Traded Today (net profit/loss):
Home Depot (HD): +$277.75
Walmart (WMT): +$99.51
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD): +$92.82
AT&T (T): +$35.82
Corning (GLW): +$5.01
General Electric (GE): +$1.48

I don't know about you, but today I had a hard time trying to find good trades out there.

Yea, sure we had some movement in the morning, but in the afternoon I found myself reducing my share size because nothing was really trending and I had to be careful of the trades I put on.

I was basically stuck trading 1000 shares all afternoon and I was just simply trying to pick pennies here and pennies there. These small gains eventually added up and resulted in the day I had today.

But still, it seemed like every penny I made in the afternoon I really had to work hard to get (well...actually I didn't work hard at all - more like the stock had a hard time trying to meet my prices).

Many stocks had big sizes on the bid and ask all afternoon...size would wipe out size, move around a bit, but then big sizes showed up again and so the Mexican standoff would start all over again.

And since most stocks didn't end up going anywhere this afternoon, I found myself sitting there, waiting for a one-penny winner for at least 5 minutes...all of that for a penny winner on 1000 shares. Oh well, at least I didn't blow myself up by trying to trade with big size this afternoon.

There wasn't really much follow through on a lot of the trades I put on today, so I only have one good trade to tell you about and no bad trades today.

Looks like this is going to be another short post, because...well, there isn't much to tell you folks about today. Just stuck to my plan and it seemed to pull through on what I thought was a tough day to trade.

I'll post up my October stats tonight (I'm almost finished typing it up!)

Good Trades
1:05PM - Home Depot (HD) was downtrending while the Futures were also moving down. HD reached some support at $37.05 and there was big size at that level (about 500 size on the bid at $37.05). Just then, the Futures started tanking and the size on the bid was breaking, so I went short 3000 shares. HD moved down, but then the Futures started popping back up again, so I exited the entire position for a 5-cent winner ($150 profit before fees ; In: 1:05:23PM ; Short 3000 shares @ $37.05 ; Out: 1:06:46PM)

Bad Trades
None

3 Comments:

  • good job
    toady was tough
    I noticed those large blocks on the bid/ask too - what was that? accumulation/distribution or big guys holding the market up for the election?
    anyway it screwed me up today.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at November 02, 2006 6:06 p.m.  

  • You hung in there like a champ pinching profits where you could. Good job.

    Many stocks were stuck in neutral today but offer great trading opportunities a few days prior to economic news. The last couple days were just that.

    Tomorrow is a new day with new opportunities.......you gotta like that ;-)

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at November 02, 2006 6:46 p.m.  

  • Ugly,
    Thanks for your comments. Yea - I don't know why, but I noticed those large blocks on the bid/ask on Home Depot (HD), Corning (GLW), and AMD. It was kind of weird because I'm not used to seeing such big sizes battling it out on these thinner stocks. I don't know why it just appeared today across several stocks...hopefully tomorrow will be a better trading day for you!

    Stockroach,
    Thanks for your comments. Yea, today was just completely sideways in the afternoon - I didn't really make all that much in the afternoon (make a penny here, lose a penny there, make two pennies here). I guess I could have gone home for the afternoon...oh well - let's see if I can wrap up this week on a good note!

    By Blogger J.C., at November 02, 2006 8:22 p.m.  

Post a Comment

<< Home