This New Fee Structure Is Killing Me!

Gross: +$972.30
Net: +$694.44
Loss From Top: 0
Trades: 116
Shares Traded: 250552

Stocks Traded Today (net profit/loss):
Time Warner Inc. (TWX): +$367.14
Limited Brands Inc. (LTD): +$283.68
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT): +$201.20
EMC Corporation (EMC): +$143.59
The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company (GT): +$80.49
Chico FAS Inc. (CHS): +$13.55
Hewlett-Packard Company (HPQ): -$49.76
Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD): -$75.15
Alcatel-Lucent (ALU): -$78.42
Constellation Brands Inc. (STZ): -$116.71
Pier 1 Imports Inc. (PIR): -$125.18

Yesterday I neglected to mention that the fee structure for using Island/INET changed to what Arca currently charges.

Again, to review, it'll cost you 0.003 cents per share to REMOVE liquidity using Island or Arca and you will receive a credit of 0.002 cents per share to ADD liquidity using Island or Arca.

My trading style involves a lot of removing liquidity. What I usually do is I'll hit size (and remove liquidity), while I try to add liquidity when exiting my position (I try to do this so that I can get the credits for it).

These last few months I've been using INET Rash simply because it was cheaper and if our company reached a certain monthly quota, INET would re-imburse us the charges for using INET Rash.

I like using INET Rash because what it does is that if you send out an order using INET Rash, it will fill you if there are shares on the Island book and if there aren't enough shares on Island, the balance of the order is routed to the NYSE.

I found that using INET Rash was pretty quick and I got shares most of the time (or at least partially filled on a large portion of my order).

BUT, with these new fees in effect, it really takes a chunk out of my profits!

IF I remove 10,000 shares from the book using INET, it'll now cost me $30. And if I exit my position in the same way, it'll cost me another $30 ($60 total). That means if I take a 1-cent winner on 10,000 shares, $60 will be taken away by INET....and this doesn't include any other fees!!!!!

Well, today I was very aware of this, so I make it a habit of punching in (removing liquidity) when getting into a position and trying to exit my position by adding liquidity using Arca.

Unfortunately there were many times I had to punch out of my position (remove liquidity) and as you can see, I paid almost $300 just in fees (mostly due to this new fee structure).

Boy oh boy, I'm going to have to be careful in the next little while and try to find ways to decrease the fees I'm paying.

I'll have to check to see if it is now cheaper just to send my order directly to the NYSE book instead of using INET Rash....I'll find out tomorrow.

I hate to do this again, but......

I really really hate afternoon trading!!!!!!

Just a little after lunch I was up over $600 and wouldn't you know it, I decided to stay and trade.

Well what happened?

I practically lost everything I had made during the day. Again, the afternoon was just sooo full of frustration that probably didn't need to happen.

Yes, yes, I know...I over-traded again. I think most if it was out of frustration - for losing money and wanting to make it back and as a result, I was jumping from one trade to another, hoping to catch a good swing.

All afternoon it was back and forth, gain and then a loss. I was lucky to catch a good move on Time Warner (TWX) late in the day (see good trades below). After that trade, I decided to call it quits.

Three good trades versus one bad one.

Unfortunately I'm not able to get a good chart of the Limited Brands (LTD) trade...there were some bad prints at the beginning of the day, which makes the intraday charts very hard to see.

I don't think I'll stick around tomorrow for the afternoon (well, unless I'm in the red!), so I better stick to my decision. We'll see

Good Trades
11:25:50AM - Limited (LTD) was moving up and so were the Futures. LTD came up to the $27.50 level and when it broke, I went long 2000 shares. LTD popped up once it broke...unfortunately I got out of the position too soon (quite frankly, I don't remember why I decided to exit this position). I got out as follows: 9-cent winner (500 shares), 10-cent winner (1000 shares), 14-cent winner (500 shares) ($215 profit before fees ; Long 2000 shares @ $27.50 ; Out: 11:27:43AM) (sorry, no charts for LTD)

12:34:48PM - EMC Corp (EMC) was moving up while the Futures were sideways. I was watching EMC because there was some big size that kept moving up and so I went long 10,000 shares. I waited and waited and waited for this position to go somewhere. I put out two 5000 shares orders on Arca (just so I could get my spot in line). I sat back and started to relax a little when suddenly EMC starts running up! I literally jumped out of my seat...I didn't expect EMC to do such a thing and before I could cancel my orders to exit, I was filled. I got out as follows: 3-cent winner (5000 shares), 4-cent winner (5000 shares) ($350 profit before fees ; Long 10,000 shares @ $13.42 ; Out: 12:46:41PM)

3:30:39PM - Time Warner (TWX) was moving up and so were the Futures. I waited for the $22.40 level to break and when it did, I went long 10,000 shares. TWX popped up from there and I got out as follows: 4-cent winner (5500 shares), 5-cent winner (4500 shares) ($445 profit before fees ; Long 10,000 shares @ $22.40 ; Out: did not record)


Bad Trades
2:24:26PM - EMC (EMC) was moving up while the Futures were sideways. EMC was making new intraday highs and when it looked like it was going to break the intraday high again, I went in with 10,000 shares. Well, it started to fall back and I panicked a little (and it looks like I was the only one who caused that blip on the charts) and got my position out as follows: 2-cent loser (5800 shares), 3-cent loser (4200 shares) ($242 loser before fees ; Long 10,000 shares @ $13.16 ; Out: 2:31:26PM)