My Fat Friends

Gross: +$1,108.26
Net: +$1,048.31
Loss From Top: 0
Trades: 59
Shares Traded: 102400

Stocks Traded Today (net profit/loss):
Time Warner Inc. (TWX): +$373.90
Masco Corporation (MAS): +$241.96
CA Inc. (CA): +$140.93
Nabors Industries Ltd. (NBR): +$134.01
Motorola Inc. (MOT): +$102.43
EMC Corporation (EMC): +$93.27
Chevron Corporation (CVX): +$73.04
Arch Coal Inc. (ACI): -$22.58
Tyco International Ltd. (TYC): -$22.74
Valero Energy Corporation (VLO): -$65.92

What can I say about my fat friends? Let's see...

My fat friends are sometimes there when I need help...they can sometimes lend a hand when I need them....

But at the same time, they can also kick you when you are down...and sometimes when you are desperate, they'll push you into further desperation...

It's your classic love/hate relationship.

So who exactly are these fat friends of mine?

I'm talking EMC Corp (EMC), Motorola (MOT), General Electric (GE), and Time Warner (TWX) just to name a few.

I call these stocks my fat friends because they always have big sizes on the bid and ask...in other words, they are thick and slow moving. These are the stocks you can comfortably get in and out with 5000, 10000 or even 20000 share orders with ease.

Sometimes whenever I have nothing to trade or I want to make some extra profits, I often turn to these stocks simply because I can quickly take a 1 or 2 cent winner on a big position.

But sometimes when I'm in a jam or I find myself with negative profits, I sometimes resort to trading these stocks in an act of desperation and in an attempt to try to make a quick buck. Sometimes it helps, but sometimes it makes it worse.

My favorite fat friends include EMC and TWX because both of these are on the SHO list, which means I can short them on a downtick, which gives me more opportunities to trade them.

Today I found it difficult to find good trades because I didn't have as many stocks on my watchlist. For most of the day, the stock I did end up watching didn't really have any appealing charts to work off of.

And so, I looked to my fat friends for some help. There were a couple of times when the Futures would pop up or down and none of the stocks that were in the news showed anything good, so I ended up trading EMC, TWX or MOT.

I mainly took them for 1 or 2 cents each time on 5000 shares. At the end of the day, all those $50 and $100 winners on them added up. More than 50% of my profits today came from these fat stocks.

But I must admit, I really had to make sure I went in at the right time. There were many times in the past when these fat stocks would absolutely kill me because I couldn't time the trades right.

I traded for most of the day today, but then at around 2:30PM, my mind started to wander off and the overall markets were simply a bore, so I decided to call it a day.

One good trade versus no bad trades today.

There are a lot of things I'm going to be posting up this weekend, including my monthly review, my Weekend Reading, and my Monthly Trader Review Roundup, so if you've got time during your Superbowl party, come back for a visit!

Good Trades
10:08:49AM - Masco Corporation (MAS) had just broken the $34.00 level, came back down, and began to test the $34.00 level again. On the 2nd break of the $34.00 level, I tried to get long, but I didn't get any shares, so I managed to get long 1000 shares at $34.10. I took 600 shares out for some profit, but MAS was so strong, I decided to add more to my position, so I added another 1600 shares to my position at $34.25. I took my profits as follows: 2-cent winner (500 shares), 5-cent winner (500 shares), 6-cent winner (300 shares), 10-cent winner (800 shares), 22-cent winner (500 shares) ($237 profit before fees ; Long 1000 shares @ $34.10, Long 1600 shares @ $34.25 ; Out: 10:18:17AM)

Bad Trades
None.