A Skimpy Watchlist & A New Laptop

Gross: +$963.00
Net: +$704.32
Loss From Top: $9.65
Trades: 70
Shares Traded: 240400

Stocks Traded Today (net profit/loss):
Fortress Investment Group LLC (FIG): +$591.91
Time Warner Inc (TWX): +$494.92
Micron Technology Inc (MU): +$38.05
Bristol Myers Squibb Co (BMY): +$17.40
Southwest Airlines Co (LUV): -$35.42
EMC Corporation (EMC): -$72.28
Alcatel-Lucent (ALU): -$119.11
The Home Depot Inc (HD): -$211.14

Last night I didn't get a chance to post up my "On Tap" post because I was busy trying to configure a new laptop my wife just bought...I'm still trying to figure some stuff out...

Not that it mattered...there wasn't really much on my radar anyways. My watchlist was very short and I came in this morning knowing that I'd have to probably have to just check to see what was gapping up or down before making decisions as to which stocks I should focus on.

Well this morning, Fortress Investment Group (FIG) caught my eye.

After a wildly successful IPO on Friday, FIG was gapping down quite a bit in the morning, so I kept a close eye on it.

I managed to catch a good swing on it (see good trades), but aside from that, I couldn't really find any good stocks to trade.

As a result, I watched the thicker stocks (ALU, TWX, MU, and EMC). With the exception of TWX, none of these fat stocks really went anywhere. Thus, I mainly stuck with trading TWX, as it had a slow and steady downtrend all day today.

Home Depot (HD) had some strength early in the day, which also caught my attention. Unfortunately, it would smack me for a loser as I tried to get a little too aggressive when HD began challenging the $42 level (see bad trades).

I'm just glad I was able to pull off another somewhat consistent day, considering there wasn't much in the news (or at least news that I caught wind of).

I'm also glad that both the thicker stocks and the thinner stocks are yielding profits for me...I have a feeling that there will be times in the future when I will have to rely on one or the other to eek out some gains on the day.

One good trade and one bad one.

Anyways, I want to keep this consistency going through the rest of this month...let's see how tomorrow goes.

Now lemme continue trying to get some stuff on the new laptop to work....for some reason I cannot get my desktop computer (Win XP) and the new laptop (Vista) to share files properly....the WinXP computer can see, but cannot access the laptop (Vista), but the laptop (Vista) cannot see the WinXP computer at all....the laptop (Vista) also seems to be having problems working with the router....I'll figure it out....

Good Trades
10:09:28AM - Fortress Investment Group (FIG) was moving off it's lows of the day and came up to some size on the offer at $29. I saw some prints start hitting the offer at $29 and so I went in long with 1000 shares. I would get filled at $28.99 and I just tried to be patient with this one. I dumped half my position when FIG appeared to stall around the $29.25 area, but it would eventually push through. I let go of the other half of my position when FIG started rolling over. I got out as follows: 26-cent winner (500 shares), 62-cent winner (500 shares) ($440 profit before fees ; Long 1000 shares @ $28.99 ; Out: 10:17:05AM)


Bad Trades
9:57:04AM - Home Depot (HD) started the day strong and started moving up. It reached the $42 where it encountered quite a bit of resistance (there was about 1200+ size on the offer at $42). It started getting hit, so I hit it with 1000 shares. As the size on the offer began to dwindle, I decided to hit it again two more times, each for another 1000 shares (so altogether I was long 3000 shares @ $42). Unfortunately the Futures were of no help as it was tanking hard, which would drag HD down along with it. I was forced out of my position as follows: 5-cent loser (1000 shares), 6-cent loser (1200 shares), 7-cent loser (300 shares), 8-cent loser (500 shares) ($183 loser before fees ; Long 3000 shares @ $42.00 ; Out: 9:57:42AM)