Saturday, September 22, 2007

Trade ideas for 9/24/2007

Here are a few ideas for Monday:

ANGO above 20.11
HEPH above 2.12
OMEX above 6.37

Also, BCSI above 85.00, but it's pretty extended on the weekly chart so be careful. And, I've been watching LOCM forever, and it's potentially looking good above 6.00, but is still below the declining 50dma.

I see lots of good charts out there, but the market is extended still so I'll be taking it easy initially on Monday morning. Good luck!

Thursday, September 20, 2007

Did it!

1:36:08 (7:20 per mile)

Not what I was shooting for, but a personal best by 8 minutes, and I had a nasty stomach cramp the whole way - ouch. Without that, I probably had another minute or two in me. Perhaps I can achieve a low-1:30's pace next time. OK, let me make a note of that...

A few pics:

Time/distance/pace from my GPS:



The early going:






Okay, can you think of a better location than this?? That's me out by the bushes, if you can see that far.




This is how I felt afterward; ouch! Stomach cramps the whole way, and in the final 2 miles my left hip was hurting like crazy.




Mission accomplished!

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

The Big 4-0!

And I don't mean I made $40K today (though yesterday did make a nice contribution toward that daily goal...!). No, tomorrow is a big day, my 40th birthday (feels kind of scary at this particular moment) and I'm going to attempt to run a personal best half marathon. Hey, I need to do SOMETHING to mark the occasion, right? And, what better than to be in the best shape of my life on that day? Well, I've been training like a madman the past 3-4 months, and I'm about as ready as a busy guy can be. My personal best of 1:44:00 last year should be eclipsed (I didn't train very well for that one) and my goal is to break 90 minutes, or a minimum of 6:52 per mile. In my recent training, I have not been able to hold that pace for more than 4 or 5 miles, so at this point I seriously doubt meeting that goal. A more realistic goal pace of 7:15 per mile would put my final time in at about 1:35:00, and if I can achieve that I'll be pretty happy. So, short of an unexpected heart attack (hope I'm not jinxing this...fingers crossed...) I'll post my actual time tomorrow.

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Okay, that cleared it up alright!

I guess we know what the Fed's intentions are now, huh? Thanks to big Ben, my short puts on the SPX turned out super sweet, sealing a second consecutive record month of premium selling profits. Also had a couple nice long trades today. More on the put selling strategy at some point soon; I just haven't taken the time to post how I do it.

It will be interesting to see now if we get some pullback action or if we just head for the moon. I'm going to act like a trader should, and wait for the setups that tell me: High reward, low risk. Every good trader I know (or know of) acts that way, and I'm not going to be the guy that chases an extended market.

I'll probably start posting some ideas soon, as the market now seems to know what direction it wants to go. I will say at this point, however, not every relevant sector index out there is screaming "buy" and I'm not feeling convinced that this is a done deal. We will see, but I'm going to trade the opportunities I can drum up, not just pile into the market on a Fed move. If we get a fake out, or some news that starts causing people to question the strength of the market, remember that A LOT of people bought today and if their positions come under pressure, the selling will come.

More soon.