Wave Chasing

We’re either going to get some recovery, or it’s going to be Black Monday all over again.

Someone is going at it over at Stockpickr claiming it’s going to be the end of the world as we know it and there will be blood and guts all over the trading floors.  I hate that kind of posting – it serves no purpose other than to show that the poster is an attention whore and scare people who might not immediately know better.  Stockpickr’s biggest shortcoming right now is the lack of a dedicated admin/mod to keep this kind of crap in check.  This particular poster, who has already assumed 2 different names in the space of 36 hours, would have been perma-banned from any other forum out there.

Now I really want an up day for tomorrow just to shut up those type of jackasses.

The market is on it’s lows for the day and you can’t stop moaning about how “the little guy gets killed in this game.”

You lose money on a stock that you took a blind recommendation on, did no research, and now you blame the person that gave you the idea in the first place.

The market comes a bit off it’s highs for the day and you despair that the Santa Claus Rally has been lost.

You decide that because you suck at the game, everyone else must as well, so you flood message boards with posts to “protect” other people from listening to a particular analyst, commentator, researcher, reporter…

You declare that every market downturn is some sort of conspiracy by the hedge funds/the fed/the big brokerage houses/China.

You cannot comprehend that a speculative stock is just that – speculative.

If one of your holdings goes down and you sell with a loss, researching to figure out what went wrong and incorporating that information into future research never enters your mind – you just want to know who to blame.

If any of this looks familiar, do yourself a favor and start scaling into an index fund, or get a full time money manager – this ain’t the game for you.

Some would say living off the proceeds from stock trading isn’t work. Yes, I will fully admit that I have automated post-going-long as much as possible for a variety of reasons, and yes, I can walk away from the desk whenever necessary. (We’ll even ignore the 3 blogs I run, 2 for pay, one for play.)

But, the market still runs from 9:30 to 4:00 PM whether I am there or not, and this is my freakin’ livelihood. Whenever possible (which is more often than not) I am watching the market. This doesn’t include the after hours time of research, chart reviews, etc, etc.

So, despite the fact that I am my only customer and my only boss is me, I take this all very seriously and it is my job. Don’t think for a second that it isn’t. Friday nights mean as much to me as any one else out there – it means I get to sleep in, not worry about missing on going long on something, or a needed shift in stops because I slept past the open.

I love what I do, but it is still my job.

Current Music: Ain’t Life Grand, Widespread Panic

So, Wal-Mart (WMT) had it’s annual shareholder/analyst meeting today. Apparently, they closed the meeting with a performance by J-Lo.

What the hell?

Now, it’s not that I am completely against a corporation spending money on their annual meeting – it’s kind of unavoidable. Sure, spring for a nice lunch, decent coffee and chairs that won’t leave your shareholders with backaches that will last for 3 days when they leave. But dropping who knows how much cash for J-Lo to sing? Kind of ridiculous to me.

There is an ad for a local bank advertising how well they take care of their customers.  The current ad shows a customer being informed via phone that a large check is about to overdraw his account, but it’s OK, they can transfer funds from his money market account.

The clerk asks, “So, important purchase?” and the customer answers yes while looking down at a jewelry box with an engagement ring in it.

Who on earth writes a check for an ENGAGEMENT RING without having enough money in their checking account to cover it?  I don’t know about anyone else, but wouldn’t you check, double check and possibly triple check that balance before writing a check of that size?