Ha ha ha ha ha, ROFLMAO

MikeH

Thanks, I needed a laugh this morning. Sigh....

Oh come on guys, it's still early....

Signed
The eternal optimist
till my death

Love it Jeff!

Were you referring to my account or some other cosmic event????

Gary
Boston

I think he was referring to my account this morning.

I only love gaps up and down when I'm in them.

...I second the sigh...

liz
pasadena

Why are you guys so upset? Why were you so bullish when there were so many technical indications that there was a possible top approaching? When the trend slows down...scale back on your bullish positions. The markets may run up again but don't just be so blind to what's going on.

Joe

From the highs a few days ago to today's lows, we've had EXACTLY 2% shaved off the Dow and S&P. Forgive me, but i think the weak hands are being shaken out before the next leg up.

when was the last time the Dow was down 5 day in a row........... Run

Danny DR
Mo-town Calif.

Keep your eyes on the VIX today. it initially looked like breakout city to the upside, but since then, it's working its way back down. if it can close below 12.40 or so, that could signal a nice upward bounce.

REMEMBER TO KEEP YOUR HEADS IN THIS ENVIRONMENT.

Can anyone explain what happened to PCP? The chart shows it traded at .01.

Amy

I use mental stops and I had a few good runners that now became mush to the point where it has not hit my initial stop. This is where its hard it brings back memories of May. Would you wait untill it hits your stop or close out your trade now while your not that behind? What do you guys and gals think?

Daniel,

only you can decide, but be consistent. for me, i'm waiting until the end of the day before i do anything.

Now I understand why options are so risky. Every single one of my trades gapped waaaaaay lower triggering my stop losses. My account is down 50% as of this morning. I don't think I can do this anymore.

Let's list some of the technical indicators that should have tipped us all off that a top was close. I would love to see what I did not see.

Mark

Now that the Chinese market has plummeted... I would say FXI has finally REALLY broken out of it's symmetrical triangle. What do you think? It looks like it might be at a resistance point at the moment but maybe 15 to 18 points in a few months?

liz
pasadena

I sure feel everyone's pain. I think the best lesson I will learn from this is that one ay to diversify is by having both bearish and bullish trades at the same time. Jeff often says it.

I nearly entered a couple of bearish set ups recently but didn't because I was expecting the bounce up in the market.

Days like today are hard. Now the question is this really the top? Remember Nov 27th the DOW lost over 100 points and subsequently rallied to where we are today.

Brent
San Antonio, TX

yes Jeff, looks like a wakeup call.

Since Jeff's not here yet, here's today's watchlist:

http://people.lulu.com/storage/users/726/189726/images/25762/graveyard%20too.jpg

Like many comments in here, opening hit hard, and after fighting the emotions....recouped over 50% of the losses and am back within tolerance of my stop out points...

As Brett said and I will concur, look to the close. Remember, FEAR and GREED - what do you think we are seeing now?

Brett,

what is this link?

Grave site watch list lol.. lets see what the market brings I will wait till the close. Im not sure about you guys but my best winners are always when the market is going down!

Danny DR

DOW down 180 and counting

does anyone have any head and shoulder patterns that have not moved to far already,or a search to
find such plays.lets wipe up and
make back some losses.
steve. L

Mark

You need to go back to 10-26-06 and look at a decline of RSI and MACD lines NOT histogram while the markets have trended higher. Big divergences. I know it was awhile back but the signs were there. Also the past month or so the volume has been slightly higher on down days than on up days. Another sign for caution. Probably time for shorter term trades.

Joe

Joe,

Where do you find the volume for the indices?

Amy

I'm willing to pay someone here to start a rally.

199 points down. Wow!

Looking at some bearish set ups everything looks like I am too late. I don't want to chase them. Anyone have any good bearish set ups?

Hi All

Clearly off topic on this dreary day... was just wondering what happens to option expiration dates when a month has 5 Friday's in it like March. Does that mean that the April expiration dates get an extra week?

Jodi

LUFK & ASF - Bear Flags

CAL is confirming a Head & Shoulders today.

Just like everyone I am taking a good hit today, but I am fortunate I entered into a couple bearish trades a few days a go that are helping to off set the pain. Both are head and shoulder patterns. CAL and DHI. Thanks Jeff for mentioning one of your rules to have some bearish trades up your sleeve even in a major bull market.
Chris L

I'm feeling some pain today but I'm finding it very interesting and educational.

My trades are holding up reasonably well all things considered, mostly finding the next lower level of support.

Today is impressing on me the considerable risks of using stops on my trades. I'm probably going to go without stops from here on out. Today and previously stops have done far more damage to my trades and my account than not having stops.

COH, for example, stopped me out early today. 45 minutes into the trading day my calls would have been down but still nicely profitable. The stop forced a loss. That is unacceptable.

Good luck to all,

Mike
Seattle

Hey Debbie-

It looks like CAL might be at a support/resistance line right now. It looks nice. I thought it was going to take a few more days to make confirmation.

liz
pasadena

Amy,

Volume is on Prophet charts on $INDU, $SPX, $COMPQ. Not all indices show volume ($RUT doesn't)but it is representative enough to get a picture of what may be happening. Put a 10 Day SMA on your volume and you can get an idea of volume trends also.

Joe

Admittedly, I am new to this (started trade real money just in mid-January) so this type of hit is new to me. I too had stops get me out (while in meetings) that caused me more damage. It appears we get much more action on the blog site on BIG down days. I did pick up three bearish trades in the past couple of days DHI, CAL and SLM. All are doing ok but not nearly making up for X, EEM and other huge gaps and drops. Waiting for the end of the day like my rules say - white knuckles all the way.
Bob H.
CA

The VIX candle looks like one giant middle finger to all us bulls.

It hasn't been this high since August. With the VIX breaking out today, if it closes up here, that's REAL bearish, right Jeff?

Thanks, Joe...it was right there under my nose the whole time.
Amy

Brett, that last comment gave me a good chuckle. I am praising GOd that I bought the CAL put yesterday afternoon. It's my lone winner!!

Pffftttt!

How loooow can we goooo? Dow down 263 points! YIKES

Jeff,

I guess I've learned something. Closed a loss on DIA to a winning trade on PTR. THANK YOU. Right now I have a smile on face rather than complete freak out.

Sarah

I think I'm going to be sick!

At this rate I am going to hit ALL my stops and be in cash (much less) other than those bear trades. I just know someone is making a ton of money off this huge movement - Jeff?
Bob H.
CA

Well, Traders...

I am off to find a little balance. I closed out of my last trade. I sold all my calls yesterday and was left with only puts today.

I am off to play outside...It is 73 degrees and beautiful.

Best of luck to the ticker watchers. It can be mind-numbing!

Amy

In a sea of red on my screen, my one bright spot is QID which I bought on Friday and is up another 3.5 today.

Glad all those China stocks that I've been watching are still on my watch list and NOT in my portfolio.

Karen R.

Amy,

what in the world caused you to sell all your calls yesterday? A crystal ball?

In the interest of full disclosure (see previous post today)...I am out...my bounce back bounced and left me watching and then hit the threshold. What a day!!! We'll regroup and see where we can get back in after the dust settles.

Is the stock market crashing? All of a sudden the market is down over 500 points.

Well its not a complete rout. Check out the percentage market gainers for today. Thank goodness I had a couple of puts in play and stops set. I wish I had this level of control in my 401K. :(

Mike H.

I know this day had HUGE volume but both Investools and TOS did not keep up as both graphs froze up and made it very difficult to trade. Added to trying to keep emotions in check. I had a great short trade (made up half my losses) on OEX that I could not get out of and the profit in the end was flat.
Bob H.
CA

I tried a dozen times to get on Investools this afternoon and couldn't even get on! I am glad I have access to another site. Not sure how they can justify some of their pricing when you can't even get on to evaluate where you are.

I did manage to offset a little of my bleeding with a put in LOGI that I entered yesterday. Thanks Jeff!

Bob H.,
CNBC just reported that there was a glitch in the main Dow Jones computer due to the volume of trades flooding in. When they were able to get a backup computer in place there were about 1 hour of trades and a major derivitive trade that recorded all at once and thus the big drop and the inability to execute trades. Obviously, Investools would have a similar problem.
My daughter had surgery today ( doing fine) but this helps me keep this all in perspective. All we lost today was money. There are many more precious things to lose. Besides, we still all have our skills and each others help on this blog to eventually recoup our losses. The talk so far since market close is supportive of the economy which says to me that we are not going into a recession. I am going to think positive but prepare to cut my losses.

Sean M.
CA

Sean,
Thanks for the information as that was about the time of my frustration. I had heard it was historical volume levels. You are so right on priorities and I sure hope and pray your daughter gets to full health quickly. All in my family are safe and healthy so thank God for that. I like your attitude. Great to have support from like minded people.
Bob H.
CA

I appreciate Bob and Seans
comments. Money is a renuable commodity.Time is not. I looked back at black monday
october 27th 1987 the dow lost some
551 points in one day, the next day
it gained back 338 points and by november 27th was back on track.
I find it interesting how we catagorize ourselves as bulls or bears,we need competition for some
reason,maybe to feed the ego.Without one you would not have the other,and maybe thats what keeps the game going.Options are a
zero sum game.A comment was made earlier that someone made lots of money from this down day.Its interesting to realize that for one to win one must also loose.I am not sure if that is the reason I cannot profit at this game,Is my
moral compass keeping me from winning?I hear a lot of people talking about god.I wonder how that relates to this, and how this
business of winners and loosers effects the heart. Does plunking some profits in the donation plate
make it ok, does that get the nod
from god.

Huh?

Wow! Every trading blog I've read today has gone all over the place philosophically. I guess that's what a really down day will get you. No pun intended.

To the Anonymous posting...

Life ebbs and flows. There are ups and downs in everything we do. I think we just have to keep our perspective and always remember what the most important things in our lives are. For me, that's my family and time. I'm doing this because I want the time with my family. In order to have that time I need money. So for me, it's not the money that's important it's the time that it represents. I want that time because I love being with my family.

What the heck happened today??? My first blog of the morning came when the DOW was down 140 points or so. Since then I've been in meetings and just came home to see the the DOW down 400!!!!!! WHAT??

What are those famous last words?? Diverisification and ???

VIP down $7.25!

On the positive side, I think MSTR is down to a reasonable entry!

All in a good days work! Another educational experience for me...just wish it weren't with real money.

Gary

Here this morning I thought that Jeff had some amazing foresight of the day. Now, I've listened to the cast and I'm thinking that maybe he was referring to the pregnancy?????? Hope everything is ok Jeff.

Jodi
Canuck

can we get enough comments to match the points down of the spx? man... I have to ammited I am glad I am trading so small that todays huge movement only made me a dent ( down 3 months of profit). Sure today tested if I wanted to do this profesionally (future market maker/specialist). The answer is a big yes! I am love it.

With Jeff MIA with such huge movement, I'm thinking something big has happened......baby's arrival perhaps? congrats Jeff and Amber.

Sarah

p.s. just speculating here.

Jodi/Sarah, that is what I thought too but you may be right I had not thought the new baby angle until listening to the Cast. Did the Cast stop around 11 minutes for anyone else? Also they mentioned that big money will be looking for hedge investing, any wisdom on finding these trades and riding with them? A day like today makes me wonder who is buying all the trades that were stopped out and sold?
Jeff, hope you and your family are well and all is great.
Bob H.
CA

How annoying! Couldn't post to the blog this afternoon while watching the sky fall. When we got home from Orlando I remember looking at our account and saying to Catherine "Hey look at this, Catherine (because that's her name), all our stocks are peaking. It looks like they could now move back down to support. Perhaps we should sell everything and wait for them to settle back." "Huh" she said "Sounds like a good idea to me." But the shoulder Devil said "The sky's the limit. You are smarter than the rest of North America and YOUR trades will keep winning." Down 35% today. I have to run because I think I heard Catherine say "Girls, get me a hammer. Dad has a fly on his forehead."
This is going to take a bit to recover from, but as many postings have said... this is a renewable comodity. We will learn from our mistakes this time around and come back, bigger and better than before. And yes... we are smarter than the rest of North America. It's just that no one seems to realize it yet.
Chris and Catherine

hello...chris and catherine...where are you ???? don't tell me you are out killing snowmen again !!! heck, i want a snow man to punish, wait maybe i can go to the beach, build a sand castle and wack it with a golf club !!! that kind sounds like fun after a day like today.....right ??
tonya
daytona beach