April 2005

April Fools

Emperor penguins look up at a giant imposter at Tokyo's Ueno Zoo, Japan. Zoo director Teruyuki Komiya dressed up for a stint in the penguin enclosure for the annual April Fool event to display a human being at the zoo(AFP/Yoshikazu Tsuno)

April 5, 2004

I built two new systems, A7 and A8, which include the stocks of the stocks of A4 and A5.  Will trade these, and take only the sells from A4 and A5.  It is a tough market.

April 9, 2005

I have been buying some things just based on technical analysis and fundamentals.  It is still a tough market, and I probably have too much in the energy sector, which has been selling off lately.  Still, their profits should be huge, even if oil goes to $45, which is unlikely.

April 16, 2005

Terrible week.  I have made money on the short side, with a hedge in the ProFunds, and that has offset the losses on the long side.  The real question is what will happen Monday.  If the Dow breaks 10,000 the psychological impact could be huge.  I have sold all but the strongest stocks, and I have no particular reason to want to be in them either.  Time will tell.

April 20, 2005

I have reduced my posiiton in stocks to some that are more defensive in nature, together with some oils.  I am not happy with my performance at all - too much selling stuff that I regret, and then buying it back.  The hedge worked, but I should have gotten out a day earlier.  I am buying some of the indices today, and will run my stock trading systems, looking for the equity curve to move up before trading them.  I think that we may be on the verge of a good buy signal, but certainly I could be wrong.  The Fed has to stop this idiotic raising of rates.  I need a more consistent approach, avoiding all this trading.  I still do not have my mind and emotions tuned to trading individual stocks.

Forget about it.  General collapse today.  I will be in cash until there is a clear buy signal.  This market is too dangerous to play at this time.  There may be some bargains, but those stocks may also get cheaper still.  I expect the market to thrash until the Fed is through raising rates.

Excellent Book on Globalization, which has "Flattened" the World

April 30, 2005

I am very disappointed in my performance so far this year.  I have fallen for too many head-fakes in the market.  I will wait until things are more clear to move in.  For some reason the closed trades are not done correctly at Ameritrade.