Archive for the 'Proprietary Trading' Category

Invitation to Readers to Write for Investment Capitalist

After much consideration and several suggestions from Investment Capitalist readers, I’ve decided to open Investment Capitalist up for members to write their own content, post ideas, analysis and share their charts; in addition to my content which I will continue writing.
I would also love to comment on readers trade ideas and their technical analysis work [...]

Global Macro Themes for the Proprietary Trader

30-year Treasury Yields are about to spike along with a dollar rally. I feel this is the catalyst to trigger a sustained pullback in equities, which will reflect our rising unemployment rate and all the stimulus plans that are slowly phasing out.

Equity Long/Short Market Neutral traders will have an edge in this market over Momentum [...]

Macro Signals…

Gold went over $1000 and sustained a rally to $1020. A dip to test, and re-test $1000 is likely. This magical number will continue to be used as the line at which bulls and bears continue to thrash each other relentlessly like a tug-of-war match in an Ultimate Fighting chained rink.
I’m watching the 70.50 level [...]

Invitation to Join New LinkedIn Group

With all of the clutter and insanity due to groups turning into recruiting grounds and advertising forums for esoteric and mindless products, I was compelled to launch my own LinkedIn Group which is being emphatically embraced by the systematic and discretionary proprietary trading universe, to my delight.
I know many of you are Prop. Traders, whether [...]

VIX and Variance Futures

The December CBOE S&P 500 3-Month Variance futures settled at 5053, which is a volatility of about 71% (square root). That number was once “unreachable” on a short term basis, let alone over a 90-day period.  Longer-term Variance much lower for now, in the range of 38% to 43% volatility (still relatively high). If market [...]

Caught the Turn, Now Lets Eat…

Or should I say “feast”, to better reflect my opinion?

Perfect catch of the turn. Having switched from net short to net long mid day and scored doubles on both sides is excellent for a typically uneventful Wed. Nevertheless, should have crushed it beyond what was achieved. Seems like overly cautious following prior 8 weeks of [...]

Trading Ideas Inauguration Week…

Long-term study of S&P 500 cash index shows 18m RSI below30 for first time since 2003 bottom.

Modify long basket: re-weight sectors based on model runs on Sunday!!!

ERX, CRM, CAT & CME, ICE - swing pivot
UYG- Friday 8 count. Volume rising. Looking for climax low…
URE- 2nd volume spike around major low. Final bottom today? Could be…
ITB/XHB at [...]

Trading Ideas Week of January 12, 2009

JPM, BAC broke on huge volume and are headed for their lows. GS looks like it’s in trouble here. CLosed below all of its MA’s and ON near term trendline. High volume on Mon’s sell-off.  Relative to these charts, SKF has the potential to run about $100. JPM actually could make a new low based [...]

Trading Ideas for January 7, 2009

WED:
Market on the verge of confirming multi-month bottoms in “Obama” related sectors (i.e. infrastructure, solar, coal, tech). Market was giving clear signals that a trap was being set yesterday, and today’s massive gap to the downside was the final leg. Those trapped bulls are now panicking out, which sent the NYSE TRIN over 2 momentarily. [...]

Journal Entry Week of January 5 2009

FAS plenty of room to the upside. Create long basket with this.

MBI breakaway gap?
Watch AGM, ACI

SKF break below $100 pending….

CSUN watch closely

DRYS target $18.50

EBAY – S2 in place, shallow but potent target ~$20. N/L ~$15.30
AAPL, GOOG multiple b/o’s. Watch for shakeout/recovery.
MCHP, MRVL, NVDA, RIMM rally in progress
SPY & OIH target 96-97. Focus here. Would love a [...]

Market Operations of a Proprietary Trader

January 2
AIG Commodity Index confirms bottom
ACI immediate buy
CAT, CLF
What’s going on with CCRT?
CMDTY:
AKS- good S2..
Follow up on nat. gas stocks:
CHK, CNX, EOG
Watch Solar
SPY traded through d/t line on rising volume. Is this a trap? 50dEMA $91.75
CME going to top range ~$265
AAPL $85 not breaking now. Expect major rally from here.
BBT immediate oppty here, BAC also
JPM [...]

Trading Journal of a Cash Equities Trader…

Week of December 22 to January 2
Dow INDU flashing TD13m. Continue monitoring, need more color. I haven’t seen this model flash green on the Industrials before using such a slow scale. Resolution to 9100 or 7650. Development to watch closely.
Play continues in Basic Materials (IYM):
AA,
Airlines still in tight consolidation. Wait for resolution; looks bearish but [...]