Blog Post On: 7/24/2009

High frequency trading is in the news again. The common investor is getting scalped for pennies (or more) on each trade while companies like "Golden Slacks" (Cramer-ism) makes money each day in the market with little or no risk. 

Any investor, trader, speculator that knows of this should email the SEC and complain about it. It is not about faster computers, but it is about SEC allowing companies to have these fast computers right at the exchange. The software opens and cancels trades in milliseconds to see what is out there.

This is theft. I called into NPR on the Diane Rehm's show and asked a group of investment experts about this issue. They laughed and said it is about competition. I was not able to make a follow up comment, if I was I would have told them they were incompetent.

If you do not have a computer on the exchange floor to steal pennies or more per trade then you (and I) are being ripped off.  You can reach the SEC at tradingandmarkets@sec.gov

New York Times:

"Nearly everyone on Wall Street is wondering how hedge funds and large banks like Goldman Sachs are making so much money so soon after the financial system nearly collapsed. High-frequency trading is one answer. "

"And when a former Goldman Sachs programmer was accused this month of stealing secret computer code — software that a federal prosecutor said could “manipulate markets in unfair ways” — it only added to the mystery. Goldman acknowledges that it profits from high-frequency trading, but disputes that it has an unfair advantage. "

Read the full article here

Blog Post On: 7/23/2009

The market pulled ahead today. There may be an opportunity to capture a pull back on all the enthusiasm.

I purchased Short DOW, Short OIL and GAS, and based on UPS comments about poor short term outlook purchased some PUTS on UPS.  Typically the shippers are seen as a good indicator of the economy. When people start cashing in some long positions, UPS will be the story of topic and we may see a pull back. Either way, the market is strong so if it continues I am prepared to dump and run on these shorts.

SHORT DOW


Short Oil and Gas


PUTS on UPS

Blog Post On: 7/18/2009

I was looking for the original Jesse Livermore text but could not find it. If someone knows where to get it let me know.

A PDF version of the original text can be found at this link.