Official Short-term Investments Thread

[max_boost]

Originally posted by richardchan2002


Did you get back in at $2.30? It's at $2.74 as of right now. Could've made almost 20%!

I really wanted to but it was too scary. It opened at $2.70 today. At the rate it was falling, I thought it might go even lower!

[liquid1010]

Looking very strongly at GCA.TO, against my better judgement. Volatile markets like this absolutely punish speculative plays.... but I just love the potential upside to this company. Plus, the insider buying is heavy.

[Canmorite]

Originally posted by liquid1010
Looking very strongly at GCA.TO, against my better judgement. Volatile markets like this absolutely punish speculative plays.... but I just love the potential upside to this company. Plus, the insider buying is heavy.

The downward forces on this stock are huge. Wait for a turnaround, with volume, if there is one.

[yellowsnow]

i would stay away from GCA. huge debt, even with the asset sale, no new drilling projects in the near future... i honestly don't see how this stock can do well right now.. maybe once they pay off some of the debt, and start drilling new wells

[bigbadboss101]

The slaughtering continues!

[liquid1010]

Originally posted by yellowsnow
i would stay away from GCA. huge debt, even with the asset sale, no new drilling projects in the near future... i honestly don't see how this stock can do well right now.. maybe once they pay off some of the debt, and start drilling new wells

They've used the divestiture to pay off some of their revolving debt, and they have a ton of assets in the pipeline. I agree that they have a ton of debt, but they have been building up their assets over the past 3 years. Looking at their financials, their Financing Cash Flow has been huge!

They have solid growing sales, and just need to lower their costs... which is a preferable situation IMHO, since it's something a company can directly control. I'm on the fence to see if today's push can reverse a trend in the face of such a crappy market.

[Z_Fan]

Originally posted by bigbadboss101
The slaughtering continues!

-$22,000 CDN.

Will be -$25,000 CDN tomorrow.

OMFG! :eek:

[liquid1010]

Another company I'm looking at right now, and could use some second opinions on is IFP.A.TO; International Forest Products.

The thing is, this company (based on financials) is extremely undervalued... however forward sales may struggle due to a high CDN dollar, and the overall slowdown of the Housing sector. Based on technicals, it is up against a serious support level right at $8..... I guess we'll see if it can hold there.

[liquid1010]

We're down 7.5% since the last high. Anything above 10% is considered a major correction, and anything beyond 20% is considered a major bear market.

For a contrarian or value investor.... the markets are having a sale ;)

[Z_Fan]

I'm getting killed. $3k yesterday, $2k+ today so far. Crazy losses going on. I don't know what to do, so I guess I'm gonna hold. :dunno:

[rc2002]

+1. I'm down $2k today too. :banghead:

I think it might be too late to pull out now. I'm going to try riding it out.

[Gainsbarre]

sorry, double post

[Gainsbarre]

another > $10k down day :banghead: :banghead: :banghead:
Uranium stocks are getting flushed away. Agnico-Eagle Mines (one of my few non-puking performers as of late) tanked on NO news today...just great.

[Z_Fan]

Wow. If you're down $10,000.00 today alone, I'm starting to not feel so badly. I'm down about $29k since July 31st. Wow! Just Wow!

Maybe we should start a suicide group. You lose $50k+ on the market we'll off ourselves! Oh well. It's only * MONEY *

[Gainsbarre]

Well I am only down maybe 11-12k YTD (yesterday and today were enough to knock me into the red for the year). I had a great June and the first half of July was terrific too...then it all went to hell.

Damn "credit crunch"...it seemed like we've taken a 180 degree turn from where we were just a few months ago with private equity apparently having all of this damn excess cash to throw around. I know that the two are not completely comparable, but these wild swings really bother me...

[djayz]

Originally posted by Z_Fan
Wow. If you're down $10,000.00 today alone, I'm starting to not feel so badly. I'm down about $29k since July 31st. Wow! Just Wow!

Maybe we should start a suicide group. You lose $50k+ on the market we'll off ourselves! Oh well. It's only * MONEY *

Im in the same boat as you down just a little under $32k since the end of july. As bad as it seems we were at these levels not so long ago. I just forget that I had an opportunity to sell 2 weeks ago and have $30k more than I do now :banghead:

[liquid1010]

You guys are playing with a lot more cash than I am! Is this inside your RRSP?

I was up 12% over the last 12 months, but lost all of this in the past few weeks.

[Gainsbarre]

Originally posted by liquid1010
You guys are playing with a lot more cash than I am! Is this inside your RRSP?

I was up 12% over the last 12 months, but lost all of this in the past few weeks.

I only have a few thousand in my RRSP -- it's just (mostly) inherited money I have in a discount broker margin account.

[rayquan]

Will this crash be similar to the one in year 2000? Since at that time, a lot of the venture stocks vanished, and one of our close friend ended up losing ~$150K at that time!!! We are losing ~25K up to now! I heard that every 7 years there would be a cycle!

[troyl]

Originally posted by richardchan2002
+1. I'm down $2k today too. :banghead:

I think it might be too late to pull out now. I'm going to try riding it out.

I hear ya. I am going to try to ride it out. It tests the nerves though.

[Z_Fan]

What I'm down doesn't include what I've lost in my RRSP. That's just another kick to the balls. It's down about 13% in the last two weeks.

ASX is annoying me. I was going to bail on it this morning at $.95 and I decided to hang on. So, now it's at $.75 and I have 9000 shares of that POS. Could have saved myself $1800.00 just by doing that one trade. Ouch.

Oh well. :thumbsdow

I think I'm gonna walk away from the keyboard for 6 months. Delete the shortcuts to anything stock related, and check back in February of 2008. ;)

[max_boost]

haha yeah I feel you guys. I'm down $20K in the last couple months. Oh fucking well. Shit happens. LOL

[Gainsbarre]

Originally posted by Z_Fan

I think I'm gonna walk away from the keyboard for 6 months. Delete the shortcuts to anything stock related, and check back in February of 2008. ;)

Exactly what I need to do. I have a freaking spreadsheet that automatically refreshes (using macros, web queries and conditional formatting) the quotes on all the stocks I hold, along with its associated impact on my portfolio. It had always been open on one of my screens here at work, buried beneath other spreadsheets and crap. I've become obsessed with staring at it like every few minutes and watching my wealth tick away in a sea of red ink. Last few weeks looking at it has made me want to wretch :barf:. No more dammit!!

[BigMass]

Originally posted by rayquan
Will this crash be similar to the one in year 2000? Since at that time, a lot of the venture stocks vanished, and one of our close friend ended up losing ~$150K at that time!!! We are losing ~25K up to now! I heard that every 7 years there would be a cycle!

well to be fair, during the crash in 2000 the Nasdaq and Dow bombed %10 in 1 session and they had to close the markets. We haven't even got close to that yet. I've yet to recover from that crash and i'm luckily sitting this one out. I missed on a nice bull market but oh well. You win some you loose some (a lot in my case lol)

And some of you guys that are “ I’m down $25,000 oh well” wow some rich ass dudes on this forum. I’d already be jumping off a bridge at that level.

[liquid1010]

Originally posted by Gainsbarre

I have a freaking spreadsheet that automatically refreshes (using macros, web queries and conditional formatting) the quotes on all the stocks I hold, along with its associated impact on my portfolio.

This may show my nerdy side, but that sounds really interesting. Is it a spreadsheet you created? I'm in the process of trying to create my own models, but a lack of VBA knowledge is seriously hindering me. Any chance I could take a look at the spreadsheet?

[bigbadboss101]

Too late to bail for me too, but I did sell a bunch of stuff early July so that's good. Still, my portfolio is down 40+ % now. Buying opportunities but I am gonna spend the $ elsewhere.

Last time i posted I was saying BWR and TIM keeps going up up up. Since then they and other stocks have been going down down down.

[Gainsbarre]

Originally posted by liquid1010


This may show my nerdy side, but that sounds really interesting. Is it a spreadsheet you created? I'm in the process of trying to create my own models, but a lack of VBA knowledge is seriously hindering me. Any chance I could take a look at the spreadsheet?

Sure...just PM me an email address and I can send you a sanatized version of the spreadsheet (i.e. one that does not reflect my actual holdings or purchase prices)

[Canmorite]

Great short action out there. I've never seen prices move down this quickly, and with the uptick rule gone, it's been a great few weeks lately.

Futures are really smooth too on the downside. Once the morning fluctuations are out, the market tends to make a solid move in the afternoon.

[dmtx]

Not every stock you want to short is available at every brokerage so it's tough as well. Even the hedge funds are having a hard time playing this game. I was ready to bail out today but when I heard Buffet and some hudge fund managers are buying stocks today, I said, yeahhhh what the hell, let it ride..... If Livermore is alive, he should be the only one enjoying the free fall....

[Schwa]

Can you hook me up w/ the spreadsheet too :D

[Z_Fan]

Originally posted by Schwa
Can you hook me up w/ the spreadsheet too :D

Ditto. Oh, but then I can't look at it for 6 months. Hahah.

[Rav4Guy]

Originally posted by Gainsbarre


I only have a few thousand in my RRSP -- it's just (mostly) inherited money I have in a discount broker margin account.

The words margin and RRSP don't go together.... can't have margin in a RRSP account.

N.A. markets are looking at a soft rebound, but it's not the end of the correction. Stop loss orders and the no uptick rule are creating a bit of a problem.... :guns:

[Gainsbarre]

Originally posted by Rav4Guy


The words margin and RRSP don't go together.... can't have margin in a RRSP account.

N.A. markets are looking at a soft rebound, but it's not the end of the correction. Stop loss orders and the no uptick rule are creating a bit of a problem.... :guns:

Oh sorry, guess I wasn't clear. I was saying that I have two separate accounts -- one RRSP account (which only has a few thousand in, because I've only made one contribution to it). The other account is my margin account and that's where I have about 99% of my wealth.

As for my stock spreadsheet, I'll get it out to you guys in a few days. The next two days are lookin pretty busy for me, but I'll try to find a time soon.

[Gainsbarre]

:barf: It's gonna be another bloody day. I can't even bear to look anymore.

[bigbadboss101]

Yeah I bought more thinking some were bargains and boom another 10% just like that on the newly acquired items. ASX and JNN.

[Z_Fan]

ASX is taking a shit kicking. I was up a couple grand, now I'm down $8k on that POS. Volume is low.

Put in perspective. Say a million shares trade each day of ASX. And that leaves *NINETY FOUR MILLION* shares that lost that cash. So, yeah, lots of people losing lots of money. Hand over fist.

Or, it could put you at ease, seeing that there isn't a huge sell-off despite the low price. I've lost so much money in the last two weeks, it'd take me three years of work to replace it. (You know, if I tried to survive [ie pay the bills] and save the cash back)

What oh what will I do. :thumbsdow

[Schwa]

omg the pain.

[Mckenzie]

Out of a watch list of 50 stocks, the largest loss is now over 20% today and the smallest is even on the day...not one thing green.

TSX down 400 pts.

[liquid1010]

July 16th: Venture closed at 3,304.
July 19th: TSX closed at 14,625

August 16th: Venture at: 2,431
August 16th: TSX at: 12,718

Huge drops.........

[dmtx]

worse thing we can do is panic...

everyone is taking the hit. I don't usually buy on dips but I have to take this case an exception. Am waiting for a flat line and take it from there. The stocks that I own have at least 30% growth for every quarter for the last few reportings so I all I can hope is these fundamentals help the price get back up when this crisis is done.

[Z_Fan]

So, I did some research. There have only been 11 times in recent history (Since 1970) where the market has done what we just witnessed.

It is very hard to not panic. I personally am out a lot of cash, and I hate to break to those who figure it's just baller cash - it is actually ALL borrowed against my house. (LOL - go ahead) It was a risk that I was well aware of. So, hey, live and learn. But for the record, you really shouldn't toss anything in the market that you can't afford to lose.

So, ofcourse, I am worried.

The good news is that in 9 out of 11 instances that this kind of thing has happened in the market, the market actually was at or above it's previous levels within 30 days of the low that occurred.

If you SELL, you will confirm your losses and have zero % chance to recover any of what you have lost. You also contribute to the market going down the shitter IMO by selling far below actual value. If you happen to have cash sitting around, well, 9 out 11 times in the past you'd be making a really good, really quick return on your investment.

But ofcourse, just like charts and graphs, history means nothing. But it does at least show you the odds are everything is going to be just fine. :devil:

Ofcourse, if 9 of 11 times it's rebounded nicely and quickly, It leaves you to wonder if we're due for one that goes the other way! Eeek! :eek:

[TrevorK]

Originally posted by Z_Fan
If you SELL, you will confirm your losses and have zero % chance to recover any of what you have lost. You also contribute to the market going down the shitter IMO by selling far below actual value. If you happen to have cash sitting around, well, 9 out 11 times in the past you'd be making a really good, really quick return on your investment.


For those of us investing long term selling off may seem like a valid strategy.

I know some of my positions are actually in a loss since I purchased them recently, and I'm going to have to run the numbers to see what taking a capital loss would do for me (Since my income this year will be relatively high). It means that down the road my capital gain (Because I would buy the same stocks/funds back) will be that much bigger, but my income won't be where it's at now....

[Canmorite]

Originally posted by Canmorite
Great short action out there. I've never seen prices move down this quickly, and with the uptick rule gone, it's been a great few weeks lately.

Futures are really smooth too on the downside. Once the morning fluctuations are out, the market tends to make a solid move in the afternoon.

Sorry to sound like a dick, but today rocked my world. :thumbsup:

[natejj]

It's like shopping at Wal-Mart... SO CHEAP! I LOVE IT!

[rc2002]

Originally posted by natejj
It's like shopping at Wal-Mart... SO CHEAP! I LOVE IT!

That's what it seems like now, but it might be more like buying specials crappy tire. You think you're getting a smoking deal until you go back next week and it's 50% off last week's price. How many people own those $24.99 mastercraft screwdriver sets?

[roopi]

Originally posted by richardchan2002


That's what it seems like now, but it might be more like buying specials crappy tire. You think you're getting a smoking deal until you go back next week and it's 50% off last week's price. How many people own those $24.99 mastercraft screwdriver sets?

Buy a bank stock now it's like the 30-60 day price protection guarantee. :D

[yellowsnow]

Any ideas why the ROL.A stock prices are plummetting? I'm tempted to buy more at .80c/share...

[liquid1010]

For one thing I think people are looking at ROL.A as having very questionable mgmt right now. The deal they are looking at right now is pretty weak, and I'll be voting no on my proxy.

[Rav4Guy]

In re: to ROL.A;

Option 2: Is Not A U.S. Shareholder (Cash Consideration) (Subject to Proration)
To receive $1.15 CAD in cash for each Class A Share of Rolling Thunder Exploration Ltd. tendered (up to a maximum cash consideration in the aggregate of $8,556,640).


Option 4: Is Not A U.S. Shareholder (Class A Share Consideration)
To receive 0.333 Common Share of Action Energy Inc. (an "Action Share") for each Class A Share of Rolling Thunder Exploration Ltd. tendered.


You can choose either one.

[dmtx]

short squeeze.....

edit: referring to market this morning....

[Rav4Guy]

^ nah.

"A situation in which the price of the stock rises and investors who sold short rush to buy it to cover their short position and cut their losses. "

Short sellars were making tons of money... they didn't need to cut their losses. They were cutting into their gains if it were so.

[dmtx]

short squeeze doesn't have to be just cutting losses... it could very well be losing some of their gains.... it's when they stumble to buy back the shares they barrowed causing the price sudden hike... 300 points up for the first hour of trading can't just be becauese of the .5 rate discount.... then after the first hour it started to go down to 200 points again...

[Rav4Guy]

hey, that was just the definition of short squeeze. If it was "to buy back shares they borrowed", they they were covering their short positions.

[dmtx]

I don't want to argue because your the investment advisor :thumbsup: but your wikepida definition is very limited.... there's tons of books that states the different aspects of short squeeze....

[dmtx]

just a little better perspective....

http://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/shortsqueeze.asp


like i said short squeeze is about "price hike caused by short sellers buying back their shares they borrowed".... cutting losses is just one reason for it......


EDIT: ohh and BTW, I'm referring to the market today when I mentioned about short squeeze in the morning... not about any stocks/equties/securities mentioned in this thread.....

[Rav4Guy]

no... I'm not trying to argue here but the squeeze part just refers to it as being someone "pushed" into buying it back.

Anyways, markets ended on a good note today but the continue of liquidity continues. Major banks and lenders are working on solving this issue. Until then, we may see a grey market for maturing fixed income securities. Initially, the lowest price that people are offering are in the ranges of 80-85% of par with it being as high as 90%.

[Canmorite]

I think the squeeze was mostly due to ~50K contracts going through (in 1 minute!) on the S&P this morning and hitting a lot of stops at once.

[Rav4Guy]

^ unrelated but trades on the AMEX stopped for a bit due to technical difficulties.... :nut:

[red99600]

rol.a dropped big,

do you guys think it is still a good buy?

[liquid1010]

I really don't know what to make of ROL.A right now. I was hesitant when it was pumped by 89coupe at $1.15, and then waited until it hit $1.07 - then I jumped in. :thumbsdow

For those interested at all in technicals, the Bullish Percent Index on the TSX just hit it's 18 month low, and we could see some positive pull upwards.

http://stockcharts.com/c-sc/sc?s=$BPTSE&p=D&yr=2&mn=0&dy=0&i=p74552397603

[Supa Dexta]

What do you guys think of mattel? With these new lawsuits coming forward after the recalls I'm not so sure we've seen the end of the drop.. Christmas isn't far away though... it's a tough call..

[liquid1010]

For those of you with some time, check out RiskGrades.com

It gives you a risk profile and a corresponding expected return based on a stocks volatility (Variance), and compares that to the CAPM return you should be receiving. It also allows you to compile your Portfolio online and give your entire Portfolio a risk analysis, and compares it to any standard index. It also gives you a measure of how much risk you've been able to diversify out of your Portfolio as a whole.

Quite interesting.......

I new my current Portfolio was heavily weighted towards higher risk ventures, but this gave me an idea of just HOW risky
:nut:

[Gainsbarre]

Originally posted by Supa Dexta
What do you guys think of mattel? With these new lawsuits coming forward after the recalls I'm not so sure we've seen the end of the drop.. Christmas isn't far away though... it's a tough call..

Generally speaking, such lawsuits have a negligible impact on the bottom line, especially for a giant such as Mattel. They have a very strong brand of toys (including Barbie / Polly Pocket / Fisher Price and Hot Wheels), stable earnings and cashflows (with increasing dividends and share buybacks in recent years) so I don't think they'll be down for long.

[liquid1010]

I'm taking a look at some US Insurance companies as long term invesments; Any ideas why they had they all had a corresponding huge drop in price during July?

Seems that there are a few Insurance companies with low P/BV and low P/E ratios, alongside strong revenue growth.

[Gainsbarre]

Originally posted by liquid1010
I'm taking a look at some US Insurance companies as long term invesments; Any ideas why they had they all had a corresponding huge drop in price during July?

Seems that there are a few Insurance companies with low P/BV and low P/E ratios, alongside strong revenue growth.


Are you looking more at the life or the P&C insurers?

Personally I'm much more of a fan of the life insurers and have been meaning to pick up some Manulife stock for quite some time now -- just never gotten around to doing any serious research on it.

[liquid1010]

I've been more focused on P&C.

I'm currently reading a book called "the new buffetology", and it focuses some of its attention on Insurance companies. Their P/E ratios are very small (single digits) because they are seen as having limited growth potential, etc. With that said, there are great examples of good cash flow earnings that are showing very low P/E. I'm looking at one with the ticker SIGI --> 2.95 EPS, priced at only $20 and change. Granted their earnings have slowed, but I'm doing some research on the industry as a whole.

In regards to life insurance, I'm looking at GNW (GenWorth Financial). I would have loved to pick it up a week ago, but if it falls slightly again, I'm going to look at it seriously. The other one I'm looking at is TMK.

[badseed]

Originally posted by red99600
rol.a dropped big,

do you guys think it is still a good buy?

Declined the Action Energy Shares and Sold mine for $1.15. I didn't have a big enough position and wasn't worth it for me, so I took a small loss.

Just wondering what anyone else did who owns Rol.a??

[badseed]

Originally posted by red99600
rol.a dropped big,

do you guys think it is still a good buy?

Declined the Action Energy Shares and Sold mine for $1.15. I didn't have a big enough position and wasn't worth it for me, so I took a small loss.

Just wondering what anyone else did who owns Rol.a??

[8Ball]

Originally posted by badseed


Declined the Action Energy Shares and Sold mine for $1.15. I didn't have a big enough position and wasn't worth it for me, so I took a small loss.

Just wondering what anyone else did who owns Rol.a??

Just wondering how many took Rol.a advice and got crushed??

[benyl]

Rol.a advice was from 2 years ago. I bought at $0.60 - $0.70. No crushing for me.

[max_boost]

^^^

I'm still holding on to 5000 shares of rol.a

Looks like it's just going to sit there along with the rest of my uraniums. I'm not buying or selling anything for the rest of the year.

[liquid1010]

Anyone have anything else they are watching?

Currently on my watch List:
SIGI
GNY.TO
LQW.TO
TMK
GCA.TO

[4DoorGTZ]

Got into Rol-a.v around $0.70 the first time and out at $1.95
Got back into it for $0.90 and elected to sell for $1.15

[Ekliptix]

How do you guys take the $1.15 offer. I want to unload mine.

[Gainsbarre]

Originally posted by Ekliptix
How do you guys take the $1.15 offer. I want to unload mine.

Too late now, you had to send in a proxy over a week ago.

It looks like there is such an arbitrage opportunity right now though...

Action Energy closed at $2.87.

Rolling Thunder finished the day at $0.89

0.89/0.333 (where 0.333 is the conversion factor) means that Action should be trading at $2.67 -- another way to look at this is that Rolling should be trading at 2.87*0.33=$0.95571. Both suggest that you should long Rolling and short Action to lock in this spread. For instance, long 3 rolling shares for ever action share shorted, that way when this convestion is complete, both transactions will be cancelled out and you'll have locked in that arbitrage spread.

Now if only I could short stocks through my account

:banghead: :banghead:

If only I had requested this at the same time I enabled option trading...oh well.

[Canmorite]

You might have some problems shorting Action Energy @ 2.87.

Or is the rule under $2.00 when you can't short?

[roopi]

Originally posted by Canmorite
You might have some problems shorting Action Energy @ 2.87.

Or is the rule under $2.00 when you can't short?

It is possible to short AEC. Current short volume as of Aug 15 is 173,900. The short volume has increased about 120,000 shares over the past month.

[Gainsbarre]

Originally posted by Canmorite
You might have some problems shorting Action Energy @ 2.87.

Or is the rule under $2.00 when you can't short?


Pretty certain it's $2...but it's all theory for me as I can't short a thing anyways :(.

[old&slow]

anyone know anything about cal valley petroleum?
http://finance.google.ca/finance?client=ob&q=TSE:CVI.A

[yellowsnow]

So about the whole ROL.A sale. I didn't know I had to call my broker to sell at $1.15. So now that the sale has gone through, should I call my broker and get them to get me action shares instead now?
sorry i'm a noob at investing

[Gainsbarre]

Originally posted by yellowsnow
So about the whole ROL.A sale. I didn't know I had to call my broker to sell at $1.15. So now that the sale has gone through, should I call my broker and get them to get me action shares instead now?
sorry i'm a noob at investing


No need to...you'll get 0.333 Action shares for every Rolling share by default now that the takeover was formally approved by shareholders earlier this week.

[Rav4Guy]

Originally posted by yellowsnow
So about the whole ROL.A sale. I didn't know I had to call my broker to sell at $1.15. So now that the sale has gone through, should I call my broker and get them to get me action shares instead now?
sorry i'm a noob at investing

Cutoff was last week and your broker should've contacted you. What you can do now is to sell the action shares when you get it. Unfrotunately, that only equates to about $0.96 as of last trade price.

Default.
To receive 0.333 Common Share of Action Energy Inc. (an "Action Share") for each Class A Share of Rolling Thunder Exploration Ltd. tendered.

[liquid1010]

I'm interested to see what percentage took cash.....

[badseed]

^ WERD...................I was wondering the same thing.

POLL? haha

[yellowsnow]

crap, i wish i knew i had to contact the broker to sell the rol.a shares. i was just waiting for it to hit $1.15 and then sell. i hear so much bad stuff about action energy, i don't want their shares! crappy :banghead:

[Gainsbarre]

hm...ROL.A has been halted. I don't have a good feeling about this.

[Gainsbarre]

This is scaring the hell out of me...

[natejj]

Originally posted by yellowsnow
crap, i wish i knew i had to contact the broker to sell the rol.a shares. i was just waiting for it to hit $1.15 and then sell. i hear so much bad stuff about action energy, i don't want their shares! crappy :banghead:

So I'm in the same boat as you, I didn't sell, which is fine, when should I expect my Action shares?

[benyl]

Originally posted by Gainsbarre
This is scaring the hell out of me...

woah, that is a nice spread... haha

[liquid1010]

Originally posted by Gainsbarre
This is scaring the hell out of me...

Ouch, that's a nasty looking spread.

[Canmorite]

I finally found this article again. Really interesting read, this trader is one of the best.

http://www.trading-naked.com/library/paul-rotter-trader-monthly.pdf

This too:


"The Worlds most Successful Trader"


Paul Rotter - aka "the Eurex Flipper"

Paul is arguably the single largest and most succesful individual futures trader on planet Earth, executing trades on the German Eurex exchange primarily in the Bund, but also in the Bobl and Schatz interest rate futures. He trades between 200-300,000 roundturns daily using the X_Trader platform, and clearing through GNI Touch.

Every trader can aspire to imitate Pauls success as he is proof that it IS possible for a small trader to build on his success and grow into the biggest most active speculator around.

Interview introduction (translated from German language interview with Traders Mag):

Paul Rotter has made it - he belongs to the best traders in the world and counts as a real big player. he usually does 150 000 return/daily, sometimes up to 250 000 mostly in BUND/BOBL/SCHATZ futures. in the hall of fame of celeb EUREX players he´s top notch end even leaves tom baldwin (bonds) or lewis borsellino (S&P) behind. he had to work hard to make it. he blew up in the beginning of his career, which was painful but also educational - he learned his lesson and with lots of research, seeking improvement all the time, he became the man.

q: was there any key event that brought you into the game?
a: no, no key event like 'buying my first stock'. took part in some trading contest while at school.

q: how did you get to professional trading?
a: when i was apprentice in a german bank i had to work on the DTB (now EUREX) execution desk for several weeks. this attracted me a lot. during that time i was doing gamble trades on my private account, losing pretty much all of it. when it was deeply in the red, i had to leave the bank but shortly after, i was allowed to start trading in a japanese bank. i was very lucky here, since i was allowed to gain knowledge through learning by doing.

q: did the bank give you any mentor?
a: not, i didnt have one. in the beginning i was exchanging ideas with the chieftrader ajiasaka, who was constantly profitable. he sometimes even hedged the positions of his boss, when he thought that his boss was wrong. i had many conversations about market psychology, which proved to be very helpful, especially after bad losing days.

q: how was your trading back then? have you been constantly profitable from the very beginning?
a: i was doing 100 - 150 rts a day after a short time...i had no losing month with the first 3 years of my trading. later on with bigger position sizes i took occasional hits, especiallly after EUREX allowed terminals in the US and big players like harris brumfield / chicago were entering the field.

q: there is a saying that every trader has to completly blow up his account at least once before he can become successful. what did you learn out of it?
a: like i earlier said, my private account saw some bad times during my apprentice in the bank, although i must admit, that back then i had absolutely no idea that there was something like 'risk-managment'.
later on i found 7-digit losses to be cumbering. on day i had a blackout and after losing 2,5 mln € i was seriously thinking about stopping. i still had enough capital left to live without having to worry about financial issues and i just wouldnt want to take those psychological hits anymore. after taking 4 weeks off, i regained my motivation and returned in the ring. i was able to make up the loss in a relatively short period of time, so that i came out stronger than before.

q: has this changed the views of the market in a way?
a: with the expirience of bigger losing days coupled with good phases right afterwards, i´m not so sensible for losing days anymore. i know that i can make it back. this has lead to being able to switch off the screens on a day with medium/small losses more easily, instead of forcing the way back into positive territory.

q: what are your strengths as a worldclass trader and where are the differences between you and other traders?
a: it´s the ability to get more aggressive in winning phases, taking bigger risks, and scaling back in losing times. this is against human nature. the best thing is to have somebody around who is neutral to trading, that switches the terminals off, when a certain loss level has been reached for the day.

q: you are known as a orderbook-scalper, could you please explaining to our readers what you are doing and what your strategies look like? what is your tactic?
a: it´s some kind of market making where you place buy and sell orders simultaneously, making very shortterm trading decisions b/c of certain events in the orderbook (level2). for example, i usually have lots of orders in different markets at the same time, pretty close to the last traded price. the resulting trades are usually a zero sum game, but i get a pretty good feeling for what is going on and then ultimately can make a decision for a larger trade.

q: how long are you usually in a positon?
a: since i do trend plays very seldom and actually scalp the market, i constantly get fills in different markets on both sides which can cause constantly changing positions for hours. sometimes i change my opinion several times within a couple of minutes, which is not pretty hard for me, since i´m only looking for the next 3-5 ticks.

q: during your professional career, have you always been a scalper or did you try other strategies (momentum/swing) as well?
a: yes, i have always been a scalper, but i am adjusting my strategies to different market situations all the time. on volatile days i of course have less orders in the market and do more 'single trades', although i ususally hold them only for a couple of seconds.

q: your strategies only work on electronic exchanges?
a: yes, b/c you cannot handle that much orders in a pit, looking for counterparties and so on. computer exchanges grant faste orderflow and are not as easy to manipulate.

q: as a scalper, are you trying to run stops?
a: well, yes, but because of the increase of liquidity in the last couple of years, the fast spikes caused by stops are not happening that often anymore. apart from that, that stops often are not where you would suppose them to be, because the other market participants are not silly either or learned their lesson in the past.

q: what role plays risk-managment in your trading?
a: i set daily goals for my p&l, whereas the most important thing is the stopping limit, the maximum loss i take, before i switch off the screens. my biggest positions are 5 digit number of contracts. i dont use any specific money-management rules.

q: what are you doing when a position goes against you? are you using stop-loss orders?
a: i striclly close my position when they start going against me. with bigger positions this is not that easy, because i move the market against me, which could cause other traders to get in the same situation like me, which could accelerate the move. however, most of the time i am able to make some of the losses up, b/c i know what caused that move and therefore take the opposite position.

q: why dont you have any problems with closing out the position and even taking the opposite direction? shouldnt a trader stick to his opinion?
a: no, definetly not. an analyst or some kind of gure has to stick to it, but as a trader you should have no opinion. the more opinion you have, the harder gets it to get out of a losing position.

q: what role plays market psychology?
a: i constantly try to read the psychologiy of the market and base my decsisions on it.

q: how do you handle distracting thoughts and emotions?
a: when it gets really bad - taking a cold shower or jumping in a cold swimming pool.

q: how do you prepare for the trading day? do you follow any routines or do you take it as it comes?
a: before the open i check all the economic reports that are about to be released, speeches of central bankers - simply anything that could move the market. then i try to define important levels in the markets i trade. i do this through my own analysis and through reading analyst commentaries. that´s how i get a picture of the market and its important levels. i am not interested in opinions of other market participants as this would influence my own opinion.

q: anykind of mental preparation?
a: nothing specific. actually i am motivated all the time...i see trading more as a sporting challange and try to erease the thought of the money.

q: how many hours do you spend in front of your screens?
a: usually 5 hours, thats when i trade actively...in case of special events i can be up to 11 hours

q: isnt it hard to spend that much time in front of your pc´s? how do you stay concentrated for such a long time?
a: that is what my japanese colleagues asked themselves as well...well i take it as some kind of game where i forget the time. therefore the real troubles are more physical (eyes) than psychological.

q: what do you do to calm down / relax?
a: i do lots of sports and take lots of vacations.

q: what equipment do you use?
a: MD-trader from TT, reuters, bloomberg, CQG and a USD-squawkbox.

q: why a USD-squawkbox?
a: i use it because €/$ had some effects on the intrest rates over the last couple of months. those effects change, right now it influences oil prices and the DAX.

q: what timeframes are you using on your charts?
a: usually 5- - 30-min charts for trendlines and indicators. i prefer p&f charts because they give me a clearer view on patterns (triple tops). for indicators i like the CCI because it also shows the volatility of the markets.

q: do you think is it possible for a single player to manipulate the market?
a: no, in my opinion a single player cannot influence the market around the clock. there are always several big players in the market. take the BUND for example - there are one million contracts traded a day. when a trend starts out of the blue with only slight pullbacks, i could trade against it, but with no effect. i couldnt stop the market from going up, because there would be more money needed that i could bring in. apart from that, so-called 'Analytics' computerized scalpers have made it tougher for me lately. as far as i know they are analysing the behaiviour in the orderbook and create a fully automated system. since they act in several markets at the same time, i think these computer freak come from the fully automated arbitrage- and spread-trading.

q: what has one to do if he wants to become a scalper?
a: he has to watch the orderbook for a very long time."

He is in the 'Top 100' independent traders with yearly profits of 30-40 Million, but many other traders believes it could be as high as 80-90 Million/year.

[liquid1010]

Interesting article..... but I think the second last question sums it up pretty well.

[natejj]

Just curious about ROL.A... in my account, it says I still have my shares, but value is 0.00? Since I didnt call my broker to sell the shares, I assume I am getting action shares in return? And if so, when?

[Canmorite]

Originally posted by natejj
Just curious about ROL.A... in my account, it says I still have my shares, but value is 0.00? Since I didnt call my broker to sell the shares, I assume I am getting action shares in return? And if so, when?

Calling him would be your best bet.

[natejj]

Originally posted by Canmorite


Calling him would be your best bet.


Got my ROL.A shares back... yay?

[91_Integz]

Watch SWVC - hearing lot of good things

[91_Integz]

^^up 32% today. Expect another BIG day tomorrow.

[Gainsbarre]

Originally posted by 91_Integz
^^up 32% today. Expect another BIG day tomorrow.

Or up $0.0085 -- what news is it reacting to? Mass emails?

[Canmorite]

Yea, watch out for the pump & dump.

[Canmorite]

Very dissapointing job report. It made for great volatility at 6:30 in the morning :eek: