Movies Watched -- It Comes At Night (2017)

Added on January 10, 2019 by C. Maoxian.

91 minutes so the perfect length, but this movie was so bad that I regretted not watching it at 1.5x ffwd. Probably made by some Millennial trust fund kid (“writer-director”), it’s yet another dumb post-apocalypse movie. Pretty boy Charlie from Girls, now bearded, was in it … some other guy with a beard and a half-black wife and his all-black son, what was up with that? Did that make a bit of sense? Was the kid adopted?

Is there some kind of pathogen in the air that’s killing people, but they’re safe in the house? No news, no idea what happened to cause the chaos? Popping on and off their amazing protective masks (acquired where?) at random? I don’t even want to write about this mess any more, it was just terrible. Red rating, avoid.

Mick LaSalle correctly writes that it’s almost as bad as being there.

Trading Notes -- 20190109 Wednesday

Added on January 9, 2019 by C. Maoxian.

Yet another up day … Fed Day … frustrated by some lack of borrows … finally pulled plug on GME, painful but beats staying in pain after breaking rules … took final leg off TOPS

ATOS: No borrow, FIDO #29 … good spots though scary with near pickoff from PO levels

09:25 1.76K, 10:00 14.8K, 16:00 34.5K

SAEX: No borrow, Latecomer not even 10:00TC, was FIDO but crowded out EOD, coulda covered 25x good one

09:25 n/a, 10:00 n/a, 16:00 36.7K

GOGO: Yes borrow

09:25 254, 10:00 11.7K, 16:00 24.0K

CEI: Yes borrow, later disappeared though I was able to get position on in time

09:25 1.05K, 10:00 3.57K, 16:00 11.3K

How To Stick To Your Trading Plan

Added on January 9, 2019 by C. Maoxian.

If you find yourself changing your plan in the middle of a trade, you’re probably trading too large, i.e., the dollar risk that you’ve chosen to trade is not a comfortable amount to lose. You have to figure out, through trial and error, how much you’re happy to lose. This is the secret to sticking to your trading plan.

Say you start out risking $1,000 a trade (the distance between your entry and your stop) and you find yourself pulling or moving the stop, or adding to the position so you can adjust the stop to lose the originally planned amount (a.k.a., averaging a loser), then you know you’re risking too much, trading too large, and you’re not able to stick to the plan. Try risking $750 the next time and see if the same thing happens. If the problem persists, keep cutting your dollar risk until you get to the level where you stick to your planned loss.

Maybe you discover that it’s $100 where you’re finally comfortable with the risk. There’s no shame in trading small. In fact, it’s trading smart because you finally know the amount of dollar risk where you’ll stick to your plan, and you’ll see the gains begin to accumulate over time. As you gain confidence, you can increase your dollar risk little by little, until you find you’re uncomfortable again (by not sticking to the plan), then bring it back down to the last dollar amount where you never monkeyed with the stop or were tempted to add to a loser.

Trading Notes -- 20190108 Tuesday

Added on January 8, 2019 by C. Maoxian.

Chance to scratch IQ, got greedy said nah … did scratch some GME according to plan but still fighting it with bulk … impossible to fill PRAN, just insanely thin, tops was 15K in 15 min bar, finally took offer in disgust … sorting scanner by poz neg not TC, must train myself to look at it this way

AXSM: Some borrow pre-open but none all day RH, FIDO #12, sold more PO per plan, hard stop in (after IQ and GME lessons)

09:25 2.58K, 10:00 25.7K, 16:00 75.9K

RHE: No borrow, maddening since it gave good spots, was FIDO during day but crowded out EOD, viz dead TC

09:25 59, 10:00 6.04K, 16:00 15.7K

TOPS: Yes borrow, PO active, sold it, took two legs off per plan, B/E on rest

9:25 1.08K, 10:00 3.88K, 16:00 8.12K

Movies Watched -- I, Daniel Blake (2017)

Added on January 8, 2019 by C. Maoxian.

100 minutes so the perfect length, but I had to watch it at 1.5x fast forward because it was so depressing… a Ken Loach movie, after all. I enjoyed it though, a real tearjerker … once again about the welfare state in England, an old guy caught up in the same old maddening bureaucracy, though now “digital by default.”

Green rating, recommended, but be prepared, it will put you through the ringer.

(Tony Lane wasn’t thrilled with “the emotional wallop [that] grows more zealous with almost every sequence,“ and I see his point, but there aren’t enough political movies like this one, as far as I’m concerned. I still recommend it.)

Waiting for a call from the Decision Maker

My recommended movies from 2017, so far:

Trading Notes -- 20190107 Monday

Added on January 7, 2019 by C. Maoxian.

LLY buys LOXO … DXC buys LXFT … I was out this AM … added tone chart to daily notes

AXSM: Yes borrow, though all 800K disappeared by shortly after 13:00, FIDO #8

09:25 8.83K, 10:00 25.7K, 16:00 156K

QEP: Yes borrow, “Elliott Management offers to buy QEP Resources for $2.07 bln“

09:25 2.2K, 10:00 22.9K, 16:00 107K

MYND: Tiny borrow pre-open, intermittent during day

9:25 509 10:00 3.88K, 16:00 6.85K

Olympic Athlete Meals and Snacks

Added on January 6, 2019 by C. Maoxian.

Condensed from this blog post.

Breakfast:

Eggs with hash browns, cup of fruit and coffee
Two pieces of toast with Nutella, apple with peanut butter, glass of milk, juice and a cup of tea
Oatmeal, yogurt, banana and nuts
Smoothie, egg wrap, yogurt and corn flakes
Greek yogurt with granola and fruit or a smoothie, plus water and milk or orange juice
Cereal with milk
Yogurt with granola, bread roll with jam, soft-boiled egg and fresh fruit, plus coffee and juice
Two pieces of toast with seeds and grains (like Dave's Killer Bread) with organic butter, two eggs over easy, half an avocado and coffee
Oatmeal with fruit
Breakfast sandwich with eggs and avocado and a bowl of plain yogurt with honey, chia seeds and hemp seeds
Ezekiel bread with almond butter and jelly and a shake with spinach, blueberries, mango, coconut milk, orange juice and chia seeds
Flaxseed oatmeal with chia seeds and raisins
Oatmeal and orange juice

Lunch:

Club sandwich and soup
Large salad, a heaping plate of rice, chicken and roasted veggies
Pasta with meat and a vegetable
Meat-based sandwich, yogurt, fruit
Salads with baby spinach, chicken, veggies like peppers, broccoli, carrots and cucumber, and balsamic vinaigrette
Pasta dish with vegetables
Salad with a carb, like pasta or potatoes, with meat and bread
Sweet or savory oatmeal
Salmon and veggies
Sandwich with a side salad, dressed with balsamic vinegar and olive oil
Leftovers from the night before, such as three-bean chili with pita chips
Avocado toast with an egg

Supper:

Steak or pasta with a vegetable
Salmon, pasta and sautéed asparagus, sometimes with a glass of wine
Carbs and meat and vegetables
Carbs like rice, pasta or bread with a protein such as fish, red meat or chicken, plus a vegetable and, occasionally, some soup
Stir fry with quinoa or another grain instead of rice, with protein like chicken or shrimp and sauce
Chicken with rice
Salad with sides of pasta and meat, soup and bread, then dessert
Salad, heavy on vegetables with a 4- to 6-oz. portion of meat, such as steak, fish or chicken
Salad
Some type of protein, starch and vegetable
Tacos

Snacks:

Granola bar and protein shake
Cereal with milk before bed
Smoothie with almond milk, yogurt, banana, cocoa, cinnamon and coconut
Power Bar and sports drink while working out, then chocolate milk after
Protein shake
Chocolate
Yogurt, fruit, Special K bars
Peanut butter protein balls
Nuts or fruit in between meals, with water, sports drinks like Gatorade or Powerade, and coffee
Yogurt and cereal, chocolate, cookies, or cheese and crackers
Greek yogurt, homemade banana muffins
Almonds, dried fruit or applesauce
Smoothie with spinach, pineapple, protein powder, orange-mango juice, rolled oats and chia seeds

Trading Notes -- 20190104 Friday

Added on January 4, 2019 by C. Maoxian.

Super quiet Friday … note 10AM TCs.

IQ: Yes borrow, FIDO n/a, 12BB market cap but scanner alerted mid-morning? anyway, went with it

09:25 97, 10:00 7.63K, 16:00 42.8K

GME: Yes borrow, FIDO n/a, PE buyout rumor, all day up, bad stubborn boy adding, but under control

09:25 867, 10:00 7.42K, 16:00 41.5K

NVAX: Yes borrow, FIDO n/a — ran up big AH, PO levels made no sense to me, avoided

09:25 638, 10:00 6.23K, 16:00 23.9K

DBVT: Yes borrow, FIDO n/a — active PO then died, gave good spots, see chart below

09:25 548, 10:00 2.18K, 16:00 6.00K

KTOV: No borrow, FIDO n/a — Hero to Day Two Zero

09:25 211, 10:00 747, 16:00 2.10K

VTVT: No borrow, FIDO n/a

09:25 46, 10:00 548, 16:00 3.95K

AKAO: Yes borrow (tiny amount), FIDO n/a — Latecomer, only Top 50 EOD, never saw it intraday

09:25 n/a, 10:00 n/a, 16:00 20.9K

Chairman Recommended: Digital Kitchen Scale

Added on January 4, 2019 by C. Maoxian.

Been awhile since I’ve done a Chairman Recommended post … this is the kitchen scale (“Ozeri Pronto Digital Multifunction Kitchen and Food Scale, White“) that I use. It has a nice big surface and a tare button and shows ounces, grams, milliliters, etc. It shuts itself off. Can’t go wrong for $13. No, that isn’t an “affiliate” link … I don’t need pennies from my dozen loyal followers … I send these recos from the heart (or stomach).