Movies Watched -- Silence (2017)

Added on February 2, 2019 by C. Maoxian.

160 minute running time, insane. Adam Sackler (why does this guy get so much work?) and some other kid I've never seen before as Jesuit priests on a mission to Japan (1640s) to find lost priest Liam Neeson and convert the locals or minister to the already converted, who are being mercilessly persecuted ... Scorsese is interested in religious persecution and martydom, but it doesn’t make for a good movie. 160 minutes of torturing the audience. Who funded this?!? Red rating, avoid.

Kyle Smith correctly writes: "30 years in the making ... it plays like 30 years in the watching."

Manohla Dargis writes: "There’s a crushing lack of urgency to this story and its telling...."

Mick LaSalle writes: ”‘Silence’ is Scorsese at his worst.”

Michael Phillips writes: “…methodical and stately to a fault.“

Kate Taylor called it a “failed passion project”

Tortured members of the viewing audience

Movies Watched -- Logan Lucky (2017)

Added on February 1, 2019 by C. Maoxian.

119 minute running time. Watched at 1.5x ffwd. Heist movie / redneck comedy made by snotty coastal elites ... making fun of southern (West Virginia) white trash culture: old pickup trucks, NASCAR, child beauty pageants, camo Carhartt caps, The Google, two tours in I-raq, everyone's tattooed, etc. ... goateed Channing Tatum as hobbled ex-coal miner, with Katie Holmes (she’s ageing well) as his ex- and Adam Sackler from Girls as his brother.... blonde Daniel Craig (his explosives explanation with chalk was funny) .... Hilary Swank plays Arnold Schwarzenegger ... fake Southern accents were grating and offensive ... sets up for a sequel, oh no! ... directed by Steven Soderbergh?!? It was at least 20 minutes too long, but it wasn't super duper terrible. Yellow rating.

Rex hated it (but he has always loathed Soderbergh).

Miner's alien daughter, stranger to blue water

Trading Notes -- 20190201 Friday

Added on February 1, 2019 by C. Maoxian.

Second anniversary since I started day trading again! Man I've lost a ton of money and time doing this, but I’ve got time and money to lose, plus it's a blast.

APHA screaming, FIDO 9, ton of borrow always, thought I'd done nicely shorting B A A+ esp. when some dumb Citron tweet hit and it tanked, but it turned right around and stopped me out -1R, hmmm annoying. Re-shorted a leg in the afternoon, we'll see.

TTNP (FIDO 19) and TBLT earlier stocks du jour, no borrow but some great PO spots, coulda done very well.

TMSR (FIDO 23) latecomer, another amazing play but no borrow, alas

Attempted to play OPKO, Squashed Toad, TexMex mentioned it on TWTR, had unlimited borrow so... bad B entry then SSR made it sticky and a pain, added A will quit there, will be patient and look for a scratch

SXTC super thin but came in with a plan and executed it but now predictably StuckAtaProfit, will have to wait for next week to cover

Short NIO at B after ToT, only got partial fill (HALF!) because they ran out of shares to lend, out at minC and Typ3, nice trade but really hampered by no size with limited borrow, NIO 7BB mkt cap doesn't belong on list but I traded it anyway

ZYNE came back alive, though super thin. Took the tiny loss with stupidly held short, good news is I didn't add add add to it, but I did re-short it later at a good spot

CODX approaching target below 1.20, woulda been worth even 7x borrow cost

FBIO it ran and I debated where to trail stop but ended up taking small loss on remainder, bah

Trading Notes -- 20190131 Thursday

Added on February 1, 2019 by C. Maoxian.

Away nearly all day in hospital for LLP bronchoscopy, so an abbreviated entry. Broad tone poz, short headwind. SCYX the stock du jour, lotta borrow pre-open but all gone (a couple hundred thousand shares) by open … FBIO also lots of borrow all day, shoulda played both but they were chase entries so I only did FBIO, chase entry PO, covered minC, waiting on Typ3 (OR Typ3 hit but I’m being patient). OSTK jammed me out at tightened stop and instantly tanked to new lows, sheesh. CODX PO offering the dirty bastards… amusing since broker says overnight borrows will now be 7x, up from 4x. SXTC no borrow, mover but super thin, gave interesting spots. Tried to short NIO in absentia but when it triggered, no borrow (was borrow earlier, I assumed they wouldn’t disappear, wrong again).

Trading Notes -- 20190130 Wednesday

Added on January 30, 2019 by C. Maoxian.

Broad tone poz... short headwind ... Fed Day, 2PM normal shenanigans ... Naz +2.5% EOD

CODX stock du jour, no borrow, FIDO 10, 5.9K, 37.5K, 94.8K

Tried a rare long TSX style in CODX (see chart below), trial size but coulda been smaller still, super tight stop, instantly stopped, kind of dumb, certainly not my style, sort of regret doing it but I have to get better about getting long from time to time ... if I had a borrow there were some great spots

TRVN -- offering PO, down 16% ... amazing they had millions of shares avail on Monday, none on Tuesday, and the offering comes Wednesday PO? Coincidence? 2.76K, 6.11K, 19.5K

EYEN active PO, no borrow, 1.64K, 7.48K, 14.2K

EKSO yes borrow, missed lovely OM B entry, chased C half size, hit all targets almost immediately, 1.18K, 6.87K, 12.7K

MLNX yes borrow, weird one $100+ PO on Intel thing, avoid,

CANF yes borrow went dead, no play

ZYNE surprise borrow, shorted YB, super thin, 1.74K at 10:15, shouldn't waste time with it, just dead money Day Two waste of energy, carrying it, looking to scratch, will be tiny loss if stopped using today OR stop, 142, 1.44K, 6.18K

OCX shockingly 100K+ PO but all borrowed mighty quick, zero during RH, classic Day Two dead dog, hero to zero, 809, 5.93K, 16.2K

VYGR exited rest at Typ3

SXTC latecomer no borrow

Trading Notes -- 20190129 Tuesday

Added on January 29, 2019 by C. Maoxian.

Broad tone neg … short tailwind … OCX the stock du jour (6.38K, 37.2K, 139K) but no borrow … locked out of broker with a borrow cuz I only have a few K there and did three trades yday (maxing PDT thing, sheesh), can’t play again till next Monday which means I have to act this week to get some cash over there. I did have a borrow in CRON (2.93K, 36.0K, 130K) and VYGR (849, 6.78K, 20.1K) so played both… OSTK (23, 936, 12.5K) no borrow today, TRVN (1.28K, 10.3K, 35.3K) no borrow (and they had millions of shares yday), ZYNE (216, 3.61K, 20.9K) some borrow PO but quickly pre-borrowed, AVCO (418, 3.58K, 7.55K) no borrow (.144 at TZ, ~$300 for 2,000 shares, ha!) but it tanked beautifully for a Day Two, that squeeze they did yday was shameless, but of course they got me out personally, which was their goal. :)

Woulda stayed out of trouble in OCX, even with borrow, thank god … TRVN I’d have a couple legs on despite SSR ... had to chase VYGR, went half size and instantly hit minC, waiting on rest for Typ3 … covered rest of CLRO at updated target which was wise because it is so dead I was totally StuckAtaProfit, turned out to be a nice trade.

CRON was the big winner, it’s at all-time highs, shorted B & A & A+! so a rare large position, had to take LLP to Ladies’ meeting, came home to find it had hit all targets and I was out, an incredibly pleasant surprise. Totally by the book and I needed a big winner given recent SLM jam-out, and IQ/GME stop-pulling debacle from earlier this month.

OSTK tanked which was nice, I was hoping for A+ but it never happened, but I’m content with the size and took off part at minC, waiting on rest at Typ3, will be nice win if I exit it all at targets.

Until the Poets Run Out of Rhyme

Added on January 28, 2019 by C. Maoxian.

The great Barbara Lewis surrounded by a weirdly unmoved (until cued), mostly white, studio audience:

Uploaded by Rob Lloydy Jones on 2014-10-23.

Trading Notes -- 20190128 Monday

Added on January 28, 2019 by C. Maoxian.

Broad tone neg ... short tailwind... jammed out pre-open on remainder BIOC (bastards), woulda been shaken out same spot in reg hours but still, dirty, small loss in the end, will have to look for precise number but very small; CLRO covered some at minC looking for Typ3, maybe too greedy, reevaluated, prolly 185 more realistic than 175, it's so completely dead impossible to exit any size, StuckAtaProfit Day Two dog; BBBY finally went to B/E level to take me out, instantly dropped back 50 cents, comical, should have been out of that days ago; OSTK came in with a plan, they tested the prev day high during OR clever devils, reversed, filled B & A hoping for A+ no joy; SLM got lucky opened weak, got out of all at modest targets, dodged a bullet cuz that was definitely a revenge trade with revenge size and I got away with it, needed the money :)

AVCO (2.74K, 14.1K, 63.9K) and BIOC (1.46K, 11.1K, 21.7K) the stocks du jour, AVCO FIDO 15, no borrow in either at IB/ToS, shorted (0.065) AVCO at B coulda gotten A but it was tricky during OR, covered some at minC, it came back in afternoon stopped me out on balance at A, re-shorted it at B which had become perfect support lol, instantly jammed out at 1R loss but I didn't add A A+ which was good, once difangs shot on the afternoon short squeeze, I'm sort of at a loss (ha!) but think it best to leave alone, avoid revenge trading, it was a good solid player, tons of activity and volatility, really enjoyed it. Pretty quick to figure out new order entry system, slippage not proving to be horrible, but it shows you how good IB's TWS really is. Liked the 3PM failed breakout in AVCO so took another stab at it, broke hard to VWAP and held, very hard to piece out a position using limit orders since there are no OCOs, it's all hot key stuff, too quick for an old man. Took it all off at A level in pieces, clock was ticking but B level woulda also worked. Got back a little. OK to lose a couple hundred bucks monkeying around with new order entry platform.

BIOC there was an opp during OR but required anticipation and I was afraid of revenging it so focused on much more active AVCO instead, which was good.

Need to get the ~$4K out of ToS since it's useless for trading more or less and everyone tells me they keep their account open with $100, so I'll do that this week.

AVCO was a perfect long of course (look at the chart below) but I'm always looking short... I know how to get long, I have good, nay near-perfect, entries, etc., but I'm just opposed to it for some bizarre psychological reason.

TRVN sub $1 stock that came over a dollar and showed up on scanner, no borrow IB, oops they found 150K shares just for me, above magic level no play.

Movies Watched -- Black Coal, Thin Ice (2014)

Added on January 27, 2019 by C. Maoxian.

In Chinese. 106 minutes, but felt at least 15 minutes too long. Weird one from China. The Chinese title is 白日焰火, which means daytime fireworks, which makes sense at the end of the movie (it’s also the name of a night club within). Sort of a crime / mystery / thriller, but it was none of those things really — more a low-budget art house movie than anything. The only thing that interested me about it was that it was set in Harbin, a city I have some familiarity with, having spent my fall semester of my junior year abroad (in 1990!) at the Harbin Institute of Technology … and of course I know China well.

Structure of the movie wasn’t very good, fairly disjointed, lot of leaps of logic, femme fatale angle didn’t really work, just strange — how did the detective (who was later killed) track down the killer? Did the other detective love the girl? Why? And why screw her and not save her? Yellow rating for those who think about China, and especially Harbin, with some nostalgia, red rating for everyone else.

Luke Buckmaster correctly writes, “It's hard to imagine it traveling much wider than the festival circuit.“

Movies Watched -- Darkest Hour (2017)

Added on January 26, 2019 by C. Maoxian.

125 minute running time so at least 25 minutes too long, but I liked this one. Gary Oldman plays Churchill … it’s a sort of a companion movie to 2004’s Der Untergang. I don’t know how historically accurate it is, but the movie was very entertaining. I also like Lily James’s look (see below) … I first saw her in Baby Driver (she played the waitress).

A rare green rating from the Chairman.

This is another movie from 2017 that I can recommend along with: