Hola everyone. Monday again, new week. Today I opened up my trading platform at a random time throughout the day. I saw a squeeze that had just fired off and I was going to take it but decided to wait since it was already way into the trade. I went back to my work and looked up at the chart again randomly and saw another squeeze which again had already fired off a good amount of time ago, so again I stayed out.

The day went on and I went back to my work. By the time I looked up at the charts again the markets were closed. Time flies when you are attempting to work, heehee. So there you go, a very uneventful lack of trading day. I am sure there were probably decent trades to take throughout the day but since I wasn't focused on trading I missed out on anything that came through. Which was probably better because I would have ended up getting in a trade, going back to work and forgetting about it. With my luck I would have left it with no stops in place.

On a more personal note, I finished my wedding invitations today (for anyone interested). Yeah I'm into the whole DIY(do it yourself) thing so I made my wedding invitations. Ok well I'm really more into the whole saving money on the little stuff thing. I originally went to go buy my wedding invitations and I found the ones I liked and they cost $861 just for the invitations themselves. I was thinking you people are crazy $800 bucks for paper no way. So I saw a sample of the one I liked and recreated it on my own. Total cost $100. Beat that. Of course it took time to make them but it was worth the savings. I'll put a picture up so you can see my wonderful creation once I take a picture of them.

I also registered for gifts, so fun. If you have never registered for gifts, have a baby, or get married because it is totally worth it. You get a cool scanner and get to go crazy just scanning stuff. You may not get everything on your list but it is fun to pretend that you will. I'm pretty low maintenance so I registered at Target, my favorite store. Rosa Liscano Target Wedding Registry. haha shameless plug. I know random useless information not related to trading but I like to write about myself so sorry. Ok well that's enough wasting your time. I'll get back to work. Hope everyone else actually traded today and made money if not there is always tomorrow.

A Day in the Life of a Trader's Employee

Ok I know bad title. I couldn't think of anything else. Well as much as John may hate me for this I figured I would give my side of the trader world story.

Normally I wake up around 6:30am roll out of bed after my husband rips off the covers, turns on the light and tells me its 6:30 and time to get up. I shower and get ready.

I then go wake up my 2 ½ year old daughter only to find that she is not happy to see me that early in the morning. I sit her in front of the T.V. with her stuffed bear names Blue and breakfast so I can get the rest of my stuff together. (Thank God for DVR's, Mickey Mouse, and Backyardigans are accessible 24/7)

I finish getting dressed pick out my daughter's clothes, wrestle her to put her clothes on, brush teeth, comb hair, etc, etc. My husband has prepared her lunch I grab it and we are out the door usually by about 7:30. I race her to school all the way across town, drop her off and head all the way back across town to get into work by around 8:20. Thank you Lisa for getting to work on time I couldn't do it without you. Now my day finally starts.

Depending on the day I usually check email and answer phones during the morning. This particular morning however I realized I forgot my sister's luggage that she wanted to borrow for her and John's Hawaii trip. I let John know and ask if it is ok to go get it otherwise she will have a cow. He agrees and also asks if I can watch James (my nephew/godson) so they can finish getting their stuff together. Of course I agree. John hands me James with a dirty pajama shirt on and no pants just a pamper, I figure I am just running back home so no big deal he will just be in the car seat. I strap him in and head home.

I get home and grab the luggage. After I have left my house, John calls and asks if I can stop by the store and pick up a cassette for his video camera because he is running low and needs some for the trip. I again agree, and wonder why I ever gave him my cell phone number. I had already taken off and realized James is a mess so I pull a U-ey and put some of my daughter's decent looking clean pajamas on him because that is all that fits and looks semi-boyish. (no shoes, no socks) On my way to the store my sister Maria calls and asks if I can stop by Target and pick up some travel sized baby body wash for James. I figure I can kill two birds with one stone so I stopped at Target.

Unfortunately John's camera is too nice for Target stock and they do not have the correct cassettes. I lug James around grab the baby wash and head to Best Buy down the street. To my dismay it is closed, Best Buy doesn't open till 10 and it is barely 9:15. Their car was coming at 11 so there was no time to wait for it to open. I try one last stop at the Office Max and still no luck. So cassette-less I head back to work.

I get back to work, give James a bath and get him ready for the trip. I keep him entertained while they finish up packing. Ten o'clock rolls around and still no car. The car company forgot to pick them up, so here I come to the rescue and drive them to the airport. I help pack them up and drive away.  Finally we reach the airport and drop them off. By this time it is noon and time for lunch since I haven't eaten all morning I decide to treat myself to my favorite Chipotle Fajita Bowl. I bring lunch back for Lisa and myself. We eat and get back to work.

If that wasn't hectic enough I later read the list of things to do that John and Maria left. Pick up dry cleaning, drop off at baby store, bring in trash cans, check mail daily, water plants, watch out for painter, etc. Those are just the daily house chores that I get to help with since I am the one here everyday, not to mention the actual "business stuff" that needs to be kept up with. I shrug my shoulders give a big sigh and get to work.

Maybe some other time I will tell you about my deadline schedules. Like the time they gave me a day to make and put up a website with no prior notice. Or the time they gave me an hour long project at 4:45pm on a Friday that was due before I left work at 5pm.

I guess I can't complain too much, it pays well, and I work with people I can get along with. (Everyone except Hubert that is) It's an interesting job, definitely keeps you on your toes and irate 95% of the time, but I have learned a lot along the way. Not trading wise as many of you may think I don't have the patience to learn from John and he doesn't have the patience to teach me so I will pick up what I can along the way.

If you ever need a an office manager, business manager, website manager, life manager, baby sitter, personal assistant, or anything else, let me know I apparently have learned to work well under pressure and multi-task.

Adelita is out this week. She left last week around Wednesday for a family trip to Corpus. Unfortunately upon her return she fell ill with a stomache flu. The entire family that went on the trip got sick. So she is at home in bed trying to recover. Hopefully she will be back later this week if not by next week. Me and Lisa have been here holding down the fort while John is out in Hawaii.

Just for some useless but interesting gossip. If you don't already know John saw Jessica Simpson at the Dallas Airport Admiral's Club. My sister Maria and nephew James were waiting in the Admiral's Club for their connecting flight and James ran over to play with a little dog that happen to be there. The dog then ran back over to its owner who happened to be Jessica Simpson. No pictures or autographs were taken. Bummer.

Later after they arrived in Hawaii they were at their hotel and saw none other than Reese Witherspoon and her children playing nearby in the kiddie pool. Reese was staying at the same hotel as them. Whoda thunk it? My sister Maria also had another encounter with Resse in the women's spa locker room, she commented on her cute pregnant belly. How awesome, Reese Witherspoon said my sister was cute. Neat! Ok I know mindless woman gossip. Well I thought it was interesting. John pulled a papparazi and took a strategic picture of Maria and James with Reese Witherspoon in the background. When he gets back he will probably post it on the site.

I hope everyone had a fun and relaxing fourth of July. I know I know its a little late for that. I tried to watch the fireworks in my neighborhood on the fourth but my daughter was scared so I had to take her inside where she got in bed and covered her head with the blankets. At night before bed she still asks me if there are anymore fireworks.

So this blog had nothing to do with trading but sometimes its fun to hear gossip. Sometimes you need a break from trading so this is a short little blog to do that.

Ok quick update. I know I have been slacking on the blogs again. My bad. I'm a busy girl, woman, whatever. Anyway ok so today I opened up a new demo. I figured Adelita has been getting into the grove of things so I need to keep on my toes if I am going to learn how to be a profitable trader before she is.

Today I decided to rush into a trade. I just got a bug up my butt or something and decided to download my demo account and take the first signal I saw. Unfortunately that is not the way to trade and be profitable. As I was downloading my demo software a squeeze long fired off in the DOW at about 11:52am CST. I decided hmm& hurry up download so I can jump into this trade. Umm.. not smart. So I bought 3 lots under the parameters that Adelita has been using +2, +4, and +6, with a 12 point stop loss. I got in at 13549. Not long after I noticed that the markets were dropping. I should have known since the ES had just been up and was already losing momentum that jumping into the YM late would soon do the same. And it did. I ended up selling all 3 lots at 13542 for a $105 loss. Ouch. First trade back and it was down.

I shouldn't have traded on FED day and possibly also not just into the first trade I saw even before my software was downloaded. Oh well sometimes you just get those freak urges to lose money I guess. Haha. Well the benefit is that I use the platform again so at least I still know how to do that. The unfortunate part is that I know how to use it to lose money. That's the part I need to work on.

After my first loss I decided to go ahead and call it a day. John said not to trade on FED day until well after the announcement was made and I traded way before so not a good thing. Maybe this week I will work on a trading plan. Set some goals, parameters, daily stop losses, things like that to keep me on the right path. If I can get this done I'll post it or email it out to the list.

Well, well, well, today I had the pleasure of showing Adelita how to use a demo platform to places some practice trades in. Apparently she like most new traders cracked under pressure. Unfortunately I wasn't able to record this session so I don't have a video for you but I can try to describe it.  

She began by looking at the ES 233 tick chart that we post in the trading chat room. I don't recall the time that she placed the trades but I will try to keep track for next time.

Anyway she placed her first trade off a squeeze long signal. I showed her the multi-bracket order system so we started her on 3 lots. She bought 3 lots at 1517.25 with targets at +2, +4, and +8 and a stop at -15. Her first target was hit at 1517.75 then it went all down hill. The markets started reversing slightly so she panicked and got out at 1516.25 and her last lot was out at 1516.50. So her first trade came out negative 62.50.

She thought about her trade and looked at some of the other indicators that showed conflicting signals so she thought she would use that and try again. This time waiting till the market was trending in the direction of the squeeze signal and some other indicators as well.

Her next squeeze signal fired off a short at 1515.50 so she sold 3 lots same targets and stops. She watched the markets for a while, while meaning about 2 minutes and saw that the bars were changing color and not in her favor so she bailed out all 3 lots at 1518.00 another loss.

This horrible cycle continued for another trade, she did hit one of her targets and bailed on the last two.

Finally I stepped in and told her to wait till she got two confirming squeeze signals. So she waited till she got 2 green dots and then got in instead of taking it right off the gun. The next trade she got her squeeze long but waiting till she got two confirming bars. She bought 3 lots at 1526.75 same parameters. She sold 1 at 1526.75, 1527.25, and 1528.25. Finally a positive trade. Unfortunately her P&L at the end of the day was still negative from all of her other losing trades but that's what demos are for.

Just when I thought she was done she surprised me and took one last trade. This time she got another squeeze long again took the signal on the first dot no other confirmation and what happened? She ended up bailing out again. Bought 3 lots at 1528.75 and bailed out at 1528.25. Rough start.

That was her first day of live trading on her demo account. John will probably start her trading the Dow tomorrow which may be a little easier and provide more guidance. I tried to let her on her own like John did to me when I started but I see now that isn't going to work too well. We will have to wait and see if there are any changes in her style tomorrow.