the markets are craaazy!

crazy monday or crazy people? that's the question ...

on friday crashed the german, japanese, u.s. stocks by up to -9% and the fear was everywhere! on the weekend decided the western european politicians to bail out the whole financial industry and promised the hugest money package in history of this planet (of course, it is money out of thin air as usual, because ALL of that countries run budget deficits and NONE of them has any significant savings, currency reserves or the like!); great britain decided even to buy shares of its banks, ... some additional comments needed? yes? really? ok, that's SOCIALISM FOR THE RICH !!!

well, the markets liked this bail-out! the german dax rose 11.4 % (!!!) as the worst performing stock (our lonely star on stock heaven volkswagen) rose 'just' 3.23% and 21 of 30 companies had double digit gains! especially the 7 finance companies led by hypo real estate with +39.9% had huge gains. why? well, they will get all these taxpayers money directly ;-((

what about the u.s. markets? no comments needed, just look at the following table and tell me if u remember a day like that :-)):

dow jones .. 9.413,34 / +962,15 points / +11,38%
S&P500 ..... 1.005,91 / +106,69 points / +11,86%
nasdaq100 .. 1.429,54 / +159,74 points / +12,58%

what about my commodities? they rose slightly but not enough to move my initial stop-loss-levels higher and secure the virtual gains. and what about my trades today? here we go:


item--------------: DJIA >> position closed, #1
units--------------: 1
order type--------: market (sell) / stop (buy)
trade type--------: short
entry date--------: 10/13/2008, 18:52
entry price-------: 8,994
initial stop-loss--: 9,011
new stop-loss----: 8,993
exit date---------: 10/13/2008, 18:56
exit price---------: 8,993
profit (loss) in %-:
profit (loss)-------: $ 1
reason why + strategy: trying to trade some big moves in DJIA which i've expected as a profit taking selling because of unbelievable daily gains +9% after the HUUUUGE european bailout of financial institutions
lessons learned: nice trade; clever and FAST placement of initial stop-loss-limit as the DJIA moved fast in proposed direction; nice stop-loss-limit later on to secure the profit => the market ran just short time in my direction and turned back => OK


item--------------: DJIA >> position closed, #2
units--------------: 1
order type--------: market (sell) / stop (buy)
trade type--------: short
entry date--------: 10/13/2008, 18:58
entry price-------: 8,983
initial stop-loss--: 8,997
new stop-loss----: 8,982
exit date---------: 10/13/2008, 19:02
exit price---------: 8,982
profit (loss) in %-:
profit (loss)-------: $ 1
reason why + strategy: see above ...
lessons learned: nice trade; clever and FAST placement of initial stop-loss-limit as the DJIA moved fast in proposed direction; nice stop-loss-limit later on to secure the profit => the market ran just short time in my direction and turned back => OK


item--------------: DJIA >> position closed, #3
units--------------: 1
order type--------: market (sell) / stop (buy)
trade type--------: short
entry date--------: 10/13/2008, 19:03
entry price-------: 8,979
initial stop-loss--: 8,991
new stop-loss----: 8,969
exit date---------: 10/13/2008, 19:10
exit price---------: 8,969
profit (loss) in %-:
profit (loss)-------: $ 10
reason why + strategy: see above ...
lessons learned: nice trade; clever and FAST placement of initial stop-loss-limit as the DJIA moved fast in proposed direction; nice stop-loss-limit later on to secure the profit => OK


item--------------: DJIA >> position closed, #4
units--------------: 1
order type--------: market (sell) / stop (buy)
trade type--------: short
entry date--------: 10/13/2008, 19:20
entry price-------: 8,968
initial stop-loss--: 8,979
new stop-loss----:
exit date---------: 10/13/2008, 19:22
exit price---------: 8,979
profit (loss) in %-:
profit (loss)-------: ($ 11)
reason why + strategy: see above ...
lessons learned: clever and FAST placement of initial stop-loss-limit; the market didn't run in my anticipated direction ; exit with small loss after my initial stop-loss-limit was hit => OK


item--------------: DJIA >> position closed, #5
units--------------: 1
order type--------: market (sell) / stop (buy)
trade type--------: short
entry date--------: 10/13/2008, 19:27
entry price-------: 8,961
initial stop-loss--: 8,981
new stop-loss----: 8,941
exit date---------: 10/13/2008, 19:33
exit price---------: 8,941
profit (loss) in %-: 0.22%
profit (loss)-------: $ 20
reason why + strategy: see above ...
lessons learned: nice trade; clever and FAST placement of initial stop-loss-limit as the DJIA moved fast in proposed direction; the market ran some time in my direction and i could place a nice stop-loss-limit to secure a nice profit => OK


btw, after that i've take a break (i was sooooo tired already :) and wanted come back for the last 30 trading minutes to trade the next swing down. what an illusion! the market changed its direction and moved up more than 100 points (till market close even additional 350 points => short-squeeze or PPT?) as if there were no stock-exchanges tomorrow! is that usual? are the folks buying at that levels normal? well, even when earning few bucks i was today definitely on the wrong side of the market an couldn't believe what i saw and was therefore not able to switch my mind today :o)


update on 2008 financial crisis:
after this small break on monday + tuesday, the crisis continued on wednesday: http://jarogruber.blogspot.com/2008/10/fear-instaed-of-greed.html