the blog of intraday active trading, breaking news, info, research, risk mitigation, art, music, passions, foolishness, and all else deemed post-worthy

here's the deal:

my name is theodore burns iii. i'm a former investment and credit analysts having worked with several large banks. i cut my teeth in asset-based lending and structured corporate finance. i now make a living trading stocks on an intraday basis. so i bring a long term "fundamental" perspective to a very short-term sentiment-based game.

i do not invest--i trade. i have no allegiance to the companies underlying the stocks that i trade.

i trade both sides of the market--long and short. so i have no interest, per se, in the market moving up (or down for that matter). as long as stocks move--which they always do--i have a good shot at making money.

when it comes to stocks i "invest" as far as i can see, (which isn't very far...i have an astigmatism and wear glasses). so my timeframe in a stock trade is ultra-short: seconds to minutes. that's it. that's the best way i've found to manage the risk and make money.

some people have a hard time getting their arms around this simple concept. but what's harder to predict--the weather in the next five minutes, or the weather in the next week, month, or year? to me, it's just that simple.

i manage risk "five minutes at a time," every trading day, 246 days a year. at night i rest easy, by getting out of stocks all together. then i do it all again the next morning--five minutes at a time.

truth is, i'm somewhat of a stock market parasite; a stock whore, if you will, jumping in and out of stocks seeking no more than the immediate gratification of making money.

i don't fall in love with companies or stocks; i rent them. all that investing for the long term and "being a part of something,..." well i tried that, and it's just not for me.

that "buy and hold" stuff doesn't work for me either. it crosses the line into the realm of gambling--and i don't really like to gamble with my money like that.

now don't come down too hard on me. God has a special place for parasites too. it's traders like me who make for a deep and liquid market. we're the reason the bid/ask spread is a penny wide. we are the reason you can buy or sell a stock at a fair price anytime the market is open within seconds. [ok, i feel a lot better about myself now.]

so i provide a fairly important service to the stock market. i trade tens of millions of dollars in and out of the market per year. perhaps hundreds of thousands of dollars per day, making sure that You can get in and out at a good price. and for this service i take a fee.

and now, the good part...

yes, i take profits...daily. and i don't wait around for some other entity to take them back. nor do i wait for adversity or misfortune to raise its ugly head (as does often occur in the normal course of life). after all, that's not even the point of investing, is it? it certainly isn't the the objective of trading. the only reason to trade stocks is to make money--period.

i take my profits like small fees, several if not many times per day. and yes, those small fees do add up.

i like trading stocks. but i don't love stocks. nor do i love the companies the stocks represent. i love them about as much as they love me (or you, for that matter). think of it this way: i love these stocks about as much as snoop dog and dr. dre love hoes. yep. that's a fair analogy.

in the world of trading i'm tiny. my trades have no ability to move markets or anything like that. and like i said before, i'm only in for minutes at a time. and whether the market goes up or down doesn't matter. so there is no need for me to "pump" or "bash" a stock in the media (as do some analysts with a large interest in particular investments).

aside from being a finance guy, i am also a multi-media producer and engineer. i've owned and operated world citizen art recording studio since 1993. this website is programmed and maintained by me. i am responsible for its content, and again i answer to no one. so i'm free to tell it as i see it.

if i wanted to i could tell you to kiss my ass. but the truth is i don't own an ass (and i have never owned a horse, nor a donkey). so asking you to kiss my ass would be deceptive and might compromise the integrity of my journal. so i'm not going to do that.

that being said, i hope by visiting this blog you find my take on crowd psychology and market "mechanics" helpful. and i look forward to sharing my experience, and learning from your comments as well...so please, leave comments!

oh yeah, one more thing. i like to laugh and joke--a lot. but don't be confused. i take my trading very seriously.

so...that's what's up.

thank you for visiting my site!

world peace!
...and if not that--profits. daily.