One Day in Pondy or Dead Cat

7:00 AM wake up to the voice of the Muezzin who calls Muslims to prayer. India is very mixed religiously, the majority Hindu, but w/ sizable Muslim and Christian minorities. There is nothing like this call. It is a beautiful, haunting wailing filled w/ an otherworldly heartache. I really can't describe it. Truly amazing.

I get ready in my very basic $7 room. "Very basic" is European/ Australian code for disgusting. My first night there, I was like, I'm outta here, but day by day, week by week, I'm getting over myself and my American expectations and learning to deal with what is. I also have this need to live in squalor for now, to just really be in it. I also know that my students at Nirvana School would find it luxurious having a whole room to myself.

8:00 walk to bus stop pass Ganesha Temple, live elephant blessings and all that. Take school bus to village outside of Pondy -nonstop horns blasting throughout commute, the auto horn is used in reverse from the way it is used in West. It is a courtesy, saying "heads up please, here I am please, thank you please." I'm starting to hear the order underneath the chaos.

The Indians also dump all their garbage just wherever, out on the street, or in a field, so about 50 meters from the school in the usual garbage heap, I see it. That's right. . . Dead cat. Just when your getting all comfortable, dead cat. Awesome.

9:00 - 4:30 school day. The mornings I observe first period, mostly disrupt class like I did in '82 -nothing's changed. Then I take a few students at a time to the library and we practice English reading and writing. They all speak Tamil which has absolutely nothing to do w/ English, so it's challenging work, but the kids are simply love embodied.

For lunch, the HeadMaster Aunti Massi cooks me a full on Indian Meal, kicheri, rice, potato, dal, naan, the best meals ever. She has been running the school for 12+ years for free -she is a real deal Mother Theresa. After lunch I take a nap. Then back to school for a couple hours, then teach the yoga class, then back on the bus.

At night I go to Coffee.Com a beautiful family run joint where I hang out w/ Euros, most all involved in some type of development work or study. It's a beautiful crowd, inside and out. I'm typing from one of their laptops right now -a Mac none the less!! It's like another planet in here.

I told Auntie Massi today, that every day I go to her school even if I do nothing but play w/ the kids all day, I feel like I become a better person.

Not a bad gig.

Going to Vipassana (10 day silent meditation retreat) over holiday break. So, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and a Blessed New Year to All.

I love you, all out!!

Blessings,
yt

Yoga Class 3:45 Tues, Wed, Thurs

The yoga class is totally awesome. It's twenty 5-10 year olds w/ limited English and unlimited enthusiasm. So we go bananas every Tues, Wed, Thurs at 3:45.

Yesterday one of my students got hurt. Nice job, I know. I have no control over them, zero, but they go all out, full on, trying the poses, and I love them for that.

During "yoga dance", he either fell or was pushed on the concrete floor where we practice.

He's on the floor crying, I start screaming "ahemsa (nonviolence)!! ahemsa!! ahemsa!!!

That got a big laugh, albeit completely unintentional.

Anyway, he was crying for like an hour, and needed ice, but of course no ice in India, so he suffered bravely, still crying when I left, and no joke I was relieved to see him alive this morning.

As I walk through town to the bus, an enormous elephant (Ganesha) blesses women in front of temple w/ her trunk, and baboons chill on the sidewalk next to a dying human.

Still not quite over that dying human in the street thing.

But it's only been three weeks. . .

much love,
yt

Nirvana School Day 1

Links aren't working out for me here but this is the school in Pondicherry I started at today.

http://www.nirvanaschool.org/

If not, just Google it, please.

Basically, it is a donation based school that allows for the lowest caste kids an opportunity to go to school.

Otherwise, they would literally not be in any school at all.

I'm not that educated on the caste system, so at the risk of sounding like a total ignorant, a-hole, American, it's probably one of the most evil human social constructs of all time, and is still perpetuated here today.

There, I said it.

Today was my first day, the kids went bananas, jumping all around me in their little red uniforms, 'Hallo! Hallo! Hallo! Hallo! Hallo! Hallo! nonstop.

I'm teaching yoga (surreal -the American guy teaching Indian kids yoga), and more importantly English reading/ writing and real basic computer stuff, and finally and most importantly just being there, showing up for them.

These kids are far behind the curve, so I'm pushing for them to just go full out learning English as best they can, what w/ Bangalore and Chennai very close, I know there will be tremendous opportunity there if they can step it up. I know that's key, and the other key is just letting go of all that expectation and just being present with them.

Om Namah Shivaya,
yt

One Day on India Yoga Retreat 07

6:00 AM wake to chiming bell and tropical birdsong (bird screaming), hose off a bit

6:30 morning kirtan on beach (beautiful chanting w/ beautiful souls)

7:00 beach meditation

7:19 wild dog attack

8:00 yoga asana practice to Goa techno music, construction sound, motorbike horns, angry birds, angry Indian dog and firecrackers

10:30 best fruit salad ever -straight Ayurvedic eating

12:00 noon. Hot. cool off in Arabian Sea. Hot.

2:00 Indian Singing Lesson in town with this total guru. She says, "In India, we believe everyone have beautiful voice, so you must all sing louder, and from heart, not head!" We all melt and touch her feet as we leave, and all proceed to sing full out the rest of the retreat. Oh my.

4:30 Home Cooked Village Meal w/ Deepak and his beautiful family (this requires a separate post, soon to come)

7:00 Full-On Man-on-Man Nude Aryuvedic Oil Massage (yeah, this is a whole other post in it's own right as well, to come)

9:00 Tulsi tea on the beach w/ enlightened souls, maybe a little ganga, maybe not

10:00 Sleep in bamboo hut under mosquito net

Bliss.

-yt

"How Is Your Day Today, Going?" or I Clean Myself w/ a Hose or Complete Prostration (pick your favorite)

One of my teachers says, "On the outside, India is chaos, but underneath the surface, there is order."

Well, I've been looking very carefully underneath, and I'm still getting mostly chaos. . . I'll keep looking though.

Another one of my teachers says, "You don't come to India to learn about yoga, you come to India to learn about life. If you wanna learn about yoga, go to LA."

And that kind of nails it for me.

You very quickly learn to let go of all your material comforts and expectations. Either that or you leave. Total surrender, complete prostration, and when you think it's complete you wake up and realize there is so much more, every g-damn f-ing day.

Like, oh I'm sick. . . again, or oh no water today, or oh this wild dog is attacking us, or oh no towels or soap at this hotel, or oh i'm being mugged. . . again (an Indian mugging is a combination of transaction, relentless begging, and mild threat).

It is the ugliest, dirtiest, noisiest, depraved place I've ever seen. People literally dying on the streets in the cities, the air choking, horns nonstop, touts/ beggars all up in you.

I'm waiting to see someone running on fire. That's basically the only thing I haven't seen yet.

And yet, I'm having the time of my life, and even though every day I want to come home, I know that this is exactly where I'm supposed to be, doing exactly what I'm doing.

I left the yoga retreat in Goa sobbing. It was the most transformative experience of my life. It was like fucking Survivor, no hot water, no toilet paper, just a hose and perhaps 14 of the most enlightened people I've ever met -all from LA none the less. We all struggled, all of us a bit sick, yet we practiced every day, we did kirtan at dawn and dusk every day, we supported eachother 24-7, and not once was there any self wrought drama.

But this is India so there was drama every day; charging bulls, taxis running us over and fireworks (of course). And several of the most beautiful, humbling, amazing, and funny experiences of my life which I'll get to individually in a bit. . .

For now, I'm in Pondicherry starting my volunteer work on Monday. I've never felt so blessed. Yet, at the same time, I'm missing home so much it's breaking my heart.

And that is India.

To be continued.

Much love,
yt

Maximum City

Gregory David Roberts' Shantaram is probably my favorite book of all time, and had no small part in my decision to visit Bombay.

The book is literally 900+ pages and is jammed with his very full life in Bombay. And now I understand why, as i could sit here for hours describing my last 3 days here and not do it justice. Bombay is The Maximum City, everything at extremes, everything in your face, in all it's beauty and depraved ugliness.

So quite fitting that the highlight and the darkness were one in the same. I visited sacred ground, a Hindi temple where they burn the bodies of the dead. It was adjacent to the train that was terrorist bombed last year, killing 400+ and many of the ashes remained on site. I actually saw the ghats still burning from the previous night, as well as the graves of baby ashes, literally dozens of little baby graves, and even a little baby skull.

It was heartbreaking and I was overwhelmed, such that my guide and the keeper took me for almost all the coin I had in my pocket, which was not that much, but about 3x more than i expected. They totally rolled me. "Welcome to Bombay!"

Yeah, living in Cali has made me so soft, and I definitely have a giant M painted on my forehead for Mark. I love it though, three minutes on the street and I had a giant bongo drum. I'm actually very excited to Bongo.

Besides walking around as the human ATM, I spent the majority of my time in what may be the greatest bar ever -Leopold's (also made famous by Shantaram). It was there last night, that I appeared on this supposedly huge TV show in Asia -Mondo Magic. Check your local AsiaTV listings. I think they may have me falling out of my chair.

Also, I have a very good friend there, Mahesh, who served me 3 nights in a row, and looked out for me like a brother. I met a Brit, 2 Aussies, a Philly girl, the manager for French Laundry, the crew of Mondo Magic, as well as the usual criminal element. Also, Mahesh is delivering a message for me to Mr. Roberts. Please ask for Mr. Mahesh if you go, he is class A.

getting on a flight to Goa. Shanti baba.

obattihey,
yt

see you in India

it has been a pleasure, an honor and a total trip to be able to post here for the last couple months.

thank you so much for spending even a little bit of your time here.

if the ritam allows, you'll be hearing from me soon. . .

if not, it's okay bc i love you.

see you on the other side of the world.

-yt

long rupee

i think yesterday (Monday) i was down like 50% or something along those ridiculous lines, all time low balance, "boo-hoo poor you", and all that. . .

not sure though as i was searching for a hotel in Mumbai most of the morning. the hotels are either 7 bucks or $500 a night. i would fall into the $7 bracket, but it didn't stop me spending several hours trying to arbitrage into the Taj Mahal, unsuccessfully.

anywho, came back today (NAS +89) and am down like 10-15% which is negligible in options. not caring too much though as i'm full on into this India trip, and still mostly bullish through the holidays. and yesterday, i did buy CROX March 50s @ 4.3 -why not. . . ????

read this great book a few months back, The 4 Hour Workweek by Tim Ferris -just had a write-up in the sunday NYTimes -good stuff. i'll be testing his theories big time the next few months. i'll be volunteering, yes, but my only money making (or losing) operations will come from trading, and i plan on spending maybe 4 hours total on it. that's 4 hours in 4 months. that'll be a new book -the 15 minute work week.

and that trading may, to a certain extent, determine the length of my trip.

actually though, just last minute, the rep from kiva.org contacted me. they do micro-loans a la Muhammad Yunis. anyway, they may need a rep in Delhi, so we shall see. . .

still, ideally, tomorrow before i leave, i'd like to go a few months further out in my calls, i.e MAR's for JAN's, but the market likely isn't on my travel schedule, so we'll see what it gives me (besides the usual beating).

om namah shivaya!

-yt

Smacaroni

nice day. . . again.

john carney at www.dealbreaker.com (which is the best site on the internets) said it's feeling like the quant bloodbath this summer, where the winners get sold and the highly shorted go up, w/ the big Nasdaq names down and CROX up pretty big. i think he nailed it, well done john. if he's right we're close to a bottom here, maybe next week. . .

if not, armageddon; canned goods, bottled water, automatic weapons, a bunker in montana and 2 ferrets.

i have some cash (in the other acct, i'm all in, in my IRA getting smoked) to put to work before i leave for India, and although i thought it might be all in on CROX, w/ GOOG and AAPL coming off big, that's where it looks like it's headed -dance w/ the GOOGLE that got you here.

i'd tell you my balance, but i'm afraid to look.

can i mark to model here??

have a great weekend!

shanti baba,
yt

worst day ever (not really) and chart o' the day

we make our trades, we make our life choices, and then we live with them.

we rationalize our decisions after the fact, coming up w/ reasons bc it gives us a sense of order or control over ourselves, when let's face it, our trading decisions are usually quite animalistic -some combination of fear and greed.

that's why i love trading. it gets in there and makes you confront those issues w/ real time feedback.

got smacked today, no question. still up a hair, yet off about 33% in two days, but i did no selling today. i'm long right up til' x-mas bc i got that feeling today.

the feeling is pre-historic, and the feeling i had is FEAR -yeah, scared sh-tless.

buy fear, sell greed.

so anywho, since most would rather have some sort of analysis besides "i was scared, so i bought, here's something i just made up (for you chart lovers):

http://finance.google.com/finance?chdnp=1&chdd=1&chds=1&chdv=1&chvs=maximized&chdeh=0&chfdeh=0&chdet=1194566377000&chddm=84456&q=AMEX:DIA

this is YTD on the DIAmonds (The Dow Jones Industrial Average). i see a pattern (i see dead people). i see 3 corrections this year related to credit (i'm calling the present sell-off our third).

all three were sharp, deep, painful and very quick. the bottoms were marked by the capitulation of best of breed stocks, where the baby GOOGs, AAPLS, Goldmans, even GLD were thrown out w/ the bathwater. all three were marked by recession hype, and end-of-days housing chatter.

also, a high, a low, a higher high, a higher low, a higher high, and so far a higher low. . .

and the final capitulation was your best opportunity to get long the flyers.

i could easily be wrong. . .

we really could be on the straight-recession-express.

but that's not my bet.

-yt

blow out

i am being crushed as i write this -big time.

guess i needed a bit more humble-pie.

thank you sir, may i have another.

yesterday morning, all in, up 55-60%.

today, last check, up 25%, not bad yeah, but it looks like it's getting worse. . .

how do i feel? i just took my last chunk of cash and bought the GOOG Jan 800s.

basically, if we get any kind of rally btw now and January expiration, i'm good.

otherwise, blow-upville.

stay tuned in, or tuned out, whatever your pleasure.

ritam,
yt

humility

when writing yesterday, something wasn't feeling right, something was missing in my being, couldn't put my finger on it though. . .

well, i figured it out today -very clearly. HUMILITY. the markets are very good with that lesson.

we just had a down 360 last week, but this one was worse, at least for me, gave back the week's gains and then some.

to top it off, as the onslaught strengthened into the final minutes, i picked up some CSCO calls pre-earnings. . .

i could have just taken 10 hundred dollar bills and lit them on fire.

but even that would have taken too long.

options.

hey, i'm so blessed to be able to do this, even on days like this.

namaste.

humbly humbled,
yt

AAPL

all time balance here, good day no doubt. it feels like buying time seasonally for the big guys, so hopefully we can ride this until x-mas. besides tech, i like retail here, but not like target and sh-t like that but AMZN, CROX, and yes, ready to jump back into LULU, (all of which way off their highs). you could call these 3 "consumer discresh thrashings". long thrashings.

i still feel as though CROX will be be my biggest pos going into India, but currently my AAPL pos is like 7x as large. . .

BIG CORRECTION: yesterday, i said i paid $2.3 for CROX Jan 45s. that was complete misinformation, i actually paid 4-something for those and $2.3 for CROX Jan 55s a day prior, yes, FIFTY FIVES, i'm an idiot. sorry about that. over-trading misinformation disorder. any way, i like it.

also, re-initiated MER DEC 50 Puts in case the world ends or SEC investigation, whichever comes first.

looking for GOOG 1000s if anyone's offering. . .???

om ritam namah,
b

CROX

i still have friday's close scotch-taped over my screen, so i have no idea what happened today. . .

actually, yeah, not a great day, but not so bad either. doubled down on CROX when it hit $40 -Jan 45s at like $2.3 -whaaaat? liked it a lot at 50, love it at 40.

if it stays below 45, i will likely make it my biggest position before i take off for India next week. yes, that's right, bigger than AAPL in which I may go further out and higher w/ options.

i figure 1 of 3 things will happen w/ CROX by Jan 08':

1) unlikely -there will be some accounting scandal and i will be blown out: stock -20.

2) more likely -this will be the most obvious long in the history of plastic shoes: stock +40

3) most likely -none of the above and i will be in India chanting

all you need is love, love is all you need.

-yt

print this tape

back at my old place, on a good and green day, my mentor used to say, "print this screen!",so he could scotch-tape the green quotes over his live quotes.

after all kinds of over-trading this morning (see prev post) i'm up on the day, getting a lot of volatility juice on the options. volatility is a component of option pricing and when things go bananas, you get a bit more juice in your pricing.

so, print this screen, print this tape, i'm outta here, going to yoga.

have a phenomenal weekend!

much love,
yt

squirrelly

holy f-ing shit! it's getting squirrelly out there. figured i do a mid-session post to liven things up -lively! i was getting hammered this morning, so i started trimming my CROX, thanks to f-ing cramer who killed it last night, right or wrong, he will move a stock, so can't fight the tape and in the short term, can't fight cramer.

my MER puts, again coming up superman, sold them for a double, also had a very small pos yesterday on BSC on the Jimmy Cayne pot smoking -i was long the pot smoking to hedge MER puts -the idea being Cayne was cooler than anyone at MER by a mile high, baby!

okay so we seem to have stabilized, as you know AAPL is half my portfolio, so when it sneezes -aaaachooo steve jobs, i get hit, last check i'm down about 2-3% from where i started the week, still up about 40% in that account over-all, although like 20 minutes ago, i was down quite a bit more -options baby!

cleaned house, and am about 30-40% cash, still very long AAPL, small option positions in AMZN & CROX and small equity pos in LULU.

but gotta get back to staring at my screen and cheerleading! big G, little O, little O big G, GOOG, GOOG, GOOG!!

man, i need a yoga class, 10:30 w/ saul works very well.

om namah shivaya!!

love,
yt

-360 degrees of separation

between yesterday's close and today's.

too much to write, but let's just get the trades in first.

picked up calls on CROCS which was absolutely DEMOLISHED today -bought Jan 52.5s, Jan 70s and Nov 50s all at about 90% discounts from yesterday -what a bargain!!

my MER puts were like f-ing superman today. and AAPL held up well enough that i was actually up at an all time balance w/ the market down 220, but it was not to be with the too powerful -360 thrashing. still ended up basically flat.

time to watch fast money -man, i miss eric bolling though.

namaste for now,
yt

AAPL, GOOG, AAPL, GOOG, AAPL, GOOG. . .

the difficult thing for guys like cramer and the fast money dudes (and gal) is that they need fresh content every day.

they can't talk about the same stocks all day, every day. . .

those that know me from my Merrill days know that i've been pitching these two darlings for 3 years.

i also pitched DNA (-25%) Red Hat (-40%) and ADM (-35%), so yeah, i'm a regular nostradamus. . .

any who, sold my Nov AAPL and Nov GOOG calls today. a small gain on apple and a monster GOOGinator. still hold a ton of AAPL -just further out. oh yeah, small pos. long MER puts.

why sell? because i was nervous. why was i nervous?

well, that's psychology/ behavioralism. call it loss aversion or fear of death or whatever, just please don't make up some rational reason after the fact.

keep it real, please.

thank you.

fed day tomorrow. got some cash, where can i get some of that alibaba?? and no, no yoohoo for me. i'm a google.

much love,
yt

Nirvana School

going to be volunteering for a few months in India -leave in a few weeks.

it's a school in Pondicherry: http://www.nirvanaschool.org/index.htm i'm very excited.

slipped into more AAPL calls (Nov 190s) and AMZN Jan 95s today on the dip.

IRA up 43%. cash acct. up 90%. feel this blog will become the India blog soon. . .

fires seem to be calming -thank god.

Sox up 5 in game 1

om ritam namah,
b

SoCal fires

people are losing their homes -profoundly sad.

nothing to comment on now, except for that.

blessings,
yt

off the grid

in the spirit of yesterday's post, i'm going off the grid until monday -like that great movie "Into The Wild" w/ Emile Hirsch (except in Venice Beach and w/ nonstop yoga).

market getting walloped. GOOG and AAPL up = safety stocks.

shanti,
yt

the GOOGinator

couldn't control myself, bought the GOOG Nov 710s w/ a limit order, clipped it a good price (although i'm too lazy to look it up right now -the stock was around $629-630 at the time).

after hours/ after earnings the late night trade was around $643, so it looks okay for now. . . mostly the trade was a whole lotta nothing, although we won't know for a few days.

the great part is i had yoga teacher training this afternoon, and the contrast to trading was almost too much for me to handle. by the time the GOOG earnings call started i was ready to rip someone's head off, and an hour later i'm Om-ing and practicing pranayama.

being in the training sangha (the amazing LA yoga community) made me realize what a colossal waste of time and energy my day had been. putting on a trade takes a few seconds. it did not require me to stare at blinking screens all day and pace around in my Google hat cheerleading. i can only describe the energy as frantic, manic, desperate, pathetic.

and for what. . .??

f-ck.

-yt

LULU again and again

sold the LULU calls today.

when the f--ker hit $53 i was like if i sell them and it runs to $58 tomorrow will i feel like a bigger d-----bag than if it pulls back to $47 and i didn't take profits. . .??

after like half a second, realizing i bought the calls two days ago and they were up over 150%, i realized not taking it off would have landed me in the d-bag hall of fame -cooperstown for d-bags.

so now that account is up about 12% in a month and like 50% since i feng shui-ed the tradestation 10 days ago.

and yes, that means all i hold are AAPL calls, AAPL stock and LULU stock, and 40% cash waiting on something compelling.

less is more.

w/ that, om ritam namah,
yt

deck clearing

yeah, took everything off but AAPL and LULU -bought more LULU calls yesterday which are ripping.

stick w/ what got you here. Buffet says there aren't that many good ideas. amen.

out RIMM, RIO calls w/ losses, out BIDU shares flat.

still like the above, but no juice in this market, and i needed the cash to set up some sort of GOOG strangle tomorrow pre-earnings.

so sticking w/ the juice -AAPL, LULU and if i'm not LOVING it, i'm out.

tape sucks, get thru Oct., and Nov-Dec should be good.

Up marginally in the acct which is great considering market is down a few hundy.

om ritam, sold my car, going to India!!

much love,
yt

climb that wall

great f-ing day. great week.

swinging -30% then +40%, and now up marginally (6%) overall in that retirement account i just opened.

humbling, and so goes the option game.

till monday then, no media this weekend.

well, maybe a little. . .

namaste,
yt

holy f---ing sh-t!

days like this are what make me love trading. i was out of the gate early (see prev. post) sold my BA and ICE calls at their highs of the day, and was sitting pretty mid day, my retirement account (that i pack with derivatives) at an all time high. . .

then late afternoon (east coast) the market nosedives, like off a cliff, and i can't get any rationale, not that there ever, ever needs to be one, so i'm like holy f---ing sh-t, let's buy some of this, and better yet let me dump my AAPL 145 puts that have been killing me, were way out of the money, and expire next week, and i was able to recoup 25%-30% of my cost basis which was fantastic considering they were worthless yesterday and will be worthless next week (i hope). now, i'm just long the stock and calls, fully committed to steve jobs.

so i'm scooping up RIMM, BIDU, LULU calls and common on the mayhem, and at close had swung back roughly 70% the day's losses -which would have been MAJOR had i not been trading excessively.

sometimes excess works. sometimes, not so much. . .

om namah shivaya.

-yt

ritam continued

sun about to come up over the mountains in LA -magic.

so blessed, so blessed, so blessed, thank you, thank you, thank you.

om namah shivaya.

morning ritam

up at 4 AM and fully caffeinated which can only mean one thing. . .

that's right, excessive trading.

actually, i do honor the natural rhythms (ritams) and if i'm up, there must be a cosmic reason, so today on the docket: selling into strength (market about to rip on Wal-Mart results), need to unload my ICE -expires next week, and probably take this opp to get out of BA. looking at AKAM, and some far out calls on GOOG.

we shall see. . .

om ritam namah.

yt

where's the trade?

f-ck if i know. . .???

feng shui

yesterday, i feng shui-ed my trade station back to the money spot, and today had my biggest day (in dollar terms) of the year. APVAT Apple Jan 200s did all the heavy lifting w/ an assist from my near term ICE 165s.

i had been so crushed in this account (the IRA) however, that i'm just getting back to even (still off about 10% which isn't a biggie in the option universe).

quite humbling. especially in light of my most recent RIO and BA calls sucking so far. the good news is my puts (short positions) are basically worthless, and therefore i have suffered all the losses that i'm gonna suffer on those positions, and still hold a bit of insurance in case of calamity.

life is suffering.

suffering is from attachment to worldly things like option prices and account balances.

suffering is optional.

the Buddhist eightfold path, yoga and the like, are good remedies.

i still get really angry though.

yeah, i'm feeling something major this week, not necessarily down, but something dislocating -like dislocating your tooth when you were 7, but worse. . . this feeling is based on being irritated at the contents of my tofu and the most recent yogitimes astrology.

getting my vedic astrological chart done tomorrow -it's like a forward looking stock chart of your life based on planetary stuff.

i'm hoping it shows a double bottom. . .

god bless,
enjoy the ritam,
yt

getting smacked

doubled down on RIO.

will triple if it goes near 30.

moving my trade station for better prana/ chi.

om namah shivaya!!

-yt

BIDU. . .

. . .saves the day. anyway, i'm kinda done rehashing my trades bc it's boring the hell out of me + no one is going to have any idea what i'm talking about.

okay, one more time: sold my BIDU and GOOG calls for gains, took a loss on my CROX calls, got long AAPL stock and Jan 200 calls to go w/ my Oct puts that have been clobbering me. also, got long Nov calls on RIO and BA (Boeing). feel better about my positions (less crazy town/ more in line w/ my over-all view -long global growth/ the calender/ mock t). BIDU helped me recover a third of my losses in the IRA (now down about 12-13%), and oh yeah, sold my Dec LULU calls for $8 in my cash account (which is up 130% and cashed out 180% of my principle). okay, confused. . .?

exactly, so from here on out, less trade talk, i promise. when i actually get readers, it will matter. . .

for now, don't pay any attention to me. oh, that's right, no one is reading this. . .

carry on.

thanks,
yt

how the f-ck am I still short AAPL??!!

okay, time to right the ship.

got cute in my IRA, bought AAPL puts, waiting for a pullback to initiate long AAPL common, now initiating myself as a jackass.

down 20% in that account, GOOG calls only thing working (see prev. posts),

Disaster (although, still up over 100% in my cash account (the LULU straddle).

time to wake up, get back in the ritam (cosmic rhythm), get humble, book some losses, and move on. . .

f-cking awesome weekend though!

namaste,
yt

back on the mac

thank ganesha, i'm back on my mac after a month+ working on the Dell/ MSFT Abacus model 2000. it feels naaaice.

anyway, i straddled LULU today -nice one, gotta love finance jargon. bought the Oct 40 puts (for a buck??) to compliment my Dec 40 calls (up 20%-ish), basically locking it in -hopefully, unless the stock doesn't move at all (in either direction) in a month.

also, i did all kinds of crazy sh-- in my IRA today (as it just funded). i really don't wanna get into all of it, but it feels wildly reckless. . . calls on crox, way out of the money calls on GOOG & BIDU, and puts on CMG, and APPL (all Oct expiration).

i love AAPL too, my favorite, but i like to own puts on AAPL when it runs, and today the puts felt more attractive than the calls, or getting long the common (of which i have limit buy orders). i never hold the AAPL puts for more than a few points, bc i'm mondo bullish on mock t. also, i feel like making money on both directions, that way i don't need to be bullish or bearish, i can be both.

CMG was a random short (put) my mom gave me. oddly, i love Chipolte. weird, i know. did i mention i live w/ my mom. . .

you really should not be listening to anything i say. please, go.

i fully subscribe to Taleb's (The Black Swan) philosophy of overweighting cash and juicing w/ options, although i'm mostly juicing to tell the truth . . .

*and, i am quite aware that all my positions, long and short, can all move against me. . . om namah shivaya!!

life is risk. swaha!!

om ritam namah -yoga teacher training next 4 days, so till then, may the long time sun shine upon you.

-yt

cop out

hi there.

i'm really bloated, so here's a cut and paste commentary i slung 2 weeks ago (on Google finance) regarding my rational for buying the LULU calls:

for you maniac fact checkers, here's the original link:

http://finance.google.com/group/google.finance.715923/browse_thread/thread/f5b82b226b08ca18/5c5cac1fe19fb604#5c5cac1fe19fb604

lazy? absolutely yes.

right?? we shall see. . .?? common at all time high. . .

enjoy, or not:

From:
bria...@gmail.com - view profile
Date:
Mon, Sep 10 2007 7:50 pm
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bria...@gmail.com
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okay guys, just wanted to join the fun here.
i'm an options trader -worked for a major I-bank for the last few years, and am now on my own (my choice;>).
i've got the DEC 40s which are quite illiquid at this point.
also hold the Sept 40s which I just got killed on after hours. . .
so yes, i'm pitching my book, but for the newbie investor, there's not a lot to go on, so here's my take -and please, take it like everything else, w/ a grain of salt and likely worthless, but here goes: yoga is exploding. the comps to UA and Nike are way off, like comping AAPL to HP or DELL. yoga is like what jogging (yagging) was in "Anchorman" in the 70s. it's legit, if you live in a major city, you know this to be true -ask your girlfriend/wife/or both.
i also happen to be a yoga practicioner and teacher, and the classes are packed and literally 70-80% of the women are sporting LULU -they just make the best/ most functional/ stylish gear.
what you've got a here is a combo of early WFMI, CROX and AAPL (a cult- like employee/ customer base + quality product + fad/fashion heat). the overwhelming majority of their biz is in Canada, so figure a quadrupling of N. American stores in the next 2-3 years + Europe = plenty of growth.
for the newbie dipping their toe, even though i'm an option guy, i now believe the best strategy here is to average in, long the common (the regular stock). you still have sooooo much time here -you're early, so pick up a bit at a time. best case, they do something stupid - dilute, mgmt problems. etc. and you get some in the 20s, worst case, we get a rate cut tomorrow and it never sees 30 again. . .
good luck all.
cheers, b

Global Mala

om namah shivaya! global mala '07 was amazing www.globalmala.org. saul, shiva, govindas, gurmukh (do it!) and donna delory!! donna delory is a true goddess -completely blew my mind and i would marry her today. donna. . .? jai ma! jai ma! jai ma durga. . .!! the LA yoga community is off the charts and i am grateful, constantly humbled and amazed that i get to hang around with these great yogis. namaste, thankyou, thankyou, thankyou!!

okay, so back to bizness, i sold the AAPL Oct 150s today for a nice gain (in at 3.3, out at 5.3). i could give you all the ex-post-facto analysis, but the truth is i took a 3 hour nap, woke up 19 minutes to close, heard some bad stuff (bernstein, housing) and quite frankly needed the money, so took profits. i've extracted 130% of my initial cost basis and still hold my Dec LULUs so i'm up 80% in 5 weeks (and one day), and am now completely playing w/ the houses money. om namah lakshmi!

part of the yogatrader philosophy is that we trade so we can have experiences (trips, education) and give stuff away (to friends, to charity), not to accumulate all kinds of stuff, or build this giant portfolio. in yoga, we always talk about setting the intention, not in a super goal-oriented way, but in a humble, more, "how can i best be of service" type of way. don't worry, i'm not gonna get all preachy here, but most traders (that have been in the game a helluva lot longer than me) would likely agree, that humbleness and clear intention are important attributes of a successful trader. Google "Ed Sekoyta -Market Wizard", for more of that great Trader shakti!

okay friends, it's good to be back. this week, i'm gonna start moving toward a more palatable style of writing, more user-friendly, more analytical and linkable, less directly personal, but i wanted to have these first few entries on record so that you may get a bit of sense of where i'm coming from and who i am. thanks for your indulgence.

humbly yours,
yt

Thai Massage

LULU cooked today and I got lucky. Those Sept 40s that were $5+ OUT of the money yesterday and worth ZERO $, and expired in 2 days, I got 50 cents for them this afternoon, and broke even (on that trade). Buzzer beater.

Yogatrader believes in luck = Lakshmi, Goddess of Abundance. Anyone who believes trading is all MBA math, bell-curves and quant models. . . well, you're in good company -LTCM, BS Enhanced Credit, GS Global Alpha, Quant this, Quant that, et. al. Blow up city.

The ancient yogis understood rational models are not so hot in describing real stuff. Human behavior = Market behavior and both are impossible to model. Fat tails predominate in Eastern philosophy.

The yogis were the first Chaos theorists/ Quantum theorists. With that segue, here are some great books on trading:

The Black Swan -Taleb
The Bhagavad Gita -Ganesha??
The Misbehavior of Markets -Mandelbrot
Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind -Suzuki
The Alchemy of Finance -Soros
The Yoga Sutras -Patanjali
When Genius Failed -??
The Art of Happiness - The Dalai Lama
The Elegant Universe -Greene

That's a start to give you an idea of where we're coming from. That's it for tonight. Oh yeah, my positions: just put a low ball bid on the ICE Oct 150s, have ridiculous sell limit orders on my remaining AAPL and LULU Calls. Doing another teacher training Thur-Sun so away from the Internets/ email/ trading/ time wasting/ blogging for 4 days. Heaven.

Oh yeah, got a Thai massage today -highly recommend it.

Namaste,
humbly yours,
yt

post 1: Dow 330+

An auspicious day to start posting, no doubt -Bernanke the Tanke does the right thing, the Market rips, and here we are.

So first off, thanks for dropping by. My long story short is: 1) I'm really, really into yoga -in teacher training and all that, like Ogden http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFsEgwpLRTc

2) I'm also an MBA, worked on Wall Street slinging stock for the Mothership, quit that gig in August, and am now trading options for myself until I run out of dough.

My opinions are worthless.

Okay, glad that's over. So where are we? Right, big day. Here's my positions and recent history. I own the AAPL Oct 150s and the LULU Dec 40s as well as the LULU Sept 40s (now priced at 0). That's it. No, I don't believe in diversification. I'm 32 years old and just moved in w/ my Mom. I have no risk in my life.

Since, I started in early August, I've pulled out 80% of my initial capital to help pay for 4 yoga teacher trainings and a trip to India, so I'm playing (mostly) w/ the houses money. My big trade was buying the AAPL Sept 135s for $2 when the stock was at 120-ish and selling them for $7.3. I also bought AAPL puts (a strangle) when the common ran to 145 and sold those the next day for a double (a bit early).

It's been downhill ever since. I was up 80%+ in 3 weeks and am now up just under 30%. Still, not bad, and I still like my positions. Although, today was not that good for me even though the common (AAPL and LULU) did well -near term expirations sucking up the volume. Any who, I realize this option-speak may be a bit esoteric, so my apologies, I'll get to some juicier "yogatrader" stuff soon.

But just wanted to get this rolling and get my positions on record. Thanks so much for coming by!

Namaste,
yt