A Rant

The three levels I'm interested in for the time being: 1620 (back test of 50-day moving average), 1582.70 (gap), and 1536 (April low/200-day moving average). All else is noise.

It is the noise part that I wish to discuss today. Please excuse this, but I really need to rant.

Yesterday was a good day for me in the markets. But it was a perfect storm of everything I can't stand about social media and financial television.

Every once in a while I reach my limit for "endless bullshit" and this is one of those times.

First, I made the mistake of turning on CNBC for a split second early in the morning and heard the tired old misleading BS about rising rates being a good thing because it means the economy is expanding. Tell it to Europe, Jim.

Then my tiny Twitter stream (where I try to read every tweet) happened to be littered with more retweets than usual, which meant that I had to see silly comments and jokes and prognostications from people I purposefully choose not to follow.

Then one of these same people was on Fast Money, which again, I mistakenly turned on for a minute or two as I was making lunch, and had to listen to the same guy tell me what "always" happens in the market! I could not believe it. The word ALWAYS does not exist on Wall Street, nothing ALWAYS happens when it comes to human nature, yet I always seem to see and hear this guy. I've reached my limit.

Then the Stocktwits S&P 500 stream was absolutely chock full of people I'd never seen before proclaiming to be magically short from levels I don't think ever existed.

Finally at the end of the day, I came across a retweet linking to a post from a foul-mouthed trader who runs a blog that brags about how much money he supposedly makes, only the post was an admission that he lost 3% yesterday. I could not believe he lost 3% in one day and still had the temerity to say LISTEN TO ME YOU STUPID BASTARD.

So next week I'm going to try something different: I'm gonna take a break from all media. I will only check Twitter and Stocktwits twice per day at noon and 3pm ET. I will not check CNBC at all. I will not read market commentary. I will just trade and enjoy life.

And to the stupid bastard who lost 3% in one day, here's my equity curve, before and after the recent top (click on it to see that it's from May 1st to yesterday). You can't tell where the top was in the market because it shouldn't make any difference to a trader. Up or down, it's all the same. All else is noise.