Never Stop Learning

Good morning folks, 
One of the things I love about the markets is that they never stop teaching me new things. I can have my own thoughts of what the markets will do if this scenario happens or what they will do if that scenario happens. 

Reality is often the complete opposite of what I had perceived in my own mind. There is a saying that "perception is everything"and that is a true statement but as a trader you need to be flexible in the way you perceive things and often times you have to go against everything that you think you know. 

You have to abandon what you think should be the proper reaction and play what is actually taking place. I am not suggesting that you can't anticipate or that you can't put together a strategy of what you will do as certain scenarios develop. Just make sure that when the scenario plays out you are on the side of what is happening and not what you think should happen. 

There will be times that the market will react exactly as you thought it should. 

Then there will be times like yesterday, where one could have thought that Mario Draghi bringing out that bazooka monetary policy would have tanked the euro and strengthened the dollar. You could have thought that a strong dollar would weaken commodities like gold and oil. You could have thought that since the markets have had such a strong move higher over the last several weeks that we would likely see them rollover in a buy the rumor sell the news type of scenario. Initially those things started to happen and then there was a strong reversal catching people off guard and doing exactly the opposite of what theoretically made sense. 

The markets can be irrational and they can stay irrational for extended periods of time. Don't beat yourself up if you get caught on the wrong side of things and make sure your pride doesn't hold you back from making the necessary change to limit your loss. You will never be right 100 percent of the time. If you take positions into potential market moving events, or the earnings of company, or a binary event like an FDA ruling, understand that its a gamble and make sure those positions are sized accordingly.

I will be doing this weeks market wrap video later today or early tomorrow morning.Join me for stocks to watch Sunday 8 AM Vegas time http://ticker.tv/vegastrader66. Come by the chat room and say hi M-F during trading hours http://us22.chatzy.com/TradersDen.

Today's Markets 

In Asia, Japan +0.5% to 16939. Hong Kong +1.1% to 20200. China+0.2% to 2810. India +0.4% to 24718.
In Europe, at midday, London +1.6%. Paris +3%. Frankfurt +3%.
Futures at 6:20, Dow +1%. S&P +1.1%. Nasdaq +1.3%. Crude +2.6%to $38.84. Gold -0.7% to $1264.40.
Ten-year Treasury Yield +1 bps to 1.94%

Volatility & SPY                            OIL                                                  Biotech
UVXY XIV VXX TVIX SPXS     UWTI DWTI GUSH DRIP                     IBB LABU LABD       
 Gold                                                                  SILVER           Dollar      Financials
GLD NUGT JNUG DUST JDST GDX GDXJ         USLV          UUP      FAS XLF FAZ

Stocks on my radar premarket 
SSKN thin bio news after the close 
HLTH eod pop potential continuation 3 roll earnings nxt week 
KTOS earnings potential 4 roll 
FNSR earnings beat 
SRPT potential follow through 16 roll 
WLL nice looking daily 8 roll 
NERV pr thin one early study