How much do you want to bet that these negative responses are by people who don't post trade journals at all and are just digging around to either troll or get ideas for their trades? Keep it up Sean, I think I'm almost certainly going to post up a trade journal when I get started I want to see if I can get $500 to $200,000 within a year or two. It should be an interesting learning experience, I at least hope I won't get completely slaughtered and lose the money I'm saving up
As long as you manage your risk and trade with money you can afford to lose, then just relax and trade your plan. If $500 is what you're starting with and you can afford to lose it - go with it. I should've mentioned earlier to the guy who asked me "why not $500 to $5 million?".... I chose to start with $200 because that was money I was willing to lose. I've gone into this challenge with full knowledge of the fact that it is theoretically possible to lose 100% of my equity on a bad overnight market break. What I hope to get most out of this challenge is more experience. And more lessons. I don't know what they will be yet. And at a cost of $200, it seems like quite a bargain. No matter how high I run this account up....if I lose it all - in the end, the real cost to me was $200. Yes, there will be the "opportunity" and "time" costs of managing this portfolio for x amount of years.... but again, this comes back to my main goal - to learn. In the markets as well as life, when you stop learning, there's nothing left waiting for you except a coffin. Best of luck in 2010.
With the S&P making new rally highs to begin the new year, I initiated a $SPY Feb/Jan 113 call spread today at 1.57, for a total cost of $159.52 after commissions. There are only 11 days remaining until January options expiration, so I don't expect this position to be held very long before it hits its profit target (or gets knocked out). For the time being, the price target for this spread is 1.78 for a 10% net gain. I expect the market to start pulling some fast moves on us soon - though I have no idea which direction. Glad I don't need to know. Portfolio Update: Value of Open Positions: 303.50 Cash: 21.60 Total Value of Portfolio: $325.10 (62% gain since inception). Happy Trading in 2010.
I'm willing to bet that statistically, you have a better shot at winning $2 million playing the lottery. I'd use $188 bucks in your TOS account and use the rest to buy one lottery ticket per month. We'll call that plan B
The S&P continues to make new headway on its amazing rally since the March 2009 low. With 10 days until January expiration and SPY trading just outside the profit zone for the Feb/Jan 111 call spread, it was time to close it and take the small loss today. We opened this spread on Dec 10 @ 1.47. We closed it today at 1.40 for a $12.04 loss after commissions (-6%, 26 days). I'll look to put this new cash to work tomorrow in a Mar/Feb spread. Portfolio Update: Open Position: $159.50 Cash: $159.08 Total Value of Portfolio: $318.58 (59.3% gain since Sept 24 inception).
Sean, Great thread ! Congrats on the success but maybe you want to help your readers out a little more and refer them to some educational resources. One of the reasons I stopped posting in my journal was I didn't feel like I was helping much.
Well, I am a voracious reader of anything related to (or loosely related to) trading. I've probably read all the major books that just about every trading professional would recommend. And it certainly won't be shocking to anyone here to state that my favorite trading book of all time which I've read over and over is "Reminiscences of a Stock Operator" and that I wholeheartedly recommend "Atlas Shrugged" as my favorite book of all-time. However, as far as any books or resources that specifically describe my exact method of trading...I haven't come across one. Besides, I would imagine that any book that talks about trading calendar spreads wouldn't recommend investing your ENTIRE account in such positions. In this vein, I'm happy to go against the crowd. My strategy has evolved from over 12 years of trading by trial-and-error. And it's still evolving. I'm certain there are still ways to lose money that I haven't discovered yet (though, I've got to be pretty close to the finish line ) I should mention here that this challenge doesn't represent all of the funds I trade. However, lessons that I'm learning in this account are being slowly rolled out into my main trading vehicle. If you're looking for a good read, I've just finished reading "The Education of a Speculator" by Victor Neiderhoffer. It was a fascinating read into the mind and thought processes of one of the great traders of the past 100 years.