Yeah, you are right and my apologies to neke. Niederhoffer lost over 100% as he was slightly on margin and let's not forget John Meriwether guy who ran Long Term Capital Management into the ground losing billions. But never fear, both Niederhoffer and Meriwether were able to rise again and somehow raise capital for new endeavors.
Weekly Update for week 17/50 ended 5/6/2011 Impressive week, up 29K (9.2%). Very nice week for my automation, which made 32K on 18 trades. Lost a little bit with my discretionary trades. Too early to say, but I believe the adjustments I have made in the strategies, and the fact I cannot average down anymore on those trades, will yield some dividend going forward. Will still try and add one more strategy into the mix. Hey, I am now into positive territory for the thread (less than 1% I know ) Code: Opening Balance: 309,468 Net gain for the week 28,543 ------------------------------------------------ Net Balance: 338,011 Number of Trades 29 Number of Profitable Trades 18 Since Inception of Thread 01/8/2011 - 5/6/2011 Opening Balance: 335,899 Net gain (Less Margin Interest) 2,112 (Up 0.6%) ------------------------------------------------ Net Balance 338,011 Number of Trades 322 Number of Profitable Trades 180
Neke, good to hear that! Is the week's success in your automated trading the result of something new you've done to the system or is it based on the same strategies you've been using all along? You may have already addressed this somewhere in the thread, but what is the current return of your automated vs discretionary trading YTD?
Same strategies more or less. Keep refining, dropping those that don't seem to work, and expanding the ones that seem to work to pick more trades. Automated has made 49K from 72 trades while discretionary has lost almost as much. I have started "picking" my discretionary trades. 250 trades in four months with a loss is not very encouraging. AUTO 72 48,507.89 DISCR 250 -46,407.52
Hi neke, I have been following your posts and can't wait until I have the working equity that you do! Are you able to identify why your auto trades work better than discretionary? Do they take different approaches, or does it have more to do with money management?
Neke, Do you take the mark to market (trader) election on your taxes? If so, has this had any impact as far as making filing more complicated? I assuming you're in the U.S.A. Thanks.