2012: The Battle for Survival

Lost $8300 in stock and gained $5700 in options. Clearly, the solution is to stick with options.

 

Based on one week of trading, is it really clear?

 

Based on the last few years of trading, he should be kept away from a computer and have his passwords changed. Just kidding. You can always make it back in a few well-chosen trades.

 

Sure every year people overcome an 75-80% drawdown that occurred during the past few years in one of the better turns in market history. With just a few trades they turn 90+ k into a few hundred k.

If you're unable to make money these past few years, you need a serious restructuring, or just hang it up and pay someone else. You got no business in the business.

 

Period Update for weeks 40-43 ended 11/2/2013

Bad month, down 5.4K. One outlandish loss on the only day I was at home, decided to shut down my automation and do discretionary trades. Averaged down on an SCTY short, costing 14K. That deflated my confidence for the rest of the month. Took out 2.5K.

Code:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Opening Balance:                	 93,077
Net loss for period 		         (5,396)
Cash Withdrawal				 (2,500)
------------------------------------------------
Net Balance:                   		 85,181


For the Thread Year-to-Date  1/6/2013 - 11/2/2013

Opening Balance:                   	83,156
Net gain		    	        26,925 (Up 32%)
Cash Withdrawal			       (24,900)
------------------------------------------------
Net Balance			        85,181
----------------------


TRADES

TYPE	Exite Date/Time		P/L

Option	2013-10-08-10-03-17	-82.15
Stock	2013-10-09-15-53-50	-1314.32
Stock	2013-10-08-19-06-36	149.74
Option	2013-10-09-13-09-29	262.83
Option	2013-10-09-15-30-29	-1458.47
Option	2013-10-09-10-30-57	1292.41
Option	2013-10-09-10-30-58	-976.16
Option	2013-10-09-10-35-37	-154.32
Option	2013-10-09-13-27-40	918.96
Option	2013-10-09-14-05-50	120.55
Stock	2013-10-10-14-30-08	-111.93
Stock	2013-10-11-10-17-19	441.88
Stock	2013-10-11-12-36-37	-14472.04
Option	2013-10-11-10-23-03	1835.48
Option	2013-10-11-11-53-14	1984.54
Stock	2013-10-11-15-07-55	117.46
Stock	2013-10-11-15-56-14	-1022.44
Stock	2013-10-14-09-17-02	945.73
Stock	2013-10-14-11-59-32	1124.86
Stock	2013-10-15-12-54-11	-302.86
Option	2013-10-15-15-49-53	-84.87
Stock	2013-10-16-10-25-33	-302.6
Option	2013-10-16-13-11-11	59.64
Stock	2013-10-16-12-05-14	-322.68
Option	2013-10-17-09-31-31	252.87
Stock	2013-10-17-10-17-08	-2127.14
Stock	2013-10-17-14-08-12	33.1
Stock	2013-10-17-10-15-57	-1672.1
Stock	2013-10-18-11-57-09	2523.6
Stock	2013-10-18-09-38-13	3393.41
Option	2013-10-18-12-42-41	-480.99
Option	2013-10-18-15-28-36	4823.73
Stock	2013-10-21-12-26-46	514.04
Option	2013-10-21-11-16-50	335.49
Stock	2013-10-22-10-01-21	-4354.36
Option	2013-10-22-10-54-10	1220.52
Stock	2013-10-22-10-03-41	3120.43
Option	2013-10-23-13-58-36	-1587.88
Option	2013-10-23-16-23-04	1325.42
Stock	2013-10-24-10-16-42	2108.73
Stock	2013-10-24-12-27-02	865.42
Option	2013-10-25-09-43-48	-2482.15
Option	2013-10-25-13-37-51	-819.42
Stock	2013-10-28-09-46-59	985.34
Stock	2013-10-29-10-30-23	-801.33
Option	2013-10-30-10-26-11	-264.85
Option	2013-10-30-15-06-27	813.53
Stock	2013-10-30-13-05-00	2187.74
Stock	2013-10-30-16-32-29	-1188.96
Stock	2013-10-31-12-20-53	-1362.84
Option	2013-10-31-11-48-31	-1404.48

 

your issue should be clear to you, mainly because I face a similar challenge...

 

NoD: "Neke, this is your Mom again. How many times do I have to tell you to stop shorting stocks with a 20% short interest that open gapped up..."

Neke: "But it was too high to buy!"

 

Months of hard work taken out by one trade.

Neke, i think you should stop trading for the rest of the year at least.

 

Anything can happen in trading if you leave the option open.

Including huge winners and huge losses.

Eliminate the possibility of one and keep the other.

 

I found that adopting a simple "no countertrend trading" rule was very helpful.