By the way totally open with how to reduce risk on some of what I'm doing. I know I could go out and buy puts to protect from the down side or even put together some spreads. Ideally I'd to maybe buy UVXY or VIX or know how to do that with LABU/LABD on these biotech plays.
I looked at the bottom of that page, and it says: Barron's Top 100 Hedge Fund Avg 21.22 S&P 500 Total Return Avg 20.42 So the best 100 hedge funds on average are hardly beating the S&P? Why put money there then?
Normally I apply 20% or less of my buying power to each trade. I do not use stops for swing trades (although I can see how stops would be necessary for day-trading). Profit-taking varies from trade to trade depending on the situation. Some trades I might look for 1% profit, others I might look for 10%, or anywhere in between, depending on what I know when I enter the trade.
I opened a small brokerage account in 2011 ($20,000), made about a dozen trades right away with minimal gains, then took a large withdrawal from the account and quit trading altogether for about a year and a half. I started trading in earnest again in 2013. As of January 1st, 2013 my account balance was $12,500. I get 1-1 leverage from my broker. Worst month - January 2016 - 16% down Worst day - September 16th, 2015 - Sold a position for 33% loss I have a long bias.
You're right! I am fishing for replies. I thought that was the point of asking a question on a forum. And, it seems your reply generated some attention to the post. So, I suppose I owe you one for that. I assure you I am here to learn, not just get clicks. I am familiar with the Barrons link you posted. I have also seen similar charts on other web sites for hedge funds and mutual funds. As I understand, many hedge funds employ the services of several traders. So, when I look at a hedge fund's performance, am I looking at the returns of one trader, or the returns from a collective effort of several traders who probably have different individual results? I am more interested in finding out how I stack up against the individual traders.
"The funny thing is that 2013/2014 benefited investors over traders." ...My biggest winner in 2013 was a position I held for 10 months. Something I haven't done since. "...2015 would have been very hard without a little skill/luck." ...For 2015, I made most of my profits in Q1 and Q2. Q3 and Q4 were tough, to say the least.
Q3 and Q4 was a very tough period for Long funds, short funds and L/S. They all got whipped around. From what I can see, day traders had a tough time too. It look like there was little momentum during the day and most of the movement was pre-open. I think you are doing fine. Keep it up. I hope you are managing enough funds to make a living, unless you are building your track record for the future. Many of my clients are in the stage.
Sorry, I just noticed the size of the account. It's great that you are making those returns, but I assume this is not a full time endeavor for you.
This is one of the problems with small accounts. It makes it difficult to scale and have many position.