Hi everybody. I'm just going to try and keep this short and simple. I am freshly turned 25 years old; I'm from and live in Canada. I work full time in the oil patch doing a job which allows me a lot of screen time everyday. I got an Economics degree, and realized the Economics of working in the oil patch which is how I ended up here. Since I was a kid I have been obsessed with the stock market and trading (my hero is Larry Williams). Over time various forms of markets and trading were revealed to me. Worked as a scalper for a little bit; it was a failed venture, broke even at the end of 9 months but I learned a hell of a lot about ECN's and the hardware aspect of trading. Explored fundamental analysis, technical, combinations, spent about a year messing around with options in ThinkOrSwim (learned a ton about that too). Anyways, I finally settled on the type of trading I want to do for income, which is spread trading in commodities markets. Some objectives and/or rules: 1) I will try to put capital preservation above everything. 2) I will try not to get greedy, and I will try not to get fearful. See rule #6. 3) I will make regular deposits to my account and identify these deposits so they are not confused with returns. 4) Most trades will be seasonal spreads as I can best identify them, or just "feelings" on which way a spread will move on a short term basis. I.e. I have been fading jumps in 1-month and 6-month Calendars with mild success. I also like taking low probability speculative bets using options, but they will be minimal. 5) I will focus very hard on keeping my position size within reasonable limits. I have a 16% drawdown on my account in the first month because I took a trade 3 times the size of what I should have. Hopefully I have learned from that. 6) No hard or soft stops; only relative to what I think relating to my available margin and how much faith I have in my trade. See rule #2. 7) I will try to ignore news headlines, as I have seemed to make better decisions in the past when I have tried this. I use Interactive Brokers. Account was conceived Mid October 2014. Attached is a current performance and metrics of my account. It has been open for roughly a month and a half now, but from here on I will post activities of what I have been doing. Most P&L since inception has come from trading in and out of 1-month CL calendars, 6-month CL calendars, and currently onside a Live Cattle calendar. Thanks for reading and may God be with me!
Current open trade that I am watching is a Live Cattle calendar. Short Feb Long April. Entry was technical/statistical based, I have no exit plan yet. Will watch and see how it behaves.
Open Positions: Short CL Jan/Feb 2015 Calendar @ 0.10... Breakeven Long LE Feb/Apr 2015 Calendar @ -1.95ish... Currently @ -0.20 My margin is at about 60% so I don't think I am going to take any new positions. I have some options positions open which are pretty much dead in the water, small chance they will recover so we will see. Waiting for a deposit to clear and might open up a short on CL Jun/Dec 2015 Calendar. Edit: Forgot to mention, feedback would be appreciated! I've never made a journal before so not sure what is important to include and exclude.
Are you planning to hold the cattle position a little longer? I like your thoughts on the potential CL spread, pending no major changes in oil news of course.
Yah. I hope to see the Cattle break out of this range, if it doesn't then whatever. I'll just try and get the best exit price I can. That range seems to be tightening though so I don't think I"ll be able to retire on this trade haha. Yeah, I've made some decent coin off trading that CL Jun/Dec. It behaves really nicely and I don't lose sleep over holding it. I was actually long on it the week of the OPEC announcement, but I closed it on Wednesday and left a bunch of money on the table just because I didn't want to be exposed.
Someone bumped Feb Cattle by about 3k contracts, sent spread off its highs by about 60 cents. Increased position by a third, will see how it goes from here.
Took a small short in the Jun/Dec Calendar on CL @ 1.01 after some deposits cleared into my account. Just 1 contract to have something on the go. -Feb/+Apr LE trade I made yesterday seems to be working out okay. It rebounded back up to the other day's levels, so I will watch closely and see what I can take out of the trade. I'm hoping to see the spread reach at least 0.00, but we'll see. Still have 3 contract position open on the -Jan/+Feb 2015 CL spread. It's not moving much, I am getting impatient with it.
Yah. Not a fundamental play or anything just a trade. It would have to move against me A LOT before I would feel uncomfortable with it.
Cattle spread jumped up for me.. Sitting around 0.00. Might think about taking profits soon. When it dropped off a little bit and I bought more, that was a tough decision for me because I thought for a bit it might be heading back to the bottom of its range. But this was a seasonal trade, and I wanted to devote myself to having faith in my trade and letting it play out. Instead of selling I averaged up, and it paid off. *Edit. Decided to offer out 3/4 of position. Will hold 1/4 just in case it absolutely explodes. CL Spreads not doing much. Just bouncing up and down. The Jun/Dec moved against me about 20 cents immediately after I entered, but position size so small it didn't affect account much.