A question about the daily list of traders profitability at Worldco. Are all traders on the list ? In the beginning of 2000 I went into tradescape and they showed me a list on the computer and it had a list of traders there.They had fictious names but it showed their account size , what the P&L was of each stock they traded that day,and also what stocks all the traders made the most money on and what stocks they lost the most on. If you wanted to have access to this information you had to allow your results to be displayed.Not individual trades but just the total P&L for the day on each security. I wonder could you give us an idea on a daily basis what the top traders are making and average profits for the day.If Worldco will not allow this I understand. Trading from home am out of touch with this type of info. By the way your journals are interesting reading and your progress is great. It seems your discipline has improved by not overtrading when the moves are not there.
Yes there is a top 30 list after every day but I can not give you the full list every single day for obvious reasons. Yesterday 84% of the people made money before commissions and after commissions, the top guy was around 37K and the bottom guy 6K. Keep in mind nobody ringed the bell that we were going to break 10K, so not everyone was long (at least not size) until it became obvious
Hitman, Yesterday was one of the broadest and biggest rally we had all year so I could fully understand the numbers. Today would be an interesting indicator for the top 30 list. In your opinion what do you think the percentage of traders in your company that are profitable lets say from May to November. A rough estimate would be appreciated.
Very choppy consolidating day after the monster session, but still I should have done much better with the auto parts upgrade in the morning. Managed to win my sixth games in a row and opened December with $2500 after 4 games. 19600 shares on 13 of 22 shooting, +840 before commissions, +342 after, 1 bullet. Pre-Market: Auto parts upgrade, never traded them before and thought the volume was weak and bailed very early when futures came in, and they just trended and trended on 200-500 share prints, with occassional 1000-2000 prints at quarter's and half's. Had I took a few solid positions and held I would have been ok, but the open print was very small and I didn't think there was much buying interest. 9:30: BTK strength, took CRA and DNA, got a really bad print on DNA (M got in 25 cents cheaper) and made just 15 cents. Lost 10 cents on CRA. Bought BWA as part of the auto part upgrade, sold all except 100 shares market when futures came in, and saw that 100 shares go up 30 cents where I sold in disgust and watched it go up another point. Bad tape reading there, I thought it was day trader volume. 9:47: Bulleted APA on XNG sell-off, but the index has been highly inaccurate with the ENE/DYN volatility, and I broke even before commissions. Took DNA at 58.25 for a half point move on BTK move. Tried BVF but he doesn't really follow DRG and lost 7 cents. 10:00: Tried TRW on auto part strength, scored 20 cents and left 30 on the table. Tried NSM on what I thought to be a temporary SOX bottom and hit for 20 cents. (I feel sorry for anyone who shorted this stock when it had a clear short pattern around 12 or so, news release -> halt gapped it up 1.75 point, this will happen to me one day for sure, a big hit on a serious position for multiple points with a news release . . . Part of the risk of the game. 10:25: Tried ETN at 72.70 as my third attempt of the auto part rally, scored a quarter and left a point and half on the table, the tape action of those stocks are really stealthy but they just move up on light volume. Tried IFF and FMC on CEX rally, scored 40 cents on FMC but didn't buy the dip which would have gave me another point move. Stopped out of IFF for 5 cents loss. 10:47: Tried to get that infamous energy bottom, took HP / BHI / EOG, broke even on HP, made a quarter on BHI and EOG, HAL is very liquid and I tried my first 3000 share position ever when he kept on printed 21.33 and OSX went straight up. (Really reminds me of that TXN trade), and he would not break it, as soon as he printed 21.32 I stopped out of 1000 shares, 21.30 and I stopped out of another 1000, and ended up losing quite a bit as a position of that size hurts a lot when you count in commissions. Any stock that gives me that much time to pyramid into 3000 shares, probably not a good long. I am glad he didn't print 20 cents lower on the first downtick, would have hurted for $600. Still it was a good exercise in trying to up my size, as I must be aggressive. 11:30: Weak second bounce on OSX and I scored 15 cents on CAM. Tried my fourth auto part stock of the day MGA and out for flat, just hold it damn it, it went up half a point from there. Took A for a 20 cents move, could not break 30 resistance. 12:44: Tried AMD and made 20 cents, left 40 cents on the table, I left way too much money on the table today. 2:00: Churned A, TSM, SCI, JBL, LSI, market was choppy and I broke even on those trades, tried to buy dips and consolidations but the buyers and sellers just did a stand off . . . Last night was an incredible Christmas party at Studio 54, the all you can eat buffet complete with sushi bar, steak, salmon and lobster pasta . . . The all you can drink open bar . . . It was a fabulous experience. Almost 1000 people showed up with Worldco employees, traders and guests, and our boss got drunk and slipped himself into an incident with someone, all I saw was someone was pushed toward me and I stepped aside but couldn't avoid the spill of a drink on my suit. Two body guards showed up immediately to clear the situation, and my boss had a serious headache today and left early. As for myself, I threw up after just two drinks (SB, now you know why I didn't go drinking with you guys after the interview lol, my tolerance is next to zero), still, it was great fun. The scale of this party tells me that our firm is very steady financially, and our boss in his Italian suit with a cigarette really reminds me of a mob boss His intensity will sure carry us toward success, that sounds cheesy but I would most definitely not be thinking about starting a new trading firm with this kind of competition on the street. MJT: Actually, the reason I posted yesterday's numbers is because I thought it could have been better given the scale of the rally, but it is very hard for people to be aggressive with size after two tough games on Monday and Tuesday. It doesn't matter what anyone tell you, the truth is 50% of the people who ever walked into a trading firm will not be profitable at all, 20% don't make serious money, so the survival rate is 30%, subtract 5% for people who blow up a year or two into the game, I can tell you 1 out of 4 traders who ever walked into Worldco, Bright, Echo or any other firm without previous experience can have a successful career. While a easy market like 99/00 will create more successful traders, in reality if a trader had fundamental flaws in his game only masked by the easy market, they will fail at some point. This is not Don Bright sugar coating the numbers (gee, 70% successful after the first year, duh, the entire game is whether a new trader can survive the first year), this is the cold hard stat, I don't care what anyone tells you, this is the truth that not even my own firm will be willing to admit. You have more than twice the chance (25% versus 10%) if you join a firm like Worldco versus fight it out with your own money retail, but the odd is still against you. No amount of training can replace painful lessons that must be taught with financial losses, but if anyone joins my team I would say they have an extra 1.53765% chance to make it
Hitman, OK, I see what your role will be a little better. I'm sure you will do fine at it. Riding herd on a bunch of big egos isn't the easiest job though. You might want to score the books written by big time basketball coaches like Phil Jackson and Pat Riley. They face a similar challenge of managing big egos and having very little control over what those egos actually do during a game. I predict that you will arrive at Studio 54 next year in a stretch limo with your princess on your arm. BTW, how is Mrs. D handling your sudden rise to prominence?
The week ended on a sour note as I opened today's game shooting 1 for 12. While I was able to claw my way back from a 1K deficit back to -$250, I could not save my winning streak. Some serious mental mistakes this morning as I misfired all of my bullets. 7 of 21 shooting on 24900 shares, +560 before commissions, -239 after, 4 bullets. Finished the week +2200. Just found out that a highly successful trader at our firm, who happens to have my level of consistency but six times the result, he started in late 1998, and made less than 10K during 1999, in other word, even I made more money than he did in 1999 from my 12K Datek account, then in 2000 he scored six figures and this year he is at mid six figures. In other word, it is ok if you have a slow start, for a breakout may be just around the corner if you develop a strong fundamental game. I can definitely feel the pressure of being a team leader. Today I was supposed to talk to our boss about our team's location, complete the paper work for my contract, and last but not least schedule an interview for two ex-Nasdaq traders who are thinking about switching over (talked to one of them for a hour last night, can't wait to have you on board if you are reading this . Then boom, I tossed up enough bricks to build myself a dream apartment today as I could not buy a winning trade, I just grinded and grinded until the closing time. My only break was a hot dog break when I serious thought I couldn't afford $1 hot dogs today. It is definitely going to be more stress, but I love the challenge and have to remember that first and foremost I am a trader, not a manager. By the time I was done, everyone left the firm and I guess I have to talk to them on Monday, fortunately everything still seems to be on schedule and by this time next week the team will hopefully be together. Pre-Market: Newspaper downgrades, I guess in a bull market downgrades don't really work. I called my princess and asked her if she could come out tonight, and she said no, and my heart went cold with my shooting touch. Later in the afternoon she called me and said yes, and I made most of it back, no coincidence. 9:30: The ENE/DYN has created a short opportunity for EPG on most of the days lately, so I bulleted that with energy sell-off. Bulleted NYT on the morning news paper downgrade. Two legit trades, but then I went too trigger happy and bulleted JCI (autopart) and CAH (drugs) with no real offer to lean on. I made a quarter point in EPG and covered at the dead bottom when I saw DYN/ENE ripped. NYT/JCI/CAH all flat, too trigger happy, I say it everyday that you can't spray and pray on the short side anymore, and I went too fast. 9:48: Tried to long NBL on XNG bounce, lost a nickel, flipped EPG and churned. Thought the market was strong and took COF, churned a lot of him and missed the rally into the close. Churned GS on what I thought to be XBD strength (again, too slow, chased), churned REI/PPL on what I thought was a UTY rally. 11:30: I was down $600, then it really hit the fan. TYC was selling off hard and I took a little at 59.14, and took more at the figure, I almost never see him move like that so I thought it had to bounce, I got out of my full position at 58.70 on a slow trigger finger, boom I was down 1K. 11:36: Composure is everything. I slowed down the tempo of the game and started playing 200-300 shares. Took a few small scalps on TYC on 300-500 shares. Churned some more GE. I was going nowhere. 1:30: Energy run, took NBL for 30 cents, lost 5 cents on NOI which ripped after a few shakeout's. Bulleted BVF thanks to M's free bullet Really weak stock, bulleted at 54.25 but he did a lot of fake out's, some serious size went off at 53.82 and I covered, then he broke down again and I bulleted again, chart looked like a smooth ride down but it wasn't the case on the tape, and when he printed 53.20 I tried to cover immediately but couldn't get filled on my limit buy at 53.25, then he squeezed hard and I gave up half of the profit. Overall, with the reduced size, not a big winner, but it gave me confidence, and of course, princess called. 2:00: Futures tanked hard and used that EPG bullet for a quarter point move. Tried to long TYC again and lost 15 cents immediately. Really upset because I did not try it for a final third attempt near the figure when he squeezed a full point. Dow bounced off 10K support a few times and I went long at various points RJR, EMR, SGY, EDS, LSI, STM, GE during the ride up, broke even in a few, scored a quarter or so in others, and while I couldn't sweep the week, it is an acceptable loss. Need to make $3500 rest of the way to meet my minimum expectation of 70K for the year, strength and honor, I can do it!
Very bad game as I could not adjust myself to the short side in time. After Friday's misfired bullets, I decided to go bullet-less today, and going long only. After the first morning bounce off 10K everything turned into crap. The squeezes were very weak and the market never had that reversal I anticipated. When Dow broke 10K I knew I was in trouble because it was too late to short and I had zero bullets. That and two blown morning lay-ups made me eat a back-to-back loss. Something tells me this month is going to be rough . . . 15100 shares on 11 of 19 shooting, +254 before commissions, -94 after. Pre-Market: FNM/FRE upgrades (CCR). 9:30: Again, DYN gapped down and traded lower, and last week or so every time that happens, you can go EPG/KMI short, missed both despite of a huge offer on EPG. Long CCR at 40.5 for a quarter, but missed the FNM which opened unchanged and traded up one point. M had a big heated blow up with Mrs D before the market opened, and he ended up down 1K today (I told him to be conservative but he let his emotion get the best of him), he made a lot of calls on long defensives and that really dragged me down today. I tried MO off the open out flat. 9:47: Stupid trade, CEX was a really weak index and I went long PPG, lost 20 cents. 9:55: Anticipating a bounce off 10K, went long MWD, NSM, AMD, scored 20 cents on 1000 AMD, took 30 cents off MWD, flat on NSM. 10:05: Ouch, thought the rally will continue, took MMM and hit for 35 cents, AGE and hit for 8 cents. Really thought futures will bounce back and churned STM. Energy rebound and I churned EPG into one of my biggest losers of the day (a little bit of revenger trading there as I was mad at myself for not taking him short earlier). Churned VTS on OSX rally (very choppy). 11:05: Churned MWD, NSM, CCU, fortunately, small sizes, because when I saw Dow broke 10K I knew the game was over. It was too late to get short for me as I had no bullets and it was the dead zone. I watched the market tank and I could not do a thing about it. 12:30: MER was strong today and I scalped him off strong support at 52.50 or so a few times. M kept on calling those defensive longs, and MO/RJR did work great as the TOB index reversed completely, unfortunately I was long very little of that and only took small scalps. The UTY just did not work, throughout the afternoon I tried to long AES/D etc and it just didn't work. 2:30: Really dumb, tried to bottomfish GE/AOL, out flat on both. That $100 deficit was incredibly steep today, I just couldn't get any serious winner that will put me back in the game. Fortunately I did not push it too hard as heavy size would have definitely destroyed me. Better luck tommorrow.