Investing $15K to earn 3% per week

Discussion in 'Journals' started by PersistentTradr, Jun 16, 2007.

Will PT achieve his goal of 3% per week using $15k of starting capital?

Poll closed Jun 23, 2007.
  1. Yes. 3% per week is definitely doable.

    30 vote(s)
    47.6%
  2. Not a chance. He's nuts and doesn't know anything about trading.

    33 vote(s)
    52.4%
  1. Price opened below the pivot and Friday's close. Plan is typically to look for opportunities to go short. However, market was chopping around kind of aimlessly in the am so I decided to play a trendline break strategy.

    Basically, I just draw trendlines and trade the break of the trendline and use the Trend indicator to stay in the trade.

    Interesting results:

    Trade 1 - Long:
    ======
    (2) +10
    (1) +14

    Net +34

    Trade 2 - Short:
    ======
    (2) (+10)
    (1) (+11)

    Net +31

    Trade 3 - Short:
    ======
    (2) (+10)
    (1) (+56)

    Net +76


    Trade 4 - Long:
    ======
    (3) -27

    Net -81

    Total for day: +60

    It was a nice day until the last trade (which was after 3:30pm). Had I stuck to my trading plan and stopped trading after 3:30pm then it would have been a really nice day. Also, had I just stuck with short trades (since everything was negative) then I would have been fine.
     
    #171     Dec 17, 2007
  2. I was dangerously close to adopting a "grinchy" mood today when stocks retreated in the a.m. I was pretty convinced the grinch was going to steal xmas this year as my seasonal swing long position was getting closer and closer to hitting its stop.

    It didn't get hit and the market turned for the better in the pm. Only time will tell how the story ends this xmas ;-)

    3 trades today and 1 missed trade:

    ================================
    Trade 1 - short on retracement to daily pivot:
    ================================
    (2) +10
    (1) -1
    Net +19

    ================================
    Trade 2 - short on retracement off the bounce of yest low:
    ================================
    (2) +10
    (1) +76
    Net +96

    ================================
    Trade 3 - short on break of retracement trendline
    ================================
    (3) -24
    Net -72

    Total for day: +43
     
    #172     Dec 18, 2007
  3. Hey folks,

    I got nothing today. I missed the double top short opportunity in the am (ie failure of price to move past yesterday's high) and just didn't see anything in the pm.

    Summary:
    Price opened around the daily pivot and hinted it was going to test yesterday's high but then folded its hand around 11am. It was a very nice move down through the pivot (ie about 100pts). Price action was very whippy after that.

    My family, friends, and neighbors are doing everything they can to support the US consumption based economy this holiday season thus I'm still hopeful Santa will pay a visit to Wall Street this month ;-)

    Happy Holidays!
     
    #173     Dec 19, 2007
  4. Order in the am didn't get hit and I just didn't have the courage to go long in the afternoon. I wanted to, but, I'm feeling a bit more risk averse with the holidays here. Which is code for over-spending ;-)

    Interesting "Cup with Handle" pattern on the 3m. Curious to see if this is relevant or not moving forward.

    Summary:
    =======
    Price gapped up in between the daily pivot and R1 but didn't really do much during the first 30m. Market screens were a bit mixed;

    The next 2+ hours saw price tailspin towards the daily pivot; retrace; and then continued moving downward for the rest of the a.m.

    Afternoon saw a reversal with price moving up through the daily pivot where it whipped around until finally closing up for the day.

    A 15 or 30 minute breakout trade would have been very profitable today!!!

    Trade 1:
    ======
    For pivot trading, not much to do today. I did put in a limit order to short around the 40EMA after the surbe down around 10:45am but it never got hit. I cancelled the order around Noon.
     
    #174     Dec 20, 2007
  5. Happy Holidays!!!

    <br>

    <img src="http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/attachment.php?s=&postid=1724921">
     
    #175     Dec 24, 2007
  6. Hey folks,

    If you haven't guessed by now I'm taking a holiday break. I will start things backup next week.

    I got a rude awakening recently when I noticed the CBOT real-time fee for Tradestation got bumped up to $55.00/mo? Unless I'm reading the fee schedule wrong, this is substantially higher than the CME real-time feed.

    So.....

    If this ends up being true, I will transistion over to trading the ES in '08.

    Hope everyone is having a good new year.
     
    #176     Jan 2, 2008
  7. Hi PersistentTradr;

    So let me get this straight... You are going to change instruments over 11 YM ticks PER MONTH??

    1) Not a very pro attitude about your trading business, IMO.

    2) YM begins trading on Globex (ie CME) starting January 13, 2008. http://www.cme.com/trading/get/adv/122407.html#CBOT

    3) FWIW; IQFeed has maintained (at least for now) the $0 price for YM data. That will change soon Im sure, to the CME mini package for $30 monthly. (Which is needed for ES, NQ, ER, etc etc etc anyway. No sweat.)

    4)Not a very pro attitude about your trading business, IMO. Changing instruments over 11 YM ticks PER MONTH, and not aware what is going on. Come on man!

    Good trading to you, whatever it is you will be trading.

    Osorico :)
     
    #177     Jan 2, 2008
  8. Pekelo

    Pekelo

    Since he is profitable, he is better off with ES, about 20-30% more volatility...
     
    #178     Jan 2, 2008
  9. 1) Not quite sure what you mean by a "pro" attitude. ie I wasn't aware that entertaining ideas to reduce costs violates protocol ;-)

    2) Yes, I am very aware of the CBOT/CME merger. Outside of what the media provides, I've had conversations with floor traders and some of the CBOT marketing folks in Chicago over the past year while the merger talks were going on. What's your point?

    3) I actually don't pay anything for the data feeds with the broker I place trades with--I'm only paying fees for the TS charting software because I like it better than what my broker offers. I could look into switching to my brokers charting software, however, that would require a "downgrade" IMO and rewriting code for my proprietary indicators which I also use for swing and position trading.

    4) You brought the "pro" thing up again. I don't rely on my intraday earnings to live off of. I'm looking into intraday trading as a possible way to generate supplemental income. I think that's obvious via looking at the equity in the account? Also, my understanding has been the YM is a good instrument for traders to get their feet wet in the futures market, however, most professional traders prefer to trade the ES because of its liquidity? Come to think of it, wouldn't a true "Pro" be trading the Big S&P? I suppose it depends on how one defines a professional in this business. I have no clue. I just hope it doesn't degrade down to what's happeing in in the poker world ;-)
     
    #179     Jan 3, 2008
  10. How goes Persistenttrader?

    Have you stopped?

    I've been following with interest :)
     
    #180     Jan 9, 2008