My NSC has moved 2.5% in my favor already. I've traditionally held for 15%ish on my positions but starting to see value in taking trades off if they move 3-5% in my favor fast. I had the opportunity to take a quick 1 day 6% gain on DLR and I waited for the 15% and I am now in the red on it. I still believe I can get my 15% on DLR but sure would have been nice to take the 6% as opposed to being red right now. Trying to refine and decide what works best for me.
bought 100 shares of BBL for 51.46 a little concerned about the correlation between BBL and CAT as I now have about 30% capital between those two companies.
btw, does anyone know how to check correlation between 2 companies? is there a free website or something?
Account balance: $53,172 Total deposits: $33,500 Pretty non event week, will post 2nd quarter results sometimes early next week. I think I had a great out performance in the 2nd quarter.
Thank you for this link, the correlation is acceptable for me between CAT and BBL. I have my performance numbers for the quarter. They are even better than I thought they'd be. Last quarter I had a time weighted return of 12.4% vs S&P 4.3%. I am currently up 24.3% on the year. I am going to probably scale back risk and margin (have barely used any margin at all so far on the year, unfortunately) for the remainder of the year as my target yearly return is 20-25% on a consistent basis. Would be great if I get bring it up over 30%. I will attach a picture of my performance from when I started this journal in July of 2011. Keep in mind the 11% for 2011 is starting in July and I actually had about 23% return for that entire year. Slow and steady wins the race...my journal may not be all that exciting but I'd like to argue that it's some of the best documented returns on this board. EDIT: Just realized my brokerage didn't update the performance for the S&P yet for the most recent quarter so the charts are a little skewed. Will post an updated picture once they update it in the next few days here.
okay my brokerage completely updated the performance numbers. Last quarter was actually my best outperformance ever. I decided to include all of my 2011 performance even though I didn't start this thread until july of 2011. It shows, in my opinion, pretty consistent performance of around 22-25% on an annual basis, regardless of what the market does. It's also interesting to see that during this time period of the market's worst quarterly performance, I outperformed pretty nicely. The third quarter of 2012 was my worst underperformance and it was because of 1 trade that I placed way too large and held for way too long, INTC. Overall, I am pretty bullish for the remainder of the year, however I am taking risk off the table and will begin building cash positions for next downturn we get.
I added a little to BBL yesterday. was on vacation and did it by phone, added at 50.49 didn't do an update last week but could do a quick one now and also one on friday Account value: $54,253 up 31% on my KO puts so far. wish I would have put more on obviously. but as I said I am reducing risk and trying to finish the year off walking not sprinting.
6% pop on BBL today. very reminiscent of my DLR that popped 6% the day after I bought it. However, like DLR, i'm in this name for 15-20%, not 6%. but I do like the quick pop nontheless
so much for walking and not sprinting, entire account went up 2.75% today which is a top 3 day for me since I've been at it. While happy obviously for the gain, I need to re-assess how much risk I actually have on the table at the moment. I am hoping its just because I have a keen ability to pick the right stuff I have no margin on at the moment and infact have some cash ready to go. I do have some stock in some high beta names though. CSCO is awfully close to my minimum target of 26. However, if it keeps the strength up I will likely hold on to it with a tight stop. Currently up 27% on CSCO since I bought it a month or two ago, including the dividend I received. Everything other then CSCO is still on auto pilot, I may take the KO puts off soon, around 50% gain. Currently at 37%.