Hi all, if there is interest I can start posting my trades. I have included my performance from October 13th, 2014 to now. I have always been profitable, but always struggled to be consistent. The October 2014 correction stung me bad and was a turning point. As a result, I finally deployed my first strategy that involved strict use of stop losses and my results are fantastic. I tend to trade ultra growth stocks that fall into the "medium to large cap" and prefer names with 10bil+ market cap. Some of my best trades included long positions in ULTA, NFLX, NXPI, UHAL, TSLA, STZ, PII, and NYLD. I swing trade and hold from a week to several months. I typically margin at only 20%. I am hopeful that if this level of performance continues, that I may be able to work in the industry for a top notch prop firm(such as Allston) or hedge fund. Time will tell, but for now I continue to balance my trading with my full time job as a Civil Engineer.
3.18 Sharpe ratio and stocks on my watchlist. Looking forward to hear about your trades. Please consider GOOG and AMZN as well.
Thanks, yeah my risk measures have been the highest ever. I am not interested in GOOG, it is lagging against to many other tech names. I think NFLX and LNKD have way more growth potential. I do agree that AMZN has some potential, especially after this most recent gap up. More time is needed, and I would almost want to see it have some more continuation into next week before basing again. It is definitely on my watchlist.
Can you provide an initial strategy/method overview? Obviously, you will keep your "secret sauce" secret. Are you a volatility seller, price action, discretionary, technical, or system trader? Thanks.
My current holdings and price/share I paid are as follows: "ticker" "price" "quantity shares" Longs- DATA 94.05 105sh HII 138.39 140sh FCAU 16.34 800sh ROST 106.91 80sh LNKD 265.93 59sh Shorts- None Please feel free to ask questions. Hopefully, this can be a fun way to share and learn from others. Thanks.
The last 4 of your list look like they are probable upside breakouts after having been flat since February and are about to touch the 50 MA. The market does seem to be gearing for an upside breakout. However, the MACD has never been this far extended. Volatility levels seem benign except for the fact that you have pending earnings reports. They have had some incredible beats in the last few quarters. You may just hit it out of the park.
Good question. I would lean towards more being "discretionary" that does follow a systematic approach. Don't get me wrong I do pay attention to support/resistance, but I do not believe it makes a big difference(it is just a price level after all). When I look at a company I pay very close attention to how it moves in relation to commodities/competitors/indices/etc. I follow its earnings/revenue growth rate(both sequentially and year/year) and identify why their product or service is disruptive/superior to others. Strict 9% stop loss, no questioning it. The actual approach on how to successfully identify these factors may seem overly simplistic but are very difficult to actually execute properly. Hope this helps.
You were able to side step the market down drafts in October and January and even benefit from it. Was this from the stability of your long picks or short picks or timing model/hedging?
Well I did not completely avoid the October correction as I started my PnL on October 13 which was 3-4 days away from the end of the selloff. So I managed to do decent for those few days as you can see, but I take no credit for avoiding that sell off. For the January lull we had, it was most definitely from superior trades I made that during that time, I absolutely crushed it. I do not hedge at all.