Thanks Mo06 Account is now up ca 23% for the year now. This gives a return similar to my gross salary and is a rate at which doubling occurs every 3 years. The rebound is continuing quite rapidly in Germany/Spain/Italy but I have stopped buying. Next comes the selling to take off the leverage, the timing of which I always find much more difficult than buying. At times like these I always feel that the easy option is to sell and take some money off the table but most of the time I have done that it just keeps riding higher. Hardest, or certainly the most stressful and time consuming option, is too keep riding the trend higher.
Another very strong day for EU stocks yesterday. When checked account this morning I was up another 150,000 SEK which brought the total to ca. 3,400,000 SEK. Since the bottom of the dip the gain has been ca. 500,000 SEK. I could make up some self justificaiton about resistance levels and OMX getting near its highs etc but the truth is really that the fear of the market taking away gains got to me again and I cut the most leveraged positions in half. The easiest thing is probably the wrong thing to do and I can see the momentum taking it higher. Consolation is that I will sleep better and wont feel obliged to watch the account as frequently.
3,555,000 SEK Not really done anything significant since last post. Stocks in Euro Zone, especially Italy/Spain, jumped nicely after ECB decision yesterday. Russia/Ukraine is a little quieter than normal as well. So the DAX has a reasonable chance to pass 9800 where I will start selling more of the leveraged long positions. Emerging and especially frontier markets keep grinding higher as well. Just letting them ride.
3,450,000 SEK Been at work conference all last week. Not much trading the last few weeks. Sold some OMX and DAX options bought on last dip to raise cash for Akelius Pref share IPO. No real surprises in Swedish general election. Just have to wait for opportunities to arise and not force trades.
TL&DR... so what is your target to retire? You said you have around $0.5M USD right now. So $1M USD target for retirement?
If I can get this trading account to ca 1 M USD then yes, retirement is an option but more likely just take jobs that interest me in science / engineering area. Some additional things to note: 1 - In addition to this main trading account I have maybe 3 years gross salary in pension accounts in which I can switch between low cost mutual funds. 2 - Some equity in a house. 3 - Wife also works. She has a smaller account run along similar strategy / ideas but less aggressive.
Akelius Pref shares were 3x over subscribed (again) so was allocated just 120,000 SEK of request for 450,000 SEK. Price was 320 SEK per share and equivalent shares are now trading in the range 340-350 SEK so looks like a quick 10% profit of ca 10,000 SEK. Probably sell on first trading or shortly thereafter. Removed most of the leverage compared to a few weeks ago now. Also started selling covered calls on the OMX. Raised ca 20,000 SEK from this yesterday. Still net long but leveraged reduced now. Will add an updated equity curve. Earlier ones got deleted in teh site 'upgrade'.
3,500,000 SEK Looks like I started selling the covered calls a few days early just as upwards momentum returned to Euro stocks. Still net long but fairly low leverage now. Will have to work it out properly this weekend but I would guess about x1.3 Little trading this past week. Actually had some work to do!
3,410,000 SEK Moved down a bit with the market. Another week sat happily doing nothing until something I like the look of comes along. With little leverage I would like an end of summer sale to pick up a few bargains.
2,250,000 SEK After doing nothing for a while was time to get more active again. EU stocks were down ca 2% going into the close Thurs which I thought was overdone and always a reasonable chance of good jobs report to set up a Friday rally. Bought back the covered calls Just before Thurs close and initiated some small long positions. Been adding to these long positions as the market increases today. May get a bounce back to S&P 2000 or I get stopped out. Time will tell. Still only playing around at the edges and not too concerned either way.