Some pairs I've put on today: Long SWC @ 18.64 Short BW @ 35.60 Long SSL @ 45.38 Short MUR @ 67.23 Long LHCG @ 26.41 Short AFAM @ 35.87
Looks nice: LONG TI SHORT TMX as chart: http://www.catalystcorner.com/index.../2010&dateto=10/18/2010&capital_employed=2000
Put a couple more pairs on today: Long CPX @ 28.66 Short RES @ 29.73 Long BHP @ 83.33 Short TCK @ 49.26
Some more trades: 10 open trades now, will not be adding any more since I am paying 50% margin for each position. Long ELOS @ 9.89 Short MSA @ 29.85 Long PGN @ 43.96 Short SO @ 38.27 Long CNL @ 30.49 Short NST @ 41.89 Long ALV @ 75.50 Short TEN @ 37.92 I am new to this and have posted my first 10 trades since opening my broker account, feel free to comment on my positions since I can use all comments/feedback!
I am looking for advice if anyone cares to help. I am inexperienced so am looking for those who are experienced to give me their views. I am trading using Interactive Brokers. My equity comes from a stock holding that I already have. I am prepared to trade 3% of the equity holding per side. Bearing in mind that I am paying 50% margin on the initial equity holding, I am therefore paying 1.5% margin for each side. With 10 trades this means I am paying 30% of the equity in margin. This totals to 80% margin. The problem is that I would ideally like to have 15 trades open at a time rather than 10. This would bump my margin requirement up to 90% and to me this seems like a massive margin requirement to be paying in an account where there is no cash holding and resultant leverage of 1.8. Should I: a) reduce my size in order to be able to tolerate a higher number of open trades b) be content with a smaller number of trades (10) with larger size c) bear in mind that the majority equity holding has low beta, set it to 'liquidate last' and increase my leverage to 1.8 I cannot decide myself. I am not risk averse but would like to manage risk sensibly in order to avoid blowing out my account (ignoring the fact that my account essentially lies in one stock - I cannot do anything about this in the short term but will work to reduce the concentration of this position over the long term).
Various product and websites recommend different position sizing when pair trading. I would like to do an analysis of different position sizing methods when pair trading. Does anyone have a pair trading history they would like to share? (I know I could type it in from this Journal, but a CSV/XLS would be so much easier.) Please email me a CSV/XLS file with at least date, symbol long, symbol short, and whether you wish to be anonymous. Thank you in advance.