At this rate you'll be up about 20%-25% for the year. While that performance is pretty good if you can do it consistently, it isn't really where you're looking to go with your target. Are you looking at making any changes here ... to either your trading methodology or your trading target? I hope there are more good times for you to come also.
Congrats Neke, way to go! As some of us have said, your bad weeks are just small bumps on the road. Have you considered paper trading your automated strategies for a while till you can fine tune them, debug them, and so on? Also, do you have a daily, weekly, etc. loss limit after which you stop trading for a while so that you can refocus and your bad weeks don't force you to try to achieve super-good weeks to make up for them, or do you hang on, trying to recover your losses? 4DTrader: even though to some degree I think you have a point and I'm sure some people are like that, you may want to consider another possibility: when you're doing well you don't need anyone's advice, support or encouragement (plus to somebody with Neke's experience and success many of us cannot contribute much of value); however, when somebody is getting upset and starts making silly mistakes (and imho, trading without stops would be a huge mistake) or begins to despair, that's when you can benefit most from either other people's encouragement or advice fwiw. I am certainly envious of Neke's success (in a positive way, if that's possible), but seeing him have a bad week gets me down. MandelBrotSet: 34 weeks left in the year, +12% per week = 5.018.792,41 by the end of the year! Hahaha, just kidding, just kidding. Good trading to all, Jorge
Haha...Very observant...Try observing some patterns that earn real money in the markets. Lets look at the positive angle: Losing 16% like I did two weeks ago a number of times could cause my account to flame out, and the journal to shut down like some have done. So these folks are genuinely interested in seeing the journal continue, hence the moral support
Sarvise has put some positive spin on this. Yes, I've been like a plane taxi-ing endlessly and not making much headway. Just wait for the take-off! The distance is not as far away as you think. I just hope I can take off pretty soon. In any case better to taxi on one spot, than to take off to a crash with possible loss of life. My agents are surveying the environment, waiting for a good enough buffer (above 103K).
I believe a lot of the guys in this forum have no interest in trading, but have an interest in "flaming". "Flaming" is an age old concept dating back to the usenet during the 80s and is alive&well today.
>>Conclusion: These fucking losers enjoy others' pain and envy others' success.>> That is human nature. Most traders lose money, so this adds to human nature. Misery loves company, hence the losers pile up on whomever has a bad day. Keep track of those who rag on any trader trying to break out, and see where they are in a year. I already have, and you will not be surprised by the results. Three cheers for traders like Neke trying to supercharge the engine!
So true! Funny thing is that when you expose the true nature of these losers' behavior, they get so angry and proceed to deny it. What these losers don't understand is that enjoying others' pain is human nature. When they deny it, they make themselves liars and hypocrites, in addition to being losers. Anyone watching America's Most Funny Video would know that whenever someone else makes a blunder, the audience laughes!
Weekly Update for week 17 ended 05/09/2008 Another good week, up 11K (10.3%). In some way it was a disappointing week. Was up about 10K on my automated trades until two disastrous trades that lost 12K between them, making for a net loss of 2K on my automated methods. I have since shut down one of the auto-strategies that made the dumb trades. I have also built in a check to avoid such trades in future. My discretionary trades went on smoothly for the most part. Bought 5000 YHOO at less than 22.90 apiece on Monday after Microsoft withdrew the offer. It wasn't hard to figure that the severe negative reaction was unwarranted, as there is a potential for a comeback. Closed it later at 24.13 (the stock went to 24.90 and pulled back, I exited on the pullback). Should have been much richer holding till date (25.98). The bad discretionary trade was buying SPY calls after that market dip on Wednesday. I need to cure this contrarian impulse that has no planned basis for action. Looking forward to better times. Code: Balance B/F: 106,460 Net gain for the week 11,014 ------------------------------------------------ Balance C/F: 117,474 Number of Trades 29 Number of Profitable Trades 19 Since Inception of Thread 01/13/2008 - 05/09/2008 Balance B/F: 102,615 Net gain (Less Margin Interest) 14,859 ------------------------------------------------ Balance C/F: 117,474 (Up 14.5%) Number of Trades 380 Number of Profitable Trades 214 Expected Balance at this time to be on track for Year-End Target : 236,798 Status: Behind Target (Based on adjusted balance before withdrawals) Top/Bottom Discretionary Trades for the week TICKER ENTRY DATE/TIME EXIT DATE/TIME QTY PURCHASE AMT SOLD AMT GAIN/LOSS TYPE YHOO 2008-05-05-08-51-09 2008-05-05-13-42-56 5000 114342 120651 6278 LONG HJQQU 2008-05-07-09-36-19 2008-05-07-09-53-57 2500 20750 25750 4942 FSLR PUT ------------------------------------------------------------------- PCLN 2008-05-09-12-16-18 2008-05-09-14-52-13 1050 149114 148155 -990 LONG SFBEI 2008-05-07-14-44-01 2008-05-07-15-58-47 10000 21900 17500 -4570 SPY CALL