Great week, congratulations. I much prefer seeing people do well and achieve rather than fail. You obviously have the tenacity it takes to make this business work. Stay after it.
Neke, way to go! I really hope you post many times more "In some way it was a disappointing week" Yeah, only 10% on a week, life is that cruel sometimes How do you forward/backtest your automated strategies before trading them with money? Easy on yourself, man, you're doing great. I look forward to seeing you reach your goal. Best trading, Jorge
I back-tested with up to a year of market data, and the results were encouraging. Of course the idea of a potential strategy comes to me with watching the market. I then proceeded to code and went live! But in life, things do not go as smoothly. Your back-test may say you could get it at this price, but when you go into the market, you find you have to allow for a good amount of slippage, especially on issues with limited liquidity. My next refinement is trying to size-up based on real-time performance of each strategy. As a strategy shows its ability, I size up to the optimum, while as it deteriorates, the sizing is reduced until I go into simulation mode (no real trades).
Neke, Good work... ! I dream of a time when I trade like an absolute machine.. Every week we do a little something here and there that absolutely ANNOYS.. for me it is getting involved in first 30 mins trading.. 90% of the time it costs me dearly.. Maybe I need to set up an imaginary gifted trader Bob in my head and think "What would Bob do?" A clean and unblemished week lies ahead.. let's keep it that way!..
I read a lot of the thread, but I didn't see what software and data you use to do your scans. I've never tried to do automated trading, but I would like to take a look at it. Thanks for any info.
Neke, congrats and gusto! for your endeavors. Your comment about limited liquidity sure rings home with my trading. Using limit orders as I do for entries, stops and targets, I see only partial fills about 20% of the time, and I have to use market orders for the balance. While not ideal exits, (as real time vs. backtesting attests), it meets my profit needs and it beats working a day job! I trade the ER2 and YM, and while I can usually exit up to 25 ER contracts on limits, I expected the YM to be more liquid due to volume. Scaling in is part of the plan, so as not to grab 25 at once, but scaling out is NOT in my plan, so I usually dump it all at once. Again, enjoy your thread and your progress. You are about halfway to your progress goal. GO FOR IT! Most traders here and elsewhere and not doing anything to earn their early retirement, just reading about others trying. So keep going and keep posting.
Weekly Update for week 18 ended 05/16/2008 Another good week, up 11K (9.4%). Pleased to have a third week of decent performance. Made money Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and gave back a little on Thursday. Did not trade on Friday as I was away. Made some money buying FLR call after their good earnings on Tuesday. As usual, took profit too soon. Should have made much more holding till end of day. Was also long CSIQ after their nice earnings, but with the run this stock has had going into earnings, it should have been obvious a good pull-back could be expected. Bought at 41.62 (average), sold at 40.67 before stock bounced back to as high as 45 same day. (The stock closed at 40.78 but subsequently came to close at 44 the following day. The ticker was really determined to stop out anyone - long or short). Looking forward to more opportunities and a continuation of run. Code: Balance B/F: 117,474 Net gain for the week 11,048 ------------------------------------------------ Balance C/F: 128,522 Number of Trades 23 Number of Profitable Trades 14 Since Inception of Thread 01/13/2008 - 05/16/2008 Balance B/F: 102,615 Net gain (Less Margin Interest) 25,907 ------------------------------------------------ Balance C/F: 128,522 (Up 25.2%) Number of Trades 403 Number of Profitable Trades 228 Expected Balance at this time to be on track for Year-End Target : 248,737 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 FLREU 2008-05-13-09-51-24 2008-05-13-09-57-46 3000 21000 26400 5335 FLR CALL OPTION HJQEV 2008-05-13-13-47-51 2008-05-13-13-56-50 1500 19750 23100 3298 FSLR CALL OPTION ----------------------------------------------------------------- NOQEK 2008-05-15-09-44-26 2008-05-15-10-23-41 5000 11480 10500 -1085 SINA CALL OPTION CSIQ 2008-05-13-09-33-15 2008-05-13-10-14-00 3800 158181 154563 -3659 LONG