I don't understand how moderators allow this Blowinsky wanker to pollute this thread. If I may ask, wtf is your job as a moderator, cause this guy definitely seems out of place here. One last thing, in case you haven't got it yet, he is promoting his bullshit for free.
The only reason I somewhat believe Neke is legit is because of two things. The first thing is that he has a chaotic, risky and overall balls to the wall trading strategy. Secondly his massive losses and wins correlate perfectly with his strategy.
Neke, I think you might be someone who trades better when they are down. Personally Im the same way. When my account has nice gains I take excessive risk, and make stupid trades. When my balance is down, I make better trades because I have no cushion and don't want to lose my savings.
Weekly Update for week 18/50 ended 05/15/2009 Another sad week, down 58K. Lost almost the entire gains for last week. Seems its going to be a long dark night to recovery. Had 13 trades of 20 profitable, but none worthy of talking about. The size of the losers dwarfs that of the gainers. Had the first set-back buying CTRP after their earnings. That stock has a poor history of holding on to gains after earnings, but I ignored that to my detriment. The route was completed on Thursday on CME: Was bearish on the stock and options and averaged in until I could do no more. It wasn't a surprise I capitulated at the worst levels, losing a total 46K. Had I held till EOD, I would have been profitable, but this happens when one takes a risk well above his tolerance limits: found a clever way to undermine my system checks (that closes positions averaged in). Now I need to do a wholistic assessment of why I cannot keep to well-laid rules. It's almost instinctive to average into losses, but I practically never average into gainers. Result is my losing trades get so monumental compared to my winners. Almost tempted to now size-up upfront so there will be no buying power to average in: at least this way the winners could also be huge, even if the losers are as well: only I am afraid what the draw-down might become. Code: Opening Balance: 327,899 Net loss for the week -57,682 ------------------------------------------------ Net Balance: 270,217 Number of Trades 20 Number of Profitable Trades 13 Since Inception of Thread 01/10/2009 - 05/15/2009 Opening Balance: 320,064 Net loss (Less Margin Interest) -49,847 (Down 15.6%) ------------------------------------------------ Net Balance 270,217 Number of Trades 446 Number of Profitable Trades 281 Top/Bottom Discretionary Trades for the week TICKER ENTRY DATE/TIME EXIT DATE/TIME QTY PURCHASE AMT SOLD AMT GAIN/LOSS TYPE ANF 2009-05-15-09-30-52 2009-05-15-10-43-57 33950 894987 898010 2917 LONG ---------------------------------------------------------- CTRP 2009-05-12-09-54-33 2009-05-12-11-42-55 10000 398223 384985 -13276 LONG CME 2009-05-14-09-30-45 2009-05-14-12-34-19 4000 1173024 1153527 -19569 SHORT CMEQU 2009-05-14-09-34-46 2009-05-14-12-30-22 5000 43000 17000 -26090 CME PUT
Neke, sorry about your week, but you will recover as you well know. Psychologically what happens is we see a setup that seems perfect, so when it runs against us it seems only more perfect, right? It's because we have an opinion and an expectation of what the price "should" do. The reality is that the market shows us exactly what the price should do and when it runs counter to our setup, the trade in invalidated and should be terminated or reversed. Make a hard rule to cut your losers at x% of your trading account (2% per trade seems to be a golden standard), and add to all winners. The moment you find yourself contemplating moving a stop or adding to a loser, just exit the trade and take a break.
You described me accurately. I have an exit rule that I have never followed, each trade, every day. Sometimes I wonder why I haven't murdered myself. I thought you solved the problem years ago. Did you go backwards? I thought once you have it, you won't lose it.
Neke: As far as sticking to the rules: I know its probably not what you want to hear since you're swinging for the fences but , less leverage makes the losses smaller and phycologically easier to stomach and still stick with the plan. To be able to stick with the rules when you only need 5 or 6 of these kinds of losses to be at 0 or less losses than that to cripple your buying power you have to be super human.