I agree, but it's HIGHLY unlikely that he'll even be over 400K by the end of 2009, let alone 3.5 million.
Thanks for saying so. I think there is a huddle around the 365K level that I need to cross. I hit that intra-day sometime last week (ended 8/7) and backed down. I will have to ensure there is nothing psychological that is holding back break-out to new highs.
JAP, last year Neke spent half the year dealing with serious drawdowns and stagnation. He then proceeded to MORE than quintuple his $103K account to end the year at well over $500K. Once a trader masters mental toughness, s/he has the greatest edge of all. The Nekes and Robert Weinsteins among us place their journeys in the public eye and though they may spark cynicism in you, they spark inspiration in a lot of us. Every day brand new, every trade brand new; expect the unexpected.
And, what makes this thread great is the drawdowns and the process of overcoming them. A bit heavy on the risk for my taste, but I guess it's what Neke is into.
1) Be alert 2) Dont let current good run skew your risk perspective. (yes, I am saying that to myself)
Weekly Update for week 32/50 ended 08/22/2009 Nice week, up 45K (14%). Glad to be challenging the previous highs once again. The bias continue to be towards the bullish side for stocks and the market. In spite of the sell-off on Monday the action of the market the rest of the week showed that buying on the dip/pull-back remains the way to go until the tide changes. This is trend-trading to me: find what is currently in vogue in the market, play it until it no more works, then scale back (cut your loss) and look for something else. My bad performance in Mar-June was primarily because of overplaying the bearish mode even when it was clear the market was on a strong rally. Monday, went contrarian and bought the weakness in LOW amd on SPY (option). Overstayed in both and went from a good positive to down 7K. Tuesday, Made up the loss of the prior day being long HD and TGT calls - exited way too early on the TGT call, but still managed to make 9K on both. Wed, started losing 6K on HPQ put initiated without due diligence. However, seeing the strength in the stock, read the earnings release and was pissed of at myself for buying put after what was essentially a decent report. Went long (calls) in HPQ and the market. made 13K on HPQ and 11K on the SPY call. Started Thu losing 13K shorting GME: shorted 10K shares pre-market, added extra as the stock climbed. Covered @ 23.88 avg, before the stock went down. Should have at least broken even. Then caught a little of the momentum on AIG (Bought 5000 shares @ 31.20 on the break-out, closed @ 32.70 three minutes later as the stock eventually went to 35 - too early as always - just not confident holding that stock). caught the momentum on GOOG later in the day with 200 GOPHL that I closed for a 14K gain. Did not trade on friday. Taking some time off for the family. Code: Opening Balance: 322,721 Net loss for the week 45,215 ------------------------------------------------ Net Balance: 367,936 Number of Trades 26 Number of Profitable Trades 19 Since Inception of Thread 01/10/2009 - 08/22/2009 Opening Balance: 320,064 Net gain (Less Margin Interest) 47,872 (Up 15%) ------------------------------------------------ Net Balance 367,936 Number of Trades 826 Number of Profitable Trades 509 TICKER ENTRY DATE/TIME EXIT DATE/TIME QTY PURCHASE AMT SOLD AMT GAIN/LOSS TYPE GOPHL 2009-08-20-13-49-54 2009-08-20-14-02-30 20000 56000 70000 13684 GOOG CALL HPQHV 2009-08-19-10-22-44 2009-08-19-11-55-59 40000 40000 54000 13371 HPQ CALL SWGHS 2009-08-19-11-28-49 2009-08-19-11-52-43 33900 79970 91530 11028 SPY CALL AIG 2009-08-20-10-37-51 2009-08-20-10-40-49 5000 155900 163500 7582 LONG TGTHP 2009-08-18-09-44-51 2009-08-18-10-10-14 40000 68000 74000 5377 TGT CALL --------------------------------------------------------- SWGHS 2009-08-17-11-05-13 2009-08-17-15-42-17 20000 41800 40000 -2115 SPY CALL SWGTY 2009-08-20-10-34-15 2009-08-20-14-09-38 40000 89600 88010 -2227 SPY PUT LOW 2009-08-17-09-31-21 2009-08-17-15-56-41 30000 617435 612000 -5493 LONG HPQTR 2009-08-19-09-34-26 2009-08-19-09-56-53 30000 36000 30000 -6465 HPQ PUT GME 2009-08-20-09-28-10 2009-08-20-09-59-39 30000 716315 703450 -12968 SHORT