Just you and me, Neke. We appear to be 1 of the last four to five remaining active journals on ET, or at least the ones I pay attention to. The last three posts of the last two weeks are yours, so I'm hoping we can get some action going. It's good to see you eek out a gain in this slow environment. RNWK and Delta Airlines is a pretty random source of income. I don't know why you picked those two, but I guess it made some money. It's so random, in fact, that it reminds me of my first trade in 2003 where I bought lucent for $4.5 to sell at 4 a few weeks later. The reaction from my dad is the only remarkable thing from that trade I remember. It went something like this, Me "Hey, Dad, I just bought 200 Lucent" or LU as it was then. Dad "So why did you buy it? Is it because it's Tuesday?" LOL. Well, after that I got a lot more serious. I quickly made back up for it by buying RIMM at a split adjusted price of about $3. Anyway, I think some insight into how you build your watchlist would help. I'm sure you've probably mentioned it before, but perhaps letting us know what's on your radar now would be mutually beneficial. Good luck, as always, Good Trading, Beau Wolinsky
Nice work. I peak in once in a while. Great attitude about losses and learning from them. That's trading. You are kickin a. Don't understand ameritrade but who cares. All good
Great job Neke, Only reason I've ever peeked at elitetrader is usually to check your progress. I started to check your journals' out since last year. I'm happy with what you are doing, and you are very good at it. Keep up the good work and I hope to see you start another one of these next year. I feel it helps you out as well. Shoot for the stars man. Take care, Fermin
Weekly Update for week 49/50 ended 12/19/2009 Awful week, down 45K (7%). What a bad way to end the year (with a week remaining)! If the ratio of winning trades (18 of 23) was an indication of profitability, it should have been a great week, but alas the diaster happened on Monday. I should not have gotten out of bed on Monday. Bought 300 XOM 70 CALL on Monday morning after the announced acquisition of XTO, thinking the market was overreacting. The stock moved against me, and I averaged in another 300, then another 300... until I had 1500 contracts, at an average of 1.14. The stock did not look up, and I exited @ 0.67 average, losing 72K. I was tired, bitter, and disgusted. Had also bought 800 Visa 85 Calls following the upgrade which in my disgust I dumped for a loss of 23K (Should have at least broken even holding on till end of day not to talk of holding till today, but such was my disgust I just wanted to go alone and sulk). When I closed the positions, I was down 100K for the day and for the week. Glad I made some back through consistent gains the rest of the week (Had only 2 small losing trades the rest of the week). It is difficult to put a rational face on the XOM trade. The endless averaging in was uncalled for, I ignored the risk for an expiration week, the spacing of the prices was abysmal - it was sheer inability to accept even a small adverse move. Given the average price in the underlying XOM was probably 70.70 on entry, and 69.70 on exit, it is disheartening to see a 12% loss of account from a mere 1.4% adverse move on the stock, yet I have had moves of 2-4% in my favor in the underlying and yet I haven't made that much money on a trade this year: can't get myself to add to a non-losing position. Enough of the moaning. Looking forward to next year. Code: Opening Balance: 615,307 Net loss for the week 44,730 ------------------------------------------------ Net Balance: 570,577 Number of Trades 23 Number of Profitable Trades 18 Since Inception of Thread 01/10/2009 - 12/18/2009 Opening Balance: 320,064 Net gain (Less Margin Interest) 250,513 (Up 78.2%) ------------------------------------------------ Net Balance 570,577 Number of Trades 1266 Number of Profitable Trades 805 Top/Bottom Discretionary Trades for the week TICKER ENTRY DATE/TIME EXIT DATE/TIME QTY PURCHASE AMT SOLD AMT GAIN/LOSS TYPE HJQXJ 2009-12-15-10-19-57 2009-12-15-12-43-18 10000 95695 105000 9158 FSLR PUT AMD 2009-12-16-09-31-10 2009-12-16-09-36-34 100000 913128 921598 8419 SHORT WY 2009-12-15-09-30-42 2009-12-15-09-48-50 6000 269600 277532 7897 SHORT ------------------------------------ VLQ 2009-12-14-10-06-05 2009-12-14-12-22-27 80000 67976 45919 -23126 V CALL XOMLN 2009-12-14-09-31-24 2009-12-14-13-08-35 150000 171406 101020 -72423 XOM CALL
You got nerves of steel, but you also have problems accepting losses. A possibly explosive mixture. But good job, and hope you another great year. I havn't read your whole journal, but just a few posts. I'll probably look more into it this weekend, but can you describe your trading style?... break outs.. forks... indicators?.... tape reading.. etc thanks Kon
Awesome job neke. Happy Holidays and New Year! You need to take time off to enjoy yourself and reduce your stress after your year. Great trading and comeback from earlier this year. Never give up!
Neke, you erred humanly. Very simple to fix, stick to the script. You will eventually. I suggest you backtest what you would have if you hadn't taken the outsized risks that turned into losers. If you calculate that, I'm sure you'll determine it's a net detriment. Run an experiment next year to see how you do strictly taking setups that meet your criteria for a month. Monk like discipline has done wonders for my returns. Good job this year. Enjoy the holidays. Wilt
This is the second year that I've really enjoyed following your posts, Neke. To be frank, it has been inspirational to read - both to see you do so well and to keep posting despite the set backs that you've occasionally encountered. I'm looking forward to next year's thread as well. Happy Christmas