Neke: Can you explain why your equity curve appears less volatile after your large drawdown than before? Thanks, in advance.
BLB, Thanks for taking the time to chart the equity curve. I think the reduction in volatility could be attributed to these facts: 1) I have reduced my tendency to take on bigger sizes, averaging in on losing positions. 2) I have committed more buying power to my automated strategies (specifically AUTOTRADE1, since others are yet to pick a trade). That strategy is historically not as volatile as my discretionary trades, and that leaves me with less buying power to commit to discretionary trades. 3) I am making a conscious effort to "prove" my strategies before stepping up in size.
Below is the summary of my results by trading strategy. The discretionary long stock has been the massive underperformer, led by the huge loss on ICFI of 47K in week 12. The major problem in those big losers have been the tendency to average in on losses. These results exclude margin interest and other charges. Code: TRANSACTIONS ANALYSIS FROM 2007-02-25 TO 2007-06-29 Current Week | Since Inception of Thread | Method Gains/Loss No Of Profitable | Gains/Loss No Of Profitable Trades Trades | Trades Trades Automated AutoTrade1 -2555 7 3 | 35606 124 74 AutoTrade2 0 0 0 | 0 0 0 AutoTrade3 0 0 0 | 0 0 0 ----------- -------- ------------ | ----------- ------ ------------ Total Automated -2555 7 3 | 35606 124 74 ----------- -------- ------------ | ----------- ------ ------------ Discretionary Long 6309 7 5 | -52770 187 107 Short -634 1 0 | 39115 77 52 Options(long) 7852 11 6 | 42078 64 38 ----------- -------- ------------ | ----------- ------ ------------ Total Discretionary 13527 19 11 | 28423 328 197 =========== ======== ============ | =========== ====== ============ Net Totals 10972 26 14 | 64029 452 271 =========== ======== ============ | =========== ====== ============
Weekly Update for week 19 ended 07/06/2007 Another OK week. Able to make some money through options once again on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. Lost 3K on Friday to give me a net of 10K for the week. I am glad AUTOTRADE2 has picked its first three trades and made 3K. AUTOTRADE1 has another lacklustre week. As we approach the earnings season, I am readying my alertness to possibilities for gains and losses: AUTOTRADE3 should become active as it is a play on earnings. Withdrew 6K for the month ended June 30. Code: Balance B/F: 115,013 Gain for the week (Less Interest) 9,996 Cash Withdrawals -6,000 ------------------------------------------------ Balance C/F: 119,009 Number of Trades 20 Number of Profitable Trades 10 Since Inception of Thread 2/25/2007 - 07/06/2007 Balance B/F: 76,636 Net Gain (Less Margin Interest) 73,373 Cash Withdrawal -31,000 ------------------------------------------------ Balance C/F: 119,009 (Adjusted balance before withdrawals is 150009, up 96% ) Number of Trades 472 Number of Profitable Trades 281 Expected Balance at this time to be on track for Year-End Target : 172,254 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 GAINS TYPE APVGE 2007-07-03-11-44-32 2007-07-05-09-31-18 10000 45120 51640 6329 OPTIONS RFYGB 2007-07-02-10-11-31 2007-07-02-12-16-52 3000 22700 27900 5115 OPTIONS QAASD 2007-07-02-09-48-28 2007-07-02-12-02-19 3000 10440 8400 -2105 OPTIONS PMTC 2007-07-06-09-22-42 2007-07-06-11-11-12 10000 176000 173000 -3023 LONG TRANSACTIONS ANALYSIS FROM 2007-02-25 TO 2007-07-07 (Before Interest and Other charges) Current Week | Since Inception of Thread | Method Gains/Loss No Of Profitable | Gains/Loss No Of Profitable Trades Trades | Trades Trades Automated AutoTrade1 595 7 4 | 36201 131 78 AutoTrade2 3462 3 2 | 3462 3 2 AutoTrade3 0 0 0 | 0 0 0 ----------- -------- ------------ | ----------- ------ ------------ Total Automated 4057 10 6 | 39663 134 80 ----------- -------- ------------ | ----------- ------ ------------ Discretionary Long -5189 5 1 | -57959 192 108 Short 0 0 0 | 39115 77 52 Options(long) 11415 5 3 | 53493 69 41 ----------- -------- ------------ | ----------- ------ ------------ Total Discretionary 6227 10 4 | 34649 338 201 =========== ======== ============ | =========== ====== ============ Net Totals 10283 20 10 | 74312 472 281 =========== ======== ============ | =========== ====== ============
With all do respect... If you started trading stocks that are real companies. You would do much better. You pick some good stocks/trades, but cancel them out with companies that have questionable business models at best! Try moving up the ladder and trade what you know is real and not crap companies! You have the tools, your just focusing to much time/cash on crap companies that may be a big hit by luck. Very good thread and ideas! Just stay away from the CRAP!
What are you talking about? Crap Companies? For your information +APVGE, RFYGB, QAASD are July options on AAPL and RIMM. If Apple and Research in Motion are crap companies, I do not know what are real companies to you! Wake up!!
Neke, I just started reading your thread today, and while I admit I haven't read the whole thing, I find it inspiring and validating to my own trading, which, when I post it, brings all the naysayers out in force. Quick recap of my story. I've been trading stocks for 7 years. I recently decided to take $6k and $6k only just to see what I could do with it in options trading. That was in April. At the end of June my account was $70k. However, through a slew of several ill-advised trades on days when I was exhausted and distracted by other problems, my account now stands at $50k. A terrible drawdown, and the worst part is that if I'd just held the trades overnight (I almost exclusively daytrade) they'd have been stellar gainers. Bad habit of getting shaken out. But still a nice overall gain for 3 months. Something like 850%. My strategy is simply to daytrade high-volume, high-liquidity stocks with good reliable spreads on the options Level II screen. For example, BIDU. Yesterday. God, how I wish I'd been home. (it's one of my favorite high-beta stocks to trade.) Upgrade, gap up, stay up. The $190 calls had a range of $6.80 to $15.50. Let's say you'd bought just 20 of the calls at $7.50 (no one catches the low) and sold them for $14.50 (no one catches the high), that's a profit of $14k in a single day. Yes, it can be done, you're doing it, and spectacularly I might add, damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead! Good for you for publishing your journal, too. Maybe I'll start a journal on the options board. BTW: how do you access your nice spreadsheet profit/gain lists? Do you download them to your PC to Microsoft Word or something like that? No idea how to do that. Happy trading, Neke