neke, enjoyed your posts and your honesty.....best wishes for a good holiday....keep learning and please continue your trading saga next year.
Neke, Wish your year was ending better.. I have experienced what you are experiencing lately.. Like a moth to a flame it seems.. Drug stocks are known to be potentially the craziest stocks. Take a look at CLF, RYL, AKS or MOS.. what do they have in common??? The trade in small days but persist once they have a direction.. Not tantalizing like RIGL but they achieve the same percentages over time in small manageable moves. I HATE big bars.. even when they are in my favor because they ruin ones emotions.. I beg you next year to use half your account to swing trade a selected list of "clean" stocks that are relatively easy to trade.. You MUST make adjustments like this next year rather than the "I must stick to only great trades" resolution.. why??? Because you won't change.. I suffer the same.. Losses make us refocus.. for only a while. THE ONLY WAY OUT is to program in hard money management stops that do their work without your input... Check my post from mid November.. after that big week this was the most likely outcome.. why? Because long-term, due to our lack of discipline, the number of losing trades will negate the big wins from time to time. Stocks tantalize with these BIG moves.. we look at them in hindsight and harbor gambler thoughts.. oh, what if?? Only those that focus on a few markets have the right to those big gains. Who are we to walk into a new market and hope to out-do the regulars?? I still STRONGLY believe the title of your thread is entirely doable in a year but with large amounts of focus AND discipline. Nice thread Neke. I would love to do a thread like this but I may not have the discipline to stick to it and I fear some may see it as "simple".. you know no options, futures.. etc. Wishing all here happy holidays..
Neke, EXCELLENT returns this year. Your posts were a highlight for many. Question on how you prepare for a new year of trading. Do you have a planning process where you map out your approach for the year? And do you apply any lessons learned from previous years?
What is your average hold time for a swing trade? I am developing my core set of strategies; for swing trades though (lasting a week on average), I will only do options: that makes it possible not to tie too much capital for that duration. You're right about tight money management rules: I am developing my own version of stop losses: to be executed automatically by my positions monitor for any open stock position I have.
I still have one week (this week) to trade, and I am done for the year, till about mid-January. Surely I will apply the lessons learnt this year: Actually I strive to make continuous adjustment based on what I observe on a daily basis. My intention next year is to stick to a core set of minimum requirements for any trades (classification by strategy, position size, minimum entry criteria etc). I am also looking at having some automated strategies once again.
A week I'd say is average.. Stop losses are really quite simple except I complicate it with inappropriate position size for bar size relative to prior bar and "known" good support.
Weekly Update for final week 43 ended 12/21/2007 Finished my 2007 trades with a little bit of a losing week, down 1.4K. Please though since it could have been much worse (was down 30K sometime on Tuesday, before paring the losses through the remainder of the week). Was caught long and leveraged on Monday as the market collapsed. On Tuesday shorted EPIX at 4.70, covered at 5.20, went long 5.28 (revenge!) closed later at 4.54 for a total loss of 10K. The stock closed the day at 4.02. Initial call was correct; got whipsawed trading on scared money! It has been a turbulent year. The drawdowns were somewhat expected, albeit a bit larger and more frequent than I expected, aggravated to a large extent by rule violations, and emotion-driven position sizing (underleveraged when cautious and calculated, overleveraged when presumptuous and vulnerable), things that I believe will improve next year. Net 142K since thread started. Made money on short stock and long option trades. Lost on long stock trades for a second year (last year lost on options and long stock, made money on shorts for a net of +124K)! Next year, there will be no excuse not to be profitable on all core strategies. Proceeding on three weeks vacation next week, and won't be able to trade. Will be back mid-January to start a new year, and hopefully a new thread. Will take out 30K from the current balance between now and year-end to what I've already taken for personal benefits and taxes, leaving 108K to start the new year. Will see what I can take 108K to by the end of next year. Gainskeeper statement does not include the 8.5K gain on friday Merry Xmas and happy holidays all. Code: Balance B/F: 139,346 Net Loss for the week -1,384 ------------------------------------------------ Balance C/F: 137,962 Number of Trades 23 Number of Profitable Trades 14 Since Inception of Thread 2/25/2007 - 12/21/2007 Balance B/F: 76,636 Net Gain (Less Margin Interest) 142,326 Cash Withdrawal -81,000 ------------------------------------------------ Balance C/F: 137,962 (Adjusted balance before withdrawals is 218962, up 186% ) Number of Trades 1137 Number of Profitable Trades 644 Expected Balance at this time to be on track for Year-End Target : 479,145 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/LOSS TYPE AXVLT 2007-12-18-13-01-04 2007-12-18-15-54-31 1200 6480 14400 7882 ISRG CALL CC 2007-12-21-11-28-01 2007-12-21-15-37-44 20000 96600 100550 3919 SHORT --------------------------------------------------------------- EPIX 2007-12-18-09-37-08 2007-12-18-09-47-29 8000 42239 36319 -5941 LONG AAPL 2007-12-17-08-11-09 2007-12-17-13-59-49 1000 190500 184353 -6190 LONG (Before Interest and Other charges) TRANSACTIONS ANALYSIS FROM 2007-02-25 TO 2007-12-22 Current Week | Since Inception of Thread | Method Gains/Loss No Of Profitable | Gains/Loss No Of Profitable Trades Trades | Trades Trades Automated AutoTrade1 0 0 0 | 5652 208 116 AutoTrade2 0 0 0 | 3372 12 8 AutoTrade3 0 0 0 | -4523 3 0 AutoTrade4 0 0 0 | -15301 3 0 ----------- -------- ------------ | ----------- ------ ------------ Total Automated 0 0 0 | -10800 226 124 ----------- -------- ------------ | ----------- ------ ------------ Discretionary Long -8340 9 5 | -83153 302 177 Short 8150 9 7 | 81831 331 194 Options(long) -1220 5 2 | 154961 278 149 ----------- -------- ------------ | ----------- ------ ------------ Total Discretionary -1409 23 14 | 153640 911 520 =========== ======== ============ | =========== ====== ============ Net Totals -1409 23 14 | 142839 1137 644 =========== ======== ============ | =========== ====== ============