Search results

I've used their Oddsmaker in the past, which helped me stumble upon a strategy I've refined since and still use. I keep meaning to dust it off and spend some more time with it, but haven't gotten around to it yet.

You guys can argue over semantics and definitions, but I think everyone is basically saying the same thing. Market conditions change. Traders either adapt with the change or wait until conditions change back to what works for them. I try to do both by tweaking certain aspects of my strategies...

All the banks I've dealt with only cared about 2 or 3 years of tax returns showing I made enough. They didn't care how I made the money, just as long as I backed it up with proof.

It's like flipping a coin repeatedly and hitting a streak of five heads in a row. Doesn't happen often, but if you do it long enough you should expect to see it. I haven't traded badly or anything, things just haven't clicked for what I'm doing. Like I said, there's been some good market...

So obviously I've decided not to continue the journal on a regular basis in 2011. I think I achieved what I set out to do, which was to show some insight into how a professional trader operates, show that it can be done and hopefully provide some inspiration to struggling traders and newbies...

I lost money for years. But it was a hobby/addiction and I didn't know what I was doing at all. When I got serious about it and applied myself, I broke even for a year. Then when I went full time, it took about 4 months before something clicked and I started to make money.

No.

You may be able to have an account in your personal name, but assign beneficial ownership to your corporation.

Not usually.

It's the same on the golf courses in Canada, way more lefties than in the States. Go into a golf shop and the club selection is almost as good for left as for right. It has to be the hockey. Even as 4 and 5 year olds, lots of kids just seem to naturally shoot left handed, no idea why though...

Sorry Joey, I didn't see your post earlier. I started with 40k through just saving money. I had a decent job and ran a business on the side. I also had cash when I sold my house and moved. I don't calculate R:R ratios. If I wanted to go back through old trades I suppose I could figure it...

I'm only trading about half the size now that I was a few months ago. Just waiting it out, hoping things turn around.

For strategies where I determine my risk ahead of time I usually use the same method. Decide $ risk then share size based on that. Much of my trading though I don't know what the $ risk is beforehand. I exit based on market conditions or time.

Zillions of hours testing, finding a system that always makes money, and the first thing you want to do is write an article about it?

Actually, that should have been my 4th theme of the year. Opening orders sucked the worst ever in my career. They were good the first half, but since the end of June, I've lost money on them pretty consistently.

In this chart I removed my fat finger day in April to give a truer reflection of how my pl tracks the vix. This is a 20 day rolling average of daily pl overlaid with a vix plot line. You can see that a vix spike increases both total profit and equity volatility. The huge vix move in May...

2010 average daily pl <img src=http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/attachment.php?s=&postid=3049361>

2010 equity curve <img src=http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/attachment.php?s=&postid=3049359>

2010 Recap. For the year I grossed $825,141. I traded a total of 27,258,000 shares, 241 futures contracts and 204 options contracts. I don't have my net total to the penny yet, but it is very close to $750k. The year ended up better than I had hoped for. Going into 2010 my main worry was...

+15k for the week, a paltry 111,000 shares traded. Daily pl was +6, 0, +1, +1, +7. Ending the year with a 12 week win streak. In what I think might be a first, I was completely skunked on Thursday, not a single share traded. Most of the week's pl came from putting on a ES short, NQ long...