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I prefer one built to my specs :)

yes, it counts for SPY right up to 4:15 PM ET

1% drop and its Armageddon - with high chance of going away in 5 years!!! Hope you don't bet in the market this way - you are far more likely to be out of business yourself

What function represents your involuted chart?

How close to the mid? From my experience, in the example I gave, yes I could get a fill at 8.50, but almost certainly not at 8.00 (unless the market has meanwhile moved against me). And of course I want fast execution (not let it sit there and let the situation change).

Every draw-down is emotionally draining, but that is the nature of the work. One thing I have been looking at with this last months loss is how much I have been "paying to play" options. My findings are even more troubling. Basically the costs in question are from two sources 1) bid-ask spread...

Actually the swing started from November. I had a 75% month in October. Since then it has been turbulent as seen from this chart (starting with the 331K starting balance for November - I have withdrawn some money since then of course)

Period Update for March (2/28/2015 - 4/3/2015) (5 weeks) Terrible month, down 70K (17.6%). Another terrible show for OPN-FCR (down 88K for the month), one of the two best-performing of last year. Not sure whether part of it had to do with trying to recoup the losses on that strategy last...

Shakespeare said “A coward dies a thousand times before his death, but the valiant taste of death but once". The fear of a black swan is overblown. I do not stake 100% of my account in an OTM weekly option (something that can lose 99% in a flash). Even with stocks, when I take a position with...

Period Update for February 1/31/2015 - 2/28/2015 (4 weeks) Another good month, up 99.8K (33%). Delighted to have another great month, although I didn't like some of the trading done. First two weeks was stellar, could almost do nothing wrong, then the third week (shortened trading week)...

Wow! that's news to know they can be held liable for how they auto-liquidate. Maybe they can be liable also for arbitrary changes in margin requirement leading to auto-liquidation.

Markets at new high once again. Not even two months (Dec 29 - Feb 12 for SPY). Still waiting for 2 months of no new highs. Account performance outstanding nonetheless.

You absolutely nailed it there. I have always marveled at people who claim to be making a living from trading, but have stuck to say a trading balance of 50K, and are happy to make 50K a year for a decade. To me, if you have an edge to make 100% (on starting balance) each year for ten years, it...

Period Update for January 1/3/2015 - 1/31/2015 (4 weeks) Great start to the new year, up 49.5K (19%). It was a roller-coaster month, first down near -30K, then got as high as +64K, then this week almost gave back the gains, but then rebounded to close +49K. I certainly took too many trades...

Not starting a new journal for 2015, will just keep the monthly updates here. From your analysis (and like I know very well), there is no smooth sailing even here - it is still a battle. I hope obeying restrictions on my trades will make it a smoother ride.

From your definition that would be 1.65 from the monthly figures earlier posted. Not sure whether this is good or bad.

For 2015, I have set percentage targets for the strategies as follows. I have also renamed the strategies with better initials for me to correlate. (0.10 means 10%) Strategy 2015 Targ Former Name STK-FCS 0.30 stock4 OPN-FCR 0.22 option4 OPN-OPM 0.15 option2 STK-ATM...

There is a mix-up in the calculation above. Just re-did it and the net percentages should be as follows stock4 0.667 option4 0.522 option2 0.207 stock5 0.121 option1 0.016 stock2 0.004 stock1 -0.111 stock3 -0.196 1.231

Now time to review the performance of my strategies over the last year. The earlier chart shows the absolute ($) returns of the strategies. On the basis of that you think option4 was the best strategy, and that option1, stock1,stock2,stock3 were all losing strategies. However, I go back to...

Attached is the performance by strategies and by months. As depicted, stock4 accounts for all the loss in December. I am not too puzzled, because, apart from the blunder, it is not way out of expectation, like I will explain later when I present the 'Net Percentage' criterion for measuring...