2011: Rebuilding My Battered Account

Picaso · May 8, 2011

Quote from neke:

Same strategies more or less. Keep refining, dropping those that don't seem to work, and expanding the ones that seem to work to pick more trades. Automated has made 49K from 72 trades while discretionary has lost almost as much. I have started "picking" my discretionary trades. 250 trades in four months with a loss is not very encouraging.

AUTO 72 48,507.89
DISCR 250 -46,407.52

Impressive week, Neke, congrats.

What about previous years what's your automated vs. discretionary P&L? (Trying to answer myself here why you don't simply ditch your discretionary trading).

Keep it up, positive is always good!

neke · May 13, 2011

Weekly Update for week 18/50 ended 5/13/2011

Bad week, down 15K (4.3%).

On Monday, ROSE gave me a drubbing with a runaway move that cost my automation 8K. Recovered nicely the rest of the week mostly through discretionary trades and was well into positive territory till Friday. Gave back all the gains and more with a call option on Agilent (A). Will be revising my rules for maximum size on options: right now it is based on nominal value, and the limit is $1million in notional value per position: it is obvious the risk for that ITM position was too much.

For the week, automation lost 11K, while discretionary lost 3K.

Code:

Opening Balance:                	338,011
Net gain for the week 		         14,684
------------------------------------------------
Net Balance:                   		323,327

Number of Trades	            	 31
Number of Profitable Trades    	    	 16


Since Inception of Thread   01/8/2011 - 5/13/2011

Opening Balance:                   	335,899
Net loss(Less Margin Interest)		-12,572 (down 3.7%)
------------------------------------------------
Net Balance				323,327

Number of Trades	           	 353
Number of Profitable Trades        	 196

TOP/BOTTOM TRADES

TICKER			ENTRY DATE/TIME		EXIT DATE/TIME		QTY	PURCH	SOLD AMT	GAIN/LOSS	TYPE

MMAY21201126.0CALL	2011-05-11-09-44-12	2011-05-11-11-34-48	25000	55000	69625		14278		M CALL
SPYMAY212011133.0CALL	2011-05-12-09-49-46	2011-05-12-13-38-49	11300	19097	29945		10687		SPY CALL
ROSE			2011-05-09-10-49-40	2011-05-09-15-22-02	4223	208163	199827		-8367		SHORT
AMAY21201150.0CALL	2011-05-13-09-37-59	2011-05-13-10-47-51	20000	85000	57600		-27689		A CALL

GG1972 · May 14, 2011

So you bought almost 4500 shares of ROSE ?? On most 5' bars that's the "entire" volume.

neke · May 15, 2011

Quote from GG1972:

So you bought almost 4500 shares of ROSE ?? On most 5' bars that's the "entire" volume.

Not on that day. 4million shares traded.

neke · May 15, 2011

Quote from Picaso:

Impressive week, Neke, congrats.

What about previous years what's your automated vs. discretionary P&L? (Trying to answer myself here why you don't simply ditch your discretionary trading).

Keep it up, positive is always good!

Discretionary has always outperformed the automated - until last year. It's too soon to say give up on discretionary, but I am surely trying to automate as much as I can.

neke · May 15, 2011

Quote from TulsaTrader:

Neke,

Do you take the mark to market (trader) election on your taxes?

If so, has this had any impact as far as making filing more complicated?

I assuming you're in the U.S.A.

Thanks.

Nope. Regular filer with short-term cap gains.

short&naked · May 15, 2011

Quote from neke:

Discretionary has always outperformed the automated - until last year. It's too soon to say give up on discretionary, but I am surely trying to automate as much as I can.

Are your automated strats RTMs?

Riffraffpatrol · May 16, 2011

Code:
Quote from neke:

Weekly Update for week 18/50 ended 5/13/2011

Bad week, down 15K (4.3%).

On Monday, ROSE gave me a drubbing with a runaway move that cost my automation 8K. Recovered nicely the rest of the week mostly through discretionary trades and was well into positive territory till Friday. Gave back all the gains and more with a call option on Agilent (A). Will be revising my rules for maximum size on options: right now it is based on nominal value, and the limit is $1million in notional value per position: it is obvious the risk for that ITM position was too much.

For the week, automation lost 11K, while discretionary lost 3K.

Code:

Opening Balance: 338,011 Net gain for the week 14,684 ------------------------------------------------ Net Balance: 323,327 Number of Trades 31 Number of Profitable Trades 16 Since Inception of Thread 01/8/2011 - 5/13/2011 Opening Balance: 335,899 Net loss(Less Margin Interest) -12,572 (down 3.7%) ------------------------------------------------ Net Balance 323,327 Number of Trades 353 Number of Profitable Trades 196 TOP/BOTTOM TRADES TICKER ENTRY DATE/TIME EXIT DATE/TIME QTY PURCH SOLD AMT GAIN/LOSS TYPE MMAY21201126.0CALL 2011-05-11-09-44-12 2011-05-11-11-34-48 25000 55000 69625 14278 M CALL SPYMAY212011133.0CALL 2011-05-12-09-49-46 2011-05-12-13-38-49 11300 19097 29945 10687 SPY CALL ROSE 2011-05-09-10-49-40 2011-05-09-15-22-02 4223 208163 199827 -8367 SHORT AMAY21201150.0CALL 2011-05-13-09-37-59 2011-05-13-10-47-51 20000 85000 57600 -27689 A CALL

Neke - what strategy is your automation utilizing? The ROSE trade had a classic double top formation with an ideal shooting star candle into supply around 10:45 EST for the proper short entry that could've been ridden down with a technical stop for about a $ 1.50, right into demand. Or you could've played long from the open as price was into siginficant demand-- the chart would've told u there was no way u should've been shorting at that point.

flipflopper · May 20, 2011

I have a feeling Neke shorted LNKD and went bust.

freewilly · May 20, 2011

Quote from flipflopper:

I have a feeling Neke shorted LNKD and went bust.

Hard to say. I don't really know NEKE's strategies. Most time he take RTM (if so, he would lose a lot on LNKD), but sometimes he does follow the trend.

However, I am almost sure he played LNKD. that's where the action was.