2014: The Battle for Survival

Congrats Neke!

if you don't mind to tell me the steps of how you set up the Thinkorswim platform to automatically execute your trading scripts. it seems one could configure the platform in a way that his buy and sell orders could be automatically executed by the platform when certain conditions are met during a day. Thank you much.


I don't use the thinkorswim platform. Just the web based TD Ameritrade order entry system for manual trading. Automation is handled externally (via APIs)
 
Hello neke, if you do not mind, what is your strategy? Not the specifics, just the general premise. Are you day trading or interday (entering and exiting positions same day or holding them several days)? Are you taking options on the same stocks you have positions on or taking options on completely different stocks or instruments. A general outline of what you are doing will be much appreciated. Thanks
 
So Neke made around 110K for the last 12 months counting from November, when the performance got volatile. That is about a 30-35% return, since his account was around 300K.

Just for comparison, if Neke was trading the ES, and using 1 contract for each 10K on the account, that is about 1.5 points gain per week....
 
So Neke made around 110K for the last 12 months counting from November, when the performance got volatile. That is about a 30-35% return, since his account was around 300K.

Just for comparison, if Neke was trading the ES, and using 1 contract for each 10K on the account, that is about 1.5 points gain per week....

And he probably paid way more than 1.5 ES pts per week in commissions and slippage this entire time.

Goes to show that a very good edge is necessary to overcome frictional cost when you trade frequently.
 
Period Update for November (10/31/2015 - 12/05/2015) (5 weeks)

Mournful month, down 120K (32%).

Started pretty bad, down 116K in the first two weeks. Was frenetic the rest of the month with insane number of trades. Only aggravated the situation. Back to the drawing board; will be limiting my trades - especially options - for the rest of the year. It would be horrible to end the year negative after seeing the earlier performance.

Code:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Opening Balance:                	377,127
Net loss for period 		       (119,607)
Cash Withdrawal				 (7,000)
------------------------------------------------
Net Balance:                   		250,520


For the Thread YTD  2015 (1/3/2015 - 12/05/2015)

Opening Balance:                       256,099
Net gain   	    	                53,421 (Up 21%)
Cash Withdrawal			       (59,000)
------------------------------------------------
Net Balance			       250,520
----------------------

TRADES

TYPE	Exit Date/Time		P/L

OPTION	2015-11-02-11-38-39	-11676.2
OPTION	2015-11-02-15-54-44	-9700.4
STOCK	2015-11-02-15-47-56	1800.7
OPTION	2015-11-02-15-46-52	-3327.9
OPTION	2015-11-03-09-34-36	-460.1
STOCK	2015-11-03-10-36-14	2286.6
STOCK	2015-11-04-10-47-05	1268.4
STOCK	2015-11-04-11-13-41	-7722.4
OPTION	2015-11-04-11-52-36	-8214.7
OPTION	2015-11-04-15-53-09	-1703.1
STOCK	2015-11-05-10-42-31	-1776.1
STOCK	2015-11-05-12-04-36	2394.8
OPTION	2015-11-05-10-32-08	-2258
OPTION	2015-11-05-12-06-34	6825.3
OPTION	2015-11-05-09-50-11	4932.9
STOCK	2015-11-05-13-03-09	-12692.9
OPTION	2015-11-05-13-02-50	-35499
OPTION	2015-11-05-14-50-06	-8303
OPTION	2015-11-05-14-43-01	6466.7
STOCK	2015-11-06-09-35-14	793.7
STOCK	2015-11-06-10-23-47	2772
OPTION	2015-11-06-09-52-42	15916.7
OPTION	2015-11-06-15-39-05	1293.8
STOCK	2015-11-06-15-15-55	458
OPTION	2015-11-06-15-38-27	-741.6
STOCK	2015-11-06-12-45-26	3460.5
STOCK	2015-11-09-10-25-02	1194.1
OPTION	2015-11-09-10-29-58	3429.1
OPTION	2015-11-09-10-09-16	2320.3
STOCK	2015-11-09-15-47-57	1188.7
OPTION	2015-11-09-15-58-05	-8044.8
STOCK	2015-11-09-15-55-17	-2910.8
STOCK	2015-11-10-09-27-37	-17003.2
OPTION	2015-11-10-10-57-24	-3770.3
STOCK	2015-11-10-15-49-38	-4536.9
OPTION	2015-11-10-11-27-55	-6041.5
STOCK	2015-11-10-15-11-38	4858
OPTION	2015-11-10-13-21-24	7591.9
STOCK	2015-11-11-09-49-12	4857.9
OPTION	2015-11-11-11-45-04	5927.1
STOCK	2015-11-11-14-44-51	685.8
STOCK	2015-11-11-14-44-38	-41776
STOCK	2015-11-11-15-38-03	4216.1
OPTION	2015-11-11-14-49-15	-397.5
STOCK	2015-11-12-10-30-08	5055.8
STOCK	2015-11-12-15-43-36	1102.2
STOCK	2015-11-12-15-42-55	-633.1
OPTION	2015-11-12-14-45-53	1574.7
STOCK	2015-11-13-13-08-10	-9754
STOCK	2015-11-13-15-49-07	1141.7
STOCK	2015-11-13-15-00-57	-13157.1
STOCK	2015-11-16-10-04-09	4775.1
STOCK	2015-11-16-12-53-57	2766.7
OPTION	2015-11-16-12-07-33	-3486.6
STOCK	2015-11-16-11-47-43	-1507.3
OPTION	2015-11-16-15-07-33	-8602.3
OPTION	2015-11-16-12-24-04	180.4
OPTION	2015-11-16-15-54-28	-3870.6
STOCK	2015-11-17-15-35-32	11777.2
STOCK	2015-11-17-11-17-46	-3815
OPTION	2015-11-17-10-07-32	-1659.1
OPTION	2015-11-18-09-53-42	8462
OPTION	2015-11-18-15-57-17	-10581.8
STOCK	2015-11-18-15-15-10	1594
STOCK	2015-11-18-15-55-14	-1934.9
STOCK	2015-11-19-09-34-02	1624.9
STOCK	2015-11-19-09-40-09	436.3
OPTION	2015-11-19-09-34-46	-683.5
STOCK	2015-11-19-12-17-26	6483.8
STOCK	2015-11-19-13-58-23	11129
STOCK	2015-11-19-14-41-52	1629.5
OPTION	2015-11-19-15-07-22	8854
OPTION	2015-11-19-10-04-22	4997.7
STOCK	2015-11-20-15-09-33	-1407.9
STOCK	2015-11-20-10-10-15	2916.9
STOCK	2015-11-20-10-10-38	2999.7
OPTION	2015-11-20-10-46-34	-8912.2
STOCK	2015-11-20-15-09-36	-285.9
STOCK	2015-11-20-15-38-33	-5716.3
OPTION	2015-11-20-15-23-06	-9192.2
OPTION	2015-11-20-15-34-15	-8773.7
OPTION	2015-11-20-15-52-19	1336.3
OPTION	2015-11-23-15-43-27	-3025.3
STOCK	2015-11-23-15-25-48	4835.5
STOCK	2015-11-24-09-55-20	-134.6
OPTION	2015-11-24-10-33-32	11464.9
STOCK	2015-11-24-12-07-59	1685.1
STOCK	2015-11-24-15-49-14	-207.7
OPTION	2015-11-24-15-59-00	-887.9
OPTION	2015-11-24-15-59-41	-733.4
OPTION	2015-11-25-15-57-04	-8044.2
OPTION	2015-11-25-10-37-11	11838.8
STOCK	2015-11-27-12-32-28	-515.8
OPTION	2015-11-30-09-31-34	-394.5
STOCK	2015-11-30-09-37-13	-113.8
OPTION	2015-11-30-09-59-13	-3341.7
OPTION	2015-11-30-12-23-22	-6030.6
OPTION	2015-11-30-15-52-11	329.3
STOCK	2015-11-30-15-46-56	1107.8
STOCK	2015-12-01-14-31-47	-2598.9
OPTION	2015-12-01-11-18-09	-4718.8
STOCK	2015-12-01-11-19-08	-257.7
STOCK	2015-12-01-14-04-59	57.8
OPTION	2015-12-01-10-18-44	-1268.9
OPTION	2015-12-01-10-19-55	-429
OPTION	2015-12-01-10-26-16	-1332.5
OPTION	2015-12-01-14-34-10	7924.7
STOCK	2015-12-01-12-35-31	-1838.7
OPTION	2015-12-01-15-58-13	-1232.8
STOCK	2015-12-01-14-50-22	247.9
STOCK	2015-12-02-09-35-03	653.7
STOCK	2015-12-02-15-48-47	1252
STOCK	2015-12-02-14-29-31	-6778.3
STOCK	2015-12-02-15-11-17	-41.4
STOCK	2015-12-03-09-30-34	1512.1
OPTION	2015-12-03-09-35-15	2489.4
STOCK	2015-12-03-12-26-53	2032.6
STOCK	2015-12-03-09-50-40	2179.3
STOCK	2015-12-03-15-17-41	384.6
OPTION	2015-12-03-15-16-33	-8759.1
STOCK	2015-12-03-15-22-27	84.1
OPTION	2015-12-03-15-50-00	-2150.9
STOCK	2015-12-03-15-55-28	-16
STOCK	2015-12-04-09-46-58	8821
STOCK	2015-12-04-12-33-01	3962.4
STOCK	2015-12-04-10-02-39	1816.3
STOCK	2015-12-04-10-01-46	-1092.6
STOCK	2015-12-04-14-12-32	-1797.2
OPTION	2015-12-04-11-45-41	-1862.1
STOCK	2015-12-04-15-55-24	-1318.6
OPTION	2015-12-04-13-08-39	-8043.4
STOCK	2015-12-04-14-30-45	-571.9
 
Great start to the new year, up 49.5K (19%).
Another good month, up 99.8K (33%).
Terrible month, down 70K (17.6%).
Nice month, up 68K (21%).
Ugly month, down 51K (13%).
Frustrating month, up 1.6K (0.5%).
No comments. The wounds are still raw, down 88K (27%).
Monstrous month, up 254K (107%).
Awful month, down 172K (36%).
Some recovery from last month, up 82K (32%).
Mournful month, down 120K (32%).

You sure love that roller-coaster of yours... you're an adrenaline junkie.. no disrespect intended, i admire your honesty and persistence.
 
So for the last 13 months (since the roller coaster started) you actually lost money, like -10K. Imagine that all those time and energy could have been put to better use like spending with family or having a hobby. On the plus side, your broker loves you...

You seriously need to change something (having a trading coach or partner, trading much less), or consider giving it up. I mean it is your life, but this journal is getting really depressing and at this point I just wish you would just lie to us....
 
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As expected, we have the trolls come out in droves berating neke for his down month, forgetting the fact that he is up 50K this year, trouncing the benchmark S&P 500. Let's not forget the long term winning record that neke owns, which the trolls WISH they could achieve.

If you trolls haven't made as much as neke, please keep quiet. neke is a winner, he will have down months, like all of us. neke is the most tenacious trader I have seen here on Elite Trader, he never lets a bad month ruin him, Watch him catch fire for the rest of the year to finish the year with pizazz. He always comes back strong after a bad month.
 
Are you his cheerleader? There are obvious issues with his trading, the volatility is most definitely too much because after 2 very bad months in a row his account would be wiped out. I've pointed out correlation of strategies before but since that's not the problem, it must be position sizing.
His 50k return in relation to portfolio volatility is a weak at best as the S&P isn't anywhere as volatile. I'm not belittling him either as he clearly is better than most traders.
 
Are you his cheerleader? There are obvious issues with his trading, the volatility is most definitely too much because after 2 very bad months in a row his account would be wiped out. I've pointed out correlation of strategies before but since that's not the problem, it must be position sizing.
His 50k return in relation to portfolio volatility is a weak at best as the S&P isn't anywhere as volatile. I'm not belittling him either as he clearly is better than most traders.

Let's not forget that neke makes regular withdrawals, so he doesn't have all his eggs in one basket. Plus he has a job. Not a cheerleader, just pointing out the fact that he makes a lot more than the trolls that criticize his trading. In the end, trading is about making as much money as you can, not have a smooth equity curve.

I'm sure he's made at least 100 times what Pekelo has made, or whoever it is that comes here after a down month and starts chirping atop his soapbox.
 
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