Quote from Bitstream:
if u didnt ride that 50+% winner wouldn't u be underwater by the same 50+%?
Quote from alphastocks:
LOL
My friend you just made me laugh....
That's like saying if I bet the farm on that CKCM trade and didn't get involved in any of the others I would have made 50% return on all my money in 16 days, man I am good. Trading in hindsight is very convenient, "if I had bought Microsoft in the IPO...".
Here is the deal: What matters is the long term average performance of the portfolio, not one big winner or one big looser. I do very well over time, but I have many stocks that loose a bunch and even some that make a bunch, all I care about is the bottom line over hundreds of trades. Treat trading like a business, and not like the black jack table (although I know some people do very well in Vegas and my hat is off to them).
:eek:
Quote from alphastocks:
If you call being down 1.6% on the portfolio 'a hit' you have no business being in the stock market. Not saying that to be mean, just a warning that if that little loss worries you a stock strategy might not be right for your risk tolerance. Expect much larger swings than that in any stock strategy, including this one.
In order to make money in the market you must learn to ignore short term swings and focus on your net return over a minimum of 6-12 months. Just a little wake up call.
Quote from Neet:
Well not quite what I mean.
Every short position you own has gone the wrong way, but you just started so I'll cut you some slack.
However, saying one must wait 6-12 months to see some real returns in a portfolio where you buy/sell cover/short positions every 20 days is absurd.
If you really get 50% year returns we should be seeing an average of 4+% on a monthly basis, at least on average.
In any case if you pull it off, I will be the first to congratulate your expertise.
Quote from Neet:
Well not quite what I mean.
Every short position you own has gone the wrong way, but you just started so I'll cut you some slack.
However, saying one must wait 6-12 months to see some real returns in a portfolio where you buy/sell cover/short positions every 20 days is absurd.
If you really get 50% year returns we should be seeing an average of 4+% on a monthly basis, at least on average.
In any case if you pull it off, I will be the first to congratulate your expertise.
Quote from taowave:
If I am not mistaken,Alfa's claim of 50% returns were for a long portfolio....There is no chance he puts up 50%+ returns on a long short portfolio..And if he can,one must truly wonder why he doesn't have 500 mil under management
Quote from alphastocks:
You are correct, the 50% claim was how this thread started and it was just for the longs. The goal of the short portfolio is not to loose in a rising market. Now, remember that the longs were unleveraged, so I use the leverage to invest in the shorts. This doesn't affect the long exposure so the returns generated from the longs will be the same. In periods of falling markets the longs are vulnerable, this is when the shorts kick in and offset the potential losses generated by the longs.
Bottom line, by using up to 2 times leverage the shorts drastically reduce the volatility of a long only portfolio, without sacrificing return.
By the way when I discuss returns, I mean over a longer time frame, not necessarily month to month.