Diary of an LSE stock trader

Summary Week Ended Friday 8th August 2014

20 Stock Trades:

7 AAL + 72.87 BPS
1 BLT + 4.97 BPS
4 BP + 51.92 BPS
2 HSBA + 58.12 BPS
2 SBRY + 62.20 BPS
4 STAN + 30.51 BPS

17 long trades: + 203.68 BPS.
3 short trades: + 76.91 BPS.

Stocks net + 280.59 BPS
19 intraday trades, 1 overnight.
I traded 5 days this week.
Return on account for the week + 3.28 % net.
P:L ratio was 24.11:1.

No Index trades.

Thoughts

Another difficult week. Markets were volatile once again, with events in Ukraine and Iraq making the news headlines.

I had to scalp what I could. Rallies were sold off pretty quickly this week. The FTSE made a new 30 day low on Friday morning, before staging a bit of a rally. Most stocks on my list still well down over the course of five days.
Still above my 2.5% benchmark for the week.

Made a few very poor exits, especially on STAN after the results on Wednesday. Missed some excellent shorting opportunities. Another week when exit levels were all important.

August is definitely turning out to be tougher than the last few months have been, at least for my style of trading.

Stock changes for the week shown.

Stay disciplined.

Stay focussed.

Stay humble.
 
Summary Week Ended Friday 15th August 2014

12 Stock Trades:

11 AAL + 126.31 BPS
1 BLT + 4.96 BPS

8 long trades: + 101.02 BPS.
2 short trades: + 30.24 BPS.

Stocks net + 131.27BPS
10 intraday trades, 2 overnight.

Return on account for the week + 1.67 % net.
P:L ratio was 28:1.
I traded 5 days this week.
No Index trades.

Thoughts

Another difficult week.
I struggled to find decent opportunities.

Markets were strong, although there was a sell off late on Friday on some Russian/Ukarianian news.

The people in charge of this forum have, in their wisdom, chosen to delete all the images posted in this journal.

I don't understand why some people feel the need to change things when they work perfectly well already. The changes to this site appear to me to be very much retrograde steps.

Anyway, it seems to be a waste of time to post any more images here.

Stay disciplined.

Stay focussed.

Stay humble.
 
Summary Week Ended Friday 22nd August 2014

17 Stock Trades:

14 AAL + 244.11 BPS
3 BLT + 22.84 BPS

13 long trades: + 253.83 BPS.
4 short trades: + 13.12 BPS.
Stocks net + 266.94BPS

15 intraday trades, 2 overnight.
I traded 5 days this week.

Return on account for the week + 4.24 % net.
P:L ratio was N/A (no losing trades).

No Index trades.

Thoughts

A better week.

Scalped a few points on AAL, despite some poor exits. Not bad considering AAL is more or less flat on the week. Again, it's all about exits.

AAL has been trading in a nice range recently, although I don't know how long this will last. I do find it hard to fathom the reasoning behind the buying near or at obvious resistance and the selling near support, but it takes all sorts to make a market I suppose.

Well above my 2.5% weekly target.
August is proving to be a tough month, and I have beaten my 2.5% benchmark in only two weeks of the last four. At least we have some volatility in the equity markets.

Stay disciplined.

Stay focussed.

Stay humble.
 

Attachments

  • STOCK CHANGES WEEK ENDED 22 AUG 2014.jpg
    STOCK CHANGES WEEK ENDED 22 AUG 2014.jpg
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JTrades,

I used to trade via CFDs, but for smallish size, the commissions kill the P&L.

Here are this week's trades on AAL:

AAL TRADES WEEKLY 22 AUG 2014.jpg


SB spreads probably cost me > 20 points in total.
 
Last edited:
"Did you mean to let the first trade go 10 points against you?"

Well I held that one overnight, so it could have gone a lot more against me.

My error was getting out before it went to 1610.5 on Monday morning.

Such is trading.
 
Summary Week Ended Friday 29th August 2014

8 Stock Trades:

6 AAL + 87.28 BPS
2 BLT + 38.69 BPS

6 long trades: + 108.25 BPS.
2 short trades: + 17.72 BPS.
Stocks net + 125.97BPS
6 intraday trades, 2 overnight.
I traded 4 days this week.
Return on account for the week + 1.33 % net.
P:L ratio was N/A (no losing trades).

No Index trades.

Thoughts

A shortened week, due to the bank holiday. Markets were volatile with events in Ukraine. Seems like there was an new announcment from the Ukraine/Moscow every few minutes throughout the trading day.
All in all, a very tough week, and I am very glad that it's Friday afternoon.
Well below my 2.5% benchmark.

August has been a difficult month, the breakdown of trades was as follows:

AUG STOCKS BPS NET a.jpg


AAL was by far the most frequently traded strock again, accounting for 68% of trades. I made some very poor trade exits, especially on the short side, where I scalped a couple of points before the stock tumbled sharply.

I have rather neglected the banks this month, with not a single trade in BARC. Hopefully next month will provide more opportunities.

Stay disciplined.

Stay focussed.

Stay humble.
 
Summary Week Ended Friday 5th September 2014

9 Stock Trades:

6 AAL + 115.34 BPS
3 BP - 1320.85 BPS
5 long trades: - 1279.47 BPS.
4 short trades + 73.96 BPS.
Stocks net - 1205.51BPS
5 intraday trades, 4 overnight.

I traded four days this week.
Return on account for the week - 18.47 % net.
No Index trades.

Thoughts

A terrible start to September trading.

I got hammered by BP after they lost a US court ruling. I had closed a part of the position on Thursday morning for a small profit, but held the rest as the chart showed strength and I thought it might test the 50 DMA at around 490. It was trading around 487.50 at the time, having tested 488.80.

Then the news hit and the stock fell very quickly, too quickly to get out (didn't help that I was distracted by something else at the time).

So annoying that I could have closed the remainder of the position flat... I was only looking for another 2p..

This is my first losing week on stocks since Oct 2013. And it hurt.

I will have to give this some thought over the weekend. The irony is that I had never lost money on a BP position before Thursday.

We saw some volatility on Wednesday when a ceasefire was declared in the Ukraine conflict. The ES futures made new all time highs @ 2010.5.

Stock changes for the week:
STOCK CHANGES WEEK ENDED 5 SEPT 2014.jpg


Stay disciplined.

Stay focussed.

Stay humble.
 
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