February Trading Journals

H

Hitman

I have to count my lucky stars to finish January the way I did. For an entire month I struggled until the very end when I closed it with my best back-to-back performance since April 2001. The princess's smile shined upon me and I closed the month on a high note.

Let's be serious here, even with the bail out, it is safe to say that I can't count on those kind of games to save my bacon, and I absolutely must play a consistent game. Until the four game winning streak that closed the month out, I was playing at .500 level, that won't get it done. I have to be more patient with my shot selection, I have to more work off daily charts, and I have to milk my winners more.

What kept me from being a legit contender for top tier has always been my inability to hold on to winners. I have never ever held a full 1000 share position through a quarter point wiggle (hell, 10 cents wiggle for that matter) for a full point profit without paring out. Without a break through in that mentality, I will never be able to trade bigger sizes. When a trade feels good, I have to hold on, and confidence is everything when you are in the money.

This will be a very tough year for traders, and I have to think survival before anything else. I have not got any consistent scoring from any bread and butter sectors, and I have to keep my composure until I am back in sync with the market. Currently, only one out of six traders on my squad is profitable (excluding myself), and I am looking for a 50% survival rate for recruits. It is highly unlikely that I will make a dime from those guys during the first six months of the year, or any serious money for that matter this year, but if by the end of the year, somehow someway I can put together a profitable squad and build from it, I will be in a very very good situation.

In the mean time, I must continue to further fine tune my own trading, as while the title of a manager does sound good, it is the pride of being the best player I can possibly be that means most to me. I really want to prove to Mrs F that one day I will be better than her and her idols at this firm for that matter. The feeling of being totally outclassed is eating me alive. I need to be able to HOLD SIZE, and at this point, there really isn't anything I can do to push myself, I just have to let it come to me. In Mrs F's eyes I am at least a few years away from going top tier, but I know I am one breakout away from being an legit contender. Considering that I rejected her idea of co-hosting the squad, the fact that her 15-20K lead over me YTD (and entire last year she beat me by 25K) is sticking out like a stake through my heart, despite of the way she feels like an older cousin to me away from the game, I really want to smack her down with some size as she is a very realistic benchmark for me to eventually surpass, I even told her so as I will never ever be happy with anything less than top tier.

The competitive spirit is haunting me. I don't know exactly what I must do to get there, but I will be plugging away with every drop of blood and sweat. I hope one day I will be able to make that top 30 list on a regular basis, as I truly believe it is my rightful spot. In the mean time, I must continue to fight for my survival as I continue to build experience that will eventually lead to a breakout.

January / December

P&L Before Commissions: 11994 / 16943
P&L After Commissions: 2923 / 8838
Shooting %: 46.3% / 54.85%
Cent Per Share: 0.036 / 0.067
Volume Each Way: 328000 / 257400
W/L: 13-9 / 18-3
 
Hit List Moment:

From: Hitman Sent: 2/5/2001 5:21 PM

THE HITMAN IS NOW PROFITABLE . . .

It has been 3 and 1/2 month since I made my first trade at this firm, and I am finally even, starting tommorrow, every dollar I make, 85 cents goes into my pay check. I have 7 games left in the pay period to build up my first check, I will get 85% of the profit but half of which will be added to my capital account until I reach $25000 in my capital account. Then, can you say Nasdaq trading?

6 of 6 (my first flawless game) shooting today on 3700 shares, +810 before commissions, +674 after, traded 600 shares and was very comfortable with this size. Both Mr. R. and G had screaming day's, R is up $2000 (didn't trade his system because futures was too choppy in the morning, this will be awesome if he can identify a trending day versus a reversal day and decides ahead of the time whether he wants to trade his system, combined with his non-mechanical trading which isn't too shabby, he can be a size player a few months from now, just 7K from his first check) and G is up $3500. Should have been more aggressive, but why risk blowing a mile stone in your trading career? Next step would be getting $1000 day's the way I have been getting $500 day's, I need to take more trades and be more patient with my positions once I am in the money. Can't hit anything if you don't take shots, and it is worth it to sacrifice the precision a little to trade more positions at a time.

Opened the day with obvious DRG strength, 9:35, I added ABT at 45.45, 9:38, JNJ at 95.10 after it pulled back for no apparent reason with DRG went straight up. Two very easy trades, unfortunately the DRG index reversed but I still made 45 cents on ABT and 35 cents on JNJ.

9:59, CPN only utility stock on my screen in the red, at the first sign of buying I took the long position at 40.50, UTY still going straight up, a large seller at 40.71 and the fact that buyers weren't hitting it made me getting out at 40.70 for a 20 cents gain.

10:38, Shorted MEL at 47.48, as C the BKX leader made new intraday low, pared out shares and ended up with 20 cents gain across. BKX bounced right back, oh well.

Didn't take anymore trades until 2PM, SOX and Nasdaq were tanking and I didn't take a few nice short positions Mr. R. and G called. At the time I was $30 away from going positive, so I just waited.

2:52, I identified a Nasdaq rally and started to accumulate 200 shares of STM and DS, quickly added to my positions as the rally became more evident. Pared out along the way and added to them on pull backs, by 3:38, when the final shares went out the door, I added about $100 to my P&L.

Not much, but that was enough to push my overall P&L after commission into the black.

Post Game Report:

What a classy organization. Mr. R. came into this firm fresh out of Cornell and the firm gave him $1500 living expenses a month during the first three months, despite him doing horribly, losing 5K firm capital two weeks into the game. Of course, the $4500 must be made back before he gets his first check, but when he was down $20K, he could have just very easily left the firm with those three checks $1500 a piece. Based on what I understand, the firm handed out pay checks before people turned positive, just so they can pay their bills, and generate more commission for the firm when they do turn positive of course. I understand it is hardly charity and the firm had strong incentives to keep those traders in the game, but that is about as classy as you can get on Wall Street.

Mr. J. seems to be a basket trader, he trades pretty much the same half a dozen stocks (D, STI, etc.) every day and made $900 today. He is obviously better than me, made $6000, me breaking even, and both of us been here same amount of time. His consistency is amazing, with a single losing day over the past month. Doesn't seem to be a sector trader, just knows his basket of stocks REALLY well.

Mr. G. overcame his personal issues by going back to his 2 and 1/2 years old girl friend. According to him, the other girl is a waitress in a strip club and he merely had physical attractions to her. He is sticking to his "S&P 500 index funds" and giving up on his "day trading activity" :-) Did I say love is the greatest strength? Ever since he cut off contact with the other girl, he made $3000+ 2 out of 2 games.

The firm provides an alternative to hedge fund for its most talented traders: a trading desk representative. You need some serious money in your capital account and a S24 (Principle) license. Basically, you get to recruit and train your own traders, and the firm will provide everything from facilities to equipment to MIS support. You get 50% of the commission those traders generate as well as 50% of (100% - their payout rate) of the profit they make. On the flip side of the coin, you absorb 50% of the capital losses they generate as well. The firm will even supply a stable of rookie traders to choose from but you bet those traders are "problem childs" and it is better for you to recruit your own rookies. You create, train and manage your own squad, determine their payout rate/commission/ticket charges/DOT limit, prepare and lead them into battle on every day, and benefit from every trade they take and absorb their losses.

Sounds like a terrific management type of position for those who wants to move up on the ladder. A new trader will be better served if they join a trading desk instead of start out on their own, they will have to pay more commission but there will be someone to lead them, and a very strong incentive for doing so. The average trading desk manager makes seven figures no sweat, but you need about seven figures in your capital account to be considered.

Tommorrow I will start building my first check, princess, thank you for providing me the strength and courage to excel facing extreme adversity, I now have a chance to make six figures at age 21, and a chance to deliver the one million within 5 years.

There are many flaws in my game, but I believe I will correct and overcome them, because of you . . . It is an ice storm here in New York, I am going home . . .
 
The 4 games winning streak came to an end today as I was ice cold all game long. If I can find anything encouraging at all was that I milked one big winner which prevented this from being a total blow out.

20700 shares each way on 2 of 12 shooting, +406 before commissions, -220 after, 3 bullets (+1 shared).

Pre-Market: Bad news on UAL.

9:30: Bulleted CAL for 30 cents and off 1000 shares that was a nice trade. Unfortunately it squeezed hard and I covered half at the morning low the other half for a mere 15 cents profit. Unfortunately that was my lone winner in the morning. Went long in EOG many times today and ended up losing money after commissions. Went long DHI many times today but the home builders finally did some sort of a sell-off and I wish I went for a bullet but after so many failed bullet attempts I just couldn't put myself to it.

10:00: Tried to bullet LM on XBD sell-off but the stock was too strong. Went long in MUR and smacked for 10 cents. Tried CRA on BTK move and barely squeezed out 15 cents.

10:30: Tried to bullet SGP as it had a really weak daily and it squeezed the hell out of me.

11:00: XNG sell-off, bulleted KMI and it was a total waste. Smacked for 10 cents throw in bullet cost it hurted in a close game.

2:00: Tried to go long in energy again, had NBL and stopped out for flat, SLB and stopped out for a 15 cents loss. Tried SPF on home builder rally and shaken out for flat and missed a half point move. Tried EP and out for 5 cents loss. XNG ran because of DYN/WMB but most other stocks didn't follow until the very end. I did small sizes (300 shares) but when I tried each stock more than once it really added up.

3:00: Fortunately I bulleted CAL again for 40 cents and it saved me from a substantial loss.

I can not afford to give up the momentum I had going into this game and I definitely don't want to be down for the month as long as I did in January, I have to regain the lead on Monday.

My biggest asset has been the ability to build long winning streaks, and this year my streaks stopped cold at 4 games, I need to get hot again.
 
Hitman-
1) I'm very glad that you broke that losing streak.
2)I'm not sure why you're posting last years journals
3)In a way I envy your passion for "princess", but in some ways I have to wonder if she's a distraction.
i have to admit, I've never let my self become so infatuated with a woman like you have. Maybe its because I've never met a woman like the princess...or maybe its because I've been raised to never be led by a woman...or well I don't know really

Only you know what's best for you...but sometimes i think that the princess might be more of an obstacle to you than a form of motivation.
Don't take offense to this. I mean no disrespect to you or the princess. It's just that I think that having a woman like that would be more of a distraction to my trading.
If its a cultural situation, well I wouldn't try to understand, it just seems like you've been after her for a year+ ,
I have a girlfriend. And she supports me 100% and
ok , i'm stoping because I've been out all night...I'm gonna post this because I think it's important anyway
 
Originally posted by Hitman
I really want to smack her down with some size as she is a very realistic benchmark for me to eventually surpass, I even told her so as I will never ever be happy with anything less than top tier.
More...

LOL you bring an entirely new dimendsion to the world of trading Hitman...<b>competition</b>. Good luck.
 
At the end of the day on friday i was shocked to find myself #1 on the firms top 30 list. (this was as of 3:30pm so i could have been bumped by the close). I'm quite proud of this accomplishment having only been trading at the firm for 3 months.

I finished the day up 11,100 after commissions and up 30k for the week. I'm now up 51k for the year. I'm left wondering just how much i can make for the whole year. My goal for 2002 was to average $1200/day. I'm currently avg. over $2000/day.

I joined Worldco 3 months ago by bringing in only 3,000 capital. I started with trading just 200 shares and worked my way up. My results should put to rest any question as to whether Worldco is a good company to work for. Where else can you bring in virtually no money and in just a few months be trading 3000 share positions and making a killing.
 
Excellent trading Silk! You may wish to lay out your trades so we can see how you accomplished such success so early on in your NYSE career, having made the transition from Nasdaq...

Regards,
Candle
 
Those are impressive numbers.Are you strictly a daytrader or do you hold overnite? Could you list any favorite stocks or sectors you play?
I trade overnites and had my best January ever.Up until this past week I was having an O.K month.It was nice to have a decent week to put me over the top.Keep up the good work.
 
what i don't understand is this, we have two traders (hit, silk) who share the same water cooler, why doesn't the one trader who is struggling (hit) walk over to the successful one's desk (silk), watch him every day for a week (or two), then run back and MODEL silk's methods?

keeeeeee-rye-st hitman, you got a whole floor full of successful traders, some {{huge}} traders there at Worldco, you even know who they are, don't you? why aren't you at each and every desk watching, learning, and modelling???

will someone set me straight??!!

what am i missing here?



Protrader1
 
Brother Protrader,

Excellent points... yet again, I fully agree with all of your points, which make perfect sense.

Sincerely and with fraternal love,
Candle
 
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