March Trading Journals

I was taken a short break from posting (fingers getting tired)...and then I noticed Hitman's extended discussion on what was termed my strategy. We have used similar strategies for decades, and yet the current incarnation is working extremely well (for newbies and "experts).

Whenever we have a trader who is "against the wall" with no money, etc., the only thing we allow them to trade to build the account back up is often times the modified opening strategy.

This "no brainer" gets traders in the market early, gets their brains functioning well from the get-go and has excellent results when used properly. My brother has added several "fine points" to the basics I employ and we try to get our people to add their own expertise to it.

The comments about "pairs" strategies and the chide about extra commissions is silly...we don't even want traders to use the additional shares except to save them money...

Hitman, you seem to be a hard worker and very loyal to Walter etal, and I'm glad that you are helping new people get into the industry. Strategies change almost daily it seems, and we all must change as well....let's not take ourselves too seriously...have some fun .....:-)
 
***The comments about "pairs" strategies and the chide about extra commissions is silly...we don't even want traders to use the additional shares except to save them money... ***

Doesn't make sense whatsoever. When you have a cents per share based structure, you save absolutely nothing whether you trade 1000 shares or 100 shares. No newbie should be trading ANYTHING more than 100 shares regardless of how much capital he has. It is like throwing away money if he trades anything more than that.

I stand by my opinion that this is anything but a "no brainer", as newbies should not be taking stuff off the open print period. I would rather have them watch the overall market and play high probability imbalances than "spray and pray".
 
Originally posted by Hitman
***The comments about "pairs" strategies and the chide about extra commissions is silly...we don't even want traders to use the additional shares except to save them money... ***

Doesn't make sense whatsoever. When you have a cents per share based structure, you save absolutely nothing whether you trade 1000 shares or 100 shares. No newbie should be trading ANYTHING more than 100 shares regardless of how much capital he has. It is like throwing away money if he trades anything more than that.

I stand by my opinion that this is anything but a "no brainer", as newbies should not be taking stuff off the open print period. I would rather have them watch the overall market and play high probability imbalances than "spray and pray".
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From a business standpoint, nothing personal, I am glad that you feel this way. I am also glad that you call this "spary and pray" (which means that you haven't really picked up the whole concept yet). This basic technique has gotten many newbies past their learning curve and on the way to being strong traders. You keep on doing what you're doing, and I will keep on growing the business.

You are welcome to "stand by your opinion" - and I will continue to add winning traders using this technique. Hey, it's ok to have differing ideas...and I like my "stats" (as you put it).

Now, pertaining to my personal trading posts, I certainly don't get into all my trading (this wouldn'd help anyone, especially new people)...I just try to show how one, simple technique can make enough to cover the learning curve (if done well). I don't expect everyone to come in with 20 years experience.

One last reply to Hitman's retort about the openings....you seem to be missing the most important ingredient...the fact that we are almost always on the same opening side as the Specialist...and even my ego knows when to say" Hey, I'm with you Mr. Specialist"....
Back at ya later.....
 
hahahaha ...i find this amusing because *my* favorite tech is to flip-off (not turn-off, but FLIP-OFF!) in turn each one of my monitors (i have 8 :-) all the while damning just about everybody to hell. a very cathartic experience and works well for me.
 
Don:

Your strategy is no rocket science, seriously, it is something everyone and their mother does, except done on a "spray and pray" (nearly all basket oriented trading strategies fall under this category, and considering one of the top 5 traders at our firm does a lot of spray and pray since he takes like 70 something stocks a day, it is hardly a negative remark).

I have been doing your strategy in singular format since I started trading profitably, I CAN grasp the concept of a "undervalued" stock that should do a gap fill versus futures, thank you very much.

Like pair trading, it is a very conservative strategy, but a very inefficient strategy, over the long run you are basically trying to get nickels and dimes and you are trying to make it up with size, which means a tons of commissions.

***This basic technique has gotten many newbies past their learning curve and on the way to being strong traders.***

So does any viable technique, this basic technique of yours sure did not improve the survival rate at Bright versus Worldco.

That said it is a great way to have your guys churn away a few thousand shares off the open and make $50-100 bucks, this is why I am trying to put together a profitable trading record doing this strategy, I would love to have STOCKKBROKER take five 1000 share positions from the first print, instant $100 in commissions.

***I will continue to add winning traders using this technique.***

Try to add a few actual bodies in New York office first.

I am serious man, there is no such thing as a secret strategy in the stock market, every single strategy is basically a form/variation of another, I don't understand why you make it seem like Bright offers some secret recipe no one else is providing.

If it is THAT MUCH superior to what everyone else is doing, prove it to us with a high survival rate. No, 70% AFTER THE FIRST YEAR doesn't mean anything.
 
Hitman....come on, now you starting to sound weird again. WorldCo brings people in with no money ( a different business model). We prefer to focus on the more ( overall) successful type people who want to become traders. Of course our retention rate is better, after all I wouldn't expect you to do as well when bringing in brand new people with no money to put up.

I do want to thank you for "lighting a fire" under our NYC people, and for the recent dozen or so we are adding in our Manhattan location. Between the expo and our "open house" the interest in bringing our NYC office back up to capacity is way up. Please continue to bring on new "under financed" people, and we will work on the rest of the trading groups.

See how well things work when we all help one another?

(I'm just trying to lighten things up again, we both have to just deal with the fact that our approaches to trading and growing the industry are quite different). Good Luck with your trading group....

I think I may copy your idea of posting up daily results, perhaps with my "remotes" - we'll see if anyone has an interest in how well remotes are doing with our new platform.
 
On the contrary, I think Worldco has a serious edge in succcess rate BECAUSE we don't ask for capital.

There is simply less pressure on our traders, as they have more money left over to pay their bills, still gets to play when they are down, etc . . .

As for "overall more successful" people, that is just plain stupid, it doesn't matter whether you are a high school drop out or someone with a PHD, in the eyes of the market your chance is as good as your heart.

And good luck on your New York operation, a few years from now when you finally get more than a dozen traders in the door, it may be worth while to launch an actual assault on your office.
 
"On the contrary, I think Worldco has a serious edge in succcess rate BECAUSE we don't ask for capital.

There is simply less pressure on our traders, as they have more money left over to pay their bills, still gets to play when they are down, etc ."


Hitman, you've said many times that risking OPM trading is no different than risking your own. Now you claim "less pressure"...

You can't have it both ways.

BTW, you are right this time. Risking OPM is a heck of a lot less stressful than your own hard earned cash.
 
Originally posted by Hitman
On the contrary, I think Worldco has a serious edge in succcess rate BECAUSE we don't ask for capital.

There is simply less pressure on our traders, as they have more money left over to pay their bills, still gets to play when they are down, etc . . .

As for "overall more successful" people, that is just plain stupid, it doesn't matter whether you are a high school drop out or someone with a PHD, in the eyes of the market your chance is as good as your heart.

And good luck on your New York operation, a few years from now when you finally get more than a dozen traders in the door, it may be worth while to launch an actual assault on your office.
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I never do this....but I gotta do a "LOL" ...where did I say PHD or High School? And when does giving the firm part of your profits equate to "having more money?"

"As good as your heart" - I know a lot of "good hearted people" who will never be traders, and (unfortunately) a lot of SOB's who do well.

Anyway, let's call a truce for a while, and I will pull up the drawbridge on Manhattan for a while and concentrate on the rest of the world.
 
Very tough day as my entire team struggled in a very slow sell-off that came with some nasty nasty squeezes. 10200 shares each way on 5 of 14 shooting, +185 before commissions, +15 after, no bullets.

Pre-Market: Negative news on SOX, negative news on paper products, bad auto numbers, bad retail numbers . . . Positive energy numbers . . .

9:30: I did not get a single fill with my open strategy today, and immediately I knew we are in for a tough game. Fortunately I caught a Tony Oz 3 day reversal in DRI and scored $300 there (would have had a lot more size there, if futures didn't tank the way it did). Tried to take EP/NOI on early energy strength but it was pretty obvious sellers were around and stocks had trouble go up. Shorted KMB on bad paper news but stopped out for 5 cents loss (no bullets, would have been a total waste). Did not see any opportunities so just sat with my $200 or so profit.

2:00: Energy pop and I thought the news was good, took HP/NBL, and I broke even as the index came right back in. When the index started to pop again I thought it was the real move, and took SII/BJS/BHI, needless to say energy stocks came in hard and fast and I lost $300 there (thankfully I took really light positions as I knew broad market was weak).

3:00: Down just $150, took a bottom pick in EAT when OSI squeezed, took some very minor positions in BEN/ETM, as soon as I squeezed myself into the black, I stopped, as I knew it was a tough day and I would like to have some sort of anchor for tommorrow.

Team Stats:

Too late to pick off the numbers from the admin console as I spend a lot of time doing research after work today and now it is 8PM and I am still in the office. Here are the basics.

8 of 9 active traders
3 of 8 positive before commissions (-1300)
3 of 8 positive after commissions (-3500)
 
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