Rol's Trading Journal

[Rol]

[color=green][b]
Initial Capital (7/1/2011)	$73,028 
Total Net Profit	$780.79 
(Per Share)	$0.05 
Gross Profit	$3,699.28 
Gross Loss	($2,918.49)
Profit Factor	1.27
Total Number of Trades	120
Percent Profitable	54.17%
Winning Trades	65
Losing Trades	55
Avg. Trade Net Profit	$6.51 
Avg. Winning Trade	$56.91 
Avg. Losing Trade	($53.06)
Ratio Avg. Win:Avg. Loss	1.07
Expectancy	0.12
Largest Winning Trade	$202.11 
Largest Losing Trade	($207.00)
Max. Consecutive Winning Trades	12
Max. Consecutive Losing Trades	10
Total Shares/Contracts Held	14600
Total Commission	$253.80 
Return on Initial Capital	1.07%
Annual Rate of Return	27.23%
Buy & Hold Return	-1.09%
Trading Period	14 Dys, 6 Hrs, 11 Mins
Max. Equity Run-up(Daily)	$3,042.20 
Date of Max. Equity Run-up	7/15/2011 15:00
Max. Drawdown(Daily)	
Value	($2,101.71)
Date	7/12/2011 15:00
as % of Initial Capital	2.88%
Max. Trade Drawdown	($299.01)
[/b][/color]

I have been spending the first two weeks of July in a DD, but have turned the corner this week and am sporting a $780 profit for the month. New equity highs have been achieved YTD as well. Current market exposure sits at 82%. It is nice to see the Avg. winning trade > Avg. losing trade, as I do not want the losers to be damaging profits excessively. It would be nice to have a higher PF and percentage profitable though. The markets have not been very giving for me lately. I feel like I am just hanging on until conditions improve. My sense is that towards the remainder of 2011, the numbers will continue to improve.

As I approach $100K, I will open an account with IB with $5000 and slowly make the transition there. I am still working a great deal of OT, and by end of next week should have 80K, leaving 20K to go.

Real-time Account Net Worth	$77,813.59
Real-time Unrealized P/L	-$737.88

 

[jtrimbe]

What software do you use to generate your trading metrics? Or do you calculate and graph them all manually? I have traded with multiple platforms and non have that in depth of stats.

 

[Rol]

I got a substantial reversal in many of my positions today. I had been in a 3.5% DD yesterday from my July 1 balance. I made fresh all-time equity highs also today. I am posting a flavor of my trading today. At one point I had about 37 positions going. I had several profit stop losses in place, but was relieved that they were not hit as the market was higher right out of the gate and didn’t give back much throughout the remaining day. I am up about $1600 for the month after spending much of it underwater. It just reinforces that I cannot be too concerned about daily performance, but should allow my trading to ferment and then drink deeply when the market is drunk with giddiness.

Yesterday, the debt ceiling debate weighed on the markets, but today it appears positive company earnings ruled the day. The market is rather schizophrenic (isn’t it always).

Symbol Type Filled/Canceled
 LEAP Sell 07/19/11 02:59:50 PM
 ALL Sell 07/19/11 02:59:46 PM
 SSW Sell 07/19/11 02:59:32 PM
 CLGX Sell 07/19/11 02:59:16 PM
 INFA Sell 07/19/11 02:59:10 PM
 UAL Sell 07/19/11 02:59:10 PM
 ASMI Sell 07/19/11 02:59:09 PM
 AWI Sell 07/19/11 02:59:06 PM
 QUAD Sell 07/19/11 02:59:06 PM
 DW Sell 07/19/11 02:59:06 PM
 WBMD Sell 07/19/11 02:59:05 PM
 DB Sell 07/19/11 02:59:05 PM
 MDRX Sell 07/19/11 02:59:04 PM
 MXWL Sell 07/19/11 02:59:04 PM
 IPGP Sell 07/19/11 02:59:04 PM
 TIBX Sell 07/19/11 02:59:03 PM
 THO Buy 07/19/11 08:36:57 AM
 STT Buy 07/19/11 08:36:24 AM
 BRO Buy 07/19/11 08:33:11 AM
 LHCG Buy 07/19/11 08:31:26 AM
 LNCR Sell 07/19/11 08:31:22 AM
 CS Buy 07/19/11 08:31:06 AM
 LNCR Buy 07/19/11 08:31:03 AM
 
Real-time Account Net Worth $78,612.80
Real-time Unrealized P/L ($1,182.85)
Real-time Realized P/L (Today) $1,176.35

 

[Rol]

Quote from jtrimbe:

What software do you use to generate your trading metrics? Or do you calculate and graph them all manually? I have traded with multiple platforms and non have that in depth of stats.

Hi jtrimbe,

The platform I use is TradeStation. It does much more in depth analysis than what I have posted. The quarterly charts of daily realized p/l come from Trade Accountant tax software.

I created a macro to automatically generate and then export the report from TradeStation to MS Excel to perform net profit per share and expectancy calculations (these are not included in TS), and also to remove unwanted metrics. Then the macro copies the formatted version to MS Word to add my weekly journal commentary.

I have only used TradeStation with an account > $25,000, which you would need to be a pattern day trader and to avoid platform fees (around $50 I think) by trading >5000 shares/month. In a few months, however, I plan to switch to IB so then I will present performance reports using their charts, which many here at ET may be more familiar with. I am really getting excited about this transition, so the day cannot arrive too soon!

I had inquired about portfolio margin at the TS forums and politely had my question moved to the “suggested enhancements” section. I guess they don’t mind losing 100K accounts.

 

[Rol]

In the spirit of keeping this journal somewhat entertaining, I thought I would post the largest winning trade when it occurs each month. Here is the largest winning trade so far for July. I don't know if IB has this feature of displaying actual trades on a chart, so if not, it will be something I am going to miss.

 

[Rol]

[color=green][b]
Initial Capital (7/1/2011)	$73,028 
Total Net Profit	$2,158.66 
(Per Share)	$0.11 
Gross Profit	$5,972.55 
Gross Loss	($3,813.89)
Profit Factor	1.57
Total Number of Trades	160
Percent Profitable	54.38%
Winning Trades	87
Losing Trades	73
Avg. Trade Net Profit	$13.49 
Avg. Winning Trade	$68.65 
Avg. Losing Trade	($52.25)
Ratio Avg. Win:Avg. Loss	1.31
Expectancy	0.26
Largest Winning Trade	$298.50 
Largest Losing Trade	($206.75)
Max. Consecutive Winning Trades	12
Max. Consecutive Losing Trades	10
Total Shares/Contracts Held	19500
Total Commission	$365.80 
Return on Initial Capital	2.95%
Annual Rate of Return	50.03%
Buy & Hold Return	-0.32%
Trading Period	21 Dys, 6 Hrs, 11 Mins
Max. Equity Run-up(Daily)	$4,333.32 
Date of Max. Equity Run-up	7/21/2011 15:00
Max. Drawdown(Daily)	
Value	($2,101.71)
Date	7/12/2011 15:00
as % of Initial Capital	2.88%
Max. Trade Drawdown	($458.00)
[/b][/color]

The upward bias appears to be continuing with my trading, although not at the rate I would prefer. I am resisting the urge to jump into the market with both feet, but prefer to be on the sidelines until I see better opportunities arise. I think it is smart to acknowledge your urges, so that you can deal with them directly. Current market exposure is 39% of Equity.

The % profitable is below par, but avg. winning trade is better than avg. losing trade, so that is helping pick up the slack. The DD for the month has been manageable. 3% is typical, I think, for my style of trading. The net profit per share looks decent to me. I imagine it indicates I have not had to do a great deal of trading for the given net profit.

I just realized last night that TS charges ~7.75% margin interest, while IB only charges ~1.6%. The difference should more than offset TS platform fees I will have to start paying, and for the monthly subscription to Tradelink that I intend to use.

Real-time Account Net Worth	$81,329.01 
Real-time Unrealized P/L	($631.36)

 

[Rol]

I looked at my trades for the day tonight, and got a kick out of my SON entry. The stock traded 755,094 shares today, and those are my 100 shares that traded at the low! I currently have 1k of unrealized losses and exposure is 71%, so my entry with SON is just a novelty.

 

[fickletrader]

This was one of those "one-two punch" days reminiscent of the typical price action during late 2008, early 2009. If you wanted an example, this was it. The tricky part is if we string together a few days like this in a row, as was typical back then.

Hope things are still humming along for you.

 

[Rol]

[color=green][b]
Initial Capital (7/1/2011)	$73,028 
Total Net Profit	($4,390.67)
(Per Share)	($0.17)
Gross Profit	$7,034.02 
Gross Loss	($11,424.69)
Profit Factor	0.62
Total Number of Trades	211
Percent Profitable	48.34%
Winning Trades	102
Losing Trades	109
Avg. Trade Net Profit	($20.81)
Avg. Winning Trade	$68.96 
Avg. Losing Trade	($104.81)
Ratio Avg. Win:Avg. Loss	0.66
Expectancy	-0.20
Largest Winning Trade	$298.50 
Largest Losing Trade	($758.00)
Max. Consecutive Winning Trades	12
Max. Consecutive Losing Trades	19
Total Shares/Contracts Held	26500
Total Commission	$468.80 
Return on Initial Capital	-6.01%
Annual Rate of Return	-75.44%
Buy & Hold Return	-1.27%
Trading Period	28 Dys, 6 Hrs, 11 Mins
Max. Equity Run-up(Daily)	$4,333.32 
Date of Max. Equity Run-up	7/21/2011 15:00
Max. Drawdown(Daily)	
Value	($6,869.67)
Date	7/29/2011 15:00
as % of Initial Capital	9.40%
Max. Trade Drawdown	($774.00)
[/b][/color]

I am currently sitting on 7k of losses as the country threatens to go into default.
Current DD is 9.4%, which is painful, but is still within expected parameters.

Real-time Account Net Worth	$74,840.58
Real-time Unrealized P/L	($7,049.49)
Current Market Exposure	172%

 

[Rol]

[color=green][b]
Initial Capital (1-1-2011)	$47,853 
Total Net Profit	$16,766.81 
(Per Share)	$0.10 
Gross Profit	$60,778.11 
Gross Loss	($44,011.29)
Profit Factor	1.38
Total Number of Trades	1481
Percent Profitable	60.84%
Winning Trades	901
Losing Trades	579
Avg. Trade Net Profit	$11.32 
Avg. Winning Trade	$67.46 
Avg. Losing Trade	($76.01)
Ratio Avg. Win:Avg. Loss	0.89
Expectancy	0.15
Largest Winning Trade	$1,936.09 
Largest Losing Trade	($796.50)
Max. Consecutive Winning Trades	29
Max. Consecutive Losing Trades	38
Total Shares/Contracts Held	175239
Total Commission	$3,592.14 
Return on Initial Capital	35.04%
Annual Rate of Return	52.00%
Buy & Hold Return	-2.21%
Return Retracement Ratio	2.05
Trading Period	6 Mths, 27 Dys, 23 Hrs, 59 Mins
Max. Equity Run-up(Daily)	$23,836.07 
Date of Max. Equity Run-up	7/21/2011 15:00
Max. Drawdown(Daily)	
Value	($6,876.67)
Date	7/29/2011 15:00
as % of Initial Capital	14.37%
Max. Trade Drawdown	($1,511.50)
[/b][/color]

Here are YTD numbers. Recent performance is poor. I would rather not hang my hat on previous performance during the first part of the year. Things will improve again eventually.