Rol's Trading Journal
- Thread starter Rol
- Start date
The 2nd quarter continued in up trending fashion, with some spikes along the way. The spike up on 5/4 was the VSEA buyout and the spike down on 5/23 was chiefly due to WFC. I felt a warm fuzzy feeling about Wells Fargo because I recently refinanced with them, opened a checking/savings, and got a Visa card with 0% interest for 9 months. This clouded my judgment with the stock. I must never load up on a single stock again. 6/10 losses were from realizing various losses on underperformers.
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Initial Capital (7/1/2011) $73,028
Total Net Profit $35.80
(Per Share) $0.00
Gross Profit $1,317.57
Gross Loss ($1,281.77)
Profit Factor 1.03
Total Number of Trades 58
Percent Profitable 48.28%
Winning Trades 28
Losing Trades 30
Avg. Trade Net Profit $0.62
Avg. Winning Trade $47.06
Avg. Losing Trade ($42.73)
Ratio Avg. Win:Avg. Loss 1.1
Expectancy 0.01
Largest Winning Trade $165.51
Largest Losing Trade ($158.00)
Max. Consecutive Winning Trades 12
Max. Consecutive Losing Trades 10
Total Shares/Contracts Held 7300
Total Commission $120.00
Return on Initial Capital 0.05%
Annual Rate of Return 2.47%
Buy & Hold Return -1.00%
Trading Period 7 Dys, 6 Hrs, 11 Mins
Max. Equity Run-up(Daily) $1,579.70
Date of Max. Equity Run-up 7/8/2011 15:00
Max. Drawdown(Daily)
Value ($1,699.71)
Date 7/7/2011 15:00
as % of Initial Capital 2.33%
Max. Trade Drawdown ($175.74)
[/b][/color]I was short the past few days with size to the tune of 2000 shares of TWM, ProShares Ultra Short Russel2k. I managed a net gain today of about 50 bucks selling, so the risk reward is absurd. I have put the short ETFs back in the closet, until I can use proper size with them. The strong uptrend of the markets over the past two weeks demonstrates why they can be a losing proposition, and are not worth the trouble. I rather should just sit out of the markets during those times and let the trend followers have their 20% chance of fame.
My retirement account netted a realized gain from the past two weeks by about $3500, and I went to cash yesterday, just meeting the minimum 30 day hold time on mutual funds, so I did not totally miss the fun.
I am not trying to capitalize on every varied market condition. My edge lies in trading the "chop." I should view the times I do not see opportunities to "take a vacation." I casually want to be able to monitor my system, you know, between golf games, day out on the yacht, etc. My desire is for a low maintenance system, not one that requires baby sitting and second-guessing.
If I can maintain >50% returns over the long term, then why mess with a good thing? Avoiding self-sabotage becomes a primary goal as net worth grows.
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Real-time Account Net Worth $73,076.70
Beginning Day Account Net Worth $71,472.33
Real-time Unrealized P/L ($354.35)
Real-time Realized P/L (Today) $185.98Hi Rol,
First off, nice to see you keeping up the effort and providing such detail.
I feel like I'm missing something here, though. From today's numbers:
A. Real-time Account Net Worth $73,076.70
B. Beginning Day Account Net Worth $71,472.33
C. Real-time Unrealized P/L ($354.35)
D. Real-time Realized P/L (Today) $185.98
... shouldn't A = B + C + D ?
First off, nice to see you keeping up the effort and providing such detail.
I feel like I'm missing something here, though. From today's numbers:
A. Real-time Account Net Worth $73,076.70
B. Beginning Day Account Net Worth $71,472.33
C. Real-time Unrealized P/L ($354.35)
D. Real-time Realized P/L (Today) $185.98
... shouldn't A = B + C + D ?
Hi heech, thanks for following along. I read many of your posts on ET and respect your opinion and knowledge.
Since everything is MTM, the Beginning Day Account Net Worth included the ~$1700 DD, which I recovered from today.
A ~ B + C + D + $1700.
I like the number crunching that TradeStation does and how it displays strategy and actual entries and exits on charts. However from about midnight to market open, it miscalculates numbers, which is the problem I discovered and resolved in my mtm reporting. It may have to do with TS updating their database during this time or something.
Most platforms will give you some kind of intraday number account value based on last or ask/bid mid-point, and I take it that's what you're reporting.
I think that you're telling me is, B = your account value at open today = your account value at close yesterday - $1700?
Just my two cents, but I would find the information more clear if you didn't report the value B in its current form. I guess it's an indication of where the market moved before market open...? I'd just report yesterday-settlement, today-settlement values... and break up the difference into realized/unrealized P&L if you're so inclined.
"B" simply indicates account net worth, which always includes unrealized P/L. The only change from the prior close to beginning day open would be after hour's changes, which usually are not that great. I copy and paste all of the numbers from the TS platform, so I assure everyone no funny business is going on. I started including "B" along with "A" to show how my open positions come back from DD to close profitable. I thought it provided useful information, but maybe that is not the case.
Hi NikEy. It is an honor to have you create your username and make your very first post in my journal! I seem to attract relative newcomers to my journal. I bet the veterans here all think I will blow up eventually so are staying away
. There are some, I believe who are more interested in the performance metrics I post weekly, so that is why I planned this to simply be a weekly journal from the start, with occasional intraweek updates when significant events occur or questions are asked.Anyway to answer your question, on the 11th and 12th I mostly accumulated during the mini market correction and then spent the 13th deleveraging on the bounce. Current market exposure is 67%, but it had gotten as high as 185% yesterday. Realized profits today were about $1250 and current unrealized losses are 1K.
I took an outsized position ($50,000) in EZU, iShares MSCI Emu Index Tr, on the 11th, and exited on the 13th intraday which netted me about $600. I still am working on not sizing up so fast. A good rule to follow is to plan in advance how many shares you are willing to buy and then stick to it. This will force you to pick your entries carefully, as you know you will have to make them count. I am super consistent with getting in a day too early and exiting a day to early. I just need to shift my entries and exits a day into the future.
For the month, I am only up about $500, so I am not killing it. I did add $4000 to my account from more OT I worked and a nice escrow check refund. Real-time Account Net Worth is $77,536.66.
The SP500 appears to be trying to find support on its 50 dma, but either way the market turns is fine with me.