Rol's Trading Journal

Quote from shortie:

you have a great strategy. the market is testing your strategy limits.

p.s. and your limits as well :)
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Thanks shortie! Your reminders, as well as benwm and others, to hedge my risk, are sinking in. Especially when the market is moving in a heard. I am actually pulling the trigger, which is new for me.
 
Long 100 AAPL. Will be exiting at the close.

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Did you hang on through the dip, Rol? If so, you were absolutely rewarded for your positioning. What a rally at the close, there...
 
Quote from heech:

Did you hang on through the dip, Rol? If so, you were absolutely rewarded for your positioning. What a rally at the close, there...
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Hey heech, I held to the close on most of my positions, but exited most at the close, rather than gambling on follow thru tomorrow. I think I took losses on most of them, but made $800 on AAPL by using day trading BP. I still hold 1600 shares IWM as my core holding, and am at 160% exposure now. I do not plan to buy anything new for the foreseeable future, and will try to ride IWM for awhile. Since the Russell 2000 is down 22% on the year, I feel well positioned to hold it through at least earnings season. I was taking too much risk as usual, so I will have to work on that.

Real-time Account Net Worth $73,789.00
Real-time Unrealized P/L ($1,502.64)
Real-time Realized P/L (Today) ($817.18)
 
I would have had a better day if I had just sat tight. I got stopped out of all positions as the market tested support at the open, at least for a decent gain. I believe I could not sit tight because my position size was too large, and recent equity swings were still fresh. Seeing buying strength soon return, I reentered 900 shares long IWM, and 300 TWM as a hedge. Plan to sit tight for now.

Real-time Account Net Worth $76,224.65
Real-time Unrealized P/L $110.71
Real-time Realized P/L (Today) $851.27
 
Code: 
[color=green][b]
Initial Capital (10/1/2011)	$71,377 
Total Net Profit	$5,142.96 
(Per Share)	$0.37 
Gross Profit	$7,732.71 
Gross Loss	($2,589.75)
Profit Factor	2.99
Total Number of Trades	120
Percent Profitable	68.33%
Winning Trades	82
Losing Trades	38
Avg. Trade Net Profit	$42.86 
Avg. Winning Trade	$94.30 
Avg. Losing Trade	($68.15)
Ratio Avg. Win:Avg. Loss	1.38
Expectancy	0.63
Largest Winning Trade	$1,095.58 
Largest Losing Trade	($348.07)
Max. Consecutive Winning Trades	12
Max. Consecutive Losing Trades	7
Total Shares/Contracts Held	13799
Total Commission	$252.41 
Return on Initial Capital	7.21%
Annual Rate of Return	363.04%
Buy & Hold Return	-1.69%
Trading Period	7 Dys
Max. Equity Run-up(Daily)	$10,251.11 
Date of Max. Equity Run-up	10/7/2011 15:00
Max. Drawdown(Daily)	
Value	($5,111.86)
Date	10/3/2011 15:00
as % of Initial Capital	7.16%
Max. Trade Drawdown	($5,473.00)
	
Net Worth	$76,529
Wkly Performance	9.25%
S&P Wkly Performance	2.22%
YTD Performance	30.78%
S&P YTD Performance	-8.02%
YTD Correlation to S&P	0.68
[/b][/color]

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I got off to a good start for October. This may turn out to be my best month so far. $3321 in profits came from IWM, while $1292 came from TWM. I closed the TWM short and allowed many of the longs to get back to BE or better. Volatility has been killer. Most of my efforts have been discretionary lately, with very few automated signals during the recent run up.

I have been experimenting with buy stops, where I will place my buy above the current ask as the stock or ETF tests a support level. I will move it down as the price drops, and then ideally have it retrace back up through my buy stop on strength, and then place protective stops below to lock in profits. It seems to work better than placing buy orders slightly below bid, only to have in crash lower.

I am glad I exited IWM AH yesterday as it dropped nearly 3% at one point today. I bought back in lower today, but lost a lot on my short hedge, when I bought it at the lows today…so BE on the day.

Only open positions now is 200 Shares COST with a $50 current gain. I will turn automation back on next week and tone down the discretionary trading.
 

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I closed my COST position midday and then began accumulating 500 shares IWM. Historically, I would have felt I missed out on the big move today and would just sit it out. After reading Reminiscents of a Stock Operator, I just followed the recent trend and jumped back in. The market seems able to “climb a wall of worry” for right now.

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Real-time Account Net Worth $77,269.08
Real-time Unrealized P/L $357.37
Real-time Realized P/L (Today) $405.55
 
Hi Rol, thanks for your thread.

I've been following you for the past few weeks and really enjoyed your comments even if it was not the easiest market to trade recently for a counter-trend trader like you !

I was just wondering what was your criteria to scan stocks ? Do you follow the entire US stocks market or have some kind of filters with regard to volume or volatility ?

Keep up the good work !
 
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