Quote from neke:
Weekly Update for week 15 ended 04/25/2008
Humbling week, down 18.5K (16.2%).
Really frustrating week, capped by a disastrous loss on Friday. Did put a new set of automated strategies to work from Tuesday. It was not a good start, losing 5.8K for the week on automated trades. A flurry of trades that boosted my broker's commission, and left nothing to me. My discretionary outing ended disastrously on Friday with a short on PGNX.
The downfall started on Thursday buying POT at 204 after their wonderful earnings and forecast. Didn't expect the amount of sell-on-the-news that followed, coming down as low at 189, rebounded to 196 where I sold for a loss of 4K. Looked like the whole world was trading the stock. (Of course I could have made some money if I held till today).
Friday was the sad day for me. Shorted 8000 PGNX at 13.30, and went way. The stock skyrocketed to 15.70. My position monitor covered at 14.70 after the 10% loss on account was attained. The silly stock came back down to end the day at 13.40. What should have been a meagre $800 loss became 11.3K loss for me. I feel robbed! Seem someone was after me. No more concentrated position on these tiny caps, and no more stop loss.
Always have to look to the future, in hope of better times. I still believe the automated strategies are the way forward: It's just that at times the losing trades are so conspicuous I could have avoided them with discretionary entries, but have to endure them, having decided to let the program do its work.
Quote from neke:
It's probably not so much the lessons learnt as the lessons I keep re-learning which are evident from the weekly posts:
* Make sure every trade is planned (entry, exit, timing, position size) and stick to those plans.
* Accept some trades will be losers, and do not average in blindly. In short my own position is not to average in at all.
* Accept you will miss some moves because they will not meet your criteria. Don't force yourself into a trade. Above all, dont chase a trade.
* For a newbie, of course make sure you observe or paper-trade for a while and see whether you can make profit out of your observations.
Quote from retire45:
Neke,
This is something I am posting at my Journal a bit later today.... "Did your wining trades ever begin life as > 3, 4 or 5% losses??" Stops should be based on historical data on the behavior of prior trades, which depends on the type of system you are using. Also on a risk/reward basis the only reason for a 10% account stop on a trade is if you were expecting at least twice that much in profit..
Balance B/F: 94,957
Net gain for the week 11,503
------------------------------------------------
Balance C/F: 106,460
Number of Trades 33
Number of Profitable Trades 18
Since Inception of Thread 01/13/2008 - 05/02/2008
Balance B/F: 102,615
Net gain (Less Margin Interest) 3,845
------------------------------------------------
Balance C/F: 106,460 (Up 3.7%)
Number of Trades 351
Number of Profitable Trades 195
Expected Balance at this time to be on track for Year-End Target :
225,431
Status: Behind Target (Based on adjusted balance before withdrawals)
Top/Bottom Discretionary Trades for the week
TICKER ENTRY DATE/TIME EXIT DATE/TIME QTY PURCHASE AMT SOLD AMT GAIN/LOSS TYPE
JAVA 2008-05-01-17-45-42 2008-05-02-11-34-56 5000 64600 69250 4630 SHORT
HJQQV 2008-05-01-09-49-08 2008-05-01-10-28-15 1000 17500 21720 4185 FSLR PUT
-----------------------------------------------------------
ENR 2008-04-29-09-41-30 2008-04-29-12-22-24 481 36881 35248 -1654 SHORT
FSLR 2008-04-30-11-48-57 2008-04-30-12-20-29 300 88200 86403 -1817 LONG