Taking 320K to 3.5million by Year End 2009

[BPtrader]

Quote from neke:



I mentioned that I started my trading in Dec 1999, opening my account with Datek Online (now part of Ameritrade) with deposit of 16K (6K+10K), basically my whole savings from my job, and within 2 weeks I lost 50% of that. A screen shot of those initial balance and trades are attached (good thing Ameritrade keep their online history as far back as that). Through the years till Nov 2004 I lost a cummulative of 54K (account goes down, replenish, get the next drawdown, and so on).

bleeding stopped at the end of year 5, so you were once a human being.

Don't you think losing 50% in the first 2 weeks is a little too quick?

I remember I once bought CPN (Calpine Energy), not knowing it was going bankrupt (ignorance is bliss). That trade cut my capital by half, managed to get most back the next day. But slow bleeding was the norm.

Thanks for telling everyone about your attendance at the University of Hardknocks. Great inspiration. Red_Ink graduated from the University a couple of years earlier, he was once a human too.

 

[cashmoney69]

are you a price action only trade neke? what time frames?

 

[InterMilan]

you are the man. Neke.

maybe shouldn't say this, but try to stay focused when things is going well.

solid work!

 

[lojze]

Quote from neke:

Since this question is directed at me, let me try and give a brief summary before someone speculates too far. I mentioned that I started my trading in Dec 1999, opening my account with Datek Online (now part of Ameritrade) with deposit of 16K (6K+10K), basically my whole savings from my job, and within 2 weeks I lost 50% of that. A screen shot of those initial balance and trades are attached (good thing Ameritrade keep their online history as far back as that). Through the years till Nov 2004 I lost a cummulative of 54K (account goes down, replenish, get the next drawdown, and so on). By that point in time I had also opened an IB account with a little over 2K which I was trading as well. At that time, the balance in the two accounts came to 5.3K. Every thing in the account now sprung from that balance with some additional deposits, and lots of withdrawals as follows:

Balance Nov 12, 2004	5.3K
Deposit			3.2K
P/L 			8.7K
Withdrawal	       -2.2K
-------
Balance Dec 31, 2004	15K
Deposits		13K	(made the deposits Mar/Apr after a drawdown that brought the balance below 25K, after being tagged a PDTrader)
P/L 2005		132K
Withdrawals		-25K    (Aug thru Dec)
			----
Balance Dec 31, 2005	135K		(transferred my balance in IB to Ameritrade in january 2006, and closed the account)
P/L 2006		125K
Withdrawals	       -169K		(taxes and funding a project)
			----
Balance Dec 31, 2006	 91K
Jan 2007 P/L		-30K
Feb P/L			 20K
Withdrawal		-5K
---------------------------
Balance 28 Feb 2007	76K

The rest of the story is in my first thread (Taking 76K to 500K by Year End) and subsequent ones.

Neke, which instruments did you trade in those early years? And when die you start trading optins?

 

[bwolinsky]

<b><i>Neke, I'd like to say something to you. Congratualations. I am very impressed with the profits. I wish all the best of luck to you. My comments are because I've seen too many blowups. Things like a 3 hour google call that loses $55k, you know? It's not just that one, but I'm sure I'm not the only elite trader that would say that. I'm sure you know, and I'm very aware that's your MO, but I truly hope that you can keep it up, and actually have ironclad rules governing your transactions. I'm getting the sense that you do now, but maybe didn't have them in the beginning, even on the 76k early thread. But, who cares? You made money, and I'm sure you think it was worth it. The cooper comment on the previous page is right. You went to the casino to make $1,000 with $100. Of course you could go bust, or lose half before you call it quits. </b></i>

 

[Alex55]

Impressive results! Congrats.
I just found your thread and will follow it from now on (although I don't trade Stocks/Options, but Futures, it's educational to see profitable trading in other instruments).

 

[riskfreetrading]

Quote from neke:



Missed the big action in AMZN for the most part on Friday. Stayed away as it did not pull-back at the open to my target. Finally entered in the afternoon after a minor pull-back from 117.40 to 116.50, getting 200 NOV 115 calls @ 6.4, sold later for 7.30. Astonishing to see the size of the move for a big company like AMZN after earnings. Looks so much like the dotcom days.

If you would have known at around 10AM and after, that the stock would touch 118 at least, would that information help you in your trading (entry, etc)? I am asking because your concerns seem to have been the pull back to reduce the down side, while what I am providing here is the upside level.

 

[neke]

Quote from lojze:

Neke, which instruments did you trade in those early years? And when die you start trading optins?

Only stocks, starting from the long side (all I knew) until I learnt how to short a year into the experience. Then added stock options sometime in 2002.

 

[neke]

Quote from BPtrader:


Don't you think losing 50% in the first 2 weeks is a little too quick?

Oh, ya, it was faster that I imagined, given I was only going long stock (all I knew then), without margin, all NASDAQ stocks, and the nasdaq actually rose like 30% in that month. That more than told me I was doing something opposite to what makes money!!

How did I buy my first stock? I downloaded the list of Nasdaq stocks, picked a number of them (aboutt 20) randomly, watched their flash quotes for like 4 or 5 days, picked the one that went up everyday, and by the biggest percentages, bought and watched the following days how it went lower while the market went up!! What a way to discover a losing strategy!!!

Of course it could have been easy to deduce the opposite, but determining what to do differently and developing the mindset to do it was easier said that done.

 

[buckoboy]

Neke, What is the greatest lesson you learned since you started trading? What are you doing now that you didn't do in your early years that lead to your success?