This is just an observation one tends to make as another investment year is winding down.
Last year’s trading was over by November 20th.
I’ve had a very busy year by anyone’s account. January found me and my Beloved Sue living in Florida, with her looking for a job within her chosen profession. It took her moving out of state to find a job and when she did, the job morphed into one she could have done from Florida. No loss there. Neither of us loved living in Florida. I traded very little while we were in such state of flux.
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Then, in May, with her new job firmly in hand we began looking for permanent housing. We eventually decided to purchase a home after a whirl-wind search that included rentals and houses throughout a five-state region. That was in the beginning of September. Not the fastest home-buying spree but it was the prudent thing to do.
Since September we have been working to rehabilitate an 60 year-old home with 1970’s decorating. Sue is learning to paint. I’m learning to use a new trading platform with greatly enhanced performance but also greatly enhanced complexity.
Today, the day after Thanksgiving, I’ve had a chance to really size up the year’s trading. which was really sporadic because of all these changes. The lesson here is that one shouldn’t trade if your mind is not in to it. It is better to take time off than to take a loss.
Being in my own little world didn’t seem to be very productive for me. My trading goals were set aside and I still haven’t really got into it in earnest.
Even with all the opportunities that I pasts up by trading so frequently the Financial Widgets’ “Trading To A Million” account was up tremendously. The end of November 2008 this account was at $25,645 after 104 trades (or 52 round-trips). Today, after completing a series of trades that was started on Wednesday, November 25, I’ve done 302 trade; half that if you’re counting round-trips. The portfolio is sitting at $86,855. Not bad but since my data backup fiasco in October cost me over $18,000 I should be over $100,000. That was really my goal for the year.
So year over year performance of this portfolio stands at a gain of 338%. My goal was to best the S&P by 100% so I’m there. It’s at about 60%.
Normally, chased away by low volatility, I’d be on the sidelines until after the New Year’s Day but this year looks to be a little different than previous years. We didn’t get a correction that should have began in August. We didn’t get the correction in September and we didn’t get it in October but it does look like it is coming. I’d hate to be on vacation when it hits in earnest.
On that note, at the end of this shortened trading day, I entered a small put position (50 contracts) just in case. Wish me luck at achieving my $100k goal. Just for the record, I’m not going to stress over it, just work towards it.
For those of you who are asking me to update my trade book, I’ll be doing that Monday after the market closes.
I hope you had a great Thanksgiving and I’ll see next week.
Patrick
