journal

Portfolio Review – Normal Doesn’t Count

November 27, 2009

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%.

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Patience And The 30 Minute Time Frame – November 12, 2009

November 12, 2009

Not much profit but I used the same chart to buy a put, the $45 put this time for a much better delta.

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Violating Your Own Stock Trading Rules – Don’t Do It

November 4, 2009

No matter how tempting it is violating your trading rules is never a good idea. This reminder came to me as an example to me when I violated my own trading rules a couple of times over the last two days.

The very first violation cost my portfolio $5K plus. The second made a measly $50. I immediately considered violating my rules another time but I remembered the adage, “Patience is a virtue”, and so stopped myself.

I’ll get around to revisiting this episode of trading later but for now let this serve as a reminder, “Never violate your own stock trading rules.”

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Sticking With the Same Time-frame

November 2, 2009

Since my self-induced weekend portfolio disaster I was looking for another entry into the market on the 30-min chart. That came at 12:16pm today when the 5-min chart and the 30-min chart agreed.

As long as my position doesn’t go negative I’m going to stay with my 43 Nov Put for the day at least. I actually had sold the same put at close on Friday with the thought that you never hold a short-term position over the weekend. So buying back that position was a natural. I got it for $2.02 after Friday’s $2.30 sell. Can’t count it but it was the right thing to do.

Remember, the rule is “Protect Principal First”. Currently my position is up 22 cents but was up as much as 38 cents. I mention this because sticking with the 30-min chart will give me plenty of time to sell at a profit even if it won’t be at a high.

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Keeping Your Eye On The Ball – Trading Different Time-frames

October 30, 2009

This makes the third day that I’m in the same position. So far, it’s paid off. However, today serves as a good example of keeping our eyes on the ball. I really wanted to sell the position when it was in the money by more than it has been since I bought it but on the 30-min chart which chart I’m following it’s not even close.

I’m aware that there is going to be larger swings and more temptations to sell early than on the 5-min chart I normally trade. If I’d sold yesterday I’d made a little money and not suffered the unbooked drawdown that yesterday provided.

It’s a trade-off. I don’t want to over-trade but it sure was tempting. This is why, if we buy on one time-frame we want to sell on that same time-frame. It saves us from constantly second-guessing our own trading rules.

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Trade Journal – What A Mistake!

October 26, 2009

1:23pm – Put a trade on today at 9:09am. It was a $44 put on the Q’s for Nov. @ $1.10. Well, I bailed to protect some of the profits too early. I just spaced an forgot to look at my confirming indicators before I punched out.

It only payed 34%. That is the good news. The bad news is that the trend down that I was following has resumed and currently that same option is at $1.62 which would have paid somewhere around 45%. Not a big mistake but I’m at the sidelines waiting for another trade to form and I’ll have another set of trading expenses.

Note to self: Check BB’s on a 5-min chart before ever making another trade.

1:43pm – looks like it wasn’t such a bad trade. The Q’s look to be moving up again. The confirmation for the trade I made earlier looks to be at hand. So I was just a little early. Just another case for the accuracy of my other indicators.

Patrick

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