Review for the year.

  I spent 4 hours this morning to go through my trades and performance this year. Although I made money, it surely is just an OK performance for me.


  There is a lot of lessons to be learned. But the most important thing is still how to manage the risk.


  There were only 35 out of 52 weeks that I made money.  So the grade is 35/52*100 = 67. It is a D.

Happy new year!

It is a good year.




Let's do it again in 2015!

A Summary for the year.

Changing

   Job. I will be very busy for a while.

  I pretty much repeated what I did last year for the trading performance.  It is a nice bonus, but it is not enough for me to make a living. Yeah. I'm done this year.


  Ok, time to work. 

NQ was the only instrument I played last week.

Stay focus!

Ok, ok. Take it easy now!  LOL

Weekly summary

  I said that I would take it easy in December. But I ended up making the most of money in a week. LOL.

Index	Started Week	Ended Week	Change	% Change	YTD %
DJIA	17828.24	17958.79	130.55	0.7	8.3
Nasdaq	4791.63	4780.75	-10.88	-0.2	14.5
S&P 500	2067.56	2075.37	7.81	0.4	12.3
Russell 2000	1173.23	1182.43	9.20	0.8	1.6

Closed VXX yesterday

  I might open the new position on VXX tomorrow or later this week. Let it sink more.

Take it easy in December.

I set no goal for December. I've made enough money for this year. It is a nice bonus for the family.

November result.

I lost a lot money yesterday by catching a falling knife-- oil.  (Oh well, everyone makes mistakes especially I found no challenging with my old boring trading method. )  Lesson learned.

Thanksgiving is nice.

I got more points for my NQ contracts. :-)

I bought Iphone6 plus recently. I really like it.  I guess it boosted my confidence of holding NQ contracts.
 

Trend following.

I will probably reduce some of the positions by Friday. We'll see.

Chart

Trade what I see.

If you paid the attention, I actually opened the positions of VXX last week as some sort of hedge. But the market is in the rally mode, I had to close it. Did I know that the market would rally more due to the news that China cut the rate?  I didn't.  Luck?  No, I don't think so. That is what I called to trade what I see.

It is impossible not to make money.

  We just enjoy it while it lasts.  I don't mind collecting the paycheck from the market until I'm not able to. :-).

  I never guess whether the market is going up or down. I just trade what I see, I get paid more with the swing positions. I even spent less commissions than what I did last month. :-)

Another day...

Beautiful Hawaii

Yes, I traded from 5:30 am to 6:30 am local time.  Yeah, a good day!

Trade today

not much... but  I have short and long positions while I travel.

Last year, when I was in the big island, I made 20K in a week. (FED meeting and I didn't have internet. DOW ended up 300 pts and more points later). 

But I will have internet most of time this year and I will watch for my positions. :-)

Tomorrow...

Hawaii time.

I might trade a bit  to pay for the activities there.

Stock trading is boring.

  I guess that is the way it is supposed to be?   I don't want to be cocky here. But it is boring, We just apply what has worked over and over.  Nothing will really surprise us for the most of the time, if we calculate the risk ahead of the game. It is probably not a good idea to try something new, especially for me, since I don't want to lose money.

On the other hand, when I design software , I can try a lot of new ideas and feel very good when I solve the problems.

Here is the report for the month.

   First of all, I have been very busy at my daily work.  I also didn't want to take a lot of risk for the crazy market (up 200 points in one day and 300 points drop in the next day).  I'm lucky to have an engineering job. At one point in the month, I hated the stock market and shifted my focus to work. Later on I got so used to the market huge swings and became very calm when people were very panic. (Vix was at 31). I have been holding NQ from 38XX, ES from 1937, YM 169XX with proper short hedges.

 Yes, the account is at the record high and I only paid $410 for the commission for October,  while the commission was $650 with less profit in September.

 Ok, I will post it again by the end of November or when I'm not very busy.

Where are we?

Nothing really matters if we can control the risk and the emotion.  It is so true especially in this month.  I will post  the P&L after my broker gives me the one.

Yes, I'm getting better. :-)

Check in.

  How are you guys doing?  I hope that you are doing fine.

  It has been an extraordinary month!  I didn't trade much after I realized that I paid more than 5K for my broker already. Of course I didn't miss the market rally for the last two weeks! (Wow. Nasdaq is up more than 300pts).

  It is a good month.  I could have made more if I totally closed the short positions last week.  But no one can time the market. 

   With 2 weeks losses and 3 weeks gains in the month, my account is at the highest point for the year.

How am I doing so far this year?

I want to look back more but it is time-consuming. As a result, I will keep track of this going forward to help me trading in general.

A winning week.

   I have a winning week after the losing one last week. Oh, Well. I didn't trade much. I resumed trading on Oct 1th. I added more long positions yesterday and sold some today.

    I need to trade slow and treat money in the account seriously.  Yes, monday doesn't come from trees. :-)

My September performance

  Actually it is pretty bad. But I learned to forgive myself and want to be happy. The commissions was $650. But I only spent 2/3 of $650 for the commissions in August to achieve a much better result.

  Hopefully I truly learn from my mistakes.  I will update the blog whenever I feel like to.

Resumed trading .

Let's see how it goes this month for me.

Stay tuned.


Bought 1 contract of future to join the trading game.   I will add positions as the time goes. 

September lives up to 'rep' as worst month for stocks

September did little to change its reputation as the worst-performing month of the year for the U.S. stock market. After a run to a new record high on Sept. 18, stocks have been going down and finished the month in the red.

The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index fell 1.6% in September, dropping from 2003.37 to 1972.29.  The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 0.3%, the Nasdaq composite plunged 1.9% and the small-cap Russell 2000 index is off 6.2%.

My account balance is 2K less than the balance on Sept 18th..

 

It is a positive month for me! 

 

 

Well. I'm not in a hurry going back trading yet. Actually I'm feeling good not trading anything.

 

 

 

Haha...

  After the mistake is made, I start to think why I didn't book the profit yesterday.  What did I do wrong?  Then I think I will learn it next time,  But NOT.  :-)

 History repeats. LOL. I will do it again and again in the future.

  It is a stressful week.  I'm happy now that the mistake is not costly and I still have a winning month.  Now I don't want to watch the market at all, period.

 

Lesson to learn.

   Yeah... I just turned over 5 digit gain from yesterday to $-918.  All cash now.   hmmmm.  don't be greedy. That is so true.



  Anyway, it could have be a winning week and turned to be a losing week.  I still made money in Sep,  I guess it is better than nothing.

  I'm done for the month.

Tomorrow up?

I hope so and I'm holding long positions for one or two more days!

Next Week!

A good habit. :-)

 That is what I have been doing for years on Saturday morning. :-) I will spend some time to review my trade and the market condition.  I did pretty good with the emotion control this week and I was able to hold NQ futures from 4014 to 4100.  I think the trick is totally ignore the noise.  (YES, but it is not an easy thing to do. For instance we had the Fed meeting announcement on Wednesday this week. Check the chart then you will know what I mean! )


I will continue working on the emotion control by exercising at the GYM and focusing on my daily work and cooking good food and so on. I'm happy to see the positive return from my effort.


By the way, history does repeat itself in the market.  Give you some hint: Why did we see gap up yesterday and then the maket closed flat and NDX negative (-13)?


Ok, I will repeat what I did before until it doesn't work anymore. :-)

The goal for the September is reached.

I think I can relax a bit for the remaining days of September. It is the best week for September.




When I don't make money, I don't want to lose money.  That is my rule.




Have a nice weekend.

Another winning week?

I think so.  I have no plan to trade tomorrow.

The trick to be successful in the stock market

   There is only one trick... LOL. Control your emotion!  I keep on emphasizing how important it is since I truly benefit a lot from it!

   Remember Monday? selling off in the tech stocks dragged down Nasdaq 48 pts?  Guess what? I bought NQ futures and hold them until today.  Here is the proof.

Next week!

Index	Started Week	Ended Week	Change	% Change	YTD %
DJIA	17137.36	16987.51	-149.85	-0.9	2.5
Nasdaq	4582.90	4567.60	-15.30	-0.3	9.4
S&P 500	2007.71	1985.54	-22.17	-1.1	7.4
Russell 2000	1170.13	1160.61	-9.52	-0.8	-0.3

Another winning week. (update)

I gave some gain back today. But it is a still pretty good week considering the market is down for the week. I will update the P&L once the broker provides me one.

Here you go.  I'm not posting any P&L anymore in the future. Good luck to you all.

Let's review.

Maybe I should borrow Jim Cramer's phrase: "stop trading!". :-)

 Let  money work for you. It will be another winning week for me tomorrow.

HAHA!! It is so funny!

LOL,

I deleted the post of my P&L today.  I know for a fact that is a warning sign if I start to post how much money I've made.
 

Next Week!

The good the bad and the ugly

Knowing myself is very critical for the success in trading.

Here is the good part:


1. I'm very good at the bottom fishing. When people are really panic, I start to build my positions. I'm getting better at this each time.

2. I'm very good at the dull market in general. Check the daily chart, the market didn't go anywhere for the last week, It is especially true for NDX for the last two or three weeks.

 3. Relatively good risk control.

Here is the bad part:

 1. I'm very emotional. I get very frustrated if I do the day trading and the market doesn't move at all. It affects my mood.

 2. I'm very bad at dealing with the market drops during the day. Here is the example: check the chart on 9/4/14. Some people are very good at this. I know I'm not good so that I didn't watch the market in the last hour and went to  have a long lunch.

 3. I'm not very humble. I brag and show off my trades on the forums. The market just knows to how to slam at my face at the right time. :-)

Here is the ugly part:

  It still is related to the emotion.  I'm a woman. you know. Sometimes I'm just out of blue and do the stupid things and I regret the action afterwards. It happened 2 times this year.  If it never happens again, I would consider that I really improve.





 
   

CNBC Live

  I woke up really early yesterday and wondered what I should do my positions with the monthly Employment report news. They made it such a big deal and let my emotion running high. Actually I just needed to know the number.

  Oh, well. I did a little hedge after the market opened.  It worked well.  I'm doing the same thing next week and the week after the next week until it doesn't work anymore. Trading is not supposed to be exciting. It is a boring job. People try to make a lot of money in the market. I only want to get a little on a regular basis. If I'm not able to make money,  I want to keep the money I have.

 I left quite a few chips on the table since I didn't want to take the extra risk. I did the same thing last Friday.

9/5/14 Weekly summary update

Index	Started Week	Ended Week	Change	% Change	YTD %
DJIA	17098.45	17137.36	38.91	0.2	3.4
Nasdaq	4580.27	4582.90	2.63	0.1	9.7
S&P 500	2003.37	2007.71	4.34	0.2	8.6
Russell 2000	1174.35	1170.13	-4.22	-0.4	0.6

Haha..... The market.

  There is no pull back in the market.  What are you going to do? People stay sidelines. But staying sidelines won't make money!

   The range was small today. But I was able to trade some with profit. Am I going to have another winning week?  I think so as long as Vix is between 12 and 13. I prefer the market pulls back a little, but if it doesn't, I'm okay with it.

 

 

Commission is way too high.

I need to trade less. 

Next week!

I've posted quite a few in August.

 As a result,  I'm going to post the P&L for this month.   If I held the long positions NQ until now, I probably would have rest for a long time. But I didn't and I could not do it either.

 But it is still a pretty good month, I did better than July. It is 5 digit gain  (it was 5 digit gain also in July and thanks to the bull market) and paid more than my engineering job. But I need it for the house remodel. That is the motivation.

I probably will write on the blog on the weekly basis. Good luck to all of you!

It is really hard to trade

one side persistent trend days with low volume. I have predicted it several days ago
(http://bbs.wenxuecity.com/finance/3486208.html)  I knew if I day trade, I would have been frustrated with the current market.

As I result, all of my positions are delta neutral and they are working very well now . If there is no surprise, I will have another wining week.  But everything is possible. Stay alert!

Weekly review

I did poorly this week. I need some quiet time to stay focus.

Index	Started Week	Ended Week	Change	% Change	YTD %
DJIA	16662.91	17001.22	338.31	2.0	2.6
Nasdaq	4464.93	4538.55	73.62	1.6	8.7
S&P 500	1955.06	1988.40	33.34	1.7	7.6
Russell 2000	1141.65	1160.34	18.69	1.6	-0.3

Hey, did you ride with the bull this week?

I didn't :-(

Dow is up 340 points this week. But I would have become very restless if I held my long positions.  I slept very well with short positions in hand. :-(   Being healthy and having plenty rest are more important than making money!

Although I was not comfortable with the market and shorted  it with hedge, I came out with profit today. (All sold options become worthless) and I also did some day trading today.

Ok, next week is another week.   DOW should at least drop 170 points to be fair. :-)

 

I have the best month performance so far. But I need to be careful since making money is not easy in the stock market. Period.

Average up

a little today.

I will wait until vix is aroung 10 to add more. I'm calm and patient.

All short positions are pretected  so far.  That means that I only lost a little when the direction is against me.  Oh well. it would be better that I went long yesterday instead of initiating the short. But it is okay. 

I will update the blog whenever I feel like to. Otherwise you can track me down in WXC stock forum if you know Chinese. :-) since I'm very active there.

Happy trading and have fun!
 

Sold it.

Although it is only one contract, it is still profit.

I will start shorting today.


Just FYI. I initiated the short position by 8:35am with Dec contracts. I will not do the day trading on the position. If the market sells by end of the day, I might close it.  If I'm wrong, I will correct it.

Day trading?

    I don't think the market provides good day trading opportunities such as  today.  It is flat!  I agree that most of the day-traders don't make money. :-) Traders have to wait patiently until the situation is changed, which is NOT EASY. You can argue that you are different. but you can't change my mind. :-).

   Anyway, I don't plan to do anything today. I'm not eager to trade when I don't see the opportunity.
I'm doing self-talk. :-)



 

Pretty much cash position.

That was what I meant. Shoot, what happened if I kept all NQs(September contracts) . I could have rest for two month!

Oh, well. I don't regret it at all. Emotion control! I'm not shorting now. But I might later. Have a nice day!

What to expect the next two weeks?

It is just my own opinion. I don't expect too much bulls for the next two  weeks. I think we've seen this month's high. Anyway, it is not the trading plan. It is my opinion.

Why Long-Term Investors Beat Short-Term Traders

Hmmmm, interesting:

  http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2014/08/why-long-term-investors-beat-short-term-traders/

 Do you agree?

More than 2 years.

    I've been writing this blog for more than 2 years. I've been writing the trading summaries since 2008. The thing frustrated me was that I knew I could make money. But  I could not control my emotion. I used to cut loss at very low point and only book a little profit.

   I've kept thinking how I can be different in order to make a consistent return.  Maybe writing a blog to record how I'm doing?

  Here I'm. I have up and downs. But I'm more confident than ever. I'm more calm. For instance, I added positions when the president ordered the air strike on Iraq last Thursday and held them over the weekend. I would not be able to do that at all before. If  the market repeats again like year of 2008,   I believe that I can handle a lot of better.

   Trading is never an easy job. Salute to the full time traders!

Weekly summary

Index	Started Week	Ended Week	Change	% Change	YTD %
DJIA	16553.93	16662.91	108.98	0.7	0.5
Nasdaq	4370.90	4464.93	94.03	2.2	6.9
S&P 500	1931.59	1955.06	23.47	1.2	5.8
Russell 2000	1131.35	1141.65	10.30	0.9	-1.9

Pretty much cash position now.

I covered the shorts. 100 pts is good enough for me anyway. That is very short swing and I planned to hold them for days. Oh, well. profit is profit.

It is a very good week and it is a good day also.

Short position initiated.

I shorted YM with protection.  I just started the process. I'm not an investor, but a trader. :-). 

Close enough to 1950.

I unloaded the position at 1948. A very good day. The goal for Aug is reached. Although I used SPX as a reference, I was mainly holding NQ futures and I'm pretty happy with more than 60pts gain per contract with some minor protection.

8/11/14 Monday

A sad news:

Robin Williams.

I have to show this!

This week up?

  I will unload my position at 1950. :--)

  I don't do the research about the market trend since it is useless for me. I just keep on checking on my old trading record.  Overall I'm making a lot of progress about not repeating the same mistakes.

  The market can't go up forever. But we can keep on studying and learning from our mistakes so that we can make money from the market consistently.

Did you buy last night?

   I posted my point of the view on some trading forum when the future sold off  last night.

As of today, Aug 7th.

Dow is around 670 points  lower than last week's high.

Fish on!