Friday, January 24, 2014

Summary Week Ended Friday 24th January 2014

 

18 Stock Trades:


2 AAL + 148.54 BPS

21 BLT + 18.61 BPS


Stocks net  + 167.14 BPS


7 Index Trades:

 

7 FTSE - 121.31 BPS

Net all trades + 45.83 BPS





Long and short trades, intraday and overnight.

I traded 5 days this week.




Thoughts

Another really tricky week, I traded BLT really badly, short too early and closed too early too, so basically ended the week flat on it. I caught a few more points on it on Friday. I need to improve my entries.

I got caught in the big fall on the FTSE late on Friday and so gave back all my early profit. I don't really know why I held onto the position, but it turned out to be pretty stupid.



Stay disciplined.

Stay focussed.

Friday, January 17, 2014

Summary Week Ended Friday 17th January 2014

 

7 Stock Trades:


5 AAL + 54.11 BPS

2 BLT + 25.29 BPS


Stocks net  + 79.40 BPS


14 Index Trades:


14 FTSE + 34.39 BPS



Net all trades + 113.80 BPS

Return on account for the week 1.98 %.

P:L ratio 2.25 : 1.

Long and short trades, intraday and overnight.

I traded 5 days this week.




Thoughts

A really tricky week, I caught a few moves on the FTSE but it was really hard work for scant reward.





Stay disciplined.

Stay focussed.

Friday, January 10, 2014

Summary Week Ended Friday 10th January 2014

 

16 Stock Trades:

 

5 BLT + 150.26 BPS

1 EZJ + 12.44 BPS

6 RIO + 57.16 BPS

4 STAN + 68.63 BPS

Stocks net  + 288.49 BPS


5 Index Trades:


5 FTSE + 12.65 BPS



Net all trades + 301.14 BPS

Return on account for the week 2.84 %.

P:L ratio 2.09 : 1.

Long and short trades, intraday and overnight.

I traded 5 days this week.




Thoughts

A busy week, I caught a few moves on the miners and STAN, although a few entries were very poor.

Friday saw the release of the US payrolls data, which was weaker than expected.

I traded EZJ for the first time after I added the stock to my watchlist, EZJ made new all time highs again this week.

I tried to concentrate on stocks as this has been my 'bread and butter' trade over the lst few years.

A return of greater than 2% return beats my weekly target, although it could have been 4% with better trade management....

STAN saw a big drop after announcing a reorganisation:





Stay disciplined.

Stay focussed.

Wednesday, January 08, 2014

Trading Books

There are many good books out there.

Of course, this is just subjective, and a lot of people will not like/be bored with/disagree with some/all of them.

Some also say that you can't learn trading from a book.
That is true, but there are useful ideas in these books that one can incorporate into ones trading strategy.

Anyway, here are a few:

Marcel Link - High Probability Trading

An excellent book. Wriiten by a chap who ran a brokerage, so he has seen people make all the mistakes. Good stuff on correct use of indicators, and on trading in general.

Tony Oz - The Stock Trader

A trade-by-trade account over a four week period trading Nasdaq stocks. This is a bit of an eye opener for anyone who has not traded fast moving markets. His ability to monitor multiple positions is really pretty impressive IMHO.


Alan Farley - Master Swing Trader

A difficult writing style (quite odd actually) but there are some excellent ideas in this. All chart-driven. Maybe he should have had a better editor. Some people hate this book though (see reviews on Amazon.com)


Mark Douglas - Trading in the Zone

Nothing about charts or timing, all about getting into the mindset of a trader.


Nassar - Rules of the Trade

Good stuff on rules, discipline and performance measurement.


Elder - Trading for a Living

The first part of the book, on psychology, written by a practising psychologist makes this a must - read IMHO.


Vic Sperendeo - Trader Vic & Trader Vic II

Good stuff on the US Fed too. Fans of Von Mises will like his views on economics.


Van Tharp - Trade your Way to finacial Freedom

Pretty thorough treatment on expectancy, probability, performance measurement and a few systems examined too. (Tharp is a coach not a trader though).


John Piper - The Way to Trade.

A British writer for a change. Good in parts, especially the description of a real life FTSE options trading strategy.


Schwager - Market Wizards & New Market Wizards

Classics. Interviews with the stars of the trading world.


Lefevre - Reminiscences of a Stock Operator.

First published in 1923. This is timesless. A classic, shows you that crowd behaviour doesn't change, people do the same things again and again.

Quote:

"I did precisely the wrong thing," Livingstone notes. "The cotton showed me a loss and I kept it. The wheat showed me a profit and I sold it out. Of all the speculative blunders there are few greater than trying to average a losing game. Always sell what shows you a loss and keep what shows you a profit."

Just my opinion of course... DYOR.

Friday, January 03, 2014

Summary Week Ended Friday 3rd January 2014

 

6 Stock Trades:

 

5 BLT + 51.74 BPS

1 RIO + 37.69 BPS


Stocks net  + 89.43 BPS


6 Index Trades:


5 FTSE + 24.19 BPS

1 DAX + 8.26 BPS



Net all trades + 121.88 BPS

Return on account for the week 2.36 %.

P:L ratio 2.21 : 1.

Long and short trades, intraday and overnight.

I traded 2.5 days this week.




Thoughts

A short week, the market was closed for New Year's Day. Volumes were lighter than normal.

The markets made highs into the end of 2013, then sold off when they re-opened on Thursday.

I traded a nice reversal on the miners on Thursday, closing a bit prematurely, but a profit is a profit as they say. Given the shortened week, my net profit was not bad.

Looking forward to next week, when volumes should pick up.


Stay disciplined.

Stay focussed.

Thursday, January 02, 2014