Trading Summary Week Ended 28th October 2022

  

37 Trades:

37 US 500 + 167 BPS.

36 long trades + 435 BPS.
1 short trades - 268 BPS.
35 intraday trades + 169 BPS.
2 multi-day trades - 2 BPS.

Total trades net + 167 BPS.
Net points + 63.5.

Return on account for the week + 0.96 % net.

P:L ratio 2.2:1.
Days traded: 4.5.
Longest trade duration: 7 days.
Shortest trade duration: 1 min.
(All PNL expressed in basis points for the purpose of comparison.)

Thoughts

Another challenging week on the equity markets.

The rally on the US indices ran out of steam on Wednesday, poor tech stock earnings from Google and Meta and Amazon didn't help the Nasdaq and the SPX.

 

This week I have been experimenting with some new trading rules:

    Trade the SPX exclusively.

    No net short positions.

    No trade entries after the US market open (trade exits only).

    Trade intraday only.

These rules are the results of my trading experiences over the last few years.

I feel comfortable following them, which is really important.

I will continue to trade using these rules for the next two weeks, and monitor progress.

(The two multi-day trades closed this week were opened last week). 

 

My net gain of over 60 points on the SPX is quite encouraging, equivalent to over 500 Dow points, or 100 on the FTSE. This is despite missing some nice intraday moves.

Adopting this strategy also means my day is effectively over at 14:30 London time, unless I am still managing trades opened earlier in the day. I tend to start pretty early, around 06:00 London time, so it can be quite a long day, which takes its toll on my effectiveness. I will not trade in the evening.

A tricky week, I made some poor trading exits. Well short of my 2.5 % weekly benchmark.

Hoping for more opportunities next week.

 

One more thing - I've recently discovered an excellent podcast for traders, called the 'Trader's Mastermind Podcast':

 

https://www.podbean.com/podcast-detail/mz8uy-214a77/Traders-Mastermind-Podcast

 

Well worth a listen.

Stay disciplined.
Stay focussed.
Stay humble.

Trading Summary Week Ended 21st October 2022

 

60 Trades:

60 US 500 + 1005 BPS.

39 long trades + 217 BPS.
21 short trades + 788 BPS.
58 intraday trades + 266 BPS.
1 multi-day trades + 739 BPS.

Total trades net + 1005 BPS.

Return on account for the week + 3.21 % net.

Net points + 98.

P:L ratio 21.3:1.
Days traded: 5.
Longest trade duration: 48 days.
Shortest trade duration: 1 min.
(All PNL expressed in basis points for the purpose of comparison.)

Thoughts

Another busy week on the equity markets.

US markets were stronger early in the week, before falling on Wednesday and Thursday. 

We then saw a rally on Friday, after weakness in the pre-market.  At one point about 14:00 London time (30 minutes before the cash open) the futures were trading around 3630, we then broke above 3700 after the open, quite a move.

Some really challenging trading conditions. 

I focussed 100% of my efforts on the SPX, again mainly trading in the pre-market (47 of 58 intraday trades).

Above my 2.5 % weekly benchmark, even though I made some very poor exits.

Hoping for more opportunities next week.

Stay disciplined.
Stay focussed.
Stay humble.

Trading Summary Week Ended 14th October 2022

59 Trades:

59 US 500 + 648 BPS.

41 long trades + 57 BPS.
18 short trades + 591 BPS.
54 intra-day trades + 584 BPS.
5 multi-day trades + 64 BPS.

Total trades net + 648 BPS.

Return on account for the week + 1.9 % net.

P:L ratio 3.9:1.
Days traded: 5.
Longest trade duration: 12 days.
Shortest trade duration: 1 min.
(All PNL expressed in basis points for the purpose of comparison.)

Thoughts

A volatile week. I traded the SPX quite a bit, we saw some decent moves but I was mostly scalping. I scalped 210 points on intraday moves. I made some VERY poor trade exists, especially longs on Thursday when the market tanked (easy to say in hindsight)..

Interestingly, 44 of the 53 intraday trades were entered during the pre-market session. I believe that traders based in Europe may have an advantage here, since the pre-market offers some good entry levels, (of course US - based traders can just get up early, my earliest entry was around 6 am London time, that's 1 am in New York...) 

On Thursday, CPI data broke at 14:30 London time, and the futures markets dropped very sharply, before staging a huge rally after the cash open. The SPX  broke below 3,500 for a time, the intraday move was 193 points, for the Nasdaq the figure was 647 points, and the Dow a whopping 1507 points.

Here is the SPX:

 

The week was also made more difficult by some PC problems, right at the wrong time.

Well short of my 2.5 % weekly benchmark despite the decent intraday trading, as I was trading smaller size due to the volatility.

Hoping for more opportunities next week.

Stay disciplined.
Stay focussed.
Stay humble.

Trading Summary Week Ended 7th October 2022

28 Trades:

2 UK 100 + 5 BPS.

26 US 500 + 145 BPS.

24 long trades + 279 BPS.
4 short trades - 129 BPS.
26 intra-day trades + 144 BPS.
2 multi-day trades + 6 BPS.

Total trades net + 150 BPS.

Return on account for the week + 0.87 % net.

P:L ratio 3.1:1.
Days traded: 5.
Longest trade duration: 13 days.
Shortest trade duration: 1 min.
(All PNL expressed in basis points for the purpose of comparison.)

Thoughts

A difficult week on the equity markets.

Monday was pretty weak, with the FTSE dipping below 6,800, before rally later in the week.

The SPX got near 3604.

On Friday, we had the US non - farm payrolls, which caused a sell off on the futures.

Here is the chart of the SPX futures after payrolls:

Later in the session the index fell further, at one point the Dow was down over 700 points.

I didn't run my profits, and I missed several great trade entries.

Maybe I had too bearish a mindset. Well short of my 2.5 % weekly benchmark.

Hoping for more better trading next week.

Stay disciplined.
Stay focussed.
Stay humble.

Trading Summary Week Ended 30th September 2022

45 Trades:

5 UK 100 - 30 BPS.

40 US 500 + 910 BPS.

20 long trades - 417 BPS.
25 short trades +1,297 BPS.
38 intra-day trades + 315 BPS.
7 multi-day trades + 565 BPS.

Total trades net + 880 BPS.

Return on account for the week + 3.26 % net.

P:L ratio 2.6:1.
Days traded: 5.
Longest trade duration: 22 days.
Shortest trade duration: 1 min.
(All PNL expressed in basis points for the purpose of comparison.)

Thoughts

Another very volatile week on the equity markets.

We saw a rally after the Bank of England announced they they would buy gilts. But the rally was short lived. 

On Friday, the SPX broke below 3,600, closing ay a new low for 2022.

A very challenging week.  Well above my 2.5 % weekly benchmark.

Hoping for more opportunities next week.

Stay disciplined.
Stay focussed.
Stay humble.