Daily Stocks Spreadsheet 30th April 2014

Summary Week Ended Friday 25th April 2014

 

11 Stock Trades:

9 AAL + 48.07 BPS

2 STAN + 24.04 BPS

Stocks net  + 72.11 BPS


Long and short trades, all intraday.

I traded just 3 days this week.

Return on account for the week 1.72 % net.

P:L ratio was 2.02:1.

No Index trades, I am concentrating on stocks.

Thoughts

A pretty quiet week. Monday was a holiday, and I struggled to find decent opportunies. I missed a couple of very nice opportunities on BARC and EZJ.

On Friday we saw a bit of a sell off and I didn't fancy carrying positions over the weekend, with the Ukraine situation the way it is at the moment.

Looking forward to more opportunities next week.

Stay disciplined.

Stay focussed.

Stay humble.

Summary Week Ended Friday 18th April 2014

 

17 Stock Trades:

4 AAL + 56.29 BPS

10 BLT + 111.30 BPS

3 EZJ + 32.21 BPS

Stocks net  + 199.80 BPS


All long trades, all intraday.

I traded 3.5 days this week.

Return on account for the week 2.93 % net.

P:L ratio was 10.89:1.

No Index trades, I am concentrating on stocks.





Thoughts

A quieter week. Stocks on my watch list traded in fairly narrow ranges, and so I had to scalp what I could.

Well above my 2% weekly return benchmark, which is good.

The London market is closed on Friday and Monday for Easter, so we have two, four day weeks, and volumes were nothing special during the week as many people are away from the markets at this time of year. Not me of course !


It's Thursday lunchtime, and I think I'm done for the week.

Looking forward to more opportunities next week.

Stay disciplined.

Stay focussed.

Stay humble.

Linda Bradford Raschke – 50 Time Tested Classic Stock Trading Rules

1. Plan your trades. Trade your plan.

2. Keep records of your trading results.

3. Keep a positive attitude, no matter how much you lose.

4. Don’t take the market home.

5. Continually set higher trading goals.

6. Successful traders buy into bad news and sell into good news.

7. Successful traders are not afraid to buy high and sell low.

8. Successful traders have a well-scheduled planned time for studying the markets.

9. Successful traders isolate themselves from the opinions of others.

10. Continually strive for patience, perseverance, determination, and rational action.

11. Limit your losses – use stops!

12. Never cancel a stop loss order after you have placed it!

13. Place the stop at the time you make your trade.

14. Never get into the market because you are anxious because of waiting.

15. Avoid getting in or out of the market too often.

16. Losses make the trader studious – not profits. Take advantage of every loss to improve your knowledge of market action.

17. The most difficult task in speculation is not prediction but self-control. Successful trading is difficult and frustrating. You are the most important element in the equation for success.

18. Always discipline yourself by following a pre-determined set of rules.

19. Remember that a bear market will give back in one month what a bull market has taken three months to build.

20. Don’t ever allow a big winning trade to turn into a loser. Stop yourself out if the market moves against you 20% from your peak profit point.

21. You must have a program, you must know your program, and you must follow your program.

22. Expect and accept losses gracefully. Those who brood over losses always miss the next opportunity, which more than likely will be profitable.

23. Split your profits right down the middle and never risk more than 50% of them again in the market.

24. The key to successful trading is knowing yourself and your stress point.

25. The difference between winners and losers isn’t so much native ability as it is discipline exercised in avoiding mistakes.

26. In trading as in fencing there are the quick and the dead.

27. Speech may be silver but silence is golden. Traders with the golden touch do not talk about their success.

28. Dream big dreams and think tall. Very few people set goals too high. A man becomes what he thinks about all day long.

29. Accept failure as a step towards victory.

30. Have you taken a loss? Forget it quickly. Have you taken a profit? Forget it even quicker! Don’t let ego and greed inhibit clear thinking and hard work.

31. One cannot do anything about yesterday. When one door closes, another door opens. The greater opportunity always lies through the open door.

32. The deepest secret for the trader is to subordinate his will to the will of the market. The market is truth as it reflects all forces that bear upon it. As long as he recognizes this he is safe. When he ignores this, he is lost and doomed.

33. It’s much easier to put on a trade than to take it off.

34. If a market doesn’t do what you think it should do, get out.

35. Beware of large positions that can control your emotions. Don’t be overly aggressive with the market. Treat it gently by allowing your equity to grow steadily rather than in bursts.

36. Never add to a losing position.

37. Beware of trying to pick tops or bottoms.

38. You must believe in yourself and your judgement if you expect to make a living at this game.

39. In a narrow market there is no sense in trying to anticipate what the next big movement is going to be – up or down.

40. A loss never bothers me after I take it. I forget it overnight. But being wrong and not taking the loss – that is what does the damage to the pocket book and to the soul.

41. Never volunteer advice and never brag of your winnings.

42. Of all speculative blunders, there are few greater than selling what shows a profit and keeping what shows a loss.

43. Standing aside is a position.

44. It is better to be more interested in the market’s reaction to new information than in the piece of news itself.

45. If you don’t know who you are, the markets are an expensive place to find out.

46. In the world of money, which is a world shaped by human behavior, nobody has the foggiest notion of what will happen in the future. Mark that word – Nobody! Thus the successful trader does not base moves on what supposedly will happen but reacts instead to what does happen.

47. Except in unusual circumstances, get in the habit of taking your profit too soon. Don’t torment yourself if a trade continues winning without you. Chances are it won’t continue long. If it does, console yourself by thinking of all the times when liquidating early reserved gains that you would have otherwise lost.

48. When the ship starts to sink, don’t pray – jump!

49. Lose your opinion – not your money.

50. Assimilate into your very bones a set of trading rules that works for you.

Summary Week Ended Friday 11th April 2014

 

20 Stock Trades:

4 AAL + 91.13 BPS

13 BLT + 139.08 BPS

2 EZJ + 57.65 BPS

1 STAN + 11.31 BPS

Stocks net  + 299.17 BPS


Long and short trades, intraday and overnight.

I traded 5 days this week.

Return on account for the week 4.54 % net.

P:L ratio was 7.08:1.

No Index trades, I am concentrating on stocks.





Thoughts

We saw some nice volatility this week.

A decent week's trading, although my exits could have been much better, especially on EZJ !

Above my 2% weekly return benchmark, which was encouraging.

I'm often too early moving my stops to lock in a profit, a couple of trades on AAL were a classic example, since I had a first target sell @ 1588, but was stopped out for a small profit @ 1570. In the next few minutes AAL traded to 1592.50.. In retrospect, I should have been more patient with the position.

Equity markets sold off early in the week but rebounded strongly midweek, only to fall back on Friday. Friday was very busy for me with 6 trades (round trips) made in BLT, AAL and EZJ.

Here are the changes over the week on my watch list stocks:

STOCK	CLOSE	CHANGE	BPS
AAL	1537	-28.00	-178.91
BARC	236.05	-12.10	-487.61
BG.	1113.5	-22.50	-198.06
BLT	1909.5	-51.50	-262.62
BP.	475.45	-14.60	-297.93
CNA	334.9	+6.40	+194.82
EZJ	1700	-127.00	-695.13
GLEN	311.6	-7.10	-222.78
HSBA	617.6	+5.10	+83.27
RDSA	2194.5	-21.50	-97.02
RIO	3330.5	-50.00	-147.91
STAN	1321.5	+57.50	+454.91
UU.	758.5	-35.00	-441.08

It's Friday afternoon, and I'm done for the week.

Looking forward to more opportunities next week.

Stay disciplined.

Stay focussed.

Stay humble.

Summary Week Ended Friday 4th April 2014

 

10 Stock Trades:

2 AAL + 14.97 BPS

8 BLT + 69.58 BPS

Stocks net  + 84.55 BPS


All short trades, all intraday.

I traded 4 days this week.

Return on account for the week 1.39 % net.

P:L ratio was 4.47:1.

No Index trades, I am concentrating on stocks.





Thoughts

A quieter week.

Below my 2% weekly return benchmark, reflecting the fact that I didn't find many opportunities to trade.
A profit is still better than a loss of course.

Miners saw more strength this week after the recent sell off in the sector:

Looking forward to more opportunities next week.

Stay disciplined.

Stay focussed.

Stay humble.

Summary Week Ended Friday 28th March 2014

 

16 Stock Trades:

15 AAL + 347.86 BPS

1 BLT + 3.30 BPS

Stocks net  + 351.16 BPS


Long and short trades, intraday and overnight.

I traded 5 days this week.

Return on account for the week 3.30 % net.

P:L ratio was 1.47:1.

No Index trades, I am concentrating on stocks.





Thoughts

Quite a difficult week for me. I was away in London at the weekend, and I had a swing long position in AAL from the previous week (with stops in the market), which I closed for a smallish profit on Monday when I returned to my desk.

Sitting in the airport checking prices on my phone was interesting. But sometimes it is better to just let the trade look after itself, it's a very difficult area, and I'm still learning this game.

My entries could have been a lot better but a profit is a profit, however small. Still above my 2% weekly return benchmark, so not too bad.

A volatile week on the miners, but the sector recovered from the lows of the previous week when copper fell sharply. Gold dropped below $1300 on Thursday.

Chart of the FTSE mining sector:

Banks also weakened, and the FTSE was volatile.

It's been a decent month, but we still have Monday before it's over.

Posting this on Friday morning as I've done for the week .

Looking forward to more opportunities next month.

Stay disciplined.

Stay focussed.

Stay humble.

Summary Week Ended Friday 21st March 2014

No stock trades closed this week.




Stay disciplined.

Stay focussed.

Stay humble.

Summary Week Ended Friday 14th March 2014

 

3 Stock Trades:

1 BARC + 12.82 BPS

2 BLT + 17.75 BPS

Stocks net  + 30.58 BPS


All long trades, intraday.

I traded 3 days this week.

Return on account for the week 0.53 %.

No losing trades, so P:L ratio was N/A.

No Index trades, I am concentrating on stocks.





Thoughts

A quiet week for me.


Looking forward to more opportunities next week.




Stay disciplined.

Stay focussed.

Stay humble.

Summary Week Ended Friday 7th March 2014

 

7 Stock Trades:

2 AAL + 21.98 BPS

2 BLT + 6.36 BPS

2 RIO + 78.22 BPS

1 STAN + 2.37 BPS

Stocks net  + 108.93 BPS


Long and short trades, intraday and overnight.

I traded 5 days this week.

Return on account for the week 4 %.

No losing trades, so P:L ratio was N/A.

No Index trades, I am concentrating on stocks.





Thoughts

A decent week, some market volatility due to the Russia / Ukraine developments. Above my 2% return benchmark. It should have been a bit better, but I suffered slippage in closing my RIO trades.

I am trying to be more selective in my trades, I think I have the developed the patience to sit and watch/wait for opportunities when they occur, which was always my weakness earlier.
Often this means that most of the day I am sitting, watching. The danger with that is that it is very easy to become distracted by online newpapers etc. I sometimes use limit orders so that I won't miss a trade.

A still update and then print out my daily stocks spreadsheet every evening after the close, and although I have refined it several times in the last few years, the basic format is the same:

I mark levels I believe are important with a highlighting pen, and have it in front of me during the trading day.


I missed a nice rally on UU, after spotting the support on the chart a few weeks back, some trades are just too obvious:

This week the SPX 500 made another new all time high, but the Dax is still well off the recent highs, which is interesting (Ukraine effect, Germany does a lot of trade with Russia).

Friday is US employment day, which is often a market mover, I am typing this update whilst we wait for the data at 1330 GMT.

In London, STAN made a new 52 week low this week, after it released results. It has fallen from 1800 to 1220 in the last twelve months.


Looking forward to some volatility next week.




Stay disciplined.

Stay focussed.

Stay humble.

Summary Week Ended Friday 28th February 2014

 

15 Stock Trades:

8 AAL + 84.31 BPS

2 BARC + 1.71 BPS

2 BLT + 2.64 BPS

2 HSBA + 35.11 BPS

1 RIO + 2.34 BPS

Stocks net  + 126.11 BPS


All long trades, all intraday.

I traded 4 days this week.

Return on account for the week 3.18 %.

P:L ratio 3.00 : 1.

No Index trades, I am concentrating on stocks.





Thoughts

A busier week, some poor exits but still above my 2% return benchmark. Left a fair bit of ££ on the table, but that's the way things go sometimes.

The events in Ukraine produced some market jitters later in the week.

On Monday, my broker introduced a new trading platform, so there were a few issues with that, although nothing serious.



I will not be trading on Friday, so Thursday was the last trading day of the month for me.

This chart shows the breakdown of the 40 trades made in the month of February:

Stay disciplined.

Stay focussed.

Stay humble.

Summary Week Ended Friday 21st Febuary 2014

 

8 Stock Trades:

7 AAL + 50.50 BPS

1 CNA + 13.04 BPS


Stocks net  + 63.53 BPS


Long and short trades, intraday and overnight.

I traded 4 days this week.

Return on account for the week 1.31 %.

P:L ratio 2.74 : 1.

No Index trades, I am concentrating on stocks.





Thoughts

A quiet week. 

A very premature exit on CNA.

Difficult trading on AAL. Closed shorts and longs too early.

Still, a profit is preferable to a loss.

Hoping for more opportunities next week.





Stay disciplined.

Stay focussed.

Summary Week Ended Friday 14th Febuary 2014

 

10 Stock Trades:

2 AAL + 42.91 BPS

3 BARC + 31.57 BPS

2 BLT + 40.74 BPS

4 STAN - 5.03 BPS


Stocks net  + 110.18 BPS


Long and short trades, all intraday.

I traded 4 days this week.

Return on account for the week 2.48 %.

P:L ratio 2.78 : 1.

No Index trades, I am concentrating on stocks.





Thoughts

A quiet week. 
Poor entries on STAN but better on BLT, AAL & BARC. A profit is preferable to a loss.

Hoping for more opportunities next week.

Changes for the week on my watchlist stocks:

STOCK	CLOSE	CHANGE	BPS
AAL	1519.5	+39.50	+266.89
BARC	253	-18.70	-688.26
BG.	1072	+19.00	+180.44
BLT	1888.5	+83.50	+462.60
BP.	486.4	+4.70	+97.57
CNA	318.2	+4.00	+127.31
EZJ	1713	-15.00	-86.81
GLEN	338.1	+12.70	+390.29
HSBA	638	+10.20	+162.47
LLOY	80.45	-1.35	-165.04
RBS	342.6	+5.10	+151.11
RDSA	2123	+22.00	+104.71
RIO	3516	+109.00	+319.93
STAN	1290.5	+50.50	+407.26
UU.	753	+20.00	+272.85

Stay disciplined.

Stay focussed.

Summary Week Ended Friday 7th Febuary 2014

 

7 Stock Trades:

3 BLT + 33.56 BPS

4 STAN + 45.54 BPS


Stocks net  + 79.11 BPS


No Index trades, I am concentrating on stocks.






Long and short trades, intraday and overnight.

I traded 5 days this week.




Thoughts

Not a great week, well below my weekly target. Missed a couple of decent moves but I guess a profit is preferable to a loss.

Markets were generally up on the week. Miners may be finding more favour at last, all 4 mining stocks on my watchlist were up for the week.

Hoping for more opportunities next week.



Stay disciplined.

Stay focussed.

Summary Week Ended Friday 31st January 2014

 

18 Stock Trades:

2 BG + 143.60 BPS

4 BLT + 108.36 BPS

3 STAN + 50.39 BPS


Stocks net  + 302.35 BPS

7 Index Trades:

 

7 FTSE - 1103.16 BPS

Net all trades - 800.81 BPS





Long and short trades, intraday and overnight.

I traded 5 days this week.




Thoughts

A bit of a disaster on the FTSE, got stopped out on a position out of hours, and took a bigger loss than I'd planned.

Therefore I have decided to concentrate on trading stocks, since I have a much better record doing this.

It's taken me a few days to get round to typing this up. Not the easiest thing to do, but it was all my fault of course. Not a great start to 2014.

So from now on,  it's 100% stocks.


Stay disciplined.

Stay focussed.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.