The last 6 months

Trade entry and exit are from the last set of orange arrows on each chart.

Customers trade

Exited this one last week - I was hoping to make a year with it. Just over 120% up.

BTA & CTX - A couple of trades

I closed a couple of system trades over the last couple of weeks. CTX didn't do much, except to lose some dollars for me.


BTA was a more interesting ride. I remember taking the entry on this stock because it had closed at $0.87 on the Friday and jumped to $1.405 on the opening the following Monday when I was about to take the trade. I usually struggle to remember an individual trade after a couple of weeks. It peaked at at $1.79 for the week whilst I entered at $1.61! The volatility forced me to scale back the position substantially to reduce risk. I got out at $2.72.

I am wondering if I could consider recalculating risk on this sort of trade a couple of weeks in and add to the position size - something to ponder (but not lose sleep over).



The dog is looking at me like I should feed him so I better go - I sometimes wonder who is wearing the leash! According to accepted wisdom my dog is 90 human years old, although I haven't seen too many 90 year old men chasing possums (younger women maybe, but not possums)

regards
stevo

Couple of Trades

A couple of trades that I closed recently. Nothing spectacular, but profits are profits. This system is the one I have been trading in this portfolio since January this year. The first trade was CUS (Customers) way back in January and it's still running.

LYC above was looking pretty good, but then I believe that the Chinese couldn't buy into the company due to FIRB rules and the price took a bit of a tumble - although I won't complain about a 40% plus gain.

stevo

Another exit - long term loser

I got out of this one today after the sell signal triggered on the close of last week. No other exits signaled for this week.

It's unusual to get a trade that lasts as long as this one (26 weeks) and still manages to lose money.

stevo

Tough Month - closed trades equity curve

I was just looking at how January went and it wasn't all that pretty - like many long term traders. Not surprising considering the All Ords is down over 10% since the end of June 2007. Any gains that may have been around at the end of December were severely damaged in January 2008. Still I have a slight profit for the year, probably similar to putting my money in the bank - which is where most of it is at the moment.

Most of the open trades have turned into closed trades over January. I have left open trades off this chart, although there are not too many of them. For the first time since I started trading systems the open portfolio is in a slight loss situation.

Currently drawdown from the peak on the chart (on the 24/12/07) above to current is around 11% and could go a little lower depending on what the open trades do.

I seem to be very busy of late with work, travel and other projects (obsessions!) but I am still able to follow my system, which is very fortunate given the state of the markets at the moment.

I am afraid that I have no words of wisdom. If you are trading a long term system that you "know" works then hang in there!

regards
stevo

System Performance - 2 views of the same picture

I am a bit slow this month!
The first chart shows monthly performance based on open equity, whilst the second chart shows quarterly performance of closed trades.

Both charts show 2 views of the same portfolio. The closed trades chart (although the yellow bars of the chart include any open trades in mid December) is similar to the charts that TradeSim generates. The chart only looks at closed trades. It ignores the daily gyrations of the portfolio and only looks at profits made when the stock was sold.

So the top chart shows how much was given back before profits were taken, whilst the bottom chart totals profits made on closed trades. It's hard to imagine that the charts show the same portfolio and that the data was taken from the same source.

I am really only concerned with the closed trades profits. Note that the bottom chart shows quarters whilst the top chart is in a monthly time frame. I prefer quarterly (or yearly) charts, since I am looking long term performance.

stevo