Trading is fun and (sometimes) profitable...

These are actual US equities trades, using a fairly aggressive strategy that I have previously mentioned in What is your Trading Style?

I have many more 'paper' entries, but these are the few that happened in an actual trading account.

_{image source: pixabay}

Risk Management

With more closed trades in the account, you will see that even though position sizing varies, the loss as percentage of portfolio is very similar. I am sizing my positions based on the recent volatility of each stock... to cap losses at a particular amount.

To reflect this, I am updating the 'Open Trades' table to show my actual stop loss orders. While everything else about an open trade is established at entry, the stop order will be periodically adjusted over the life of a trade. The idea is to move the stops at key intervals and let the profitable trades keep running as long as they don't retrace to the stop levels.

Today I Bought

WPM @ $25.99
EBAY @ 41.28 (Stopped out at 40.23)
BAX @ 82.94
ALNY @ 75.44

Today I Shorted

ADM @ $39.66
PCAR @ 68.75
CSX @69.70
THRM @ 38.42
CLVS @ 11.66

Open Trades

WPM and CLVS have two rows now, as I have added onto the positions. In my exploratory paper-trading, I have tracked multiple entries and found that I get the best results when I take part of my position initially and then build on it after some movement in my favor.

Ticker	Entry	Direction	Size*	Date	Stop Target
WPM	25.5141	Long	8.43%	7/17/2019	25.67
CLVS	12.45	Short	2.75%	7/17/2019	12.97
GWPH	161.88	Short	4.88%	7/17/2019	170.17
WPM	25.99	Long	8.32%	7/18/2019	25.67
BAX	82.94	Long	14.10%	7/18/2019	81.16
ALNY	75.44	Long	6.04%	7/18/2019	71.42
ADM	39.66	Short	12.69%	7/18/2019	40.62
PCAR	68.75	Short	10.31%	7/18/2019	70.75
CSX	69.70	Short	8.36%	7/18/2019	72.28
THRM	38.42	Short	7.68%	7/18/2019	39.99
CLVS	11.66	Short	2.80%	7/18/2019	12.97

Positions sizes are approximate, and given as a percentage of trading account. Position sizing is based on perceived risk, with effective Risk Management as critical to strategy. Use of leverage is intended, so % of portfolio will sometimes exceed 100%

Closed Trades

Since nobody is looking over my shoulder intraday, it would be very easy to exclude these losing day-trades from my list each day... and totally dishonest! The strategy closes out losing trades quickly, but lets winning trades run as far as they are able. That's a little painful at the beginning, as the first few trades print losses before any wins come in, and it makes the strategy look terrible until a large enough sample is built for sampling. But... with losses limited to < 0.50% of capital on each trade, I need 20 consecutive losses to even face a 10% account drawdown! That's incredibly unlikely.

Ticker	Gain/Loss	Size	Days Held	Opened	Closed
CSX	-2.72%	10.52%	0	7/17/2019	7/17/2019
EBAY	-2.54%	11.97%	0	7/18/2019	7/18/2019

Gain/Loss given as percentage on notional value of trade, with size a percentage of trading account. G/L x Size = % change of account value based on trade outcome. Days Held shows as 0 when a position was opened and closed in the same day (day trade).
Evalutating all position outcomes from Closed Trades, over a large enough sample, could support an approximate calculation of total portfolio return. Actual results may vary.
This is my trading journal. Results are published for entertainment purposes. This is not financial advice. This is not legal advice. This is not even advice.