Trading Journal Day 4
Portfolio Turnover
After stopping out of several positions Friday but not replacing them, I had room in my portfolio to act on several new entries today.
I was asked last week about how I pick which stops to buy. It’s actually pretty basic… I have a watchlist of ~350 securities (mostly the highest volume stocks and ETFs in US Markets) and I trade based on price action - breakouts above 20-day high or breakdowns below 20-day low. There are usually many more signals than I have the buying power for, so which I actually follow is almost completely arbitrary. There is obviously quite a lot of room for improvement here.
Trade Journal
These are actual trades, using a fairly aggressive strategy that I briefly 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. I will talk more about the actual parameters of my strategy as time goes on.
Today I Bought
EW @ 195.84
Today I Shorted
PEP @ 130.33
EPR @ 73.08
EWW @ 42.12
CC @ 18.61
Today I Closed
I did not stop out of any open positions today.
Open Trades
While everything else about an open trade is established at entry, the ‘stop loss’ 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.
Several stops were moved today as the positions began to hit milestones in my favor.
Ticker | Entry | Direction | Size* | Date | Stop Target |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
WPM | 25.5141 | Long | 8.43% | 7/17/2019 | 26.30 |
CLVS | 12.45 | Short | 2.75% | 7/17/2019 | 12.11 |
GWPH | 161.88 | Short | 4.88% | 7/17/2019 | 169.89 |
WPM | 25.99 | Long | 8.32% | 7/18/2019 | 26.30 |
BAX | 82.94 | Long | 14.10% | 7/18/2019 | 81.16 |
ALNY | 75.44 | Long | 6.04% | 7/18/2019 | 71.42 |
PCAR | 68.75 | Short | 10.31% | 7/18/2019 | 70.75 |
CLVS | 11.66 | Short | 2.80% | 7/18/2019 | 12.11 |
EW | 195.84 | Long | 11.75% | 7/22/2019 | 190.51 |
PEP | 130.33 | Short | 14.34% | 7/22/2019 | 133.03 |
EPR | 73.08 | Short | 12.42% | 7/22/2019 | 74.92 |
EWW | 42.12 | Short | 10.95% | 7/22/2019 | 43.29 |
Total Long 48.64%
Total Short 58.45%
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
The strategy closes out losing trades quickly, but winning trades run as far as they are able. That's painful at the beginning: the first few trades print losses before any wins come in, and it makes the strategy look terrible until enough trades are closed. With losses limited to < 0.50% of capital on each trade, I would need 20 consecutive losses to 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 |
ADM | -2.52% | 12.69% | 1 | 7/18/2019 | 7/19/2019 |
CSX | -3.90% | 8.36% | 1 | 7/18/2019 | 7/19/2019 |
THRM | -5.28% | 7.68% | 1 | 7/18/2019 | 7/19/2019 |
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).
Evaluating 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.
I badly need to learn to trade. :)
I recommend a demo or practice account first to get a feel for what you're doing before there is real money on the line.
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