Streamlining the daytrading

Today was a good day, profit wise and because the trading room managed to start and finish two trades and stay within the 1.5 hour target time. Yesterday's trades that were left open are still open though so this allows some more profit room in case those two happen to need to be closed for any losses...we'll see. I am looking forward to the days when we can run 5 trades and have most come out ahead like those today.

Updating my numbers:

Daily average net profit: $172.73
Trade average net profit: $39.86
Trades total: 13
Account gain: $518.20
Account gain is a tough one as I have segregated the account in my mind as to what is being used for day trading vs other trading...so I'll just use the hard numbers instead of a percentage return. It's somewhere over 3% this week as a whole though.

I am playing with two performance tracking formulae that give me an idea of overall record and a ratio for future trade expectation. Once I get a handle on exactly what the numbers mean I will elaborate further. The short story is that they should indicate to me general trade expectations to help determine whether I should be upsizing or down sizing my positions based on historical profit statistics.

I did some number crunching on my Optioneer trades last night but have yet to add some of the "detached" spreads I placed to recoup some of the losses on two trades. Everything is positive but I may be changing the trade entry criteria in order to better diversify the trades as a whole and to reduce the overall risk with wider iron condor call/put levels.

The overall impression I am left with is that some of my expectations, while realistic under most market circumstances, may have been a bit too aggressive. My overall trading goal is going to govern how aggressive I may need to be in any single strategy that I am working. Seeing as I am working three actively now it looks like I can afford to loosen the reigns a bit on the Optioneer trades. My initial plan was to get to my primary cash flow goal number one with Optioneer alone. Seeing as I may be able to reach that goal faster through day trading while still running Optioneer and the medium term swing trades... well... let's just say that I am quite happy playing things a little looser.

All in all I am feeling pretty good with my progress even though I have not followed my initial idea...that of doing this all on my own. I have learned that "wholly self directed" may not be the most efficient path towards my ultimate goals.

Having said that, deciding what "help" to hire along the way can be more of a mine field than the stock market itself. I have tried a great number of services to whittle down to the ones that work and that takes resources in both time and money that I had not initially anticipated.

I did not envision doing a report of services available so I have not gone there. Some did not work due to the fact that the underlying plans are just not valid, others didn't fit my style or account type, some needed more money to enact. So rather than service bashing I will, eventually, talk about the ones that did work out. Most have limited subscriber list size so getting in, if not on the ground floor, is a game of attrition so the topic may be moot anyway.

The day trading room is one such service. 200 subscribers only and there is a waiting list. Today indicated why it needs to be restricted as we played out an option trade. We could see how even just one member rocking the boat can affect the entire trade outcome easily for the group.

It's certainly getting there though. Today was a $330 USD day net all commissions and I was using about 1/2 sized trades.

Jeff.