Well, I tried to change my trading platform for today's trading with no luck. I received the notice late morning and I did not want to try to set it up at that point. I played around with it this afternoon and play tested with an order to get the feel for it.
I forgot how flexible it is and how easy and quick to place orders.
The account box is the same, no need to change it anyway. The quote boxes are similar but have added order features. I can set the order through the typical BUY, SELL style of buttons with quantity and price adjustment boxes as well as a drop down order type (for market, limit, GTC etc.). That is nice but there is a "dome" display which gives a price ladder indicating the various quote prices. Clicking on a price on the ladder autofills the order price, hitting the buy/sell button places the order at that price and there is an extra column to indicate my active unfilled orders. I think I can set it to place the order in one click as well...I'll play some more first.
The best part is having up to 8 charts active with 5 quote boxes doubling as quick order boxes that each have drop down menus to open up 5 stocks each. In theory I can have 25 stocks pre-loaded ready to trade and each one be just a click away.
There are only two option boxes that function similarly...no drop downs though.
That is just asking for some serious overtrading. I expect to have 5 or so active orders so I will use this more for monitoring potential and active positions without having to open and close boxes or re-select stocks.
Jeff.
Questrade, My direct access discount broker.
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Monday, March 8, 2010
Housekeeping, Questrader Elite, One Down
There is not too much to report on the trading front today, just some housekeeping mainly.
I cancelled one swing style trading service as the track record was next to abysmal. Considering the marketing said that I should be making nice profits in the first 30 days....not only was I seeing losses I was also seeing a 1 in 7 win rate. At that the winner was just a small profit as well. Full money refund.
I did go back and check the historical track record. 57% winners. Not a spectacular record at all. Now had I made every single trade over the period I would have made out OK. Say $1000 trades every single time would have me in the $20,000 profit mark after well over 200 trades. History didn't seem to want to repeat itself or I would have held the service through.
One of my trial criteria is typically to test and use the "free trial" or guarantee period to pay for the service. If it can do that then I will carry it forward for a while and see how it works. To date I have not ever had one single service do that.
The second service is doing much better. 1 winner, 7 in the money trades and one loser. Not bad
Then there is the daytrading.
Work in progress this one. My trading volume is up just over 60 trades this month so I elected to upgrade to Questrader Elite again. This gives me more active charts, multiple order boxes and a dome order view which, I haven't tried before, allows me to place orders by clicking on the quote. I also recall something about being able to place limit target orders and stop orders simultaneously...but I might be wrong on that one.
As far as the service is concerned, I like the live atmosphere of a trading room. The trades are somewhere under the 50% winners right now....but I have pretty much chosen to discount last week as a writeoff due to the issues surrounding people not being able to follow instructions and the gearing up of a new service.
I should have waited until this week to start. If I add up the total subscriber base and multiply the annual revenue from this alone it certainly behooves the host/moderator/supplier to produce some results. The attrition rate if he does not will be terrible.
I have some faith in this though. Others are using other services from the same fellow and they are quite happy with the results. So I am only one week into a four week trial anyway. Like I said though, I may start over with this one.
Jeff.
I cancelled one swing style trading service as the track record was next to abysmal. Considering the marketing said that I should be making nice profits in the first 30 days....not only was I seeing losses I was also seeing a 1 in 7 win rate. At that the winner was just a small profit as well. Full money refund.
I did go back and check the historical track record. 57% winners. Not a spectacular record at all. Now had I made every single trade over the period I would have made out OK. Say $1000 trades every single time would have me in the $20,000 profit mark after well over 200 trades. History didn't seem to want to repeat itself or I would have held the service through.
One of my trial criteria is typically to test and use the "free trial" or guarantee period to pay for the service. If it can do that then I will carry it forward for a while and see how it works. To date I have not ever had one single service do that.
The second service is doing much better. 1 winner, 7 in the money trades and one loser. Not bad
Then there is the daytrading.
Work in progress this one. My trading volume is up just over 60 trades this month so I elected to upgrade to Questrader Elite again. This gives me more active charts, multiple order boxes and a dome order view which, I haven't tried before, allows me to place orders by clicking on the quote. I also recall something about being able to place limit target orders and stop orders simultaneously...but I might be wrong on that one.
As far as the service is concerned, I like the live atmosphere of a trading room. The trades are somewhere under the 50% winners right now....but I have pretty much chosen to discount last week as a writeoff due to the issues surrounding people not being able to follow instructions and the gearing up of a new service.
I should have waited until this week to start. If I add up the total subscriber base and multiply the annual revenue from this alone it certainly behooves the host/moderator/supplier to produce some results. The attrition rate if he does not will be terrible.
I have some faith in this though. Others are using other services from the same fellow and they are quite happy with the results. So I am only one week into a four week trial anyway. Like I said though, I may start over with this one.
Jeff.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Day Trading Three
No, I am not going to give blow by blow every day.
Today was notable as it started out more than a little odd. I set up at home to listen in and do some trading. I setup my laptop for the audio and plugged speakers into my PC USB for power. I was setting up my trading platform (nice to get Questrade's Questrader Pro back on line now...so much easier to see everything at once and execute trades with one click on the security and one click on the buy/sell button...but I digress) and jotting down some of the setups to watch when I decided to turn on my overhead lights.
ZAP!
The lights came on and the computer went off. Smell of burnt electronics wafting from the back of my PC.
Turns out that I fried at least the power supply, the USB port, the speakers and the earphone plug on the laptop all in one go. I cannot see how it was the lights that did it but there is something funky going on.
Now I was up and running in less than 30 minutes in my office on different equipment when I should have taken the hint...don't trade today, I was not meant to trade today...or at least not meant to make any money.
Two trades, one long play that netted a whole 10 cent gain and a large for me put option play that lost 23 cents.
Now, seeing as the trading room provider has some sort of obligation to perform with timely advice on trade executions and seeing as this is live I expect that the next few days will be better. One poor day in the first three is not a braking situation at all.
So, time to check out the physical damage to the two computers and go over the wiring to see what, if anything there, might have caused this.
Jeff.
Today was notable as it started out more than a little odd. I set up at home to listen in and do some trading. I setup my laptop for the audio and plugged speakers into my PC USB for power. I was setting up my trading platform (nice to get Questrade's Questrader Pro back on line now...so much easier to see everything at once and execute trades with one click on the security and one click on the buy/sell button...but I digress) and jotting down some of the setups to watch when I decided to turn on my overhead lights.
ZAP!
The lights came on and the computer went off. Smell of burnt electronics wafting from the back of my PC.
Turns out that I fried at least the power supply, the USB port, the speakers and the earphone plug on the laptop all in one go. I cannot see how it was the lights that did it but there is something funky going on.
Now I was up and running in less than 30 minutes in my office on different equipment when I should have taken the hint...don't trade today, I was not meant to trade today...or at least not meant to make any money.
Two trades, one long play that netted a whole 10 cent gain and a large for me put option play that lost 23 cents.
Now, seeing as the trading room provider has some sort of obligation to perform with timely advice on trade executions and seeing as this is live I expect that the next few days will be better. One poor day in the first three is not a braking situation at all.
So, time to check out the physical damage to the two computers and go over the wiring to see what, if anything there, might have caused this.
Jeff.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Re-visiting All In... Again.
It would appear that I needed to revisit my targets for Optioneer trading. After suffering a loss of profits, (not a loss in capital), and not getting the fills that I was targeting, namely $300 per trade per month, my targets need to be massaged.
My current was 6% of the trade value or $300 based on the $5000 total exposure. That worked out to a 6.6% ROR based on the 1.55 point target profit ($309.50). The lowest I was willing to go was $297 which is still 6.32% ROR. The scale is as follows:
1.3 points = $247 = 5.20% ROR
1.35 points = $259.50 = 5.47% ROR
1.40 points = $272.00 = 5.75% ROR
1.45 points = $284.50 = 6.03% ROR
The thing that I was losing sight of was the advantage of having as much capital in play at any time. All possible trades for each month. The issue is that this restricts me to placing the 30 day trades which puts me at the mercy of the market if the entry date is not the idea date. This is what happened in February as I filled last days and the market dropped out.
Having said that if I had stuck to my view of the market at the time I would have seen 100% of my profits...I waffled and fell prey to the emotions of the market and chose to close when I should have held..
So, I can drop to $284.50 target profit and still meet my original 6% ROR, but that is not enough of a change to make this work.
I figured that I could boost my returns by using the Eminis to place trades of 1/5th size to avoid having the odd bits of cash languishing which effectively increases my yield a bit. Then placing the odd call spread above my margin allowance to again increase my yield. All in all if I drop my initial target from 6% to just getting in at the minimum day count at whatever price I would be farther off.
Missing a $250 trade expiring in March in favour of a $325 trade expiring in April doesn't cut it.
Getting a lower $250 trade in March and another $250 in April is $500. Missing March and getting only $325 in April.. well... it isn't $500. Now $250 trades are really $247 and that is a 5.20% trade.
Assume that I can squeak $200 to $300 extra right now due to partial trades and call spreads. That amounts to $35 to $43 per trade or another 0.73% to 0.9%. This bumps me back up to the 6% plus mark again.
So the new plan...or revisiting a version that I already had written about... is to just get in 100% each month even if it means accepting lower fills and perhaps even closing the odd trade a day or two early to free up capital.
I wish that I had done this thinking last night as I missed the last day to secure March EOM expiry trades today... time to review the trades coming up for April and get them filled. I have the luxury of time now so I can cherry pick these trades and get the fills that I want for a few days.
I might be able to talk my broker into placing call and put spreads even though they are, technically, not part of the optioneer strategy anymore...just to get filled.
Jeff.
My current was 6% of the trade value or $300 based on the $5000 total exposure. That worked out to a 6.6% ROR based on the 1.55 point target profit ($309.50). The lowest I was willing to go was $297 which is still 6.32% ROR. The scale is as follows:
1.3 points = $247 = 5.20% ROR
1.35 points = $259.50 = 5.47% ROR
1.40 points = $272.00 = 5.75% ROR
1.45 points = $284.50 = 6.03% ROR
The thing that I was losing sight of was the advantage of having as much capital in play at any time. All possible trades for each month. The issue is that this restricts me to placing the 30 day trades which puts me at the mercy of the market if the entry date is not the idea date. This is what happened in February as I filled last days and the market dropped out.
Having said that if I had stuck to my view of the market at the time I would have seen 100% of my profits...I waffled and fell prey to the emotions of the market and chose to close when I should have held..
So, I can drop to $284.50 target profit and still meet my original 6% ROR, but that is not enough of a change to make this work.
I figured that I could boost my returns by using the Eminis to place trades of 1/5th size to avoid having the odd bits of cash languishing which effectively increases my yield a bit. Then placing the odd call spread above my margin allowance to again increase my yield. All in all if I drop my initial target from 6% to just getting in at the minimum day count at whatever price I would be farther off.
Missing a $250 trade expiring in March in favour of a $325 trade expiring in April doesn't cut it.
Getting a lower $250 trade in March and another $250 in April is $500. Missing March and getting only $325 in April.. well... it isn't $500. Now $250 trades are really $247 and that is a 5.20% trade.
Assume that I can squeak $200 to $300 extra right now due to partial trades and call spreads. That amounts to $35 to $43 per trade or another 0.73% to 0.9%. This bumps me back up to the 6% plus mark again.
So the new plan...or revisiting a version that I already had written about... is to just get in 100% each month even if it means accepting lower fills and perhaps even closing the odd trade a day or two early to free up capital.
I wish that I had done this thinking last night as I missed the last day to secure March EOM expiry trades today... time to review the trades coming up for April and get them filled. I have the luxury of time now so I can cherry pick these trades and get the fills that I want for a few days.
I might be able to talk my broker into placing call and put spreads even though they are, technically, not part of the optioneer strategy anymore...just to get filled.
Jeff.
Day Trading Two
I traded again today until 1030h. Covering the trades is of little consequence as any one trade is just that. Four completely different stocks (one option and one missed entry) resulted in an up day... which is good as yesterday ended down by less than the commission costs.
$145 between the two days with very small position sizing. My option trade was the big winner today as it was inside month and just ITM. $4.90 to $6.00 on two contracts is a $220 trade.
My overall win rate is 2 of 5, not stellar but the trades average out to $29 per trade net losses and commissions. The idea is to keep the losses tight and let the winners run.
Return on investment is hard to gauge as I never had my whole capital at work. Having said that I am using my margin account which allows my 3:1 margin. I have about $5,000 in there that is not already in medium term trades so I will count this as my base for now. That leaves me with a 2.91% return for two days.
Yesterday was supposed to be a trial day for the trading room as this is a brand new service setup so we were not supposed to make any money... so if I do not count yesterday I am actually at 3.25%.
There are about 200 people in the "trading room" at once, all paid subscribers as I mentioned. The executions are fast. The room administrator...I don't know what he is called, is running the show by bringing up stocks and pointing out the entry levels and possible targets. I can follow along and see what is going on on my charts easy enough but we are paying him to come up with profitable ideas.
Originally this was not my idea of trading as I wanted a self directed account where I am the producer of the ideas and executioner of the trades... and the beneficiary of the profits. I am learning more of what to watch for in the first hour of trading. I did not fair very well in my initial foray into early hour trading before and now I see some of my pitfalls quite clearly.
So, for the time being I will follow along and produce some gains and grow my margin account. I figure that I can treat this as a training course rather than a cash cow so once I get enough experience under my belt I will be looking to do this on my own. It does give me a crutch that I could use if my own ideas end up not panning out.
Jeff.
$145 between the two days with very small position sizing. My option trade was the big winner today as it was inside month and just ITM. $4.90 to $6.00 on two contracts is a $220 trade.
My overall win rate is 2 of 5, not stellar but the trades average out to $29 per trade net losses and commissions. The idea is to keep the losses tight and let the winners run.
Return on investment is hard to gauge as I never had my whole capital at work. Having said that I am using my margin account which allows my 3:1 margin. I have about $5,000 in there that is not already in medium term trades so I will count this as my base for now. That leaves me with a 2.91% return for two days.
Yesterday was supposed to be a trial day for the trading room as this is a brand new service setup so we were not supposed to make any money... so if I do not count yesterday I am actually at 3.25%.
There are about 200 people in the "trading room" at once, all paid subscribers as I mentioned. The executions are fast. The room administrator...I don't know what he is called, is running the show by bringing up stocks and pointing out the entry levels and possible targets. I can follow along and see what is going on on my charts easy enough but we are paying him to come up with profitable ideas.
Originally this was not my idea of trading as I wanted a self directed account where I am the producer of the ideas and executioner of the trades... and the beneficiary of the profits. I am learning more of what to watch for in the first hour of trading. I did not fair very well in my initial foray into early hour trading before and now I see some of my pitfalls quite clearly.
So, for the time being I will follow along and produce some gains and grow my margin account. I figure that I can treat this as a training course rather than a cash cow so once I get enough experience under my belt I will be looking to do this on my own. It does give me a crutch that I could use if my own ideas end up not panning out.
Jeff.
Monday, March 1, 2010
Daytrading, another self test
Quite a while back I had an idea to trade in the first hour of the market in order to make a few good intraday swing style trades at the time that the trading is the most volatile. I found that it was tough due to poor information flow or just plain wrong judgement calls. I made some nice trades and some poor trades.
I have learned a lot doing this testing of my ideas, and some ideas of others as well. The thing that I find about all the old ideas that I have tried is that they always reside in the back of my mind as I think about future ideas or trades. Something will come up to remind me of something I tried before and may offer a new slant or a twist that may make it work better.
This is just another example, the early day trade. I plan to start with some pre-market setups this time...get positioned before the big volume start in some cases.
I have learned a lot doing this testing of my ideas, and some ideas of others as well. The thing that I find about all the old ideas that I have tried is that they always reside in the back of my mind as I think about future ideas or trades. Something will come up to remind me of something I tried before and may offer a new slant or a twist that may make it work better.
This is just another example, the early day trade. I plan to start with some pre-market setups this time...get positioned before the big volume start in some cases.
Today I jumped back in and joined a chat room style setup (paid subscription). It took only a few minutes to setup my charts in my old platform, nice to get back into something that has some faster execution and tracking tools. I am set up now for pre-market trading as well as after market...not that I plan on being there after market. It was also nice to hear some banter about the market and the securities being looked at.
RIMM and GOLD were on the plate and I ended up with a break even morning with only two trades. I looked at the options a bit and would have been better off trading those even with the higher commissions. That may become my focus in future.
I bailed on my trades before the big run up in GOLD and before the return to break even in RIMM. The GOLD potential had I played my stop just 5 cents lower (even a penny would have done it as I got nailed at $72.00) was a full $2 gain for my entry by noon.
The setup was to get in near the daily pivot point at $71.27, I waffled and got in at $71.40. I was following along with the room but my normal play would have been to follow the price with 1/2 PP moves...I split the pivot point and resistance 1, 2 etc in 1/2 size increments and move the stop as each higher (or lower for shorts) 1/2 point gets hit.
So, in at $71.40 or less (ideally). Initial stop at $70.80 (1/2 S1).
Trailing stops at $71.26, $72.07, $72.88, $73.33 and $73.76, all the 1/2 points of S1 through R2.
Price moves from PP to 1/2 R1 ($72.07) and I placed my stop at $72.00 I should know better then using even numbers as I should have used $71.95. I was stopped out and left the trade at that. Since, the price hovered there and moved past $72.88 without pause and cleared $73 to hover at the current $73.40 range. Consolidation and prime exit point here.
Definitely worth noting is that the monthly 1/2 R1 line is $73.41 which was the upper range of the day thus far.
RIMM was to have been the exact same play, the price did not approach the PP until about 1020h so I got in far too early. When it did approach it nailed the $70.45 and promptly headed back up returning to near the opening price. The best trade plan would have been to short this off the start for the move tot he PP (almost a full dollar) then reverse the trade at the pp for the return (75 to 90 cents depending upon the exit).
As long as I have charts with the pivots and support and resistance lines this is not a difficult method to trade. Right now I am using esignal delayed so my live charting is through my trading platform...there are very few usable tools there for charting... so I may upgrade my esignal package to realtime again soon. Once I establish a credible profitable trading strategy and pay for the service that is.
No charts today.
Jeff.
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