This entry was posted on Monday, August 13th, 2007 at 11:02 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Have been greatly exaggerated..
Just read from Clueless Q that he thought we were shutting down, nothing could be further from the truth. With recent volatility, we’ve been busy, busy trading and making money. Last week I mentioned that the T2108 trade triggered again. Here are the results for this trade:
This was a great trade, a + 2.23% on the SPY, or the equivalent of about 32 emini points. As you can see, during the past two weeks even with the huge down days, a disciplined long only system can still be profitable. The same is evident in our swing equity system which hit a new equity high today. Yes, you read that right, market down big from July highs, yet our long only system hit a new equity high. It is possible to make money on the long side in a downward market.
If you’d been wondering we we’ve been, the truth is that yes, we were a little frustrated from the chat room. So many people thinking that trading is a get rich quick scheme that requires minimal work. Just turn on the computer in the morning and watch the money roll in. Nothing could be further from the truth. The most aggravating thing was how many questions we would get that are answered on our blog. People not even willing to put in the work of reading through our blog archive, which is 100% free and very valuable. Go through the archives, see specific trades mentioned at time of entry and see how many were profitable. I know the 2 T2108 trades were both profitable. See what type of setups we use, run tests to see how much you could allocate to each trade and be comfortable with the drawdown. Watch these setups live and trade with small size to get a feel for how the trades go. Read books on trading systems, spent days testing ideas, learn what a curve fitted system looks like, learn how different styles of trades impact an equity curve, monitor different systems on collective2.com and see how many of them blow up. These are the types of activities that _will_ make you a better trader. Whining about a losing trade, trading too much size, having a strong bias without statistical backing and not having a solid money management plan will _not_ make you a better trader…
- John
August 14th, 2007 at 5:00 pm
Great post and well said. Anyone who believes they can make a living trading without at least 3-5 years in the trenches, an “edge” and at least a few humbling experiences has another thing coming.
As to reading the archives, that is exactly what I am in the process of doing over at Dave’s old blog. I have no idea why any aspiring trader would not do so. It really is too bad that the chat room didn’t work out. I would have loved to view it more than a handful of times. Cucca was amazed at some of the intra-day trades that he observed in the room.
I became interested in this site from communication with Cucca over at Clueless. I have never been a system trader, but I would like to learn more and ask both you some questions once I have a greater degree of understanding as to the basics.
Once I finish reading all of the archives, both at the old blog and here, I may drop you a line.
Thanks again for all of your excellent work on the blog. Keep it up!
August 14th, 2007 at 9:32 pm
Just wanted to say “thanks” for sharing so much with us newbies. Chat room was great. Hate to see it go but, I can understand the frustration you (John and Dave) experienced.
Quack!!!!!!!!!
August 15th, 2007 at 12:47 am
With the recent market pullback in the last couple of weeks, I’m sure many dip buying systems have generated more signals than could be traded. In this situation, for your swing trading system, how do you decide which signals to take? Do you pick the stocks with the largest market cap, most liquidity, fundamentals, etc.? I understand your system dynamically changes the exposure, but I’m guessing this situation still occurs once in a while.
Thanks for all the great info you share on this site.
Ryan