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Trade for a Living

  #121 (permalink)
 
NW Trader's Avatar
 NW Trader 
Seattle WA/USA
 
Experience: Intermediate
Platform: NinjaTrader 8
Broker: NinjaTrader
Trading: CL, YM, ES
Posts: 305 since Sep 2018
Thanks Given: 495
Thanks Received: 1,084


jba1962 View Post
Plus 4176 for the day. And a new high for the month.

SWEET! I'll drink to that!

Mike
NW Trader

There is no path to happiness. Happiness is the path.
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  #122 (permalink)
 jba1962 
TampaFL
 
Experience: Master
Platform: TWS
Trading: ES
Posts: 183 since Oct 2017
Thanks Given: 97
Thanks Received: 374

Options P/L: 0.00 Month: +133.07 *Total: +1832.68
DayTrade P/L: +4176.20 Month: +15,607.14 *Total: +34,454.77
Premium Sold: 0.00
Premium Paid: 0.00
Open Premium: 0.00



* Total is since June 1, since I started this journal in June and June 3 is when I switched to using the micros in the daytrade portion.

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  #123 (permalink)
 jba1962 
TampaFL
 
Experience: Master
Platform: TWS
Trading: ES
Posts: 183 since Oct 2017
Thanks Given: 97
Thanks Received: 374


Wow, I don't even know where to start. Was such a crazy two days. I couldn't even post yesterday because IB's TWS had all the numbers messed up for some reason. I felt fairly confident the NetLiq was correct, but nothing made any sense. I would not have been able to say how I did on separate portions of my trading. And I did a LOT of trading. I did more research over the weekend, but ultimately I decided the absolute best way to learn, to get the creative ideas flowing, was to just throw some crap against the wall and see what happens. I think a lot more clearly when actual cash is at risk. I suspect I am not alone with that.

Option Side: I am lumping everything not strictly related to my day trading methodology here. It wasn't all option stuff, but for now, I don't want to add a 3rd category. I did do some option stuff yesterday. I bought ES at 2857 and sold a 2860 Call for same day expiration (yesterday, Monday). When the market got to 2860, I sold 2 2865 Calls and then placed an order to buy 2 on a stop at 2865. When those were filled I was assured of profit down to about 2855 and up to infinity. So all I needed was no big dump. It actually went sideways most of the day before exploding up at the end. All my short Calls were assigned and they filled against my 3 long ES. But TWS was strange. First it showed my trade with a 423K profit (I wish!), and then it showed up as a 2385 loss. I knew that wasn't correct, but it never did correct itself. I did approximately 10 Equities spread trades and 8 of them were losers. All small, as I was cutting them off quickly as I assessed them. It does not seem that I can day trade the equity spreads, at least at the size I am doing. I am using the same sizing algorithm as I use for my daytrading program and the number of shares was generally small. Today I decided to take a longer term viewpoint and use weekly data. I did 3 trades today and all are off to profitable starts. I have no idea what the exit rules should be. I suspect they will evolve as I go along. For now I plan to hold on to them for a few days unless one goes bad. I spread GS/BAC, +$10 at the close; MDE/PFE, +$51 and COST/KHC, +$163. Longs are listed first. So they aren't making me rich just yet, but it will be interesting to watch them and see what happens. I am especially keen to create an exit strategy, at least the basic structure of one. For each trade respectively, the share sizes are +33/-224, +77/-196 and +30/-128. TWS is reporting a RegT margin of 19,729 but also an Initial margin of 10,658. I do not know why it is broken up like that. I also don't know if I am tying up 10K of capital, 20K or 30K. I have no futures on. Other than the 3 equity spreads just described, I am completely flat. I believe, all things considered I was up about 2000 for the two days combined, most of it on the ES covered call trade. I like the way that worked out. I may try it again tomorrow if an opportunity presents itself.

Day Trade: I did one unit yesterday as the overnight range was huge. It was a loser. Down 981.54. I did one unit today as well since I knew I'd be involved in all the other stuff. Today was a very nice winner, up about 1948. So up just under 1K for the 2 days combined. I won't recap the trades as this post is already absurdly long (Sorry about that).

Exact numbers in the morning.

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  #124 (permalink)
 
mtzimmer1's Avatar
 mtzimmer1 
Upstate NY
Recovering Method Hopper
 
Experience: Intermediate
Platform: TOS
Broker: TD Ameritrade
Trading: Equities, Treasuries, Gold
Posts: 840 since Dec 2018
Thanks Given: 2,201
Thanks Received: 1,918

Very interested in what you’re doing here with spreads in individual equities as I do something similar.

When you say weekly data do you mean calculating percent change from Friday’s close? Longing the leader and shorting the laggard of each sector for the week?

I don’t have the means to backtest this strategy efficiently with code, but could do it visually, week by week.

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  #125 (permalink)
 jba1962 
TampaFL
 
Experience: Master
Platform: TWS
Trading: ES
Posts: 183 since Oct 2017
Thanks Given: 97
Thanks Received: 374


mtzimmer1 View Post
Very interested in what you’re doing here with spreads in individual equities as I do something similar.

When you say weekly data do you mean calculating percent change from Friday’s close? Longing the leader and shorting the laggard of each sector for the week?

I don’t have the means to backtest this strategy efficiently with code, but could do it visually, week by week.

Yesterday I did exactly that, similar to how I do my day trading spreads. But I don't think that this method is going to work as a daytrading approach. It may not work at all, I don't know at this point. What I did today was use a weekly chart (yep, I actually created a big fat chart), and used some combination of strength indicators and % change. I do not use indicators a lot, so I have no idea how wisely I chose. Again, I am in the trial-and-error phase, but that's when I learn the most and think the most. I will have hundreds and hundreds of ideas over the next few weeks as I monitor this. Some will work. Most won't. Will enough work to make this a working strategy? Too early to tell. And if you have any input, I'm all ears.

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  #126 (permalink)
 
mtzimmer1's Avatar
 mtzimmer1 
Upstate NY
Recovering Method Hopper
 
Experience: Intermediate
Platform: TOS
Broker: TD Ameritrade
Trading: Equities, Treasuries, Gold
Posts: 840 since Dec 2018
Thanks Given: 2,201
Thanks Received: 1,918


jba1962 View Post
Yesterday I did exactly that, similar to how I do my day trading spreads. But I don't think that this method is going to work as a daytrading approach. It may not work at all, I don't know at this point. What I did today was use a weekly chart (yep, I actually created a big fat chart), and used some combination of strength indicators and % change. I do not use indicators a lot, so I have no idea how wisely I chose. Again, I am in the trial-and-error phase, but that's when I learn the most and think the most. I will have hundreds and hundreds of ideas over the next few weeks as I monitor this. Some will work. Most won't. Will enough work to make this a working strategy? Too early to tell. And if you have any input, I'm all ears.



I’ll spend some time with this in my study time over the next week or two. Will let you know if I find anything of value.

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  #127 (permalink)
 jba1962 
TampaFL
 
Experience: Master
Platform: TWS
Trading: ES
Posts: 183 since Oct 2017
Thanks Given: 97
Thanks Received: 374

These numbers are a compilation of August 26 and August 27

Options P/L: +2057.80 Month: +2190.87 *Total: +3890.48
DayTrade P/L: +966.56 Month: +16,573.70 *Total: +35,421.33
Premium Sold: 0.00
Premium Paid: 0.00
Open Premium: 0.00



* Total is since June 1, since I started this journal in June and June 3 is when I switched to using the micros in the daytrade portion.

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  #128 (permalink)
 jba1962 
TampaFL
 
Experience: Master
Platform: TWS
Trading: ES
Posts: 183 since Oct 2017
Thanks Given: 97
Thanks Received: 374

An odd day for me. I had to leave from 10am - 3pm, so I missed out on a few things. I was unable to put on the 1-day option trade that I did on Monday. That's too bad because ES set up perfectly for it and it would likely have been a nice winner. I'll try again Friday. I like the idea of this trade. What I need (don't want, but need) is to have it go awry. I need to see how much damage is done when a trade goes bad and how effectively I can get out. Once I get a feel for that, I will know how aggressive to be in pursuing this type of trade. Fear not, an opportunity to deal with a loser is almost always right around the corner in this business. I also did not get my 3rd leg on for my day-trade methodology, but it would have been a small loss anyhow, so no harm done.

Option Side: No actual options. I added a 4th Equity spread in a new sector. Long ECL, short DOW. It did not get off to a good start. Down about 160 today. The 3 existing trades from yesterday all stayed on and had a net today of about -40. I say about because IB doesn't seem to be able to display actual settle prices. I guess I'll find out in the morning. Still formulating an exit plan. I am toying with the idea of just keeping a trade on until something else displaces it, i.e. another stock in the sector becomes the strongest or weakest and then adjust. We'll see. I am going to let it work for a few days and see what thoughts pop up in my brain. Total for the day down ~200

Day Trade Side: As mentioned only got 2 legs on. It was pretty much a nothing day. Trade never took much heat, but never got cranking either. High water mark was about 450 and after I got back home it had trickled down to about 1/2 of that, so I just exited. It was nearly 3:30 anyway. Up 236.

Exact numbers tomorrow.

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  #129 (permalink)
 jba1962 
TampaFL
 
Experience: Master
Platform: TWS
Trading: ES
Posts: 183 since Oct 2017
Thanks Given: 97
Thanks Received: 374

Options P/L: -232.32 Month: +1958.55 *Total: +3658.16
DayTrade P/L: +236.30 Month: +16,810.00 *Total: +35,657.63
Premium Sold: 0.00
Premium Paid: 0.00
Open Premium: 0.00



* Total is since June 1, since I started this journal in June and June 3 is when I switched to using the micros in the daytrade portion.

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  #130 (permalink)
 jba1962 
TampaFL
 
Experience: Master
Platform: TWS
Trading: ES
Posts: 183 since Oct 2017
Thanks Given: 97
Thanks Received: 374


Option Side: Again, no actual option trades today. Hope to put something on tomorrow. Only change in the equities was in the sector I added yesterday. I closed out ECL and went long VVV instead. Stayed short DOW which has been on fire since I shorted it (you're welcome DOW shareholders). So far, not much to get excited about with these trades. Near as I can tell I was up 11 bucks for the day.

Day Trade Side: Did 2 units, 1st leg was negated (was short Russell). As Russell continued to strengthen, the trade slowly worked its way back and then became profitable. It was a grind of a day. Didn't get to even until almost 3:00. Then I had the only real positive spurt, so I stayed in past my normal exit time, getting out nearly at RTH close. It proved to be well worth putting in the extra time and the trade finished +780 on the day.

Exact numbers in the morning.

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Last Updated on October 10, 2019


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