I’m getting a kick out of all the ways I can look at my trading journal. It’s definitely a big help in seeing where your problems and advantages are. In my previous June Review post, I attached a chart of the progress of my R sum throughout the month. The following chart is the same R chart plotted with the percent growth of my account balance (after commission). It shows that even though some of my trades (especially towards the end of the month) were very successful in terms of risk-to-reward, I didn’t make a lot of money from them:

“It is one of the great paradoxes of the stock market that what seems too high usually goes higher and what seems too low usually goes lower.” - William O’Neil

– Click here for today’s full list –

“It is one of the great paradoxes of the stock market that what seems too high usually goes higher and what seems too low usually goes lower.” - William O’Neil

– Click here for today’s full list –

Despite two breaches in my system, June was a good month. I was up about 40R:

The 29th trade and the 59th trade represent whole days where I overtraded and did not follow my system. I do not include each separate trade in my journal for these days (because there are so many trades and I’m not following my system) so I include them as one trade and I compute the R value based on my average R for the month. So that is why I say I was up “about” 40R, because there is estimation involved with these two days.
Despite all the R, my account was only up 18%. I know I know, 18% is pretty good. But I had planned on my average R being 1.2% of my total equity. It turns out it was only 0.6%. And I have to figure out why that happened and what I can do to change it. If I had used 1.2%, I’d be up 36% instead. An example is trade 86, which was my biggest risk-to-reward trade for the month but also my lowest R value.
Some of the reasons I used less of an R were: 1) I thought the market direction was questionable and so I wanted to lessen my risk, 2) I didn’t have confidence in shorting and so I lessened my risk, 3) my math is bad and I figured the wrong position sizes, 4) I overestimated slippage and underestimated liquidity, and 5) some bars were so narrow that I was afraid to buy so many shares.
My first reaction to all of this was that I will increase my R and this will hopefully increase my average R. But I think instead that I will put more effort into buying enough so that I am risking what I want to. My goal for July is to bring my average R up to 1%.
I attribute a lot of my success this month to meditating for 30 minutes every morning before the market opens. My worst day was a day that I overslept and didn’t have time to meditate. It has also helped me in other ways besides trading. I feel more content and have less of a temper. I also attribute the success of this month to the fact that I was using 30-minute candles, which did not allow me much opportunity to overtrade. Also, I put a lot of effort into looking for very narrow bars.
I am on vacation until the 10th. The new all-time highs/lows will continue to post as usual.

Good morning, my name is Ugly, and I am a loser. I have it in me to do serious financial damage to my account.

Dear Diary,
Last day of the month - let’s try to end it strong.
The following alpha stocks are opening up:

The following alpha stocks are opening down:
(more…)

“It is one of the great paradoxes of the stock market that what seems too high usually goes higher and what seems too low usually goes lower.” - William O’Neil

– Click here for today’s full list –

“It is one of the great paradoxes of the stock market that what seems too high usually goes higher and what seems too low usually goes lower.” - William O’Neil

– Click here for today’s full list –

Now that is just nuts.
I came back from my walk at around 3pm and I see the market on fire. Even though I knew the fed news was coming out, my first reaction on something like that is “they caught Bin Laden.”

Losing money is the worst, but watching the Nasdaq close up 62 points - and not riding it for a penny - is definitely a close second. The reason I was in “light trading mode” was because the risk was too high today. The market is always very choppy when the news comes out at 2:15.
Shorts got killed today. I hope some of you were able to ride that wave (tsunami) up. It looks like a bullish follow-through day on the long term charts. Man, now I don’t want to go on vacation.

Good morning, my name is Ugly, and I am a loser. I have it in me to do serious financial damage to my account.

Dear Diary,
Today I am in “very light trading” mode because of the fed meeting. Next week (July 2-8) I will be on vacation. I am currently at my high profit mark for the month, so my goal is to top off this month at the high.
The following alpha stocks are opening up:

The following alpha stocks are opening down:
(more…)

In this video, a few of my japanese students demonstrate a technique that I taught them regarding how to defend yourself against English-speaking attackers: