FEB 2011 Options Expiration Results

While I'm happy with the realized gains of $4800 for FEB, I'm also currently sitting on MTM losses of ($3018) that were from trades initiated this month. So things need to be kept in perspective. I'm also happy to be closing in on $100,000 of total gains since I abandoned the buy-and-hold mentality of long-term investing in exchange for active trading in late 2008. Even though the historical average monthly income of $3,100 per month during this time is currently barely enough to justify trading my account for a living, there is comfort in knowing that until recently I've been very conservative and haven't used even half of my available trading capital. You can actually see from my average monthly income chart below where I started out with a bang shorting the markets during the financial crisis, where I took my losses when I abandoned my legacy buy-and-hold positions, where I targeted $2,000 a month during 18-months of MBA school, and where my average has slowly been increasing since then as I decided to scale up a bit and actually attempt to trade for a living. The bottom line is I'm getting better, having fun, building my confidence, and have now proven to myself that I can be a consistently profitable trader. I'm going to continue to slowly scale up my trade size and reevaluate everything in June. If all is still going well then I'll probably be looking to go out and recruit capital and build for the long-term.

FEB 2011 Options Expiration Results

Current MTM Losses heading in to MAR 2011 Options Cycle

Updated Historical Trading Results

Average Monthly Profit Chart

Comments

WOW! I think that sums it up

Many of you have been reading this blog may have noticed that my blogging frequency has increased over the past few weeks as I got short the market. As you can imagine I am down money since getting short the market, this is the time when most people pull away from posting. But my goal is to stay active and involved and show you that trading is not always rainbows and butterflies. It is times like these that the things I have been sharing over the past couple of weeks are so important. You need to trade small relative to your account. I have a decent short position in the market and my portfolios are set up to make some awesome returns if we finally turn lower. But something I would like to point out is that my account is 70% Cash. I learned a long time ago how important it is to live by the rules you preach. Because of my discipline I am able to continue to hold my positions, I have time and capital on my side. I can't stress enough how important it is not to get to big....

Stay Small, Stay Out of Trouble

To expand on my post from yesterday about patience. I want to talk about a very important element that allows patience in a position, and that is staying small. If you trade too big RELATIVE to your personal account size, you are likely to be forced to exit the trade before the trade works in your favor. Many trades myself included have all experienced the pains of trading a position way too large given our account size. There is this predisposition out there that the only way you are going to make money in the financial markets is if you are trading 10 lots of options and 1000 shares of stock at the time. This is not the case, and if this is your mentality you will likely ensure yourself trouble. We have all read the stories of traders blowing up their account. I personally think a good rule of thumb is to not risk more than 5% of your account value on any one position. Good Luck Trading! In The Money Trades And 1 favor that we ask: If you like the hard work w...

more good news from FXStreet : Tom Fitzpatrick, senior technical analyst at Citibank in New York. Monday, July 15, 2002 "Parity is a psychological, not a technical level...and whether we pause around parity or not, we are likely to see significant further dollar losses...Our initial target is $1.03 to $1.0450. If that level is taken out, it actually casts a question mark against the whole of the dollar's rally of the last seven years, and could open up a full-blown bear market for the dollar." Julian Jessop, chief European economist at Standard Chartered Bank. Monday, July 15, 2002 "The dollar is under pressure from everything from economic problems to asset reallocation away from the U.S. and corporate accounting problems. It's difficult to see any positive factor for the dollar at the moment. The root of the problem is the U.S. current account deficit. If the U.S. doesn't have to attract an enormous amount of foreign capital, people wouldn't have to wor...

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