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Monthly Recap: Mar 2010

Posted by Satuki On April - 4 - 2010

Another month just passed. The market just kept moving up, which perhaps annoyed a lot of people who like to buy on dips. Some stocks shoot up like a rocket, which is violent, quick an fast. Some zigzag up, which is slow but steady. Some are totally dead such as DRYS and STP. By “dead”, I mean “flat”. They are basically stuck in a range. Regardless how they behave, they have one thing in common. They are all hard to trade.

 

For me, it is a mediocre month. I made a bit over 2k, which is enough to cover our monthly expenses. One reason is that I took a few days off near the month end. My trading is actually getting to a very boring point, where I do not have windfall profits or big losses anymore. It is a good thing though. As I mentioned many times before, if you want to trade for a living, you need to eliminate your draw-downs. Otherwise, you will NEVER make it.

 

My ideal monthly target is 3500 to 4000 or about 50k a year. I think it is slightly higher than the average salary in the US. And it is certainly not a low income in where I live, Durham, NC, which is a small town. This is one good thing about trading for a living. You do not have to live in NYC, Tokyo, or Paris. Instead, you can live somewhere in Texas where 200k buys you a 5 bed room single family house. I know some of my readers reside in India and China. Imagine what you guys could buy with 50k USD in your countries, which I think have a purchasing power of 150k-200k in the US.  Think about it. It is not fair for us, :(.

 

3 months into 2010, I still have issues using up all my capital. It looks like that all I need is 50k in my account for now because I normally have positions worth 40k-50k at one time. If I need to buy a bit more, I could tap into the leverage. With my risk control, I should not have any issues. Daily leverage from Tradestation bears no interest. So I will use it at will.

 

I have pulled 100k out and put it in my account with Interactive Brokers, in which I swing trade Forex.


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  • http://4xtrdr.blogspot.com/ syed omar

    looking forward to your forex trading results.

  • http://www.momdaytrader.com/blog/ Satuki (Trader Mom)

    I have lost a few k so far. I guess it is part of the tuition. Hopefully, it will not be too much.

  • traderx

    Raise the bar and open your mind to new ideas. You have good money management skills and with some effort and courage I'm pretty sure you could learn how to trade stocks. The pot's, fslr's, etc. are not the way to go.

    In any event, if you have an edge trading more size will make you more money, plain and simple. 50K is peanuts.

    Go make some real coin. I think you can.

  • http://www.momdaytrader.com/blog/ Satuki (Trader Mom)

    50K is not much. But I must be able to make 50k without draw-downs before I can make more. I admit that I am overly cautious most of the time. That is what I need to overcome first.

    Thanks for the pushing. I really need that. :) or I'd always make peanuts.

  • traderx

    As you may remember I struggled a lot about 1 year ago with pushing through my comfort zone so I know how hard it is believe me. Even now I struggle with it just on a different level. For example, I was trading 500-1000 shares most of the time. Going bigger was tough. Now I normally trade between 1000 and 10,000 shares depending on the set up and the stock, but there are times when I know I should have 30K but I'm too afraid to pull the trigger.

    The big key for me was putting in extra effort. I'm up at 6am reading the news. Many days I'm stalking certain stocks in pre-market getting ready to play if they set up. Trading bigger has also made me much more patient on entries and much more aware of what what type of set up I playing and why I'm in the trade. But you can't play wiggles. You have to play for moves.

    I also wouldn't consern yourself so much with drawdowns. You'll never make money without drawdowns from time to time. The key is to keep them managable. For me the magic number is 10%. If I fall 10% from my high water mark then I need to take a few days off, regroup, start back small and build up. But just like a baseball player can't expect to go his whole career with striking out, a trader can't expect to never lose money. It's part of the deal. I suggest measuring your performance over a longer time frame. Not having a losing month is nice and all, but I'd much rather have a losing month or 2 and make 200K instead of 50K.

    A trader friend of mine gave me some great advice once and I now have his advice hung on my wall. It says “don't be afraid to make money”

    Best wishes

  • http://www.momdaytrader.com/blog/ Satuki (Trader Mom)

    “don’t be afraid to make money” .. Hahah. This is classic.. I need to hang it on my wall too.

    BTW, I understand you took over the family biz from your Dad. How is it?

  • http://www.momdaytrader.com/blog/ Satuki (Trader Mom)

    “don't be afraid to make money” .. Hahah. This is classic.. I need to hang it on my wall too.

    BTW, I understand you took over the family biz from your Dad. How is it?

  • traderx

    Well “took over” is a bit of a stretch but things are good and the business is booming. The best part is that what I do isn’t hands on nor does it require me being in the office so my mornings are open for trading. It’s a pretty unique setup. I just kind of “watch over” the business if you will.

  • traderx

    Well “took over” is a bit of a stretch but things are good and the business is booming. The best part is that what I do isn't hands on nor does it require me being in the office so my mornings are open for trading. It's a pretty unique setup. I just kind of “watch over” the business if you will.

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