2004 coming to an end so how did we all fare?

[barjon]

good first half, mediocre second half but content overall.

Primary swing system changed not at all except for tinkering with exit criteria. Massive change in off-system activity though as I started looking seriously at the darkside in relation to breakouts and reversals. Heavily influenced by No Indicators, Strategy, Price Volume and all the associated threads. At the point of moving from play money to serious money and a second primary system. Many thanks to all the excellent leaders and contributors on those threads.

Merry Christmas and an extremely prosperous New Year to everyone.

good trading

jon

 

[peterpr]

Nearing the end of first year full-time trading after dabbling for years + professional fund management back in the eighties.

Taking expenditure on systems and NO drawings by way of salary, I'm about 20% down on initial capital employed (@15% after adjustment for tax), so NOT a good start! Like ardhill, I'm still inclined to treat them as 'training fees' - though damned expensive ones.

Funny thing is that it has been 12 months of intense learning (precisely what I've learned requires a bit of honest, dow-to-earth analysis all of its own though). Losses have decelerated so it has probably been to some avail. It's strange though, that my 'dabbling' (with next to no serious study of the markets) used to produce fairly consistent positive results. Having run a cursory check on the year's trades - and discounting the obvious psychological factors - it is clear that if I could just steel myself to push the buttons with the same timing but in the exact opposite direction to what all that TA and market watching indicated, I'd have been well ahead of the game in year one. Maybe that's the REAL meaning of 'contrarian'. :idea:

There just has to be a lesson there!

I forget the name of the film, but for some reason a vision of Peter Sellars standing on a street corner trying to unload a million in notes by offering them to passers-by from a match seller's tray springs vividly to mind.

Merry Christmas + happy and profitable New Year to everyone.

 

[samtron]

I am new to trading and so have no figures to report, but one thing I can say is "This place Rocks", so many helpful and genuine posters.

Merry xmas to one and all

samtron

 

[JumpOff]

it is clear that if I could just steel myself to push the buttons with the same timing but in the exact opposite direction to what all that TA and market watching indicated, I'd have been well ahead of the game in year one......

You been peeking at my screen peterpr?
JO

 

[trendie]

Been dabbling with trading off and on for a few years.
2004 has been a training year. ( and joined T2W about a year ago as well )
Been on courses galore, and took as much as I could from them - quite expensive.
Ultimately, I will use my own system. ( but is based on good basic ideas ).

2005 is going to be a transition year.
I will apply my ideas in a continuous way, with log-books etc.
My target is to make consistent and non-volatile returns. ( isnt everyones ?! )

Depending on the level of volatility of my capital and profits, over 2005, I will then deicde whether to trade full-time in 2006, or continue to work "normally", and trade EOD.

I am already "steadily" profitable using Fibs, and SMAs.
Swing-trading, generally OK, but hit-and-miss ( MY problem, lack of discipline )

Will be test-driving JonnyTs £trader from a test-account.

I want at least 3 different techniques that I can comfortably use.

I still have yet to master day-trading !!

New Years Resolution:
keep logs, and charts of trades.
be patient.
dont trade out of boredom.

 

[TWI]

Did OK.
Continued to learn, thanks to all who posted their hard earned knowledge and experiences.

 

[Vorpal]

Experienced exponential percentage returns up until July :cheesy:

Suffered major drawdown since then

Still well up on year

Read 30+ books, some several times

I now realise I have been mentally exhausted & confused since about August

Resolutions for 2005: Determined to NOT read any new books but learn experientially instead :idea:

 

[ardhill]

looses err. training fees.

LOSSES - tsk - I turn my back and some of you drift back into slipshod spelling

Please Sir, If I explain that I have dyslexia can I be excused ? Of course, my spell checker allowed me to say it - so it's not my fault, the computer did it

Getting the letters the wrong way round is one thing, but when you buy 510 shares instead of 150, then that can be a problem

 

[newstart]

Reply to you

Hi Jimmy,
I have had a bad year, it started good but then I started to listen to other people Big mistake ran up lot's of debts but there gone now in time for Christmas will be restarting to trade again in the New Year so all in all not bad and lot's of lessons learned have a nice Christmas and a prosperous New Year

Yours sincerely

newstart

 

[ZiggieCME]

I started trading back in August. My account went down about 10% in value and in the past two weeks I have finally broke even and ended the day before Christmas Eve with a 2% gain. The gains mostly coming from the Euro FX. The biggest change that allowed me to start running together multiple winning days was the realization that the charts won't trade for you, and that timing was just as important as being right about the direction of the market.

I trade the ES and recently the Euro FX. I haven't honestly touched the ES in the past two weeks. I would usually trade roughly 40 contracts a day in the ES and in the past two weeks I have averaged just around 6-8 contracts a day. The market simply hasn't given many good signals to me based on my trading strategies. The Euro FX on the other hand. . .excellent day trading instrument. If you know how to be patient and disciplined, you can make a good profit. However, I have also seen some buddies of mine loose their lunch trading it.

As to style, I'm purely a technical trader. I am sure that I use the same indicators everyone else has looked at from time to time. Average 2 cars per trade and look to capture a handle and a half in the ES and 10 points on the 6E. Of course those are targets and depending on the move they change.

Ziggie

 

[Edster]

Edster, Sounds like you are letting 3 loosing trades run until March. You say you need to use a stop loss. If I assume correct your stop on these 3 trades is a time stop and it's March 2005. While one can use time stops, 3 months move against you may not be every one's definintion of a good stop loss.

Exactly. That's my major lesson for 2004 - use stop losses. My open bets can't go down any MORE. Can they?!

 

[nobrainer]

Another stonking year.Well into 6 figures for 3rd year in a row.
Most important aids I've found.......dividing yearly target into 52 weeks...eg. if target is 52k, make 1k minimum a weekly target every week as a written record. Keep a cumulative record every friday.This helps remaining level headed whether I've had a stellar week or a poor one.
Aims for this year.......be more greedy, don't close winners too early and moreover increase trade size exponentially when really obvious trades come along.And the biggie, Cut losing trades fast and keep more than 3k losing daytrades to less than 5 for whole year.

 

[axthree]

Stilll learning discipline.
With the ups and downs my learning costs have been covered by my profits with a bit left over.
Next year I'll blow the lot on a mars bar.

 

[blackcab]

Personally I had an amazing 2004, but didn't trade a single contract. What I did was change from someone who bought/sold UK shares sometimes, wanting to trade them on price/volume action but never having time to do that properly due to job, so watching them turn into long term holds mildly profitable overall, to someone who discovered this site halfway through the year and had several major, fundamental revelations, both technical/mechanical and psychological. I am now working slowly and steadily towards my goal of trading the YM to make my living and will use 2005 as serious preparation for that, something I couldn't have conceived of less than a year ago. So - no trading in 2004 but a life- and mind-changing year without a doubt.