Daytrading...

[Flasch186]

So, ended up with no short positions and heavily long today. Basically this month has gone superb so far. Let's hope I don't screw it up.

[Flasch186]

Sold TWTR to take a small loss and went heavy long zts. Another big good day today.

[Flasch186]

Luckily I got out of zts at break even. Currently hold cop, dis, and short met which bit my ass today.

[SportsDino]

Recent drop in DOW triggered a bunch of my rebalanced buy targets and the rise of the DOW towards 18k has all of them positive. Applied my margin to the buys instead of shorts so I have a full long portfolio for the first time in a while. I am looking for bad reports in the first quarter to snipe for shorts but I felt the year was going to end up and am not betting against it now.

Trying to model what oil will do so I can make some commodity company plays.

[Flasch186]

Having a great month. Im doing some back of the napkin equations trying to figure out my +/- this month since the ML site wont show it to me until the end of the year flips over and I think Im at +13% this month so far, today included which was great since I hold DIS long, TSLA long, COP (sold today to take a little bit of a loss on), MET short (im under on this one).

I'll take it after last month.

[Flasch186]

The numbers are in:

Q1 - +0.19 (I didnt trade at all)
Q2 - +7.41 (Just started)
Q3 - +9.82 (Feeling a little more confident)
Q4 - +9.92 (going in the right direction with some missteps)

by month

Jan - -.95
Feb - +.13
Mar - +1.02
Apr - -.60
May - +6.53
Jun - +1.43
Jul - +7.76
Aug - +.72
Sep - +1.18
Oct - +2.3
Nov - -3.25
Dec - +11.05

ann ROR - +29.91 vs S&P +13.69

so far getting into the market and actively managing was a good decision. we'll see what happens if '15 is turbulent though.

Best Holding of 2014:

TSLA (long and short)

Worst Holding:

CCL (short)

[Flasch186]

tough start to the year. I made a little off of an SU short yesterday but my longs are still hurtin'

AMZN
TSLA
DIS
HL

[Flasch186]

With taxes right around the corner (4/15) and my est. qtr tax payment due (1/15)... Im feeling a sense of desperation this 1st quarter and I dont like it. Ive already been really frantic in my trading (even more than usual). Trying to make money this Q to pay taxes for last year feels odd.

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by lighthousekeeper

I actually hold a few records as the worst investor ever. Who first got involved in daytrading along with the other sheep in 2000 right before the bubble burst? This guy. Whose first major investment was Lucent in 2001, days before it imploded? This guy. Who has invested in companies that simply disappeared? This guy. Who bought his home in 2004? This guy. Who took all of his 401K money and moved it into cash in 2009 after the crash and kept it there for years? Yup - this fucking idiot.

Over the past 15+ years, I'm not only batting below the Mendoza line - I'm batting .000. Every single time I've had money to invest or use, I've chosen the absolute poorest available option.

Well, amazingly I find myself once again with excess money. What to do? Light it on fire? Fund kickstarters? Buy truckloads of gasoline from Wawa and store in my backyard? The gov't kind of forces you into the market, via the 401k tax advantages, especially for business owners like myself. What's more, I've decided to no longer pay the 1% annual management fee I had been paying recently and now have this sizable wad of dough to actively manage. It's been sitting in cash for the past few months.

What's that you say? The market is at all-time highs? Sounds like a good time to jump in with both feet. So here we go. I may post updates just so you can watch the spectacular failure unfold in all of its terrible glory. In the end, my family will certainly be left with nothing. Be prepared for lots of panic selling, panic buying, panic holding, and a consistent lack of institutional knowledge.

long: VWINX, GOOGL, COF, FIVE, AI, CNRD
short: LOGM

Related Note: this might be a good time to withdraw all of your longs, because I will most likely cause a major market crash in the next few days.

Why wouldn't you just toss it all in an Index fund?

Or are you being deliberately funny?

[Kodos]

Put it in an index fund and forget about it for 30 years. Or 20. Or whenever you plan to retire.

[lighthousekeeper]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

Why wouldn't you just toss it all in an Index fund?

Or are you being deliberately funny?

too sensible

[flere-imsaho]

I applaud your commitment to provide us with additional entertainment for this thread! The rest of you need to stop being such fucking killjoys.

[Flasch186]

Originally Posted by lighthousekeeper

I actually hold a few records as the worst investor ever. Who first got involved in daytrading along with the other sheep in 2000 right before the bubble burst? This guy. Whose first major investment was Lucent in 2001, days before it imploded? This guy. Who has invested in companies that simply disappeared? This guy. Who bought his home in 2004? This guy. Who took all of his 401K money and moved it into cash in 2009 after the crash and kept it there for years? Yup - this fucking idiot.

Over the past 15+ years, I'm not only batting below the Mendoza line - I'm batting .000. Every single time I've had money to invest or use, I've chosen the absolute poorest available option.

Well, amazingly I find myself once again with excess money. What to do? Light it on fire? Fund kickstarters? Buy truckloads of gasoline from Wawa and store in my backyard? The gov't kind of forces you into the market, via the 401k tax advantages, especially for business owners like myself. What's more, I've decided to no longer pay the 1% annual management fee I had been paying recently and now have this sizable wad of dough to actively manage. It's been sitting in cash for the past few months.

What's that you say? The market is at all-time highs? Sounds like a good time to jump in with both feet. So here we go. I may post updates just so you can watch the spectacular failure unfold in all of its terrible glory. In the end, my family will certainly be left with nothing. Be prepared for lots of panic selling, panic buying, panic holding, and a consistent lack of institutional knowledge.

long: VWINX, GOOGL, COF, FIVE, AI, CNRD
short: LOGM

Related Note: this might be a good time to withdraw all of your longs, because I will most likely cause a major market crash in the next few days.

Welcome in.

Im sucking this month out of the gates. Last year was great overall though.

[Flasch186]

Took my lumps on AMZN (1 day too early!) and instead went long into KBH earnings tomorrow. Crapshoot but the chart looks good to go up and blah blah blah who knows.

So IM:

TSLA long (been bad thus far)
HL long (I dance around in this one, only long though)
KBH long

[Flasch186]

KBH is sooo bad today Im likely going to have to hold this one a while. I dont think theres a way to rejigger out of it in the short run.

Literally the worst day imaginable. Like stepping in front of a train. I gotta figure out the escape path on this one and it could be a long haul on it. Dangit.

[lighthousekeeper]

Originally Posted by lighthousekeeper

Related Note: this might be a good time to withdraw all of your longs, because I will most likely cause a major market crash in the next few days.

oops - sorry world.

[kingfc22]

Originally Posted by lighthousekeeper

oops - sorry world.

To be fair, you did warn everyone.

[Flasch186]

Today was good but this month has been epic in how bad its been. Ill be embarrassed to post the ROR as negative as itll be. One huge hit: KBH. I was in too heavy and the wrong way. Chewing my way back but it's going to be massive to get back to where I was at the end of the year.

[Flasch186]

Hopefully actually typing this on here cements the lesson to me.

In the first 2 weeks I was so far down and the last 2 weeks Ive 'chewed' my way back but I think my loss in Jan will be an astounding 22%. I have 2 months to try to get back somewhat to a tolerable quarterly loss. Ive been making progress but holy trout.


Awful.

EDIt -

Jan '15 = (24.17%) vs (3.1%)

Long way to go to get it back

[Mike Lowe]

I'm not brave enough to try day trading...I basically diversify between a bunch of index funds (diversity within diversity?)...if that makes any sense.

Seems to be working so far...definitely in it for the long-run. I made just under 16% last year, and one of the funds did something like 56% lol.

[Flasch186]

I don't see anything wrong with that

[Flasch186]

February

+6.31% vs +5.49%

At least Im headed the right direction now versus the damage one bad trade did in January. Long way to go and not a lot of time to make headway as '14 taxes come due in just 45ish days.

[Flasch186]

Fighting back with some shorts on NFLX and VZ Ive been in for a little while now.

I think Im down a total of around 10% YTD now after being up in Feb and now March... Hopefully I can keep this going til I have to cut the check to the tax man.

[Flasch186]

Super stressful month. started out great and then I couldnt do anything right. I think Im going to end it down 4% which doesnt sound like a huge loss but to be up what I was and now end up close to where I began just sucks. I start April with a fresh start

Question for anyone who wants to chime in: Lets say you were playing with X, how much of X would you have in one position knowing that you'll cut losses in that position if it drops ~4% from entry point?

EDIT - yup bad month:

-4.73% vs -1.58% S&P not good. Just couldnt do anything right.

so for the QTR -23.20 (ouch)

Got a long way to go. At the moment I'm short LUV and long FB.

[Edward64]

I've been seeing more and more articles on the market due for a drop. We got close to a "correction" last time but didn't quite get there.

What do you day traders think?

[flere-imsaho]

Since the market is essentially a casino, and since those articles directly influence the traders, I'd say it's probably going to be a self-fulfilling prophecy.

[Flasch186]

I think a correction is inevitable but I'm not positioned for it atm. I'll update my month when I get home. I was up but not by a lot iirc.

[flere-imsaho]

Originally Posted by flere-imsaho

I don't daytrade, but I am seriously considering buying a long position in Activision/Blizzard (ATVI). The new WoW expansion has good buzz, as does the next expansion for Starcraft. And the new Overwatch looks like it'll be an even bigger, even better TF2, which has been a money-printing license for Valve.

Since I purchased shares in ATVI just over a year ago my investment has gained 90%.

[Flasch186]

Nice. I got crushed in Jan but have fought back all year finally making back 3/4 of it along the way culminating in my sale of CELG today. I'm calling it a wrap on the year and will start fresh next year. I'm only talking realized losses. I'm still sitting on losses in aapl but I don't do anything with those except sell covered calls against them which has been nice gravy as well against them.

[Flasch186]

So I had gotten crushed in January in a 2 day skid that taught me not to get too far over my skis but alas the damage was done and for the rest of the year I was digging myself out of the REALIZED hole.

I eventually hit some homeruns in December on NFLX and CELG to finish the year down ~6.5% in the Realized loss dept. which is a win in my book compared to where I was in January.

However, that ignores the fact that my hiding out in AAPL was like sitting in the blast hole and Im sitting in plenty of unrealized losses that I guess Ill save for some tax loss selling at the end of this year if there are any gains.