June Month In Review

Well, I've compiled my trading stats from June 10th to June 30th. I'll compare those to when I first started trading April 23rd to June 9th. I'm choosing that time frame because June 10th was the time where I felt like I started to turn my trading around.

While I'm doing better, I still have A LOT more improvement to make. The bottom line is I'm still overtrading and choosing less than ideal trades.

Here's my stats. Keep in mind that when I first started at the end of April, I had a smaller account. I've recently added more money to it. But I can still compare % changes and some other stats.

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June 10th - June 30th
Starting account value: $4823.46
Ending account value: $4856.64
Total gain: $33.18
Total gain (%): 0.69%
Total commissions paid: $635.95
Average daily return: .091%
Average daily P/L: $2.21
Annualized return: 33.22%
Sharpe Ratio: 0.56
Sortino Ratio: -.0017
Maximum drawdown: -10.26%

Total # trades: 32
Total # winning trades: 11
Total # losing trades: 21
% winning trades: 34%
Average # trades per day: 2.1
Largest # consecutive winners: 2
Largest # consecutive losers: 5

Positions held long: 27
Positions held short: 5

Largest winning trade: $292.10
Largest winning trade (%): 21.16%
Largest losing trade: $-265.64
Largest losing trade (%): -44.47%

Average overall trade: $2.66
Average overall trade (%): -2.18%
Average winning trade: $142.82
Average winning trade (%): 9.24%
Average losing trade: $-73.93
Average losing trade (%): -8.16%

Total # trading days: 16
# green days on account: 9
# red days on account: 7
% green days: 56%

Comments: The reason my average overall trade is positive in $ but negative in % is because of the % loss on some small penny stocks I played. On some, I didn't lose much $ wise because I took small positions, but I lost a lot % wise due to commissions. In fact, if you take out the abnormally large % losses on two penny stocks I played with small positions (BIHC and HTOG), my average losing trade is -4.39% instead of -8.16%.

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April 23 - June 9th (WARNING: PATHETIC STATS!!!!!!!!)
Starting account value: $4256.34
Ending account value: $2823.46 (Ouch!!!!!!!!)
Total loss: $-1432.88
Total loss (%): -33.66%
Total commissions paid: $1057.70
Average daily return: -1.2%
Average daily P/L: $-44.78
Annualized return: -438%
Sharpe Ratio: -6.12
Sortino Ratio: -.005
Maximum drawdown: -34.84%

Total # trades: 64
Total # winning trades: 18
% winning trades: 28.1%
Total # losing trades: 46
Average # of trades per day: 1.94
Largest # of consecutive winners: 2
Largest # of consecutive losses: 8

Largest winning trade: $238.02
Largest winning trade (%): 26.04%
Largest losing trade: $-304.30
Largest losing trade (%): -60.93%

Average overall trade: $-19.60
Average overall trade (%): -2.27%
Average winning trade: $66.69
Average winning trade (%): 8.85%
Average losing trade: $-57.86
Average losing trade (%): -7.28%

Total # trading days: 33
# green days on account: 11
# red days on account: 22
% green days: 33%

Comments: A huge chunk of my losses came on one play, MMGP, my first (and really bad) attempt at playing a subpenny. I ended up losing over $400 trying that play twice....mostly in commissions. In fact, a large portion of my losses were in commissions alone. Also, my average % loss on my positions, while not terrible, was certainly not good. On top of that, I just had too many losses, because I was choosing too many plays that weren't ideal. Another big loss came on JADE when I didn't exit quickly because I didn't want to violate the damn SEC daytrader rule! And the SEC thinks that rule protects us? YEAH, RIGHT!

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COMPARISON COMMENTS

Where I've improved:

1. Over half of the trading days on my account are green, compared to only a third before. However, this could improve more.

2. I finished the month slightly positive, versus immensely negative the previous time period

3. Maximum drawdown is much lower, although it's still too high

4. Sharpe and Sortino ratio are much better, but both can still be higher

5. Annualized return is now similar to some strong mutual funds, versus an extremely large loss. Still, this can be waaayyy better.

6. Average $ per trade is now green rather than red

7. Average winning $ per trade is double that of my losers

8. My average losing trade has dropped dramatically % wise, if you don't count two small penny stocks I played with small positions

9. I'm haven't lost money since June 10th!!!!!

Where I still need to improve:

1. My average winning % per trade is too low. I need to get it over 10%.

2. I still have too many losing trades compared to winners. This means I'm overtrading and not picking ideal plays

3. I still have too many consecutive losing trades (5 this time around). This means I'm overtrading and not picking ideal plays

4. My average # of trades per day actually went up. That's not good...I should be trading less. This means I'm overtrading and not picking ideal plays.

5. I'm still paying way too much in commissions, simply because I'm overtrading


THE BOTTOM LINE

I've dramatically improved as compared to my pathetic beginnings playing in the gutter. However, I'm still trading too much. I need to be looking for perfect or near-perfect setups. I shouldn't be entering any trade that doesn't fit in that spectrum.

My goals for July:

1. Reduce my # of trades
2. Increase my average winning % per trade
3. Increase # of winners compared to losers

The fact is that I know I can dramatically improve, because 13 of my losing trades were mistakes in some way (shouldn't have gotten in, bad entry, or bad exit). All I need to do is iron out the mistakes and July should be a good month.