My "experimental" account log

So this is my experimental account (the one I have been incessantly withdrawing money from to cover my expenses). The commissions are murder, pure and simple. The system is a discretionary breakout/breakdown. I will tell you now that the only reason it has made money in the face of these commissions is because of the speculative excess in the instruments I have been trading (gold) which has drawn in the kind of crowd I'm able to handle. This system will not work once that crowd leaves. (btw I've discovered that I have adequate capital to safely trade mini-gold contracts, so I should be moving to trading those with MB soon instead of the CFD).

I'm researching different software at the moment for historical backtesting of different mechanic systems and money management applications (so far MSA, TradingBlox, AmiBroker, ninjatrader). I aim to develop a mechanic framework for some of my discretionary ideas as well as perform serious analysis of all my trades to date (backtesting position sizing and scaling techniques over previous trades). I believe this is the next step in my development.



Edit (1/06/08): Here is a recently generated MSA (Market Systems Analyzer) graph of the above data.

Some quick updates

(MB account)
Currently long BMRN and XIDE.

I was long YTEC before this -30% beating it took yesterday. My stops took me out early (with a -17% hit on the position), and my account suffered a 3% loss, despite specifically taking a position designed with 1% risk. This is rare, but it happens, and its why you always have to make sure you have money management covering your ass as much as possible. Here is the chart:














VIT. What a ride. As was pointed out many times not only by Joshua and Chris but by myself, I got too tight on stops in a volatile stock. I tried to apply a type of strategy more conducive to intraday trading to my swing trading, i.e. upward readjustment stops on a relatively short-term basis. I have missed out on a nice 45% run in a few days....















CFD "experimental" account
I'm working on new ways to push my winners when my analysis is proved correct by the market. New entries can see me taking much bigger positions with much lower risk than I was taking before. Unfortunately, I'm not always capable of taking positions as it requires constant attention. My profits have come predominantly from the short side of Gold at the moment and I will look to expand this depending on events, outlook/sentiment and technical action in other commodities. Account is up 50% since my last withdrawal. I may have to scrap it soon though to pay off my studying fees.


Work/Studies
I'm about to complete my Finsia Financial Markets diploma.

I've looked into Melbourne University and Monash and I believe I will apply for Monash. I plan on enrolling next year(2009) in order to get a CSP place.

The idea is that in the meantime I'll look for work in the industry and see how things work out.

Long 992 VIT @ 9.1 basis (Average weighted entry. I used pyramid: 4 multiple entries as stock works in my favor). Stop @ 8.9. 2.0% position risk.


Currently short gold from 887 in experimental account. Re-adjusting stops here.
(I have stopped mentioning trades in experimental as they are high frequency and mostly losers, but I will post a P&F sheet maybe later). Experimental account up 14.2% from its portfolio highs.