2014 +47.42% / December +1.86

After a volatile December that I managed to eke out a 1.86% gain.

My year is complete and I end the year up 47%. 

Still, this is somewhat unsatisfactory as I end the year still not recovered from my drawdown from November. It also did not help that I got caught on the wrong side of early December's pull back. This prevented me from catching my highs despite a strong last two weeks. 

So how did I do it?

A lot of hard work and grinding out small trades--Over 250 and keeping losses low. I had a 56% win rate and an average win/loss ratio of 1.03/1.  Still that is somewhat skewed by outliers on both sides.

Where do I go from here?

I'm reevaluating a few set ups.  I'm looking at reducing the number of trades I take by looking to capture bigger moves.  This will require stronger stocks, avoiding noise, looser stops and smaller positions.  

My most profitable trade was the 20 point 50% move I caught in HCLP at the beginning of this year.   A few trades like contribute more to my bottom line than the 200+ momo burst setups.

November: - 10.55% + YTD 44.73%

The Disaster that was my FUEL trade obviously affects my bottom line.  November by far is my worst month of the year:

The equity curve got hit pretty quickly in November as the FUEL trade lost quickly and lost big:

My YTD stats are still respectable:

Trades: 31

Winners: 13

Losers: 18

Avg:

Most profitable trade: VTAE, HCLP

Least Profitable: FUEL

October + 16.46% --- YTD 61.80%

Look at that pop!  I'm pretty pleased with my year so far.

September -4.13 / Q3

September has historically been a negative period in the markets and this year was not an exception.  Like the major indexes I was also down.  -4.13%  so it was not an especially a fun month. 

August 2014: +7.33 / 44.91% YTD

After a rough end of July and rough start to August, the market turned and I captured some nice gains the last two weeks.

 Monthly stats:

July 2014 .. Winning Streak ends. -3.34%

This month nothing was smooth.  My trade journals noted a lot of apprehension. Breakout trades were not working.  I fought back some sharp losses and nearly closed positive on the month but yesterday's 300 point sell off did me in stopping me out of some positions and ending the monthly win streak.

Q2 Results are in +26.6% --- 40% YTD

First quarter was good, but I really picked it up 2nd Quarter, putting on 26.6%:

YTD Progress Report Through May 2014.

May is now in the books, and what a May it was.  Best month of the year bringing YTD return up to 24.64%

QTR 1, 2014

I finished 2013 strong and continued that trend,.  It is earning season again so I thought I would focus on my own. +13.61 YTD % 

My quarter return rode a strong February and performed well during March.  April added 2.97 to start Q2.

2013

This year ended much better than 2012:

And yet, I still underperformed the market indices:

I got a slow start to the year,  but in August I was on a tear.  My NOK position got a big boost after MSFT bought out their handset division.