The first month in the year is now in the books. I lost -1.56% on the month. Not the start to the year I hoped for but it is a reflection of market conditions.
My performance was about par for the course as the major indices like wise were relatively flat.
How Did I Get There?
The first day of the year bounced hard in my favor. After that my positions faded. I had made steady progress until the last day of the month, when it seemed that everything went against me causing me to close in the red on the month. This shows that I am able to dig myself out of these small dips in my equity and climb higher.
Closed Trades
| # Winning Trades | # Losing Trades | # Wash Trades | # Closed Trades | % Win/Loss | Avg Winner / Avg Loser | ||||||||||||||
| 19 | 15 | 3 | 37 | 55.9% | 1.29/1 | ||||||||||||||
What went right?
On an individual trade level there some positive developments. I had taken the approach of looking to weekly setups and breakouts in hopes for bigger gains.
Using this approach I bought RESN from the breakout at 9. I added on the pull back to 10 mid January It was this pull back that caused the dip in my equity curve during the middle of January, but this dip was short lived. I had a big position which I exited at 15.90 and 14.60.
My take away from this trade is that this approach does work, but that I need to prepare myself for bigger drawdowns--even on successful trades. I should look to sell the thrust and buy the dips when
the larger trend is intact.
What went wrong?
January 2015 was a choppy market that failed to trend. Many of my trades worked the first day and then went against me the next. Had I closed the position for 1%-1.5% portfolio gains instead of .5% losses I could have closed up a couple % on the month. But I also would have missed the bulk of a move in RESN so it cuts both ways.
Open Positions:
Its my open position's fade on Friday that swung me into the red. As my stats show, I was up on the month from the trades I closed. So, things will either get uglier if stops are hit, or I could sit pretty if my positions rebound.
My equity curve since opening this account is below. Initially, I did not do much with this account. I took some positions without knowing how to trade and gradually worked down to a 20% drawdown. I then put a lot of work into learning how to trade and my efforts thus far have been rewarded. As frustrating as trading can be on a day-to-day, trade-to-trade basis, I recognize that my efforts and hard work are being rewarded.
