Over the past few months, I’ve seen my portfolio whittle away to almost nothing. Granted, I started with practically nothing (in the market’s view) but still. After trading for nearly a year, I still have quite a bit to learn. However, some folks at thinkorswim have given me a task in order to refine my trading skills. In short, in order to be a great trader, it pays to be a specialist. That is, if you want to become an options trader, trade only options and nothing else. Futures trader? Same thing.
There’s a twist to the homework assignment. Now that you’re focused on being specialized in a vehicle, take that one step further and specialize in a single underlying and just that single underlying. Learn how it moves, how it trades, what items affect it. Learn it for an entire year. While that seems somewhat excessive, it does appear to be a good exercise in focus and trading refinement. That’s why I’ve decided with the transparency of my trades, Visa will now be my project. That’s right. Visa will now be my bitch.
I will try my hardest to trade Visa exclusively. There will be times I will deviate, if only because some setups out there are so blatantly obvious or the Option Addict is on a tear (when is he never?). So starting tomorrow, here’s the game plan for Visa now that I’ve sold what May calls I had left on it.
There’s the short term game plan for Visa. I’m waiting for a short term pullback near the $83 region. With the recent $15 run-up in 48 hours, I’m expecting some sort of a breather. The other alternative is to buy on a breakout of $87.50, or today’s 52-week high and maintain a tight stop. With May options coming close to expiration, I will most likely be looking at June calls, somewhere in the 90/95 area. I don’t forsee Visa heading below $80 any time soon to be quite honest.
Let’s see how the game plan works tomorrow. Good night!
So today begins Transparency 101. My portfolio is clear, my cash is low, but life appears to be good. Let’s see how far I can turn this paltry sum of money into something respectable. Current goal is to reach $10,000 by the end of the year. I will be adding additional funds throughout the year as needed but the overall goal is to have $10,000 in trading funds by the end of the year. Let’s see what happens.
That’s what Kudlow would say, sort of. Anyways, a quick update since I’ve been gone practically a week. If you’re currently in the college circuit, you’ll know that it’s that time again for finals. Even as a PhD student, finals week always seems to suck time and energy out of my life. Couple that with issues at work and I’m sure you can figure out how things have been somewhat rough as of late. But anyways, a couple of points to note.
First, in an effort to be more transparent, and in doing so having a virtual trading journal, I’ll be posting my daily trades here. Mind you, I’m more of a swing trader than a day trader so while daily updates may not have actual trades, at the very least it’ll have my thought processes as to why no trades were made. Weekly recaps will be just that. I’ll have weekly totals as well as the best and worst trade (or non-trade) for that week. I think by being more transparent, in the long run it should help out my trading career if for the simple fact that I’ll be able to share more of my ideas and (hopefully) get instant feedback. Won’t be easy, but if folks can do it (see Virtual Office for example), I should be able to as well.
I have one final exam on Thursday so my time around here may be sparse, especially with the improvements I’ve made in my trading the past couple of weeks. While no earth shattering profits are being made (come on, I run with less than $1,000!), the main goal was to stop the bleeding. If you can stop the bleeding in a bear market, I can only imagine how things may work in a bull market. But the last thing anyone should be is cocky when trading. The market will humble you, be sure about that.
