At the request of one of this Blog's readers, I'm providing a schedule of trades from Monday, March 6, 2006. I picked this day because it was one of my better days trading (I have an ego, too) and because the daily report was available from Interactive Brokers. A few caveats, first, the entry/exits are represented as a single price, but I usually average in and out of trades, so what is printed below is my average cost-price and average proceeds-price for each trade. Also, I don't really understand the commission schedule from the broker, except that most trades cost me $3 in and $3 out, for a total of $6/trade. Since commissions are computed seperately, I am just using a $6/trade cost basis so I can get this thing posted without a damn calculator. Commissions may have been a buck or two higher on some of the trades. Finally, this is not my typical day, it's about 3-4 times better then my typical day in terms of net profits. Nonetheless, it's a living.
Stock Shares Entry Exit Gross Profit
MRVC..... 800.. 4.16... 4.22... $48
HITK.....1000.. 23.95.. 24.79.. $840
PHRM......500.. 17.16.. 16.96.. -$100
GRMN......500.. 74.58.. 74.85.. $135
KOMG.....1000.. 53.24.. 53.33.. $90
PALM.....1000.. 39.8... 39.84.. $40
INTX.....2500.. 9.18... 9.21....$75
UNH.......500...56.55...56.55....$0
CCJ.... 2000....38.7....38.74....$80
ESLR....3000.....16.58..17.21...$1890
OXGN....2000.....4.14....4.02...$-240
ENWY....2000....11.13...11.87...$1480
PONR.....500.....31.95...31.92....-$15
GLW.....1000....27.01...27.01....$0
APFC....2000.....6.12....6.56....$880
GG......1000.....27.4...27.41....$10
Total Gain (excludes commissions)...$5213
Total Gain (includes commissions)..$5117
20 comments:
Nice day Allan..!!
I think Cramer could learn a few things from you!
Been looking at your stock picks -- is it too late to get into ARWR and GNBT?
Ann
Hi Allan,
Thanks for sharing this info.
I did a little math and found that you moved about $450000 in and out of positions and were able to juice it for 5000 dollars by achieving a seemingly modest average gain of just over one percent of money invested.
There are questions I want to ask but hesitate as their answers would lead to us knowing other intimate details of your finances.
I guess I can fairly ask it like this--do most of your cumulative gains come through your daytrading efforts or through stocks which you hold for periods of days or longer. Is the answer different for periods before the bird flu basket and that which followed it.
Whatever the answer to that question, it leads me to another--what is the benefit of dealing with both strategies rather than tightly focusing more mental energies and more monies on one or the other.
Thanks.
Thanks for the post Allan ... It is very generous of you to share this info. I am curious if you keep your daytrading funds separate from your 'swing/investment' funds?
OT: what are your current thoughts on WAVR and SMTR.
Thanks,
-cor
Ann, it's not too late for either ARWR or GNBT.
A
I am curious if you keep your daytrading funds separate from your 'swing/investment' funds?
I have one account that is strictly daytrading and one account that is a mix of day-trades and longer term holds.
As for WAVR and SMTR, the latter got pulled down by the DANA bankruptcy and neither one has done well, if you need the money for other picks, I would switch out, if you don't, be patient.
A
do most of your cumulative gains come through your daytrading efforts or through stocks which you hold for periods of days or longer.
I consider daytrading my business, generating a consistent return day in day out, The longer term trades are more like an investment portfolio. Over the longer term, say one year's time, the gains from daytrading eclipse the appreciation in the B&H portfolio.
what is the benefit of dealing with both strategies rather than tightly focusing more mental energies and more monies on one or the other.
My daytrading is pretty mechanical and as you could probably tell, they are very short term oriented. Even with 16 trades in a day, I have plenty of time to look for portfolio stocks, write blogs and participate on a few Internet forums. In other words, I have plenty of time for both strategies right now, so there is no benefit that I can see for concentrating on one strategy or the other.
A
Hi Allan,
Impressive day. I'd hate to be your accountant :) On the same note, what would be the after tax number on that gain? I'm not a big fan of paying Uncle Sam more than need be. I assume you have a strategy for year end tax purposes. Correct?
Allan and others, interactive brokers was mentioned and you trade penny/pinks. Last time I checked at IB they said they only supported some OB/PK stocks which sounded like a limitation to me so I didn't check further.
Allan I think you said you hold/trade NNVC.PK and other pennys. I'm looking for a good broker that also doesn't have the $0.005/share fee and trades the OB/PK stocks I trade in.
Any suggestions for a broker? I also need this broker to have a good trading website.
Thanks, curt
what would be the after tax number on that gain?
About 35% less.
I assume you have a strategy for year end tax purposes. Correct?
Yes. Make so damn much during the year that it doesn't matter.
A
Any suggestions for a broker? I also need this broker to have a good trading website.
curt, I use IB for my daytrading and Schwab for everything else, plus some spillover daytrading. I had to buy NNVC in Schwab anyway since IB didn't have it available. I pay Schwab $9.95 in and $9.95 out, so it's three times more expensive then IB, but with success comes the cavalier attitude, so what? End of year bookkeeping is a snap with both IB and Schwab and most importantly of all, so is trade execution as both brokers have fast and accurate trading platforms. There may be a cheaper broker with as good or better a trading platform out there, but I am satisfied with what I have and am in no hurry to fill out more forms, learn new trading platforms and deal with any kind of learning curves to save a few bucks per trade.
Nonetheless, if anyone has any suggestions for curt, please post them here.
Thank you so much Allan,
I have gone over your work and it sure seems that you have a gift. Question, Are these day trades, "insider buys"? Because most of them do not seem to be supported by the example of your short term day trading chart that you posted last May. I was looking more so for examples of trades utilizing your "May 05" day trading chart.
Thank you so much again and Blessings,
Frank
Thanks again,
Frank
Frank, a few of the trades from Monday's list were insider-buys, but most were not. Nor are any of my day-trades based on charts or technical indicators of any kind.
A
NVAX -
RE: Significant Insider Selling last week
http://www.nvax101.com might explain the reason.
K
What is this, 20 questions?
A
Allan,
Thanks for all the insights.
Can't wait for next week!
Ann
mike, for daytrading, this is where to start: it's a lot easier for me to determine where the next 10 cent move in a stock is then in the next 10% move. If you can buy 1000 shares and make 10 cents and do that 10 times a day, that's a $1K a day. So start my thinking about scalping dimes multiple times a day.
A
Allan,
Thanks for sharing.
Can you share with us how you decide on when to enter.
For e.g. you mentioned in one of yr explanations ,your rationale behind buying more PTSC based on the price of 1.40.
Do you look at the current volume, other parameters and what kind of data feeds do you get ? Maybe Level 2 or something better.
Thanks for your inputs !
Sunny.
Sunny, PTSC was/is a longer term hold so the reasons for an entry have little to do with my shorter-term triggers. I get Level 2, but don't really understand how it helps. My daytrading entried are simply based on somethings that occur that make me think a stock is going to have a rash of buyers. It's not any more complicated then that.
I'll try to put of a new blog soon so we can talk about something else. Where shall we go? Another penny stock, some philosophy, an off-color joke, Carmer-bashing, or maybe something political, or better yet, religious.
A
Mike,
You'll like the fellow in this tip, another Mike, who I offer is a close second to Allan for being a helping other traders out type good guy. Check out Mikie's Method at stockhideout.
http://www.stockhideout.com/mike-parkers-method/
I offer that reading every post in the stock school and following Mike Parker specifically would be a helpful start.
Good luck. My wish is that I follow Allan's foot prints out of a regular day job into trading for a living and learning to day trade would be my first todo. IE trading where all the moving parts touch. :)
Cheers, curt
Daytrading seems easy to me as long as you have the capital to be able to buy large quanities of shares....trying to hit the Home run is what I have a problem with....I was get antsy and sell winners kind a early....I made alot of money though on ARWR...and that was before finding this blog....I bought GNBT after reading Alan very insightful blog.
Alan, SPAB as been a big mover for me the past 3 days...it may be worthy of a look.
Tucker
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