Welcome in my Trading Report for May 2015.
I implemented new series of articles, in which I describe trading results for the past month. In this report I describe changes in the account, but also which trading parameters underwent changes. In detail I analyze the results and conclusions from changes in the market that affected my results.
The most important events on stock exchange in May
May, i.e. this part of the quarter in which quarterly results are published by companies that I like the most. Two from my strategies – scalping and breakouts, in this period are most often used.
I would divide the May into three periods:
- Up to 18 May
- Between 19 and 22
- After 22 May
If you look at S&P 500 graph of daily interval – you can see that in first and third period the changeability was higher –which immediately translates into better results:
Number of trading days
In April there was 20 trading days. 25 May was a holiday – Memorial Day.
Personally I trade in April in 19 sessions. I missed only 1 session as can be seen – 29 May. I went with my friend to the Wall Street Conference. It was fun 🙂
Events affecting trading
In May there were no events which would affect my trading. As I mentioned at the beginning – I like very much 2 month of every quarter. Due to large number of published company’s quarterly results.
Monthly balance sheet
I finished the May with a result: 13.95%.
Previous month: 9.57%
This is a result including average capital, which in the month scale was invested in opened positions.
Summary result from the beginning of year: 43.71%.
This is a result including average capital, which in the month scale was invested in opened positions.
I have a constant level of used capital. I don’t raise it, because I don’t have such a need – I use solid strategies that are adapted up to specified value of opened position. Invested funds are increased, when I raise the volume of opened positions. Therefore, it is included in the monthly balance sheet.
Generated profits in a given month are paid from the trading account.
Transaction statistics
Below I present analysis of concluded transactions. This analysis is carried out by me every day before the session. Below I place an analysis in the scale of entire month along with information which from my point of view are the most important and to which I pay attention modifying my strategy in subsequent sessions.
In April I made 3674 transactions to the total number of 181 stocks. Majority of transactions were carried out with a use of scalping and breakouts/breakdowns strategies.
Average value of a single position
Average value to opened position: 1283 shares.
Previous month: 1183 shares. Increase of 8.45% average position value.
Average position slightly increased. I usually opened positions with standard value of 1500 shares – adding next portion of 1500. It was different with the first fill and therefore no average below 1500 shares. Above all it resulted from containing definitely larger number of transactions with orders at the market (removing liquidity). Recently algorithms on used by me smart routers don’t work quite as effectively, hence very often % of fill effectiveness is low. What does it mean? I see on the sale side on different ECN e.g. 10 000 share, I want to get filling up to 3000 shares, I hit with this order to the offer side. And suddenly somebody forestalls in milliseconds, taking the majority of orders at offer. In the end I receive only a fraction of what I planned e.g. 1400 shares. In the past month this situation very often repeated, therefore opened value of the position hasn’t often as I expected. Similar situation was in April.
Average time of keeping all positions.
In May: 3 minutes 29 seconds (in April 5 minutes 12 seconds).
With division into positions:
- long: 2 minutes 42 seconds
- short: 4 minutes 22 seconds
It corresponds to my strategies which I use. Vast majority of my short positions is longer built and their time is nearly twice longer than positions played on heights.
In case of heading positions I use above all scalping entry, i.e. very short.
The situation didn’t change in comparison to April, because such are assumptions of strategies played by me.
Transaction effectiveness
Effectiveness in May: 50.94% (in April 54.30%)
With division into positions:
- long: 50.13%
- short: 51.86%
The effectiveness of short transactions is greater than long. In May my effectiveness was slightly reduced. Mainly in second period of the month – between 19 and 22 May.
To 10 opened positions 5-6 is profitable positions. For years I keep my effectiveness on the level mentioned above.
Effectiveness with division into hours
In the past month the hourly effectiveness changed along with increase in number of companies publishing quarterly results. For years on the blog I note that I mainly trading up to companies with results. Therefore, the best time for me is the first and last trading hour (sometimes it extends to first and last 2 hours).
How it looked like in last month:
The greatest effectiveness:
- 20 first minutes from the startup
- between 1:30 pm and 3:10 pm
Define decline in effectiveness was visible between 9:50 am and 10:10 am. It began in the first week of May – most break-through in this time was quickly extinguished. Therefore in next periods, I gave up trading within these 20 minutes. In the end I conducted only 58 transactions in May between 9:50 am and 10:10 am. I don’t like to struggle with the market. If in this period I can’t see profits = I don’t play. If again I see an increase in the effectiveness, I return to play in this period.
Effectiveness with division into weekdays
Basically it is possible to say the weekday was for me indifferent. The effectiveness was practically identically. Nearly 50-51 %.
Fixed costs from trading
Below I present costs that involve use of: platform, quoting, additional orders of shorts from the HTB list (hard to borrow).
- Trading platform: 130$/month
- Quoting: 285.74$/month
- Sterling Scanner: 40$/month
- Trade Ideas scanner: 43$/month
- Benzinga PRO news: 39$/month
- Hard to borrow list: 55$
Fixed costs is a platform and quoting (in case of quoting I use all data, hence the maximum price). Additionally, I use scanners and system of news.
Hard to borrow – it’s cost of order additional shorts, which aren’t free available in a given session.
Note that I don’t treat the above mentioned charges as an expense. Of course, if they weren’t – I wouldn’t be mad 🙂 However, they constitute an indispensable monthly element. The same as loss positions, there are costs which I incur in order to use fully my strategies.
Thank you for reviewing my report trading. In consecutive month there will be other! Meanwhile, feel free to add comments below!
Described above statistics concern the account, which I use as part of RemoteDayTraderGroup.com; It is group of Proprietary Trading type – focused on trading on American stock exchanges of NYSE | NASDAQ | AMEX.
