Failing A Little Bit

I have not played this correction as well as I know I could.  I tend to compound mistakes.  I think this is how people blow up.  I have enough risk management in place to prevent this from happening, but my performance, the scoreboard, clearly reflects my loose fundamental game play.  In a very boring way, I run through highlight trades thus far this year at the bottom of this post.

I had to override Elroi today.  I simply cannot stand idle and watch the algo be wrong.  It does not have context built in, and a few other very key components that would make him more robust.  The question becomes, is he broken?  To be honest, I do not think he is.  There simply need a few more variables in the code to avoid recurring pitfalls.  I still really like the information the algorithm provides.  I can see him trigger and get pinched and I know other traders are likely in the same position.  It helps me get a sense of order flow.  But it needs to be more robust and amorphous to market conditions.

Do not think that I aim to fail via broken robots that tip me off by being wrong.  Or that I get excited about losing money on a bad trade.  The process, however, the data one gathers from failure is incredibly informative.  A specialist is someone who has made every mistake that can be made in a very narrow field of work.  There are data points baked in that you will never learn unless you go out and do the work yourself.  I am frozen in remember, thus I might as well write trading logic inside the mother ship.  I enjoy the process.

My book is 75% long stocks, 3% February call options, 7% TZA, and 15% cash.  That’s a decent look, in my humble opinion.

It was a great week to trade the market.  Really I have enjoyed the whole year, although my book wouldn’t reflect it.  I am -5% thus far on the year.  To be honest, I am happy to be there.  I have been rolling through earnings season like Wiley Coyote, drunk and shooting at any stock that moved.  This gets kind of boring, but I figured I would share some highlights of the churning I have done year to date:

AAPL, OESX – guillotine

CREE – fake out

YGE – I bailed, not bad

FB – Frank Abagnale

TWTR – was tiny, bought yesterday’s close at 50.02, sold the early prints like a clown baby.  Now I want more, slowly.

GOGO – capitulated Monday

Could be worse, could be better, but we are always moments away from another breakthrough at the Raul test laboratory.

Have a great weekend.

PPT, FTW

If you enjoy the content at iBankCoin, please follow us on Twitter