June Qtr 2020
A preface to posting my quarterly review. I would first like to note that I am always very hesitant of posting profits and losses out there for the world. There are many reasons why, but mainly because its personal and trading is a personal game. I am however aware that as a trader putting myself out there, I need to add some sort of legitimacy to my public profile. Please know that I am not promoting myself as the best trader in the world (or the worst for that matter lol) the fastest, most consistent, ballsiest, or biggest in size. There are plenty of traders and investors doing much better, trading bigger size, being more constant and taking ballzier trades than I. I am but a small fish in a big sea. I am posting what I am, and what I know, and what I am and what I know is..... well, this. Take it or leave it.
April started INSTANTLY feeling different in the book, you could feel the market bid almost from the brand new start of the quarter. It took me a couple of weeks to adjust to the sentiment change as everything bounced. April month was my my worst of the quarter, but happy with identifying the issues and changing with the market.
May was much better and the best of the quarter, as the follow on from April came through and there was many opportunities across the board. Not being primarily a large cap trader, I feel I did well in this market, trading long and short and all over the names and sectors. The large cap stocks had become my bread and butter for a couple of months and that was something I am super happy about.
June was shaping up to be one of my best ever, almost up $100k in first two weeks, and I was really trying to press the foot down to make the month count and really have a good quarter. I must admit (i think i tweeted about it, but I was really starting to feel the burnout. I felt tired, worn out and not really motivated to push good days to great, and lacking the drive that i usually have to really go hard when the market is giving out. I pushed a little too hard on overnight positions and took a $30k hit from overnight positions gaping hard against me. This not only really effected my month PnL wise it really took wind out of my sails. I can see the inconsistency creep in after that loss. I would however TAKE THOSE TRADES AGAIN, as the setup was there. In the future, I think a market hedge would have been wise with addition of a couple of longs in this overly volatile market. Prior to that day I had one down day in 30 trading days an only 2 in 37 trading days prior. After that big overnight loss I had 5 days in 10 that were flat to slightly negative. So that really did affect my trading weather I want to admit it or not. Its amazing how one mistake can really throw your trading off, with out that -$30K day the month is about +$125k. Then if id held consistency because I didnt have the losing day and then even on that day was positive, its clear how easily could have been in the $150k-$200k range for the month, that single decision on those overnights, really makes a big difference. So a goal next quarter is to not so heavily take directional trades in such a whippy volatile market, Add hedges in place to counter any serious reversal.
Moving on, I'm still happy I was able to get some ok wins throughout this month and the quarter.
The focus on consistency is still a key focus for me and I did achieve this goal, and will continue to be my goal moving forward. In my View, consistency is king.
Key drivers for me this quarter has been identifying sector moves, identifying underlying strength or weakness and then filtering it down through to trades that really work for me. Preferably trading names day in day out works best for me, so continue to look for stronger themes in the broader market and press on with continual movers.
I will endeavor to push my sizing on trades that are working, push that sizing hard!
