Tip From the Geek April Recap – Profiting Once Again With The Geek
April Trading with the Geek Recap – Another Month, Another Profit
I can’t believe that yet another month has gone by. It seems like just yesterday that 2015 got its start and now we are in the fifth month of the year. With time flying like this I’m not sure I have enough time to do all it is I want. Good thing the Geek Account is still making money. Last month I was happy to break even, this month I rebound from stagnancy and created a nice little profit for the month. The calendar dictated four Monday’s in April which equals out to 20 tips in the month. Out of those tips I managed to produce 13 wins, a winning rate of 65%.
To be honest, I thought last month was going to be worse than it was. There was a lot of volatility in the market which put my trend following strategies in danger. The beauty of volatility is that it is a traders best friend; when the market is moving we can make money from it. In the end I stuck to my guns and kept with the trends although I had to adjust my approach in a few cases. The good news is that my favorite indicators, stochastic and MACD, are both great for swing trading as well as trend following. My total cost of trading for the month was $10,000 with a return of $12,025 and a net profit just over 20%.
Total Cost Of Trading 20X$500 = $10,000
Total Return On Investments 13X$925 = $12,025
Net Return On Investments = $2,205 (+20.25%)
Monday, April 6th
This was a tough week for the market. We had just gotten a round of totally unexpected weak labor data and were going into an earnings season with negative expectations for earnings growth. The US market sold off, found support, and made a bounce. I traded the trends this week and did quite well, all 5 trades closed in the money.
Monday, April 13th
This week didn’t get much better, economic data was weak and confirmed expected economic declines in the 1st quarter. On top of all that volatility was picking up in oil prices, the Iran nuclear deal was falling apart and earnings were still not expected to be good. I utilized trend following entries using what in retrospect were weak signals and only managed to squeak out two wins, on oil and the euro. Both of those trades were short, only 3 days, which played a big part in why they closed in the money.
Monday, April 20th
This was the week before the FOMC meeting. The market had wound itself up into a tight little wedge that looked more than ready to pop. Many of the markets were sitting on or near support at the beginning of the week so with FOMC expectations and earnings that were beginning to look a lot better than expected the markets were heading higher. This week 4 out 5 trades finished in the money, gold was the only one to buck the trend. The dollar was weakening, which should have lifted the metal, but unusual bond activity drew buyers away.
Monday, April 27th
The week of the Fed had the US markets near the tops of recent ranges. The meeting was expected to give a more clear indication of when interest rates would rise The FOMC did not give clarity, they were as clearly unclear as they have been all along. They have stuck to their target, the period between June and September, while providing enough commentary and “speak” to drive market volatility in both directions. I only profited from 2 trades this week, gold and the yen.