Geek December Recap – Santa Claus Came To Town
HO HO HO, Santa Claus Came To Town
December was certainly a good month. Cold weather, holiday spirit, friends, family, the new baby, lots of food, I did some bike riding and of course trading. Trends established in November carried through into December before topping out in the final week of the month. The good thing for me is that I took a week off this month which happened to be the very week I just mentioned, which means I missed out on an opportunity to lose money on trades I would likely have made. Because trends were so strong I got a little aggressive with my NADEX trades. Quite a few were OTM positions that returned in excess of 100%. My best is the one I think it was the SPX where I bought a call for $38, closed for $100 and made 163% profit.
Total Cost Of Trading = $7500
Total Return On Trading = $10,175
Net Return = $2,675 or 36% ROI
December was a short month this year, only 4 Mondays and really only 4 weekends between Thanksgiving and Christmas which makes for a short holiday season. I took a week off so I only made 15 tips, 5 each week, but those tips were juicy indeed. My win rate was 73%, well above my average and a nice little present for me and the little family. My total cost of trading was $7,500 and my total return on trading was $10,175 which equates to a net return of 36% on my trading for the month, on the spot account. My returns in the NADEX account are a little over 100% and this is for 2 reasons. The first is that I can close positions early to lock in profits or cut losses and the second is the opportunity for explosive returns, returns that can reach 200% or more if you pick the right position at the right time. In case you were wondering, it is possible for you to trade NADEX too. They take accounts from all over the world, you can find out more in our review.
What Happened In December?
The biggest news that happened in December was central bank related. The ECB held their rates steady, extended their asset purchase program and announced a Taper. The BOJ held steady as well. The FOMC raised rates for the first time in a year and upped their stance on future rate hikes, enhancing the economic outlook and strengthening the dollar. This reacted with rising oil prices, supported by OPEC news (the “deal”), and the ongoing Trump Rally to deliver new all time highs for the equity markets, new long term highs for the dollar, new highs for oil, new lows for gold and just a generally good trading environment. That about sums it up. And there was a holiday. And the year ended.
Week One December 5th, 2016
“Neither the ECB or the BOJ are expected to do anything, their talk could move the market in a near term kind of a way, it is the FOMC to be wary of. They are expected to raise rates at this meeting, a sign of economic strength and rising profits in the financial sector. Near term trends should remain in place for equities, the dollar and its related markets are likely to see some volatility.” And was I right. The ECB set the dollar up, the FOMC batted it out of the park and the BOJ missed the catch and let the dollar slide in or a new all time high. I won four out of my five trades this week, only losing out on oil and that because of the shitty old OPEC hooplah.
Week Two December 12th, 2016
“The FOMC meets once again and in the words of Stan Lee, “’nuff said”. Seriously though, this could and is likely to be a big week for the market. The Trump rally is still alive and kicking and with the FOMC set to raise rates, nearly 100% chance, it looks like the economy and earnings are set to grow over the next 4 to 8 years. That’s pretty dam awesome and very bullish, in my humble opinion.” Yup, right again. The FOMC raised rates and confirmed economic strength with a hawkish position… and the market hit a new all time high. I won four trades this week too, only missing out on oil, again because of OPEC hooplah.
Week Three December 19th, 2016
“The Trump rally may have lost its steam but this is only the beginning of a long period of secular growth.” The rally did indeed take a breather in the week following Christmas, and good too, it needed a rest. The good news is that it didn’t do it until AFTER Christmas which means most of my trades this week were good, three out of five. I lost out on oil, OPEC is my excuse, and also on gold when it began to retrace back to trend.