Geek June Trading Recap – One Door Closes Another One Opens
It was sad to learn the Communitraders crew had decided to shut down the demo platform but I was not surprised. As fun as it was and as useful a tool for new traders it just didn’t match up with the types of options found at the local broker. Not because they choose to do something that was so wildly different from the norm just because the “norm” wasn’t so normal. Trading styles, options, expiries and more differences exists between brokers on platforms run by SpotOption and Techfinancials and neither of those quite match up with the stand-alones like Anyoption (closed) Ayrex and others. Even myself, I trade at NADEX and had switched most of my trading to that platform and their demo account so what did I do? I doubled down and have focused all my efforts on NADEX. I’m still going to give tips for spot traders alongside but I will no longer be keeping tabs on those results, just the NADEX results.
Total Number Of Trades Executed = 18
Total Number Of Trades Closed At A Profit = 10
Win Ratio = 55%
Gross Profit = $48.90
Profit Net of Commissions = (-$221.11)
July, Mixed Results At The Dawn Of A New Age
The NADEX account works a little different then a standard spot style account. For one, I am using limit orders for the Geek Account which means that all trades will get executed. For example, in June, there were 4 Monday’s which means 20 tips only 2 of those tips did not trigger a trade. This means only 18 trades were made. Of those 18 I closed 10 at a profit. Some of them profited near or greater than 100%, some closer to like 30% because I closed them early which brings up another difference. My profits may have been higher if I had held all the positions to expiry… they may have been smaller too. PS, in the Geek Account I am trading 10 lots at a time with a target price range of $40 to $60.
What Happened In June?
Well, the market almost had a June Swoon but not quite, Communitraders demo shut-down and I refocused on NADEX. In terms of the market there was volatility in abundance even though the VIX itself remained rather low. On an asset by asset basis gold prices decoupled from the dollar, old correlations in forex have changed, oil prices are in correction and tech fell out favor.
Week One, June 5th
“This week will be mostly about the ECB who are expected to get a little hawkish this time around. The risk is that data has weakened in the last month which may cause them to hold off on any moves for now, and possibly sound cautionary in the statements/press conference.” Boy were they ever, and then that one-off statement from Draghi later in the month… geesh, he killed the dollar bull but I was still able to win 5 out 5 trades.
Week Two, June 12th
“This is going to be a tough week. With the FOMC on Wednesday, CPI and PPI data the outlook for future rate hikes could see some wild swings. This could send the dollar in wild swings and the equities market in wild swings.” And I was right, FOMC decisions were as expected and inflation was weak which sent expectations skittering like water on a hot plate. I didn’t do as well as the first week but not that bad either, 4 out 5 wins.
Week Three, June 19th
“The big mover will be political news of which there should be plenty. Elections in France and the start of Brexit negotiations dominated news in Europe as the week opened and we can expect these events along with Trump administration hooplah to continue moving the markets all week.” The markets were moving all right, but not quite like I thought. I only had 3 trades execute this week and all 3 of them failed. The 2 that didn’t execute would have been winners if I hadn’t been so stingy with my limit.
Week Four, June 25th
“This could be an easy week… for market watchers sitting on the sidelines. For us traders actively engaged in the market not so much. There is little to move the market in terms of data or earnings so what we have left is a lot of Fed Speak, geo-politics and falling oil prices to contend with. Needless to say there could be some volatility and a lot of whipsaw/false-signals shooting through the market.” And I was right, I should have sat out that week. All 5 trades executed but only 1 made any profits, that was the yen, yay yen!