To all of us lucky enough to witness a new year, hello. And may we not waste this blessing.
I've promised some of you that I will collate some of my trades in 2017 for your dissecting pleasure.
Trend-Following
ANI was sold on the same day of the snap.
This GERI trade was the only time I went all-in on one stock and would be probably be the last. I realized that my heart just couldn't take it yet. This snap was taken at the highs, but I was able to sell this on EOD at 1.69, 45%.
Notice the time of the snap, 2:41 AM? I went to bed right after and slept like a baby. Little did I know that come sunrise, COL would royally screw up its clients. Ito yung sinumpang araw na 'yon. A little past 9:30 in the morning, COL just flat-out froze, along with all my hopes and dreams. Meanwhile, PXP was dropping like waterfalls. Sold intraday at 8.55, 51%.
MAC Round 1.
MAC Round 2.
MAC Round 3.
MAC Round 4.
I just had to milk it. This stock is a trend-follower's dream. I wonder if 2018 would gift us with another one like this.
Swing
Initially had a TF objective, but the set-up did not materialize. Sold intraday.
Again, this was TF material but the stock showed signs of weakness and I normally would ride it out but my AEP was high. It couldn't take the beating. You know what they say, last one in, first one out.
ANI was also a supposed TF pero mabagal pa sa pila ng MRT on a rush-hour. There were other good setups materializing at that time so I had to sell the laggard to make room for a faster horse. IDC, sold intraday via minute charting.
Re-entered IDC during a quick consolidation. Sold intraday. On hindsight, I should've trend-followed the heck out of this stock. I would have had less stress and bigger profits. Hindsight is always 20/20 they say. But here lies the beauty of keeping a trading journal, you get to answer the questions: What did I do right? What did I do wrong? What could I have done better? So many traders take this practice for granted and fail to realize that this is their missing recipe to improvement.
Had to sell intra because I won't be able to check the market the entire day, and I didn't trust MJC's volatility enough to leave it unmonitored.
Jerk (also swing but bought on EOD, sold on the following day's open, still a work-in-progress)
Ceiling play.
Here's to all of you employees out there asking if profitable trading is possible while you're maintaining a full-time day job. I ended 2017 at 112.84% while fully-employed, rotating between the day shift and the night shift every 2 months. It was NOT easy. I've been very familiar with sleepless nights, an almost-declining health and a sub-par work performance. Don't get me wrong, I did not neglect my responsibilities. I was still doing pretty solid at work, just not as much as I used to. When I decided to make trading my priority, I had to accept that my job had to take a backseat. No one can serve two masters at the same time, after all.
So yes. You can trade while you work. But you have to be prepared to make the sacrifices.