Monday, December 31, 2007

2007. The year that was

2007 leaves a bitter sweet memory for me. It was the worst of times and at the same time, the best of times.

The worst of 2007. This year marked the closure and the ending of a dream...Ascend investment club. The club started with a lot of promise 2 years ago with the dream of building a small stake into a 7 digit account but like all dreams and wishes, some will go unfulfilled and die in our memory. It was a grandeur idea with some friends to ride the gravy train (that was my trading) and jump off before it stops. However, right after it started, I went deep down to a deep freeze called drawdown…that trader's illness that happen in all of us. A few losses turned into more losses as we/I tried to force results and discontentment led to withdrawals and loss friends. By the time it’s over, I just decided to cut my losses, cough up the club's losses and return the original amount to each of members. I learned my lesson, chalked up a few more rules to live by, reduced the number of my friends, and started over. And I'm sure they'll be madder as hell when they learn that they just jumped out right at the bottom...just when my returns started to accelerate.

The best of 2007. There are many great things that I am thankful for.

My loving family. Friends who have always been around through good and bad times.

A great turn-around in my trading result as I have dug my self out of the previous year’s sub-par return and finished this year with incredible result. And if my memory and my trading history serve me right, I have just started another great run that could last for years. Since I have started trading I have to 2 great runs and 2 lean runs. Lean run is a year/years of sub-par returns (under 100%) in my main trading account which I sometimes call drawdown. Great run is year/ years when I have multiple 100% return for each of these years.

This blog and the trader friends from all over. For some reason that I completely missed, this blog picked up readers this year. Emails of thank you, questions about trading and a few f..k you email piled up my email-box . I also had the privilege of virtually meeting many traders/ friends from all over the world. And who would not be thankful for Wallstreak?

Leap-forward Capital Investment. After my Ascend investment debacle, I decided to open another LLC account with myself as the major partner and 2 other friends who did not want to withdraw the money from the club as minor partners. This was very important for me because I have always believed and said that I can start and rebuild my portfolio with a small amount. So on September 24, I have opened the account with $17,500 of starting capital. The account balance stands at $46,325.70 at the close of the market today. As I look forward to my future, I'm closely moving to the area of professional money management (ala hedge fund) and this will be my benchmark and my training ground.

Focker. The traderbot that is half done. Even thought my coding has not been completed for this traderbot, the results that it has posted in the last 10 weeks that I have it running are impressive. It returned a very impressive $3,700/week for $25K of capital ($50K of buying power). And with this, a new vision is dancing in my mind….multiple clones of Focker running in every capital market printing money for me while I’m in my own island happily retired.

Have a happy new year!!!

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

What an interesting journey you have taken Pinoy, thanks for sharing. Good luch with your hedge fund!! I trade friends money as well. Thankfully I haven't lost any....yet.

Anonymous said...

Pinoy, thanks for sharing this. Your blog has been very insightful and has helped improve my own trading discipline and results this past year. Keep up the great work and best wishes to an even better 2008!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for sharing your journey with us. Like you, I'm hoping to some day retire on an island of my own and have the stock market fund my living expensive. btw... which platform are you using for your bots?

Anonymous said...

Let us know when the hedge fund opens for business. I know a few wiling to toss 250k each your way. You keep half of profits is ok with us.

MC said...

@Zoomie, how have you been doing man? Have not seen you post in a while. I'm glad I went thru that phase before the club have taken off. Can you imagine what would have happened if we were taking 7 digit account already.

@tvh, happy new year. May 2008 bring us more to be thankful and celebrate.

@atltrader, my traderbot is coded in .NET (c#,ASP) and the orders go thru a prop firm. My all our dreams of having our own island come true.

@Anon, I would need another year to get myself and mindset ready to handle OPM. I will be putting up majority of the capital and might open up to others about 25% of the initial capital base. You will know when the time comes.

-MC

Anonymous said...

Cool nifty robot you got there. Can you shed some light on fockers architecture? Is it a fully autonomous bot who scans the market or does he depend on your handcrafted watchlists? Have you used any sort of API?

Thanks for sharing.

Anonymous said...

I have been doing better in life and trading. They both need more work, but I am on the right track.

Anonymous said...

Hi Kabayan. After trading the market for 24 years, I know what you are going through. I experienced many painful events myself. The most serious one was the crash of 1987. We just need to learn from our mistakes and move on. Hope to see here on your next vacation.

Anonymous said...

*golf clap* :)

How was the effort in creating your LLC? I also look to creating an investment LLC with me and my friends.