Portfolio best performers

[GreatPig]

I've been running my paper portfolios now for just over a month, starting on 9th July. I have two, one general one based on $100K invested, and a second one based on the rules of the ASX game (actually started on 19th July). Both have been using $30 commissions, as all purchases have been under $10K.

Currently my best performers in the general portfolio are:

GBR (Gowings Retail) - acquired for $0.27 on 9th July and currently $0.34 (a gain of about 26% excluding brokerage).

MNR (Minotaur Resources) - acquired for $1.18 on 24th July and currently $1.37 (a gain of about 16%).

RDF (Redflex) - acquired for $2.61 on 15th July and currently $3.01 (a gain of about 15%).

My best performers in the ASX game portfolio are:

BSL (Bluescope Steel) - acquired for $7.30 on 19th July and currently $7.81 (a gain of about 7%).

ALL (Aristocrat Leisure) - acquired for $5.20 on 19th July and currently $5.48 (a gain of about 5%).

MAP (Macquarie Airports) - acquired for $2.14 on 19th July and currently $2.21 (a gain of about 3%).

Overall though, both portfolios are still in the red (counting what I've already gotten rid of): the general one by about $4000 and the game one by about $780. If I used a brokerage of $19.95, which I believe you can get for up to $10K purchases, then the figures would be looking somewhat better, but probably still a bit in the red.

Hopefully this will get better as my charting and trading method improves .

Cheers,
GP

 

[still_in_school]

Hi GreatPig,

from what im reading, thats pretty impressive, even if your just starting out... the main important thing i like very much, in what you done is, how you have protected your capital, and quite honsestly if you were to average out both of them, your loss is quite minimal, but the amount of capital at stake, seems to be well followed and protected...

Congratulations, your doing well

Cheers,
sis

 

[GreatPig]

Thanks, sis.

I've limited myself to mostly less than $5000 per stock at purchase time. A few were a bit above that, the most being $7,700 for WDC which I dropped 5 days later for a loss of $265 (it was going down and I decided that at $15+ a share, it was too expensive for what I wanted anyway). Most (simulated) purchases have probably been in the $3000 - $4000 range, which makes the brokerage more significant but allows more shares in the portfolio.

I seem to have a bit of the anti-Midas touch (everything I buy immediately turns to sh*t ;D) but quite a few are getting into the black now.

What is becoming obvious is that one bad choice can quickly blow the profits on a number of nicely increasing stocks, so tight control over losses is essential. That was one thing that was emphasised in the books I read too. So now I've gotta get my stop-loss strategy in place and working better.

Cheers,
GP

 

[RichKid]

Set your profit and stop loss levels before you enter a trade and stick to it. Set targets (ie 25% return, or 5% maximum loss). If you're not comfortable with the resistance and support levels and other characteristics of a stock don't go in, there are lost of opportunitities out there, wait for the one that suits you.

Sounds simple but it's not (as I've found out! D'oh!!!). GOOD LUCK!

 

[RALPH5]

Set your profit and stop loss levels before you enter a trade and stick to it. Set targets (ie 25% return, or 5% maximum loss). If you're not comfortable with the resistance and support levels and other characteristics of a stock don't go in, there are lost of opportunitities out there, wait for the one that suits you.

Sounds simple but it's not (as I've found out! D'oh!!!). GOOD LUCK!

Good advise but unfortunatly easier said than done. Trying to eliminate
the emotion from the trade is the key.

Cheers Ralph

 

[wayneL]

Have not read this so cannot comment yet, but a friend sent it to me.

It might help

http://www.nqoos.com/Articles_and_Reprints/EmotionFreeTradingBook.pdf

cheers

 

[RichKid]

Good advise but unfortunatly easier said than done. Trying to eliminate
the emotion from the trade is the key.

Cheers Ralph

Spot on! You can see why I sound like Homer Simpson when I say D'oh!
I keep telling myself to do what I planned before entering the trade but I end up doing something different (like poor old Homer). But I'm learning and fortunately I'm facing it rather than ignoring the problem. I'm getting better, but slowly. The key is to treat it like a business and to be cold. I'm now making protecting my capital a big priority. Without that as a goal it's easy to just focus on the upside alone. Next step is knowing when to take profits. I also try to limit my positions to six.

 

[RichKid]

Have not read this so cannot comment yet, but a friend sent it to me.

It might help

http://www.nqoos.com/Articles_and_Reprints/EmotionFreeTradingBook.pdf

cheers

Thanks very much Wayne, I've had a quick look at it and it looks good. I've seen some other basic booklets use a similar easy-to-use format (ie two traders scenario). I've found that one of my weaknesses (on looking back) is greed and refusal to take a loss (trying to fight the market).

Thanks again, the booklet is sure to help!

 

[JetDollars]

A very interesting topic. I also paper trading at the moment. Having 2 portfolios with different strategy.

Portfolio No.1: with a capital of just $10k:
a. 50% for ASX000-ASX100 (Low Risk)
b. 30% for ASX100-ASX300 (Medium Risk)
c. 20% for ASX300-ASX??? (High Risk - Speculation)
It's currently returning just 7% in total after 15th July 2004.

Portfolio No.2: with a capital of $100k:
a. Only Top ASX100 with highly liquidity (for income generation)
Generating a very nice return using covered calls, but some of the stock is very shaky at the moment like NCP.