Stepping back from trading for a bit, shy of TFSA strat .
Hey guys , I have been losing my edge on swing trading strat last few days because of bad order placement or perhaps it could have been a some mistakes on the brokers part but LW and BOTZ were sold below their stops because the order was apparently non exist ant in the brokers system and I missed it , as a result those two trades lost more than they should have.
I have had this happen once before and I received a message from IBKR that it was their bad , so maybe this is the same this time around but in any case I have also been on the road , working 7 days a week and very focused on my exterior tile work I have on the go for some very good clients . I normally am able to find the time to manage my swing positions efficiently but in this case I can see I made MCHI trade , which should have been avoided and then shortly after I had this incident occur where I missed that stops were not in .
So , I have 3 trades where I lost more than I should have and 2 of which ( BOTZ and LW ) that it seems it may have been my fault somehow screwing up the order . Maybe I entered as a day expiry instead of Good till cancelled ? but in any case I realized that my limited time has broke me from my stock schedule for the first time in ages and I decided to step back for a bit here , as my whole summer and fall is booked with pretty demanding outdoor Tile installations , my job , where I am up against the weather, access paths, and have lots of responsibility to make sure I do a good job that I am proud of and know it will last .
So , I sold my stocks in Swing trade account for the time being , its still up a tiny bit ( 1.7% I believe ) and now in cash . And I will still run the TFSA Strat because its a lot easier to manage in the background . Overall looking at a sum of accounts , the net value as of now is just under a 8% gain though and so for this I am pretty grateful. My SLOW strat has outperformed my swing strat as of this point, which is up around 12% on its own this year :) . But I just want to say that I am not by any means completely stepping away from the market I will still make sure to watch my names and an overall picture as well as take any and all TFSA account signals .
I really got the rules and procedures down for my swing strat in the last year of focus and I have found it tricky to hold on to gains although the system does work and I believe in it . But following it perfectly is imperative to holding on to gains and this last little period has been a good example on how just 3 bad trades can take what feels like a good gain and take it away . So I will remember that as a lesson and I will most definitely continue my path . I also realized that for the most part , if I had just sold the whole account when I felt like I was having a great run , I probably would have done much better than holding though like my strategy does . So , this has given me the idea that when I start back up with the ability to have laser focus again , I want to run two accounts that basically take the same trades , but one uses statistical and "gut" equity returns to sell at will and go to cash to lock in gains , I have a feeling that will do great but since I will have 2 mostly identical accounts , it will also allow me to hold in another account to trend follow stronger names that want me to stay in . I don't know how that will work but I think it might be a good solution to lock in more profits while still allowing the same trades to stay in long term moves .
Oh one last thing , I am going to look in to it with IBKR if I did or did not screw up the orders with BOTZ and LW like I mentioned , I think that I might have not , and maybe it was actually IBKR's screw up , because it happened before and took them a week after to email me a " our bad " notification . It would honestly make me feel a lot better to find out that I did actually do my due diligence with those orders and stops were actually in . But in the meantime I need to assume that I got too busy with work and neglected my strategy and that a good reason to cease and desist for now , no point in self sabotaging out own strategies because we neglect them due to being too busy right ... I will try to provide and update on what did happen with LW and BOTZ stop orders too , going to call IBKR on my way into work today . Take care .
Have a good summer ~
I have had this happen once before and I received a message from IBKR that it was their bad , so maybe this is the same this time around but in any case I have also been on the road , working 7 days a week and very focused on my exterior tile work I have on the go for some very good clients . I normally am able to find the time to manage my swing positions efficiently but in this case I can see I made MCHI trade , which should have been avoided and then shortly after I had this incident occur where I missed that stops were not in .
So , I have 3 trades where I lost more than I should have and 2 of which ( BOTZ and LW ) that it seems it may have been my fault somehow screwing up the order . Maybe I entered as a day expiry instead of Good till cancelled ? but in any case I realized that my limited time has broke me from my stock schedule for the first time in ages and I decided to step back for a bit here , as my whole summer and fall is booked with pretty demanding outdoor Tile installations , my job , where I am up against the weather, access paths, and have lots of responsibility to make sure I do a good job that I am proud of and know it will last .
So , I sold my stocks in Swing trade account for the time being , its still up a tiny bit ( 1.7% I believe ) and now in cash . And I will still run the TFSA Strat because its a lot easier to manage in the background . Overall looking at a sum of accounts , the net value as of now is just under a 8% gain though and so for this I am pretty grateful. My SLOW strat has outperformed my swing strat as of this point, which is up around 12% on its own this year :) . But I just want to say that I am not by any means completely stepping away from the market I will still make sure to watch my names and an overall picture as well as take any and all TFSA account signals .
I really got the rules and procedures down for my swing strat in the last year of focus and I have found it tricky to hold on to gains although the system does work and I believe in it . But following it perfectly is imperative to holding on to gains and this last little period has been a good example on how just 3 bad trades can take what feels like a good gain and take it away . So I will remember that as a lesson and I will most definitely continue my path . I also realized that for the most part , if I had just sold the whole account when I felt like I was having a great run , I probably would have done much better than holding though like my strategy does . So , this has given me the idea that when I start back up with the ability to have laser focus again , I want to run two accounts that basically take the same trades , but one uses statistical and "gut" equity returns to sell at will and go to cash to lock in gains , I have a feeling that will do great but since I will have 2 mostly identical accounts , it will also allow me to hold in another account to trend follow stronger names that want me to stay in . I don't know how that will work but I think it might be a good solution to lock in more profits while still allowing the same trades to stay in long term moves .
Oh one last thing , I am going to look in to it with IBKR if I did or did not screw up the orders with BOTZ and LW like I mentioned , I think that I might have not , and maybe it was actually IBKR's screw up , because it happened before and took them a week after to email me a " our bad " notification . It would honestly make me feel a lot better to find out that I did actually do my due diligence with those orders and stops were actually in . But in the meantime I need to assume that I got too busy with work and neglected my strategy and that a good reason to cease and desist for now , no point in self sabotaging out own strategies because we neglect them due to being too busy right ... I will try to provide and update on what did happen with LW and BOTZ stop orders too , going to call IBKR on my way into work today . Take care .
Have a good summer ~
艾力克~