9/30/2009 9:45 am update

• my systemic 'NDX 30th DoM' may generate a long entry signal for today's close...i say the odds are 50/50...my systemic 'NDX 1st DoM' may generate a long entry signal for tomorrow's close...i say the probability for this is about 98%...since at least one, if not two models, are probably going to give me a full NQ position in the market by end of today or tomorrow, i am inclined to book some gains in my discretionary swing trade of the NQ...
• during the overnight session, i lowered my offer on the 1 NQZ09 contract i am holding from 1736.50 to 1726.50...the morning economic data releases caused some volatility, and the NQ traded as high as 1726.25, 1 tick below my offer...upon returning from my morning errands, i noticed this missed offer, and sold my last NQZ09 contract at market (1722.00)...
• +7.92 NQ points/contract, 1 contract traded...
• currently flat the NQZ09...
• having said all that, i am interested in picking up some NQ if we trade down to the lower portion of the recent daily range...i am bidding for 1 contract at 1708.50, and 1 contract at 1693.50...
• i am still long a full position in the ES via my 'SPY Gopher' systemic trading model, which is due to be exited on thursday's close...since i am long the ES and it is highly co-related to the NQ, i would rather not see the NQ trade down to 1708.50 or 1693.50, but if it does, i will get back in it...
• so over the past 3 days, i have sold the 3 NQZ09 contracts picked up during late last week's downdraft, for a total of about +8.33NQ points/contract, 3 contracts held...at the worst level last week, the NQZ09 traded down to 1688.75...i was averaged in at 1714.08...at that worst level, i was down about 25 points/contract...so my return on these 3 contracts relative to my max intraday drawdown was not good...if i was not holding a full position in the ES or about to get a systemic signal to get long a full position in the NQ, i would have held these 3 contracts for a longer period of time, and ideally exited them at higher prices...this would have increased my profit relative to my drawdown...trading multiple styles on multiple time frames with limited capital sometimes leads to non-ideal entries and/or exits for my discretionary trading...
• trading with oliver at vcm today and tomorrow...

Disclosure: Long ESZ09.

***remember this is an illustration of what i am trading and my thinking...my trading plan may change without notice...this is not a recommendation for you or anyone else, to buy or sell this or any other security...trade at your own risk***

Extreme Frustration, but keeping my chin up.

For the past few days I have been in the process of culling out models that have not been performing well over the past few years. On the surface this is the right thing to do. However 3 of the 4 recently discontinued/suspended models have performed very well over the past few weeks:

Narrow Bar #1 NDX: generated a trade a few days ago that made about 0.5%. I have suspended the Narrow Bar models due to a flaw in the logic.

NDX OU: This morning, I closed the NDX OU trade pre-market for a 0.22% loss. The model has performed poorly over the past few years and for all intents and purposes is declared dead. The after hours futures have gapped up 25 points, so that model would be sitting on a 2.0% gain due to be closed at 4pm Wednesday.

NDX 14th DOM: I discontinued this model 15 minutes before the close of today's markets. The initial concept was sound, but the logic filters no longer made sense to me and the model has been performing poorly over the past few years, so I discontinued it. This model would have generated an entry signal at 4pm today. Right now, with the gap up in the NQ futures, that model is up about 1.85%.

Oh, the models that I am keeping, and that have generated positions over the past few weeks have either been scratches for small gains, or have gotten stopped out:

BTBT NDX
BTBT RUT
Payrolls NDX
NDX 1st DOM
NDX Summer Rally
NDX 30th DOM

Right now I am very frustrated. My cognitive side still believes in the models that have performed poorly over the past few weeks, and still believes the models that I have discontinued should stay offline. However, my emotional side is very frustrated. This reminds me of the challenging dynamic I experienced from the summer of 2007 to the summer of 2008. Nearly everything I did was wrong. The entry signals I took often turned into losers, and the entry signals I ignored ofter turned into winners. The basis for ignoring those profitable signals was disbelief in robust models. This happened so often, that I became too scared to trade.

This current environment appears to be different. A string of poor timing where good models produce losers and bad/suspect models produce actual/potential winners. I am not going to change how I trade. Except tonight and tomorrow will probably be rooting for the gap up to be sold! Emotionally, I want to be right, cognitively I won't be changing a thing.

Chin up!


p.s. the gap up may not be all that bad...i have been building a longer term investment position in the FAS for my IRA and some custodial accounts...the FAS may be held for another 3-15 months, depending on how it performs...ideally i want it to go down more so i can build up my position...alas i cant control what it does, so if it decides to put in a run, i will have a partial position, which is better than nothing...

Disclosure: Long FAS.

***remember this is an illustration of what i am trading and my thinking...it is not a recommendation for you or anyone else to buy or sell this or any other security***

'NDX 30th DOM' generated an Exit Signal for Today's Close, 7/1/2009

'NDX 30th DOM' generated an Exit Signal for Today's Close, 7/1/2009.

The Modeled position (NDX) posted a 0.27% gain, below the average trades return of 0.7%. The actual Trading position (NQU09) posted a 0.12% gain (including commissions), slightly worse than the model.

This profitable trade created a marginal new high for the model's Equity Curve (shown above).

The position was nicely green early on, up nearly 1.4% around 1030 am. However it slowly bled away its gains during the rest of the trading day. It wound up filling its opening gap up, and closed around the low tick of the day. A bit frustrating, but there is nothing I can do about it, except to faithfully follow the model's Entry and Exit signals.

The position was held for 1 trading day (http://stbsmb.blogspot.com/2009/07/ndx-30th-dom-generated-long-entry.html ).

'NDX 30th DOM' generated a Long Entry Signal for Yesterday's Close

The 'NDX 30th DOM' System Trading Model, generated a Long Entry Signal for yesterday's (Tuesday's) Close. This model is based on the behavior of the NDX on the 30th calendar Day of the Month (DOM). It is due to be exited at today's (Wednesday's) Close unless its Money Management Stop is hit intraday.

As we can see from the Equity Curve chart shown above, the model is currently trading at it's all time high.

Here are some of the model's Performance Statistics:

• Model Tracking Vehicle=NDX
• Start Date=11/1/1985
• Number of Trades=38
• Average Trade Return=0.70%
• Win Rate=79%
• Average Win/Average Loss=1.1
• Profit Factor=4.15

The caveat with this model is its Money Management Stop can be pretty high, currently about 3%. The size of the stop for this model can vary greatly, as it is derived from a proprietary calculation that factors in the ATR (Average True Range) among other things. Currently the stop is the largest it will ever be. Over the life of this model, the Money Management Stop has been hit twice (5.3% of the time), and when it was hit, it was in the 1.4%-1.9% range.

Disclosure: Long the NQU09.

Disclosure: The performance results shown above are for Model analysis purposes and do not include commission or slippage. The model is built on data from the NDX, but I trade the model with the NQ e-mini. Actual trading results from the NQ usually differ from the model results of the NDX, with the NQ showing somewhat weaker performance data. Nonetheless, I still trade this model with the NQ and when executed according to the plan, it has generated consistent profitability for me.

***remember this is an illustration of what i am trading and my thinking...it is not a recommendation for you or anyone else to buy or sell this or any other security***