The latest ASX Challenge is now open. After a very slack last six months in the way of trading, I’m excited to be back in the game.
Have yet to make a buy order; but am studying charts nightly – have to get back into the habit!
So watch this space and I’ll post updates weekly.
Well it’s been an interesting game. Over the game period, the sharemarket fluctuated considerably due to events such as the Japanese earthquake and tsunami, the Aussie dollar reaching record highs, commodities falling and continuing concerns about the health of a number of developed economies.
This is reflected in the following:
There wasn’t a lot of trading going in this game… mainly just monitoring positions. I’m pleased to report that I finished in profit (yah!) and in the top 4% of players. [Read more...]
Are stop losses all they’re cracked up to be? That’s got to be the $20million dollar question.
I’ve been reading all about them via the Incredible Charts newsletter. Over the last three weeks, they posted 3 articles on Stop Losses – Help or Hindrance? The argument for the use of stop-loss rules seems inherently sound, yet there appears to be no real evidence that stops are providing the safety benefits that many traders expect.
This obviously generated a lot of comments on their forum. You can check it out here it is definitely food for thought. http://www.incrediblecharts.com/sitemap.php?mgroup=162
Well, we’ve been trading for 13 weeks now and the market has moved around quite considerably, over this time there have been a number of horrific natural disasters, the Aussie dollar has reached record highs, commodities have started to drop in value and there has been a general level of uncertainty in the overall market. Fun, fun, fun.
I must admit that I’ve been fairly ‘hands-off’ on my trading lately, without any real reason to jump into the market completely. My portfolio has remained the same for awhile now without any additional buying or selling.
ILU – this stock did actually break my stop loss rule and pulled back three days in a row (my rule is to exit after two consecutive stop losses). However, Id’ just been reading up on stop losses and decided to sit and see what happens. After all ILU has been on a strong uptrend and due for a slight pull-back. In this instance it paid off, as the share has continued again on the uptrend.
However, if I’d played that strategy with MND and not sold out after two consecutive stop losses, I could have lost another whole dollar on each share.
QRN is trending sideways and I’m watching closely with finger on the trigger ready to sell if it drops much more.
So I currently hold, ACR, QRN, ILU and $15k in cash.
ASX200 – down (-1.65).
My portfolio – +1.95%
Your current portfolio (live)
Portfolio total $51,015.00
National performance (at close 19/05)
National leader $56,676.71
National average $48,164.07
Your ranking (at close 19/05)
National ranking 1053 of 10334
State ranking 214 of 2136
Sometimes trading can be very hard and frustrating – especially when the markets are all over the place.
The Australian share market on Thursday experienced its biggest daily decline since the peak of Japan’s nuclear crisis in mid-March, as disappointing employment data exacerbated a sell-off caused by global risk aversion stemming from European sovereign debt concerns.
The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 closed down 84.1 points, or 1.8%, at a fresh seven-week low of 4696.1. Trading volume was stronger than usual, at A$5.8 billion.
On the charts, the index broke its 200-day moving average support line at 4712. It also triggered a bearish pennant pattern, giving a target of 4525, according to Dow Jones Newswires technical analysis.
From the game newsletter there are only 16% of players who have their portfolio in profit and the average player portfolio value is $48,143 – so at least that is reassuring to know that it’s not just me struggling with this market. I was surprised to see I wasn’t doing too badly compared to the national average – but I think at this stage of the game, if people aren’t in profit they pretty quickly lose interest in their trading.
The organisers reviewed the top 15 player portfolios, there is an even mix of strategies amongst the leaders who have been holding; only holding cash or continuing to trade. So no real gems of advice there.
My last trade was on 9th May, when I bought into ACR which was holding a nice up-trend even in this dodgy market.
So I currently hold, ACR, QRN, ILU and $15k in cash.
ASX200 – down -2.89% – my portfolio squeaks into the positive by .01%.
Portfolio total $50,009.52
National performance (at close 12/05)
National leader $57,604.85
National average $47,916.85
Your ranking (at close 12/05)
National ranking 1587 of 10320
State ranking 307 of 2136
The Australian share market extended a recent decline to a 10-day low Friday after an indecisive night on Wall Street, combined with European equity market weakness related to sovereign debt worries, offshore falls in BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto, and more weakness in base metals.
Japan’s nuclear crisis, disappointing revenue from Alcoa, and Goldman Sachs’ recommendation to take profit on a basket of commodities including oil and copper pushed the Australian share market down 1.8% over the week. It was the first weekly fall in the past four weeks.
Well the market has shaken off the last downturn to return back to where it was at the end of February, when the game began.
So the market is up .02% (as at 31st March) and my portfolio has clambered up 1.36%.
The market reached a low during the game period of -6.37% on 15th March and my account hit -2.63%.
So still well within my risk levels.
Well, what an interesting week. Adding to the unrest overseas, Japan gets hit by a massive earthquake and tsunami. It has literally devastated the country and our hearts go out to each and every one living through this.
Here’s a brief overview of what happen in relation to the markets. [Read more...]
As we end week 2, was off to a terrific start with a jump to $52,500 in less than a week.
My initial share choice of: MND, WOR and RHC were great choices. MND and RHC went ex- dividend in that time.
However… what with the unrest overseas, the markets are re-acting badly.
This is more of a recap, since I didn’t post during this period.
Had a pretty disappointing start to this trading period; which in part pretty much reflected my state of mind! I was slaptick at monitoring my account and watching for potential trades.
So got myself sorted and sold my initial parcel of shares in late August, when my account was nudging 48,000.
I then waited until mid-September and reinvested; only to find my account trading as low as 47,000 in October. Ouch!
My final selection of shares; LNC, AWC, ILU and AGK then performed beautifully until game end in November, where my account finished at a touch over $55,000 – not a bad come-back if I might say so myself. (Even now ILU would have been a keeper; purchased at $6.08 and now trading (Mar 11 at $10.66 and still rising).
Pays to get back on the horse, even though you think you’re screwed. Mind-you – the second half of my trading was much more focused and stops were monitored.
My performance:
National ranking 2168 of 11595
State ranking 483 of 2366
over 84% of players finished the Game in profit
the average player portfolio value was $52,678
the All Ordinaries was up by 5.36% (my balance up 11%)
the most popular sectors traded by the winners - Materials & Energy
You can see that by not watching the dip/recovery in end Aug/beg Sept that I would’ve missed some good trades on the upturn.
Have been slightly remiss with updating the ole trading diary this year. Sometimes life just gets in the way.
So here is a quick breakdown of my performance over this period:
My performance was ticking along and received a boost from the potential Lihir takeover bid. I was in holding mode for most of the duration. Then the market plummeted just as I had sold out of most of my positions (when they broke their stops).
Rather than sit it out, jumped back in and got stung by the continual fall.
Didn’t follow plan with LLC, as I should have exited earlier. Very naughty.
During this period regulations changed regarding the resources taxes, and mining companies all dropped significantly.
However, my performance compared well to other players – at one stage was sitting in the top 4%. So obviously a lot of people were going for the buy and hold approach.
I ended the game with a portfolio up 3.5%; my highest point was up 12.9%. Whereas the ASX ended -6.1%.
