Trading Report Monthly Wrap, a detailed look at where we made and lost money during the month.
In an attempt to improve our service, we will now report our performance on a monthly basis, dividing our trades into three portfolios, Australian Stocks, UK Stocks, and Global Markets, which comprises commodities, currencies, bonds, and US indices. Going forward, we will report overall portfolio results for each of the three trading accounts, each in their home currency, AUD, GBP, and USD.
For each trading portfolio, we will provide
- A table of the closed trades from the month, with a combined Profit and Loss (P/L)
- A Portfolio Performance Table. The information in this table is rolling, i.e. the trades for the month are added to this table on a continuous basis. This table contains trades that were opened after 1 Dec 2008.
Below are a few notes which provide further explanation.
Current Account Balance – includes all closed trades from 1 Dec 2008 to the current month end
Overall Return – Total P/L to date, as a percentage of our starting balance
Win % - Percentage of trades where we book a profit
Scratched Trades – Trades where we were stopped out at break even
Max % Drawdown – This is the maximum amount, in percentage terms, in which our account decreases from our maximum equity line. Graphically, it is the maximum distance between our Maximum Equity (Pink) Line and our Current Account Balance (Blue) Line in the chart below.
AU Equities – September 2009
In terms of closed out trades, it was a relatively quiet month in the Aussie stock portfolio. However, this wasn’t from a lack of trades, as we were carrying plenty of open positions during this time.
As evident from the table below, there were 4 trades closed out in the month of September. From these 4 trades, we booked 2 winning trades, in Jabiru Metals (JML) and Pan Resources (PNA), while lost money on two, Riversdale Mining (RIV) and Perilya (PEM). However, by keeping our losses smaller than our winners we made a profit overall, of $2, 875.09 for the month. In terms of percentage returns, this represents a monthly return of 3.91%.
To the overall trading account, and after ten months of trading, the Australian Equities account is currently sitting on a capital return of 52.75%, with a win rate of 62.90%.
Closed Trades for September 2009
Portfolio Performance from 1 Dec 2008
Equity Chart from 1 Dec 2008
As evident from the chart below, our equity continues to move higher. To reiterate, the blue line is our equity line, and is updated every time a trade is closed out, while the pink line shows our equity maximum line. Put another way, this is highest level our trading account has registered.
UK Equities – September 2009
Unfortunately, our performance in the UK was less than impressive. From eight trades closed out for the month, 7 cost us money, while we booked profits on CSR. As clients would be aware, we attempt to capture trends which mean we often enter a stock by buying new highs, via a stop entry order. While not making any excuses, we got stung from several false breaks this month, including TPK, WOS, and ENRC.
UK markets seem to more volatile in comparison to Australia, which is affecting this style of trading. We are working on several strategies to improve this performance.
In total, we lost 1,901.95 GBP this month, for a monthly loss of 8.78%. The overall portfolio is down 20.97%.
Closed Trades for September 2009
Portfolio Performance from 1 Dec 2008
Equity Chart from 1 Dec 2008
Global Markets – September 2009
With the Global Markets account, there were no trades closed out in the month of September. As clients would be aware, the key market at the moment in this sector is gold, of which we are currently ‘long’ at five different entry levels. Encouragingly, all positions are now well in the money.
The portfolio table and equity line remain unchanged.
Portfolio Performance from 1 Dec 2008
Equity Chart from 1 Dec 2008
The Month Ahead
Equity markets continue to defy gravity, with both the ASX200 and FTSE100 posted new highs for the year. Furthermore, any corrections tend to be very short lived and limited in depth. For this reason, we don’t believe there is significant shorting opportunities at the moment and will continue to trade from the long side. Our focus is currently on the gold mining sector.
With the Global Markets account, gold is the main market of interest at the present time; however the energy sector, i.e. crude oil and natural gas are both setting up for trading opportunities. With oil, we already have a trade recommendation pending, while with natural gas, we are awaiting a pullback, before looking to buy.
Happy Trading!