Some Random Facts About My Day Trading So Far In 2013
Last Updated on July 7, 2022
I like to keep good records of my trading. It’s tedious and sometimes boring to record data, but usually, your broker/clearing firm has a lot of interesting data.
This morning I had a look at some random numbers from my clearing sheets (I also wrote about this in July):
- Win ratio long trades: 56%
- Win ratio short trades: 52.21%
- My total profits split into long/short: long 66% of total profits and short 34%
- My total profits split into weekdays: Monday 34%, Tuesday 24%, Wednesday 6%, Thursday 11%, and Friday 25%. I can’t think of any reason why Wednesdays and Thursdays are so bad.
- Average holding time per stock: 3 hours 23 minutes and 17 seconds
- 3,24 cents profits per share traded
- Commissions and fees take 16% of my gross profits
- My most net profitable stock: SPY (Not bad, I only use SPY for hedging purposes when day trading)
- My most net cumulative profitable stock other than SPY: 3407 dollars (!). Very little, but I trade a lot of different stocks (several hundred).
- My most net unprofitable stock: -1147 dollars
- Traded 592 different stocks (my lowest number since 2001, 2002, and 2003)
- 235 stocks have a net loss
- I have 13 times as many stocks with profits above 1000 dollars than losers more than 1000 dollars.
In general, my trading profits this year is set to be below all the years from 2004 until (and including) 2010. 2013 will most likely be my 8th most profitable day trading year. At least I’m getting up from the slump of 2011 and 2012.
Thanks for sharing Oddmund.
Maybe an explanation for Wednesday-Thursday being below par is the human factor:
people come to work on Monday with drive and energy (creating momentum in prices), then they get in a routine by Wednesday so the momentum is reduced, and Friday they are closing up, deciding what positions they will hold over the weekend, so again you have momentum.
It’s just a theory!
Hi, thanks for suggestion, but that’s not the issue. I’m more or less 100% mechanical, so it’s definately the market which is less suited for my approach those days.
Yes of course, my comments were referring to the average of the thousands of market participants, not you!
Hi Oddmund
thanks for the post.
Actually I was thinking that you were using time stops. you said that Average holding time per stock was 3 hours 23 minutes and 17 seconds. do you carry positions overnight or do you mainly trade intraday? Do you mailnly trade gaps? because normal mean reversions need positions to be held for a couple of days…
Cheers
Yes, I use time stops only. This is only intraday. I trade overnight in a different account.
I have many different strategies based on several criterias. Gaps is not much of what I do. Basically all my intraday strategies are mean reversion.
Do you only use ohlc in your backtests? or do you use higher frequency data?
I use both, but recently I usually use 30 mins data for intraday research.
Hi Oddmund,
I just wanted to know if you trade currencies. if yes what is your take on GBPUSD first Strike strategy ? I have seen a post on another blog showing a wonderful equity curve. I am sure you must have seen similar stuff…
Cheers
No, I don’t trade currencies, never looked into it either…
Hi Oddmund,
What have you based your intrady time stops on?
Have you found that closing your positions before the afternoon session to be better than holding till end of day?
Hi Ben,
When I test strategies I try to find the best exit. Besides, my exit is also based on many years of experience. For example, sometimes my P/L is x during the day. Then I compare that with for example average x until close. Then I have found out I can close out 50% of my position at x% profit and keep rest until close. However, I never do that the opposite way, when I’m losing. I haven’t found sucha relatiosnship there.
Now we are in September, my worst trading month…
Thanks Oddmund,
So what your saying is if you profit is better than average you will close it out before the close otherwise you will hold till close?
Yes, but not better that average, a lot better than average. Good days I try to scale out. You have to trade a strategy for a while to learn how it moves. This way I always take part of the profits if it’s much better than average.
That’s funny. I had scaled out my positions during the day when the P&L was positive and way out of my historical average. Then, one day, I tested my behaviour and realised that it costs me a lot of money. Sure, I felt safer by taking some profits out of risk but it was not a rational reaction.
In other words, our strategies are not the same at all 😉