Well, I’m back from my week off from trading and I’m feeling refreshed, renewed, and like I have a lot of work to do. I have come to a number of realizations during my brief hiatus. Too many to elaborate upon in this one post but here is the foundation upon which I plan on building an even more reliable & profitable trading system.

In all objectives worth pursuing identify the root causes that will lead to the effect(s) you are trying to achieve as well as those obstacles that will hinder the achievement of your desired goal(s). Then, seek ways to bring the former into reality while systematically eradicated the latter.

I have also posted the Equity Curves for the trading systems that I have been using for the past 4 months here at: System Equity Curves.

As you can see, both the Stock Picks & QQQQ Score trading systems have been very profitable since inception. And despite the incredibly smooth equity curve for My Stock Picks, my personal equity curve has not been as smooth. The reasons for the discerpancy is that:

A.) My attention span is limited and I do not currently have Tradestation or the like through which I can automate my daily stock picks, thus I find myself often missing entries on the biggest movers which can move real far, real quick.

B.) The reason I do not have Tradestation is because I do not have sufficient capital to fully implement my Daily Stock Picks (I need at least an additional $20,000 to fully be able to put My Stock Picks into action properly)

C.) Thus, despite setting alerts and doing my best to follow as many stocks as I can, i still find myself missing more of the big movers and entering a lot of the duds.

Last week was spent analyzing all of my old trades and methodology to determine where I have been going wrong so that I can improve my actual PnL Statement, and not just my Paper one. I’ll be posting my thoughts and findings in a number of upcoming posts so stay tuned. But in the mean time, I will be putting on hold My Daily Stock Picks in its current form in favor of a new and more refined system that I hope I will be more reliable and profitable given my present circumstances (ie: Until I am able to get my equity up another $20,000+).

That being said, I in no way expect for my new system to be any less profitable than my previous ones. A number have asked me to continue posting my old Stock Picks in addition to the new ones but unfortunately that just isn’t possible at the present time as it takes me 2-4 hours every night after the market closes to come up with the list as is, and until I know how much time screening for this new system will take, I just can’t make any promises. I will still continue posting my daily Pre-Market Score but there will be a new format and methodology to my Daily Stock Picks in the days and weeks to come. I’ll be testing it on paper and posting everything here on my blog until it has proven itself via a number of different criteria.

One of the problems with my old method of screening was that the picks were derived from a smorgishborg of individual systems that I had found to be profitable in the past. My goal going forward is to take the best of those old systems and simplify the entry & exit criteria down into one more unified set of principles that will work in any market and on any timeframe.

If this experiment ends up working then great, if not, then I will revert back to my old method of coming up with Daily Stock Picks and simply find a way to get my hands on an additional $20,000 to make it work (there is this bank down the street whose security gaurd does look pretty old….) Only time will tell.

Feel free to post your comments in regards to any of these matters as I’m always open to all feedback, advice, and criticism.

Jason

+3

Score had a few more mixed signals today than normal. I think it could break up today but I have definitely had more confidence in the score before.