New Feature - Cash Account Setting

I had blogged a while back about how the Strategic Trade Ideas system was mainly built for Margin Accounts and that people with Cash Accounts should let it be known to the staff when setting up the system. I also mentioned that I requested that the Nirvana team build a setting to allow clients with Cash Accounts to use only Settled Funds for Opening Trades. 

I am now informing you that this feature is now live. If you have a Cash Account and want the system to automatically trade your account, go to Edit Settings in the Configure screen. In the Exposure tab, click "Cash Accounts" and the system will only use Settled Funds for Opening Trades.

I hope this helps and Happy Trading!

Performance After 50 Closed Trades

I am back from vacation and have been using the STIs sporadically. I had turned off my automated entries when the market was getting shaky a couple weeks ago and wasn't going to be monitoring my account while I was away. Throughout the past two weeks, if I was up and on the computer before 9:30, I would enter some (if not) all of the opening trades the system had queued up. I also would enter Trailing Stops for any closing orders that were queued. 

I am not sure what difference it would have made if I went "auto" the entire time or not, but after 50 closed (100 total trades), I am down -$145.15.

For perspective, the S&P 500 on the day I started (6/11/15) closed at 2108.96. Today it closed at 2103.84.

I did some math and calculated if I invested the same amount I used the STIs with into $SPY:

Opening Price 6/11/15 - $211.48. If I invested $85K, I would have 400 shares. At the close of 7/31/15, the price was 210.50. My net loss would have been -$392.00. However, $SPY paid a dividend of $1.03 per share during this period, which would make the net +$11.00.

At my documented high point, I was up $2,270.67 on 6/22/15 (I was as high as $2,500, but didn't blog it at the time). By comparison, the $SPY was 211.91, which would have been a gain of $172. 

* Commissions and fees incurred were not included in these numbers

Conclusion: It well outperformed the market when it was up. However, I lost -$135 more than the $SPY when the market was down.

Again, I am not sure how it would have performed if I kept it on "auto" the entire time. I lessened some exposure when the Greece and Puerto Rico crises were first in the news. I maybe could have stopped the opening trades altogether or went all in when the market was down. I am not sure what I could have done to improve my performance, but at least it was better than $SPY.

OWW	R9-L-RETAIL-WHOLESALE (2)	7/29/2015 10:10:18	7/31/2015 10:14:10	$10.79	$11.24	200	$90.32
CNCE	R8-L-DRUGS	7/27/2015 12:19:06	7/29/2015 10:31:09	$16.47	$16.65	100	$18.00
FOMX	R8-L-DRUGS	7/27/2015 12:19:42	7/29/2015 9:47:54	$10.66	$10.88	100	$22.00
FRED	R4-L-RETAIL-WHOLESALE	7/27/2015 12:20:11	7/28/2015 9:50:27	$19.32	$17.32	100	-$200.00
FIVE	R9-L-RETAIL-WHOLESALE (2)	7/16/2015 17:04:52	7/27/2015 10:59:53	$38.91	$37.04	100	-$187.17
CONN	R13-L-RETAIL-WHOLESALE (2)	7/16/2015 16:56:08	7/20/2015 10:02:39	$39.40	$38.66	111	-$81.78
ZFGN	WT1-L-DRUGS	7/16/2015 17:01:08	7/20/2015 9:40:24	$39.21	$38.70	112	-$57.11
TKAI	WT1-L-DRUGS	7/16/2015 17:05:58	7/20/2015 9:39:54	$14.18	$13.02	311	-$360.73
XOMA	WT1-L-DRUGS	7/16/2015 17:01:34	7/17/2015 15:00:01	$4.49	$4.51	175	$3.52
TCON	WT1-L-DRUGS	7/16/2015 16:43:19	7/17/2015 12:16:31	$13.29	$12.31	200	-$195.98
AST	TLB2-L-DRUGS	7/16/2015 16:55:56	7/17/2015 11:18:38	$4.90	$5.51	139	$84.26
ANTH	TLB2-L-DRUGS	7/13/2015 10:15:32	7/15/2015 15:22:54	$8.46	$8.97	200	$102.52
CTLT	WT1-L-DRUGS	6/18/2015 9:30:01	7/15/2015 14:37:57	$30.58	$29.90	476	-$323.68
IMDZ	TLB2-L-DRUGS	7/13/2015 10:16:35	7/15/2015 12:03:54	$24.14	$24.87	100	$73.05
QURE	TLB4-L-DRUGS	7/13/2015 10:17:44	7/15/2015 9:30:06	$27.10	$28.80	100	$170.00
OSIR	TLB4-L-DRUGS	7/14/2015 10:25:19	7/15/2015 9:30:04	$20.57	$21.03	100	$46.00
CLDX	R8-L-DRUGS	6/30/2015 9:40:03	7/13/2015 10:38:06	$24.66	$25.04	181	$68.45
CEMP	R8-L-DRUGS	6/30/2015 9:40:01	7/13/2015 10:37:36	$33.24	$36.27	134	$406.02
BAC	R4-L-BANKS-MAJOR	7/10/2015 9:40:24	7/13/2015 9:30:31	$16.80	$16.97	258	$44.27
FITB	R4-L-BANKS-MAJOR	7/10/2015 9:40:31	7/13/2015 9:30:04	$20.91	$21.11	206	$41.53
JD	R10-L-RETAIL-WHOLESALE	6/26/2015 9:40:07	7/10/2015 9:30:01	$32.89	$32.88	129	-$1.64
BLCM	R8-L-DRUGS	6/25/2015 9:40:01	7/10/2015 9:30:00	$22.37	$18.80	197	-$702.58
QURE	R8-L-DRUGS	6/29/2015 9:40:03	7/7/2015 9:30:00	$28.12	$27.23	151	-$134.39
HABT	R9-L-RETAIL-WHOLESALE (2)	6/29/2015 9:40:08	7/6/2015 9:30:02	$32.33	$31.14	135	-$160.65
HZO	R9-L-RETAIL-WHOLESALE (2)	6/26/2015 9:40:05	7/2/2015 9:33:16	$23.47	$24.25	187	$145.86
BGFV	R4-L-RETAIL-WHOLESALE	6/29/2015 9:40:09	7/2/2015 9:30:01	$14.41	$14.43	305	$5.55
OVAS	R8-L-DRUGS	6/24/2015 9:40:01	7/2/2015 9:30:00	$32.75	$28.57	135	-$563.65
SCMP	R8-L-DRUGS	6/29/2015 9:40:05	7/1/2015 9:30:00	$15.91	$16.55	273	$175.57
OCUL	TLB2-L-DRUGS	6/26/2015 9:40:01	7/1/2015 9:30:00	$23.10	$21.21	190	-$358.51
IMMU	TLB2-L-DRUGS	6/19/2015 9:40:03	6/30/2015 9:30:01	$4.43	$3.91	1706	-$886.10
CBMG	R8-L-DRUGS	6/26/2015 9:40:09	6/29/2015 9:30:04	$36.90	$38.77	128	$239.37
NBG	TLB2-L-BANKS-MAJOR	6/23/2015 9:40:03	6/25/2015 9:32:17	$1.37	$1.35	2921	-$55.21
JD	R4-L-RETAIL-WHOLESALE	6/23/2015 9:40:01	6/25/2015 9:30:01	$34.50	$34.57	128	$9.55
GERN	TLB4-L-DRUGS	6/15/2015 9:30:00	6/24/2015 14:57:16	$4.07	$4.10	3584	$107.52
RDUS	TLB2-L-DRUGS	6/18/2015 9:30:02	6/22/2015 10:07:47	$55.05	$63.50	31	$261.95
RGEN	HCT1-L-DRUGS	6/11/2015 9:30:03	6/22/2015 10:05:18	$38.29	$41.01	131	$356.07
IBN	TLB2-L-BANKS-MAJOR	6/11/2015 9:32:08	6/22/2015 9:32:41	$9.56	$10.47	910	$828.10
VRX	R8-L-DRUGS	6/11/2015 9:31:01	6/22/2015 9:31:44	$227.81	$229.65	38	$69.92
CEMP	R8-L-DRUGS	6/17/2015 9:30:01	6/22/2015 9:30:01	$32.71	$35.20	145	$361.05
BCRX	R8-L-DRUGS	6/16/2015 9:20:03	6/19/2015 9:30:00	$12.61	$14.56	4	$7.80
EBAY	R4-L-RETAIL-WHOLESALE	6/17/2015 9:30:01	6/19/2015 9:30:00	$60.50	$60.93	238	$102.34
BBVA	TLB2-L-BANKS-MAJOR	6/11/2015 9:30:02	6/19/2015 9:30:00	$10.20	$10.21	1	$0.01
EBAY	R9-L-RETAIL-WHOLESALE (2)	6/16/2015 9:30:01	6/17/2015 9:30:01	$60.19	$60.50	179	$55.49
ESPR	R8-L-DRUGS	6/11/2015 9:30:00	6/17/2015 9:30:01	$82.14	$76.84	108	-$572.40
AMAG	R8-L-DRUGS	6/15/2015 9:30:01	6/17/2015 9:30:01	$66.63	$68.65	214	$432.28
BURL	R9-L-RETAIL-WHOLESALE (2)	6/11/2015 9:30:02	6/16/2015 9:32:01	$48.88	$49.51	181	$114.03
DKS	R9-L-RETAIL-WHOLESALE (2)	6/11/2015 9:30:02	6/15/2015 9:32:43	$53.03	$53.46	168	$72.24
AMGN	R5-B-OV Biotech	6/11/2015 9:30:00	6/12/2015 9:30:01	$157.87	$157.23	56	-$35.84
RCPT	TLB6-L-DRUGS	6/11/2015 9:30:00	6/12/2015 9:30:01	$181.09	$187.28	49	$303.31
PLCE	R4-L-RETAIL-WHOLESALE	6/11/2015 9:30:01	6/12/2015 9:30:00	$65.82	$65.19	136	-$85.68