New Community Created Trade Idea

There's a new Community Created Trade Idea that caught my attention. It didn't take much to get my attention because it had an incredible back-tested return of 272%! Of course, in order to generate a return like that, there is usually considerable risk involved. As in, just as easily it shot up like that, in many cases, you can also lose it all....in a hurry.

However, what I especially liked about the BULLS IN BIG PHARMA Strategic Trade Idea (STI) was that its creator, Andrew Fletcher, added in some short strategies to protect against a big downturn. 

Another reason I liked this is he suggests two other STIs as hedges as well. "Short Stocks and ETFs for downside protection" and "Business Services for stability, performance and trade frequency." Brilliant! 

These notes are exactly how this system should be used. Sure, you can pick the ones with the highest returns, but the whole point is to make sure you have some protection. You can build in some protection with strategies in the STI, but the fact that he added two other STIs to compliment it to add protection and diversification is my favorite part!

One thing I do want to point out is there are short strategies in place here so you must have a margin account for these to work properly in your account.

Well done, Andrew!

Edit Account Settings - Exposure

I wanted to point out a Setting that is important for everyone when they get started with Strategic Trade Ideas. This is especially important for Cash Accounts because the system automatically assumes you have Buying Power when it enters Opening Orders when calculating your available funds for trading. It is also helpful if you already have existing positions in your account before getting started.

If this is not set properly, the system may send trades that well overspend what you have available. Fortunately, the broker system will automatically reject them so you don't actually overspend your account, but to make sure you have the right amount allocated to your Opening Orders, be sure use the Edit Settings - Exposure tab.

When you are setting your account up for Strategic Trade Ideas, you should speak to an expert on the system at 888-385-6293 and he or she will walk you through all the settings and help you select the right Trade Ideas and Strategies that are right for your investment goals. Setting the Account Exposure is part of that process, but I wanted to highlight it in case you change you mind about how much you want allocated to the STIs.

More Closed Trades

I closed out a few more positions and am delighted with the results so far. 

Net Gain + $2,270.67! 

Week 1 Performance

Here are my week one results:

Net Gain is $393.58.

Adjusting Trade Size

When I first was interested in Strategic Trade Ideas for my account, I thought it was perfect for me because I don't actively monitor the markets and trade often. Yes, I have been in the brokerage industry for 20 years, but I am not on the trading desk and I don't have enough time during the day to watch the markets. I felt this product would work for me to pick out a few ideas I liked, "set-it-and-forget-it" and check back later to see how it was running.

However, we thought it would be a good idea to blog about my experience using the system. We figured I am not an active trader so maybe I could give a little guidance (or be the guinea pig!) for those out there who are interested, but haven't jumped in yet. Thus, I am now monitoring the account and writing about it.

I am glad I did. Although, I am happy with the selections I made and like the back-tested equity curve it created, there were a couple trades I wasn't too pleased with.

On 6/11, I bought 1 share of BBVA at $10.20 and on 6/16 I bought 4 shares of BCRX at $12.36. Both of these stocks would have to have drastic moves upward for me to make any money on them. I understand they are part of the strategies and settings I selected, but I didn't see the point of the size of these trades.

I decided I don't want to trade anything under 100 shares. Now, check this out. I will show you just making a little adjustment to trade settings can affect the equity curve. 

This is my equity curve with a 1 share minimum in my Settings:

Not too bad, right? My Compound Annual Return (CAR) is 62.4% and my Maximum Draw Down (MDD) is 6.4%. The further these two numbers are from each other, the better.

I made the change in my Settings to a Minimum Trade Size of 100 shares:

Now let's see the change it made to the equity curve:

The change isn't dramatic, but I upped my CAR over 5 points to 67.7% and very slightly upped my MDD on-tenth of a point to 6.5%. 

To learn more how to adjust your settings, be sure to call our Support Team at 888-385-6293.

You can constantly tweak this system to create the back-tested results that suit you. When I got started, the support staff spent 45 minutes on the phone with me to get me to the original. Now with an adjustment of my own, I think I just made it a little better! 

Opening Orders Not Entered - Continued

I did some investigating and found out it was TradeKing's order management system that rejected those Opening Buys (not the STI system) because I did not have sufficient funds in my account. I did have a Closing Sell order that would have covered it, but it did not execute until 9:32 after the buys were submitted. 

Even if I did change the time entry for Opening Orders to 9:30:30 as support suggested, TradeKing would have rejected those orders. 

To avoid this going forward:

I could change the Opening Orders to, say, 9:35 and hope that all the closing trades would be executed by then.

Or...

I could also re-enter them manually from the STI system after the Closing Orders were executed, releasing funds available for the Opening Orders. 

To re-enter rejected orders, click the check box on the left of the rejected trade. This would bring a popup box asking if you are sure you want to re-enter it. Click OK and the system will re-enter the trade.

I verified that the system is agnostic as to whether Opening Orders are executed at the market open or later in the day. I decided to delay my Opening Orders till 9:40. Please see my previous blog to learn how to do so yourself.

Opening Orders Not Entered

On Day 3 I had 4 Opening Orders not entered by the system for not having enough funds. The STIs do not count the Closing Orders that could cover these Opening Orders. I talked to the Support Team and they mentioned that I could delay my Opening Orders to 9:30:30 to give the Closing Orders time to execute first and release those proceeds for the Opens. 

Here are the orders not entered:

To delay your Opening Orders, from the Trade Tab, click "Edit Trade Settings" above your account balances:

The Trade Settings screen will pop-up and you can change what time your Opening Orders are entered here:

Day 2 - Closed Trades

The Strategic Trade Ideas closed 3 positions of mine on Day 2 - 

I had one big one and 2 loses. Net gain - $181.79. Tough day in the market today. Dow is at 17.874.12 down 165.85 so far. SPX is 2092.29 down 16.57 so far.

Day 1 Returns

Up $537.48 Day 1!

Today was an up day in the market. The S&P 500 was up 0.33 and my cumulative gain for the day from my 5 Strategic Trade Ideas is 0.63. My combined Trade Ideas outperformed the market by almost 100%. Don't know if this will be like this every day, but a great first day!

Getting Started with Strategic Trade Ideas

I am an employee at TradeKing Media and this is my blog reviewing my experience with TradeKing Media's Strategic Trade Ideas. I am signed up for the Gold plan, which under the current promotion has unlimited Trade Ideas.

Although there are many different Trade Ideas with impressive track records, I wanted to be as diversified as possible. I took a look at both the ones created by the Professionals at Nirvana Systems and the Community Created ones. The Community Created ones were built by clients in the Trade Lab.

I ended up selecting two from the Pros, two from the Community and created on myself. I picked a couple of top performers from each, but as a hedge, I created a somewhat conservative one from the Banks and Brokerage Sector.

Here are the my bullish selections from Nirvana...

Here are my Community Created selections (also bullish)...

Being in the industry for 20 years, I created this one...

To get started, review the Trade Ideas available that suit your investment strategy and goals. Once you have an idea what Trade Ideas are best for you, be sure to call us at 888-385-6293 to help you configure your account for trade sizes, selections and more to build an equity curve that is acceptable to you.