Young Man -
On Aug 1, 1997, I started a new type of trade log, after doing some optimization on my indicators and making some major changes to my stock database. I'm up 22% since then, against NAZ's -2%.
On March 1, 1997, I shuffled some money around in my IRA accounts. Quicken tells me that I'm up 57% since that date, compared to about 19% for the NAZ.
To All - Speaking of trade logs, how many of you are keeping one? I have one on Excel now, as I mentioned, which lists, for every trade:
Date bought
Ticker Symbol
Shares bought
Buy Price
Buy Commission
Buy Comments (why did I buy it?)
Sell Date
Sell Commission
Sell Comments (why did I sell it?)
$ Profit/Loss
% Profit/Loss
Weeks Held
It also calculates a balance you can reconcile to Quicken, or whatever you use to keep up with your money. Also, it calculates an average profit/loss, an average 'weeks held' for your trades, and a somewhat artificial (but not altogether useless) %ROR.
It is invaluable for critiquing/improving my system/methods, since I require myself to keep up with the details of every buy/sell.
I have an empty copy of the file... I would be glad to send one to anyone who wants it... just e-mail me (tlforbus@sprintmail.com). You can keep it, pitch it, or tweak it to your use.
Loren |
