Following are my profits from different trading strategies. I have made an effort to ensure that these numbers are correct but I do not guarantee their veracity. These returns are not audited. These numbers were last updated 4/12/2010. Please note that the returns for 2008 include no trades prior to 5/13/09, when I started keeping detailed records. The title of each trade type is linked to categories of posts I have made on such trades.

Tim Sykes – Type Trades

2010 (Weighted Average Profit: 1.37%)

  • TimAlerts:  $8,394.72
    • Weighted Average Profit:  1.51%
  • My Trades:  $17,928.34
    • Weighted Average Profit:  1.54%

2009 (Weighted Average Profit: 1.23%)

  • TimAlerts:  $26,777.57
    • Weighted Average Profit:  1.74%
  • My Trades:  $26,689.68
    • Weighted Average Profit:  0.91%

2008 (Weighted Average Profit: 2.87%)

  • TimAlerts:  $17,233.49
    • Average Profit*:  0.19%
  • My Trades:  $30,991.11
    • Average Profit*:  3.48%

It even surprised me how much more money I make on my own compared to how much I make following TimAlerts. Most of my Sykes-type trading profits in 2009 came from one great trade on ALAN. My Sykes-type trades in 2008 include about $10k in profits from SIL, which was also a TimAlert, but I played it differently (and better) than did Tim.

*Average profit does not take into account different position sizes for different trades. For all but the above sub-categories I use weighted average profit, which takes total profit and divides by total position size.

Watchlist Longs (a subset of Tim Sykes-Type Trades*)

  • 2010: $83.36
    • Weighted Average Profit: 0.12%
  • 2009:  $1,796.66
    • Weighted Average Profit: 0.58%
  • 2008:  not used

All these trades involve me buying stocks on significant breakouts or huge spikes (supernovae-type stocks). They are all my own trades and I have previewed them on my watchlist on this blog usually as potential longs but occasionally as potential shorts. I use about $5,000 per trade.

*I count these trades in my total TimProfit figure but they are not counted in the main Sykes-type trades category above.

My Super-Secret Trading Strategy

  • 2010: ($6,282.16)
    • Weighted Average Profit: (2.19%)
  • 2009:  ($577.79)
    • Weighted Average Profit:  (0.01%)
  • 2008:  $80,691.26
    • Weighted Average Profit: 5.76%

I will not detail these trades on this blog or explain anything about this strategy for the time being. Prior to when I started keeping detailed records on 5/13/2008 I had additional profits from this strategy that are not reflected in the above numbers.

Investors Underground Type Trades (of which Green/Red Pivot Plays are a Subset)

  • 2010: $0.00
    • Weighted Average Profit: 0.00%
  • 2009:  $5,582.26
    • Weighted Average Profit: 1.09%
  • 2008:  $4,274.93
    • Weighted Average Profit: 0.78%

Investors Underground is a pay stock chat to which I subscribe (in 2008 it was known as Green on the Screen and was free). Proifts on pump longs, pre-leader longs, and fat-fingered shorts are not included in the above figures, even though I consider these to be subsets of this strategy.

Pump Longs (a subset of InvestorsUnderground Type Trades)

2010:  $3,536.33

  • Weighted Average Profit: 1.42%

2009:  $291.35

  • Weighted Average Profit: 1.38%

2008:  not used

Pre-Leader Longs (a subset of InvestorsUnderground Type Trades)

2010:  ($143.78)

  • Weighted Average Profit: (0.75%)

2009:  $1,023.85

  • Weighted Average Profit: 0.75%

2008:  not used

Stocks that are up in pre-market trading often make big moves from the open and can make for good buying opportunities. I have just started to try to implement this strategy and I trade it with a position size in between $1000 and $1500.

Fat-Fingered Shorts (a subset of InvestorsUnderground Type Trades)

  • 2010: $0.00
    • Weighted Average Profit: 0.00%
  • 2009:  $2576.81
    • Weighted Average Profit: 0.86%
  • 2008:  not used

These trades involve a stock quickly spiking 20% to 300% in under a couple minutes. These probably result from so-called fat-fingered trades when a trader trying to buy a large block of shares puts in a market instead of limit order or puts a limit price too high or makes the order for more shares than intended. A CNBC mention may also lead to such a spike. I short these after checking to make sure there is no news and usually waiting for the spike to fade. The lower trading volume a stock has the less risky it is to short in this circumstance (this increases the odds of the spike occurring because of a fat-fingered trade and not news).

Random Trades

  • 2010: $0.00
    • Weighted Average Profit: 0.00%
  • 2009:  $3,579.34
    • Weighted Average Profit: 7.12%
  • 2008:  $18,514.36
    • Weighted Average Profit: 1.78%

Just what it says: these are random trades that do not fit in any other category. Profitable trades in 2008 include buying and shorting CEG when it fell around September 2008 on rumors of bankruptcy.

Pseudo Arb

  • 2010: $0.00
    • Weighted Average Profit: 0.00%
  • 2009:  $8,816.74
    • Weighted Average Profit: 0.33%
  • 2008:  $7,375.16
    • Weighted Average Profit: 0.22%

My pseudo-arbitrage is primarily share-class arbitrage, primarily of BRK-A and BRK-B. This gives me better-than T-bill returns with low risk and without tying up my capital for long (a month at most). My returns on this strategy are greatly helped by the current low interest rates, which make margin debt very cheap at Interactive Brokers.

LESS IMPORTANT TRADING STRATEGIES

Pre-Leader Red Shorts (a subset of InvestorsUnderground Type Trades)

2010: $0
2009:  $0
2008:  not used

Cheap Longs

  • 2009:   not used
  • 2008:  $5,649.97
    • Weighted Average Profit: 2.91%

My profits from 2008 in this strategy were primarily the result of buying certain exchange-traded bonds (particularly Comcast’s CCW). During the autumn 2008 market meltdown these traded at insane yields (up to 15% for CCW!) and closely followed the movements of stocks, offering nice profit to those who bought when everyone else was selling.

Long-Term Shorts

  • 2009:  $2,609.06
    • Weighted Average Profit: 4.23%
  • 2008:  ($2,287.84)
    • Weighted Average Profit: (3.18%)

My profits in 2008 do not include profits prior to 10/7/2008. My profits prior to that date were very large despite a $100k+ loss on one particular trade. This was my first trading strategy and garnered me huge profits in 2007 and early 2008; I no longer use it much because it is now much harder to get long-term borrows of shares to short.

TMF Pumps

2009:  no longer in use

2008:  ($113.40)

Options Expiry Runners

2009:  ($223.96)

2008:  not used

Q Bounce Plays

2009:  ($339.00)

2008:  not used

Gap Fillers

2009:  ($253.00)

2008:  not used

Blogging Profits

These are actually my gross receipts (net of Paypal fees) and include all blogs; the cost of my blog is just under $200/year in hosting and domain names and the cost of Jing; I had a loss in 2008 of several hundred dollars due to legal expenses related to my blogs. The data are current as of 4/12/2010. The data reflect when I was paid, not when the income was accrued (earned).

Google Adsense

2010: $299.84
2009: $326.02
2008: $34.94
prior to 2008: $17.39

Amazon.com Affiliate Link

I earn a commission of about 6% on any product people buy from Amazon.com after using my link (not just for products to which I linked directly).

2010: $0
2009: $11.92
prior to 2009: $12.26

Tim Sykes Affiliate Link

I earn a 35% commission based on every product or service my readers buy from Tim after clicking on my affiliate link.

2010: $4,559.37
2009: $1,428.02
2008: $242.16

Business Ventures with Tim Sykes

This includes royalties on the sale of the Read SEC Filings DVD I coauthored with Sykes and payments I receive from him in compensation for moderating his chatroom.

2010: $1,593.38
2009: $0

InvestorsUnderground.com Affiliate link

I earn 50% of a new subscriber’s first period payment and 25% on an ongoing basis. New subscribers who use my link save 10% off of the normal monthly price or 15% off the normal quarterly price.

2010: $1,740.72
2009: $802.73
2008: $0

Paypal Donation Link (Buy me a cup of coffee)

2010: Discontinued
2009: $209.33