Idea #100 - In this market, it BETTER be a good one: LONG WMTIt's been a while since I posted an idea and to those who follow me I am sorry/not sorry. I didn't post for a few reasons:
1) I know that there are people who trade my ideas despite my warnings/disclaimers and I didn't like how the market was acting for the last couple of weeks (rightly, as it turns out) and I didn't want anyone else to get caught up in this unnecessarily. I have been continuing to personally trade my system, with mixed results (to be expected in this market), but I wanted to make #100 a good one.
2) I wanted to do a summary of the ideas I've posted so far with #100 and wanted to get that information together first.
3) I think posting this now can provide some insights as to how to deal with market washouts calmly and with confidence, with things that could apply to most trading systems, I think.
So first, lets deal with the idea at hand. I chose WMT because:
a) it is historically a top 10% stock in terms of daily % return for how I trade, so if anyone decided to follow me on this trade (see disclaimer below), it was at least a stock that has historically done well. And by well, I mean 1355-0 W/L record well, with an AVERAGE gain of 5.16% per trade for all 1355 trades (backtested and actual trades combined) going back through every market meltdown since 1972.
b) This is the kind of market that makes it FAR more likely that trades will take a long time to play out. MUCH longer than average. So again, if I have to hold this a long time, I want a quality stock that has a long track record of surviving long downtrends in the market. I can't think of a better retail stock to own during a recession, which I think is a certainty at this point, it's just a question of when it becomes official and how long it lasts. WMT is already the retailer of choice for many, and if saving money becomes a requirement for many more, WMT will steal a lot of business from more expensive retailers.
c) despite the recent carnage for it and the market, WMT is still above it's 200d MA and solidly in an uptrend. I always like trading stocks in uptrends. Hopefully it stays in one long enough for me to make my money and run.
Lot 1 opened today at the close at 87.82
Per my usual strategy, I'll add to my position at the close on any day it still rates as a “buy” and I will use FPC (first profitable close) to exit any lot on the day it closes at any profit.
As always - this is intended as "edutainment" and my perspective on what I am or would be doing, not a recommendation for you to buy or sell. Act accordingly and invest at your own risk. DYOR and only make investments that make good financial sense for you in your current situation.
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So there's my case for WMT. Now here's the case for why I'm trading anything using my system right now. The first idea I posted here was on June 22nd of this past summer. Since the close that day, the Nasdaq's return is actually negative (-1.48%) and the S&P 500 is up marginally (+2.7%).
Since June 22nd, I have logged (timestamped) here every buy and sell of every lot of every idea since then. That amounts to a total of 330 lots traded. In the time since, 289 of those trades closed with a gain, 37 are still open and negative, and two were opened today (this one and an add to RDDT) which are neither winning nor losing yet. That's an 87.6% win rate so far.
INCLUDING the 37 trades that are losers right now (the losers include 8 lots that are down 30% or more and two options trades that each lost 100%), the AVERAGE return on those 330 trades is +1.88% EACH. That translates to .11% per day held - almost 3x the long term average daily return for stocks and almost 8x the average daily return of the S&P 500 since June 22. Annualized, that's 27% rate of return and I was on pace for a 36% annualized rate of return on these trades before this market swoon hit. Compared to -1.48% and 2.4% for the indices, it's been a pretty good 9 months of trading, but actually below my system's long term average.
The profit factor on these trades (including the open losers) is currently 1.98 (it was over 2.5 2 weeks ago before the market collapse began). The average holding period is 17 days, but that is skewed longer by 10 lots of PXS that I've been holding for over 4 months each. The median hold length for all 330 trades is 5 trading days and the most common holding period (including the 37 still open losers) is ONE trading day.
OK, this turned out to be a longer post than I intended, so I'll post another idea tomorrow with some thoughts about dealing with trading in down markets.
To everyone who is reading this and especially those who are following me - thanks for the follows and for taking the time to read this whole thing. Be safe trading out there!
