January 2011 Performance

I have increased my equity by 50% at the start of this year.  Though I am becoming more confident with myself as a trader with at least a few months of experience, the market isn't as good as it was 2 years ago (right after the subprime mess).

I will try to remain 20% (equivalent to my max hold to 1 stock) in cash on hand as my revolving fund.  One that could help me go in and out of a stock for better market timing.  Whenever I plan to shift my funds from one stock to another, this revolving fund would act as proxy and should be replenished as soon as I have finished buying and selling the 2 stocks.  This should add discipline to my trades.

For my first month of trading this year, it has been a tough one with recurring market declines.  Some even call it as the January effect.  Counting in the 25% increase due to added infusion of funds, I was able to get cash profits of only 0.56% of my total portfolio. 

January was a month for the 3rd liners, basically composed of speculative stocks.  At least I had a small bite with the "trash" play when I had a 1-day trade of ELI, and was rewarded with a 14% stock return.  However, I made a costly mistake with MPI, buying at its high.  I did some cut loss (not yet finished), which eventually narrowed down my month's profit margin.

Total equity dropped by 8%, mostly because of my hold on MPI and FDC.

Summary:
Cash gain:  0.56%
Portfolio gain:  -8%

Slowly but surely, I am trying to practice more with my TA with the use of different indicators aside from the common MACD and RSI:
DMI
STS
RVI
CCI
Parabolic SAR

I hope I could get better with this.

Here's a look on the latest chart on the PSEi.

Cliffhanging

Egypt is all over the news because of its own version of a People Power happening against its decades old President, Mubarak.  The Global financial market remains to be shaky as it awaits positive development over the situation.  The PSE has not been exempted from the uneasiness, as the market has dropped down by 88 points.

Surprisingly, my portfolio wasn't greatly affected as most of my holdings remained intact.  MPI, though currently at a negative, did not go down; in fact it showed strength up to the close.  As for my other "loser", FDC, it was bought up by ATR at the close (thus, just a temporary rise).

For today's trade, I was able to sell half of my MPI as it went up to 3.64, transferring risks on to EDC which went down to 5.77.  MPI has been showing strength these past few days, but I really need to start transferring my hold on to the more reliable stocks which I believe in.

For AGI, I should have sold earlier (last Friday) as my indicators already show short term weakness.  Will have to wait again when CCI reaches its top for a sell.  COL has released its latest study on AGI, and has increased its tp for this stock.  The increase in AGI's value is heavily attributed to its gaming business such as that of Resorts World, which has just opened last year.  Industry comparisons also favor AGI over its competitors (i.e. AC).

Watchlist:
One of my favorites: SCC

I should buy once it breaches towards the lower Bollinger bands.  Traded strongly on a weak market yesterday.