Well, if you are reading this you didn't win the $640,000,000 MegaMillons jackpot. If you did, please check out capital preservation strategies, because you are in a different game. For the rest of us, we are trying to build up our capital and if you traded with TTTHedge.com last quarter you would have done pretty good.
Reviewing the first 3 months of 2012:
January Results:
Link: January 2012 Spreadsheet
February Results:
Link: February 2012 Spreadsheet
March Results:
Q1 Overall Results:
Discussion of results:
Overall we are very pleased with the first quarter results. At a time of historically low VIX and volatility our active trading and scalping have become more difficult. Our longer hold, more conservative IRA did exceptionally well well our day-trade only Mini account that must show returns each day remains a victim of the volatility collapse. We are often asked why we trade different accounts and risk strategies, and Q1 2012 is a perfect example where different market characteristics yield different types of rewards. Buy-and-Hold through 2011 would have yielded you about 0% on the S&P 500, for Q1 2012 that would have been about 10%.
Our Traders account takes 1 to 2 points profits on general which while more difficult was achievable through the quarter. The Traders account also adds overnight risk which was profitable, while the Mini account is 100% cash overnight and looks for higher scalping profit targets that were difficult to reach. Some adjustments for volatility were made post January on the Mini account yielding positive returns in February and March. When market conditions return to more normal levels, those 100%+ returns in both the Mini and Traders accounts will kick back in, making it more difficult on the Main and IRA account positioning.
We have added tracking to our Nooners account and this is our first complete quarter of reporting. Nooners is a daily active trading service that trades a single symbol, usually a leveraged ETF, attempting to take advantage of market sector strengths and weakness in order to out perform the overall markets. We are very pleased in the performance of our Nooners service as it offers an alternative to buy and hold for those investors that can not trade actively during the day.
Our outlook for Q2 remains bullish with some 5 to 8% pullbacks that we think will continue to be buying opportunities. We are watchful of economic news and for signs of any economic slow downs that might cause us to alter our opinions but for now the market remains in rally mode and running with the herd is easier than counter attacking.
If you would like to learn more about our various services please visit http://TTTHedge.com. We offer a free one-week trial which will give you access to all the service levels for one week. All you need is an email address to take advantage of this offer. Free trials are available at http://TTTHedge.com/free-trial.
-Red
The Four Model Portfolios Explained:
TTTHedge.com trades four model portfolios for our members to pick and choose trades from.
MINI - The Mini portfolio is a daytrade only account and primarily trades the Russell 2000 TF emini. This account is 100% in cash each day before the market closes. Under the leadership of Cathy Cullen, the portfolio is traded technically with a combination of momentum and price movement. The recommended minimum account size for trading the Mini account is about $25,000. Trades in this account can trade up to three TF e-mini contracts per trade.
Traders – Our Traders portfolio trades mostly the ES SP500 e-mini futures contract. This account holds contracts and positions overnight requiring sufficient capital to hold and drawdown on up to 4 contracts is necessary. This portfolio can hold from 1 to 5 days with most trades lasting less than one hour. Tom Malone, CEO and founder of TTTHedge.com leads the Traders account. The recommended account size for trading the Traders account is $60,000 if holding overnight.
Main – Our Main portfolio is a swing trade portfolio using mostly stocks and ETFs to seek above market returns. This portfolio in general has a hold time between 1 and 30 days and is less actively traded than the Mini or Traders account. Tom Malone, CEO and founder of TTTHedge.com trades the Main portfolio adding and subtracting positions as the markets and performance dictate. There is no recommended account size for the Main portfolio since it is less leveraged than the Mini and Traders.
IRA – The IRA seeks to model a longer term holding IRA portfolio. It has the same parameters as the Main portfolio with the exception of extended holding periods longer than 30 days.
How we calculate our returns:
Each day in our live trading room our traders post their trades in an official trade area in the room. A transcript of these trades is available for perusal at http://ttthedge.com/category/transcript/. Our 3rd party tracker then meticulously enters each call both entry and exit (after making sure they are achievable) into our tracking database.
Gains & losses on futures are calculated against the overnight margin rates and weighted for the amount of the portfolio that the trader has committed to the trade.
Gains & losses on stocks and ETFs are calculated as the price difference between the entry and exit weighted against the amount of the portfolio committed to the trade.
We do not account for commissions, dividends or compounding of returns, which would significantly improve our published results. Since each trader's environment is unique with different account sizes, brokers and cash flow requirements, the data we provide is sufficient to model your own hypothetical returns.
A complete download of our trading data is available at: Annual 2011 Spreadsheet.
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