A REVIEW OF OUR 2015 TRADES

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The year is in the books and equities essentially ended the year flat/slightly negative. Below are the highlights of the major markets:

S&P 500- (0.73%)

Nasdaq- +5.7%

Nikkei- +9.1%

Euro- (9.1%)

The above are the big highlights as they relate to my 2015 trades. In terms of stocks and indexes, my trade log (open and closed positions only) were as follows.

TESLA

I attribute that to a lack of patience and pure ignorance. The position was entered into in the fall of 2014 The company is still a market leader with an incredibly talented Elon Musk at the helm. I continue to look for entry points in 2016 for TSLA as I believe the long term combination of a car company synched with technology company is meaningful in many ways to consumer as well as an innovative company. The combination of auto manufacturing, rapid pace of software development, and reduction in cost with scale (i.e. Gigafactory) should all serve as bullish factors for Tesla. I believe Tesla will be a long term play as opposed to a trading opportunity as selling on earnings misses wasn’t a profitable trade. I will look to add back in 2016. 

E-Mini S&P500

Overall, I focused on trading the ranges in the E-Mini this year. buying the dips below 2000 and selling around the 2075-2100 area proved to be quite profitable. The outlier in the snapshot below is August 24th. I was drastically down and purchased additional contracts during the “Flash Crash.” I eventually sold above the 2000 level for a sizable profit, and I do consider that dip for an extra 10 contracts around the mid 1800s as an outlier, however, my charting and trend watching between the 2000-2100 level paid off. I believe we will continue to see volatility in 2016 which will provide attractive trading opportunities. 

Nikkei & Bonds

My bond trading was a wash this year as I took too much of a short term view on it even though I believed rates would stay relatively low in 2015 compared to what most were thinking in regards to rising rates. 
The Nikkei trade was a similar issue in that the long term trend was similar to the US and Europe: as long as there is money being printed, buy the dips. Tough lesson to learn.

Closing Thoughts for 2016

I am entering 2016 with the following positions: