Nice gains for the last 5 days in a row

The markets regained the upward momentum the last 5 days and my portfolios were bounced back from the loss column. I decided to close all positions at today close and re-examine the strategy for the rest of this year.

In order to make it easier for me to run this blog, I decided to eliminate all the other portfolios but just to keep the Ocean Portfolio for simplicity. I will apply mixed strategies for entry and exit points. These strategies still are based on technical indicators which are available on any of the financial and charting sites such as Yahoo, Stockcharts etc.

The Ocean Portfolio was up about 1.8% as of today. It lagged the major indexes but it's all fine with me as an experiment. The rest of the eliminated portfolios were also doing fine and all achieved some small gains.

The Ocean Portfolio is all cash now and will see how the 2nd half of the year will do.

Out all positions before the close today

I have not updated the blog for a while and let the positions sit there. The markets have been swinging up and down lately and there is no clear direction where the market is heading. Today is the end of first half of 2011 and I will close out all the positions by taking the advantage of the recent market run up. I will evaluate and determine what my next move will be.

Ready to take the long position again

I have been waiting for the markets to pullback since the end of January and now seems this is the time to get back in after a nice pullback the last few days. The overall markets in my opinion is still in good shape at least for the next few months. I will place the long position of selected ETFs in the portfolios at the market close today.

ETFs that I am looking at for Long position included: SPY, IWM, EFA, EEM, ILF, GLD, SSO. For pair trading I will close out the current position and go Long with TLT and hedge with PST (inverse) as I think the interest rate will be kept at the current level for a while.

Initiated TBT and IEF bond pair

Re-enter the TBT and IEF bond pair with half of the portfolio size as the technical indicators for TBT showed sign of improvement. The RSI and Williams %R crossed above the mid point line which indicated there is a potential upward momentum for TBT. TBT is the 2X inverse of TLT.

Expand Bond pair trading to ETF Pair Trading

On the Bond Pairs Trading Portfolio, I realized that I may miss out some other ETF potential trades if I just wait for the bond pairs signal. Therefore, I expand it to other ETF pairs in order to create more opportunity. ETF pairs that I am looking at are TNA, TZA, FAS, FAZ, SSO, SDS, SPY, SH and others. The portfolio will include 1x, 2x, and 3x leverage pairs and it is now named ETF Pair Trading. Let see how it plays out.

Cash out on TBT and IEF pair

Closed the position on TBT and IEF pair with some profits. Will wait for the next entry signal.

Took profits with first sign of pulling back

S&P 500 may hit some resistance when it reaches to the 1300 level and can cause some short term pullback. I took profits on three portfolios except the bond pair. I will wait for the next signal to enter the new positions.