Merry Christmas ... Not

Bit of a double edged sword on this post.

Firstly to report results which are rather shitty, and second to suspend / close the blog, possibly forever. Reasons to follow.

First of all lets talk turkey about the results.

The month was terrible - in fact the worst that we have experienced in the 14 months trading it, however not the worst on record from our tests.

We suffered this month a 48% drawdown. we suffered this drawdown at a point when i was supposed to be enjoying a holiday in New York - it was 30% when I left the UK and 45% when i got back. needless to say due to things beyond my control, much of my holiday was totally spoilt.

The month of December ended up at -45% on the account - from £100,502 down to £55,000 The system still works and is within parameters but the money management, which at the end of the day is the bit that creates the severity of drawdown, was at fault and has since been rectified.

We were running the account at 100% efficiency - which meant that at a max drawdown there would just be enough in the account to sustain it. what i didnt take into account was the psychological pressure of actually getting close to reaching this level and seeing the account decimated.

Even after five years of trading the market can still humble you, and this drawdown certainly has. so if you are reading this and you're a trader - dont ever think you have this thing licked until you are sat in your superyacht with the obligatory Russian hooker eating a mouthful of pork sausage.

Its also uncovered some other rather unsavory elements of life that i wont discuss on here, those reading this know what i'm referring to and i dont know wether to apologise profusely or call the lawyers - one of those morals Vs money type events. Today i reckon the lawyers, yesterday i thought forgive and forget - you know the kind of pickle i mean? One thing is for sure it won't go away by pretending it doesn't exist so fun fun fun the first week in Jan one way or the other. The ball is in someone elses court at the moment so we will see which way it lands by the 5th Jan.


Back to trading metaphors now ... The new Rocky film has a great scene where balboa is telling his son what makes a winner. Something along the lines of "it aint how hard you can hit - it's how hard a hit you can take and still remain moving forward" - well, never a truer word was spoken.


Ive took a large 'hit' on my account and i've rode the punch. I'm bouncing back and still moving forward. I ain't saying that i'm a Balboa but i'm sure as hell not through yet.

So, to this point i hope that youve enjoyed the journey and it's with sadness that I am to close this blog.

Grail goes on and will I am sure go from strength to strength with the lessons we have learned.

However I am bringing this blog to an end. It may be temporary or it may end up being permanent. The chances are that i will update the blog at sometime in the future just to let you know that it's still ploughing on, however it will not be regular and may never happen so just check back every 3 months or so.

There are a few reasons for my decision, some of which I cannot talk about at the moment, however the main one is that because of the blog I am getting emotionally involved when the system has a losing month. The fact that it's in a drawdown at the end of a month shouldnt matter because it peaks and troughs no matter what the date is - the fact it's at the end of the month is immaterial.

Getting emotionally involved in the trading of a mechanical system is not good - you start to analyse every facet of the trades and it can drive you nuts - it almost did in New York and I can't have that.

It is more important to me to make the project a reality and produce the money for my and my teams future than it is to tell you about it and massage my ego. So i'm afraid the blog has to go. It's been fun and all that and thank's for the massage (Rub & Tug??).

The soultrader diary blog will continue with various bits and bobs - might even post up some pictures from New York soon.

For now, please everyone enjoy the rest of the holiday break and here's to a prosperous 2007 :) Thanks for reading.