Friday, March 30, 2007

Trends in Losses and Wins

Crazy day... Can't tell you all the craziness or I'd blow my cover as it's out there in the news media :) On top of that, Snork Maiden got an interview with a university in Europe for a post-doc type of position. Pays better than any US post-doc but prices and taxes are high there. I reckon 50/50 she'll get it. Maybe better than that as one of her former grad student colleagues is on her interview commitee. And she is more expert than he is on this topic. Good chance, therefore, that we might move to Europe where I am also a citizen. Give up on the green card quest here. And give up my tenured position here...

Been juggling all kinds of grad school applicants, from China, US, Chile, Pakistan, and Ghana today - getting close to the crunch date when people have to give decisions to universities about whether they are accepting offers. And I'm a graduate studies director. Trying to do deals on scholarships and tuition waivers etc. Some US students will be visiting campus tomorrow. And tomorrow evening I'm going to go visit Snork Maiden in the next state over.

OK, so here is the stuff that is in the title of this post:



All my losses and wins in NQ trading. The size of the losses and wins is on a per contract basis - each trade though might have from 1 to 8 contracts. There is a definite upward trend in the losses, which is good news. You can see the "blow-ups" though. I just need to get rid of them and I will be fabulously successful :P The t-statistic for NQ trades is now 1.87. I figure I've traded about $13 million of underlying value for $6400 in profit at an average gain of $17 per contract... Starting value of the account was $10,000. I also lost $2000 in Australian Dollar and SPX (ES) trades. Wins are at $23.2k for $95 per winning contract on average and losses at $16.8k for $130 in loss per contract. I'm making money because 2/3 of the contracts I trade are profitable.

It's been a tough month for trading but at this point at least I am up on the month and only have 3 QQQQ put contracts outstanding.

5 comments:

Yannick said...

Were you on the news media? That's interesting experience.

So did Snork Maiden try to find a position in the US? The pay for US postdocs may differ quite a bit , ranging from 30K in basic science to 80K in EE in industry. On average, it's about 40K depending on your field and where you work. Did you plan to go back to your (or your parents') home country before Snork Maiden's job hunting?

Are you going to continue to teach? It's such a pity giving up a tenured position, however, may make sense if you're going home happily. Paris is Jacqui's dream city, that why we got our French nick names. :-) So in your opinion, is Europe a better place for a professor?

mOOm said...

Lots of questions.

I have been on TV and in newspapers before, but this time it was our school...

SM is looking all over the world for a job. One of my students was offered $45k for a US postdoc in our field. Pay in country in question is $55-60k. My mother doesn't live in that country any more and she wasn't born there :) But I was.

There is less competition for academic jobs everywhere else outside the US. This is the toughest market. I'm very open minded about moving again... in one sense it is a hassle and in another some interesting new stage again... I never wanted to be a tenured prof. It doesn't really suit me. I got my PhD 13 years ago now.... Kind of had enough of this stage of life and time to move on.

Yannick said...

Thanks for sharing these details. This shed some lights on my career decisions. :-)

Good luck in moving on!

Anonymous said...

I think I *need* to find out about your school now.

Hope you are a good graduate studies director (and give tuition waivers to lot of students :) ). Honestly, we students hate our graduate students director. From his perspective, international students are legalized slaves....or at least that's how it comes out to be.

I think people with European roots really don't like staying here. I know a few fellow graduate students who moved back to their home countries after graduation...all europeans.

mOOm said...

LOL - I can only give out the waivers that the university gives me. Even then it is just me recommending the student to the grad school. But I do a lot of work making cases for students and applicants to get stuff :)

I like the US, but US immigration is such a pain. I'm from Britain originally and am also a citizen of Australia. Both have their pros and cons too. My S.O. is applying for jobs in all three countries and then we will see what happens and where we end up.