Portfolio Review 01.05.2017

After the main portion of my eToro credits have been withdrawn from my eToro account, I took a break from ManualTrading to find new trading approaches. A few weeks ago I resumed my activities and would like to share my new strategy with you in this portfolio review. As always, the plain numbers first:

CopyTrading: -19,9% (last portfolio review: -21,2%)
ManualTrading: -11,0% (last portfolio review: -11,7%)
Overall: -15,7% (last portfolio review: -17,0%)



Remark: The graph above shows the profits relative to the money deposited on my eToro account. It doesn't consider remaining credits as well as compensation that I receive as popular investor on eToro.

CopyTrading

As described in my last portfolio review, the withdrawal of most of my eToro credits forced me to rearrange my portfolio. The remaining traders did a good job so far, so I do not see the necessity to change anything. Also, I am sure the last week's dip in the graph is just temporarily... Here are more details about each trader:



When I had to rearrange my portfolio I only stopped copying the least successful traders, and kept the others running without pausing or recopying. Therefore I show the complete curves from when I started to copy them at the end of 2016.

The best performing trader is again @cookie79, although she didn't manage to generate wins. As described in my post "5 rules for successful CopyTrading on eToro" it is easy to get out of sync when copying other traders. Therefore I made the synchronization test - everything okay, still synchronized with her.

One remarkable thing you can see in the chart above is that @moosgruber is slowly but steadily recovering from his lossy phase. I takes some persistence and a lot of motivation to keep going after huge losses. Or, as Vince Lombardi once said: "It's not whether you get knocked down, it's whether you get up." (Find more motivational quotes here).

ManualTrading

After a few weeks break from my ManualTrading activities I started investing again three weeks ago. I currently have the following stocks and ETFs in my portfolio:

$APPL $TLT $MTZ $MON $WMT $SEDG $MELI $SYK

I also had $SWKS for two weeks but got stopped out when the stock pulled back. With this setup I started generating small profits over the last weeks and I am looking forward to see how my new strategy works mid- and long-term. You ask yourself what is my new strategy? Well, here we go: From the many different trading styles I decided to focus on trend following. How that works is "easy":

1. Find "healthy" companies through fundamental analysis
2. Scan their charts for existing or upcoming trends
3. Buy stocks and wait... Ride the trend and watch your profits skyrocking
4. Get out when the trend is over

Of course it is not as easy as I described it in these four steps. It takes a lot of experience and knowledge to take the first two steps, it takes a good stomach to master step 3 and not to continue to step 4 too early. That is probably what happend to my $SWKS stocks - we will see if their trend will continue...

The key of learning about anything is reading. That's why I have been reading a lot, searching for good sources on the topic. And I found those guys:

• Jay @SmartStockTrend: Jay performs the first two steps for you and publishes new stock trending tips every weekend - like this one from May 1st 2017. In addition he explains how he does it on his website. Most of the stocks I bought in the last weeks were recommended by Jay. Not all of the stock tips are available on eToro, but he always offers many ideas. Definitely one of the best resources for upcoming trend followers...
• Rayner @Rayner_Theo: Rayner offers a great online course about trading that he calls "university". This seems to be enough material for Newbies, but he even offers more on his blog and: If you register you receive a free eBook "The Ultimate Guide to Trend Following". Tons of great material!

There many more good blogs and websites out there and I will keep my eyes open on my path to (hopefully) becoming a successful trend follower. If you are looking for more good resources I invite you to follow me on twitter or bloglovin', where I share more good stuff that I find on the internet.

Now let me know: What is your trading strategy? Do you know more good websites about trend following? 

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Related posts:

5 rules for successful CopyTrading on eToro
Portfolio Review and adjustments 18.03.2017
Strategy backtest pt.10 - copper trading strategy
Getting out of sync @CopyTrading pt. 2 - 13.01.2017
Rearranging my CopyTrading portfolio cw50/16

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Important remark: The results presented above and throughout my blog are no recommendation for your trading! I only share my personal findings and opinions to give ideas and let my followers and copiers know what I am currently working on. I can not guarantee the correctness of my calculations and my presented results. Furthermore past performance is not an indication for future results. Only trade with money you are prepared to lose!