In one of my previous articles, I described a hedge fund manager called Karen the "SuperTrader". She was featured few times by tastytrade as "one of the most successful and fascinating traders". Tom Sosnoff admitted that he "admires" her. What Sosnoff fails to mention time after time is the amount of risk Karen is taking, compared to her returns.
Digging through some old forum posts, I came across the following question from one of our members: "My bear call spread is ITM now (RUT 855/865). I adjusted it by rolling it to the next strike (closed 855/865, opened 875/890). But I was wondering if this could be approached differently. This seems too good to be true, so I'm wondering if I'm missing something.
What would you say if someone told you that they consistently produce an average annual return of 3,000-4,000%? You would probably think it's too good to be true, right? That's what I thought when I reviewed a list of best performing investment newsletters reported by Pro-Trading-Profits, an independent advisory monitoring site.
Yesterday Mark Hulbert published an article in MarketWatch called Investing guru predicts 12% rise in stocks over six months. I must say that I don't like the word guru in general. One of my favorite quotes is "Our world needs less gurus and more teachers. Gurus are about helping themselves become successful - teachers are about helping others become successful." - Joseph C. Kunz Jr.
While most major indexes continue to straggle, SteadyOptions continues to deliver strong gains. SteadyOptions flagship service produced 47.4% ROI in Q1 2015, based on fixed $1,000 allocation per trade (non-compounded) and 6 trades open. This translated to 28.4% return on the whole account, based on 10% allocation per trade. The winning ratio was a remarkable 82%. Check out the Performance page to see the full results.
Let’s begin with a basic fact: There are many methods for adjusting a position so that risk is reduced. Some are inexpensive, others cost more than most traders are willing to spend. Some are effective most of the time, but the protection offered is minimal. Others are so effective (alas, that happens rarely) that the gains an be spectacular. [Think of owning an extra put or two before the market opens down 20% one fine day]
Steady Condors has just finished another profitable month of trading with gains of 7.7% on margin, and 6.2% per unit for April expiration. This makes the year to date return 17% on a whole account. Of particular importance is that this month’s gains bring Steady Condors back to new equity highs after a somewhat lengthy (yet statistically expected) drawdown over the last year. Those who had the discipline and patience to stay the course have been rewarded.
Many people believe in the above methods, indicators. I am skeptical about the usability of them. I'll tell you why ... Fibonacci, Gann, Elliott - all of them bring the laws of nature into the trading. These are formulas and laws that can be found in nature and form certain patterns.
Karen the "SuperTrader" has generated a lot of curiosity in the trading community. She has been interviewed on TastyTrade twice. The title of the last interview was "OPTION TRADER makes $105MM PROFIT in the NDX, SPX and RUT. Is she real? Does she really generate all those outstanding profits? Do you think Karen is a fraud? This article aims to clarify some facts about Karen SuperTrader and her trading results.
