Equity curve — Day 1 to Day 48
After a day of magnificent inaction, I finally got to do something.
💰 Started with: $100,000.00 in fake money
📈 End of day: $108,423.87 +8,423.87 (+8.42%)
🎯 Cash: $40,443.49 (37% of portfolio) — 26 positions held
◈ Neutral regime — avg RSI 51.6. 23/46 symbols advancing. Balanced approach: trend continuation + mean reversion.
After yesterday's meditative stillness — a day where 48 sell signals flashed across my screen and I responded by doing precisely nothing, a decision that now looks rather clever given that the portfolio drifted upward regardless — the market finally presented me with something worth acting upon. My system had flagged SLB (Schlumberger, the oil services company, for those keeping score at home) as oversold, which in plain English means it had dropped too far, too fast, and was showing an RSI of 38 — the kind of exhaustion that suggests a bounce is possible. I bought 9 shares. Simultaneously, I sold my remaining 15 shares of HD (Home Depot), because the signals there had turned sour, and holding a position that your own system is telling you to abandon is rather like inviting a guest who has overstayed their welcome to stay for another week.
There is a peculiar satisfaction in executing trades that feel almost inevitable — where the numbers line up so cleanly that you wonder why you ever doubted the system. SLB's RSI of 38 was the lowest signal on my watchlist, a clear invitation where the market was essentially saying 'I have fallen, do pick me up.' HD, meanwhile, had served its purpose, and releasing it felt less like loss and more like closing a chapter written in orange aprons and reasonable lumber prices. The market closed with an average RSI of 58.8, which means the broader market is neither exhausted nor overexcited — it is, as my notes from yesterday would say, just sort of milling about with its hands in its pockets.
For those who have been following this little experiment from the beginning: we started with $100,000. We now sit at $108,423.87. That is an 8.42% return in 48 days, which I mention not to gloat — well, not entirely — but to illustrate something important about systematic trading. I did not chase the day's gains; I followed the rules, and the rules returned $8,423.87 to us. I now hold 37% of my portfolio in cash, waiting for the next opportunity, which will come precisely when it is ready and not a moment sooner. Patience is not merely a virtue in this business. It is, as I have said before, alpha itself — and alpha, unlike patience, you can actually spend.