2021 was an interesting year in the markets. The VIX made its way back into the teens by April for the first time since the COVID crisis began in March of 2020. However, NASDAQ volume, which had jumped from about 2 billion shares a day prior to COVID to around 4.5 billion shares a day once COVID hit, actually spent most of the year (really starting after the November 2020 Election) even higher. There were some “lighter” periods over the summer, but even then, we rarely dipped under 4 billion shares. With all of that, the S&P tacked on about another 1100 points, closing near 4800, or up about 29%. Obviously, the markets are over-valued with all of the money that has been printed and with the Fed action since COVID began. I wouldn’t expect this to continue in 2022. In fact, I think it is safe to say that 2022 will be much better for smart traders than investors.
We continued to succeed in our trading in all of the asset classes that we follow (crypto coming in 2022? Stay tuned.)
Let’s start with Forex.
Our official trade results in Forex count the hard calls that we make each day. They do not count our Value Area plays or Seeker/Comber trades, as you can always find those in any given symbol on any given day, and they would be too numerous to count. In total, we had 192 trade calls trigger in 2021 in Forex. Of those, 108 were winners (56.25%). Our target win ratio for our trading system is between 50 and 60 percent, so we landed precisely in that range. Total pip gains for the year in Forex was 1089 pips. You can review the monthly Forex results by clicking here. You can even follow the links on each summary to see every trade we called day-by-day.
Next up, futures.
Again, our official trade results in Futures count the Opening Range plays in the ES and NQ and our hard calls only. We do not count Opening Range trades in other symbols because not everyone wants to trade the less liquid contracts. We do not count the Value Area plays or the Seeker/Comber trades, or any of the other trading systems that we teach, as those could be countless if you applied them to all symbols. In total, we had 281 futures trades trigger in 2021. Of those, a whopping 213 were winners (75.8%)! Total tick gains for the year landed around 1177 ticks. You can review the monthly Futures results by clicking here. Again, you can even follow the links on each summary to see every trade we called day-by-day.
Finally, stocks (we don’t track options trades as every person can apply different options strategies that we teach to each trade). We count all of our stock calls that trigger with market support (on the S&P) under the rules that we teach in our program. In 2021, we had 369 total stock trades trigger officially. 96 (26%) were kept to small losses. 86 (23.3%) were small winners (worked enough for a partial, never did much else). 187 (50.7%) were bigger winners, meaning they hit a partial and more. That puts the total win ratio at 73.98%, which is above our target of 65%. You can review the Stock results and all stock trades starting here.
I should also point out that there were no negative months in stocks, no negative months in futures (although January only saw 8 ticks of gains), and only ONE negative month in Forex (surprise…August).
This is about as complete of a year as you can get in trading and it shows that in every asset class, our approach to the markets works. While I doubt 2022 will see another steady climb in the markets (as I said above), I suspect that we will do equally well no matter what happens. Good luck to us all.