Photo: REUTERS 2015

Despite the record drop in the Russian market in 2014, the leaders of the Moscow Exchange “Best Private Investor” competition were able to achieve returns of hundreds and thousands of percent. RBC Quote correspondent Arnold Khachaturov asked the winners of the competition about the investment strategies that led them to success.

The annual competition for private investors, which the Moscow Exchange holds every year, this time took place from September 15 to December 15, 2014. During this time, the Russian market managed to update several records. The RTS index fell below 900 points for the first time in five years, and at the end of the year lost 42% of its value. On the last day of the competition, the ruble fell by 15% against the dollar and became the weakest currency in the world. However, these dramatic changes did not prevent the competition leaders from achieving impressive returns on investments in the Russian stock market. Thus, the winner in the “Best Active Trader” category, Vadim Kuleshov, was able to earn almost 5000% on his investments.”

What strategies have the most successful investors followed?

Timur, 33 years old, professional trader
First place in the category “Best private investor in the stock market”

Nickname at the competition: TATARIN
Starting amount: 73 thousand rubles .
Profitability: 533%
Total income: 389 thousand rubles.

“I started trading in mid-2005. I was then attracted by the fact that a small amount was needed and there was the prospect of additional income. He started as a chief accountant, then began to study various tactics and left work when trading began to bring in three times more wages.

Trading has been my main activity since 2009, and this is what I live for. I also provide advice on trading on the stock exchange. The first three years on the market I was looking for myself, trading haphazardly and suffering significant losses. Then I realized that indicators (moving, parabolic, stochastic, ATR, etc.) do not work because they are delayed. Since then I have not used any technical indicators.

I have a total of eight patterns that I developed myself and now use in trading. I capture them using technical analysis, and my fellow programmer translates them into numbers. Moreover, I play in slightly smaller volumes than they show, and, of course, I use stop orders (allowing me to sell or buy assets when they reach a certain price). There are times when my patterns are practically not found, but you have to be able to wait and try not to be greedy. And I trade liquid shares with a turnover of at least 40 million rubles. in a day.

He suffered the largest losses after purchasing Mechel shares. They began to fall, and I entered the market, and even with significant leverage. There was a colossal loss then, and then it was recouped for more than four months.”

Vadim Kuleshov, 37 years old, professional trader
First place in the category “Best Active Trader”

Contest nickname: robot_TestV1.1
Starting amount: 50 thousand rubles.
Profitability: 4755%
Total income: 2.38 million rubles.

“I paid attention to the financial markets a long time ago, back at the end of 2005, when I saw that mutual funds brought high returns to their shareholders, then some of them earned more than 100% per annum. Since then, I have been slowly studying the subject, thinking about how I can make stable money in the market. I gradually came to the conclusion that the best thing for me as a professional programmer was to engage in algorithmic trading.

Now trading is my main occupation. We have a small team of four people, we write our own software, develop trading strategies and implement them on the derivatives market of the Moscow Exchange. My participation is in the direct development of the algorithm and software.

We made decent money on currency futures during the competition, but in general we tried to make money on everything. We didn’t get much in rubles, but our goal was to show that you can make money on the market every day without serious drawdowns: during the competition, the robots did not show a single unprofitable day.

Without going into details, my strategy can be classified as an arbitrage group - algorithms whose aggregate position has minimal market risk. Roughly speaking, the robot, having bought one asset, sells another, trying to hedge its position.

A fast program tries to execute orders in the best possible way according to the algorithm given to it. Despite the stable performance at the LCI, I also had serious losses: once, due to an error at the opening of the morning trading session, my robot lost about half a million rubles in a second. The possibility of such situations forces us to more carefully analyze algorithms for possible losses and monitor the quality of program writing.

I am not aware of any cases of successful purchase of a robot by investors. But it often happens that a trader buys a “black box” and receives a loss. And this is not surprising. Do you think it would be smart to sell the goose that lays the golden eggs?

And in general, the robot is the tip of the iceberg. The program itself is of little use without experience, without understanding the market and the technical (infrastructural) part of exchange trading. But it is difficult to sell the entirety of our knowledge and experience. At the moment, we are focusing our efforts on refining existing trading ideas; we also plan to expand our presence to other trading platforms, but we do not plan to sell our model.”

Andrey, 50 years old, unemployed
First place in the category “Best New Trader” Nick at the competition: FOMIN
Starting amount: 21 million rubles.
Profitability: 1605%
Total income: 340 million rubles.

“I am a supporter of long-term investments, but with an eye on the possibility of some kind of economic crisis. In general, I try not to play too much and act carefully. I prefer to invest. Gambling is a risky business, and a temporary one at that. It is associated with some momentary situation, for example with a crisis. And I didn't make unreasonable bets.

In fact, I just bought currency in large quantities; I did not play on the stock market at all. I just had investments there, and after the collapse of the ruble, I began to withdraw money from there at some loss. It turned out that I earned money in rubles, but lost nothing in foreign currency.

I took part in the competition for the sake of participating, and not for the sake of winning. That is, as a novice investor, I performed quite successfully, but I can hardly be considered some kind of outstanding player. In most cases, beginners tend to get caught when they start playing, so I followed this strategy.

I am currently unemployed because if I start working now, I will not be able to manage my finances. So basically what I do is make sure I don’t lose what I’ve earned throughout my life.”

Tatyana Zherebtsova, 42 years old, lawyer
Seventh place in the category “Best New Trader”

Contest nickname: Tatyana1
Starting amount: 50 thousand rubles.
Profitability: 188%
Total income: 94 thousand rubles.

“Once upon a time, a very long time ago, I already tried my hand at private investing and did a little bit of it. I made my first attempts in the 90s: there was an opportunity to invest money, but mutual funds did not suit me, and I began to look for other investment options and tried my hand at private investing. Now, it seems to me, is the time to return with more serious intentions.

At the moment my goal is to gain knowledge. I took Alpari courses, studying mainly technical analysis. At BCS I studied various investment strategies. Now I myself am studying a large amount of literature on the topic of trade. I work mainly on weekends, so it’s impossible to say that I spend a lot of time on the stock exchange. I received most of the knowledge for free, but what I had to pay for has already paid off handsomely for me. This time, in addition to valuable experience, I received a good profit. In the future, after I complete my studies, I plan to continue working, but with larger amounts.

I almost never had to sit at the computer and trade continuously. I tried, but it brings in very little income and also takes a lot of time. So I chose a strategy that allows me to distract myself for a while and do other things. In trading, I use mixed tools: technical analysis, stock news, and analyst forecasts. I prefer to buy when they all show the same signal.

Naturally, I usually trade within the current trend. I don’t open short positions; I play on upward trends. For example, on the stock market I invested in Surgutneftegaz, and most likely this is a long-term investment. When buying shares, I always look at quotes over the past few years - and if they are currently in the area of an all-time high, then I refuse the deal.

I traded on the foreign exchange market for a short time. Last fall, I had dollar futures at an exchange rate of 42–43 rubles. by 160 thousand rubles. At that time it was a decent part of my portfolio. I believed that the dollar would rise for some time. But based on the analysis of charts and the stock market, I concluded that 47–48 rubles/dollar. - this is maximum. When the dollar cost 46.5 rubles, I closed the position.

It was quite a nerve-wracking transaction. When I invested in November, futures fell 6%. I withdrew some of the money, and, after consulting with familiar traders, I left some in the hope of still winning back. And indeed, it then went up, and in the end I made good money.”

Victor, 35 years old, professional trader
Fourth place in the category “Best Private Investor in the Stock Market” Nick in the competition: Tank79
Starting amount: 50 thousand rubles.
Profitability: 200%
Total income: 100 thousand rubles.

“When I studied at Chelyabinsk State University at the Faculty of Finance and Credit, I began to study the stock market. Among other things, I am a master of sports in Russian checkers: from there I learned many work skills from this hobby. These are mainly skills related to psychology: self-discipline and the ability to exploit the weaknesses of the crowd. Comparing the stock market with checkers, I can say the following: playing on the stock market is much easier, since everything here depends solely on your actions, and in checkers all your efforts can be nullified by an experienced opponent.

I have been participating in the LCI competition since 2011. Usually I take good places, but for some reason I kept falling out of the list: either I’ll make a larger starting amount than necessary, or I’ll put in more applications. This time I didn’t make such technical mistakes.

During the competition, I traded all stocks that had a certain trend. Something grows somewhere - you need to take part in it; something falls - you also need to. I try to avoid sharp fluctuations; all my transactions are planned. The operation may end up as planned as a plus, and I will be happy; it may end up as a minus, and I won’t be upset either. This trading system is based on technical analysis, but I will not reveal the details.

I formed my strategy a long time ago, then I even taught it to my acquaintances and friends, and now I teach special courses. The peculiarity of my approach lies in the reliance on psychological traps that arise during trading, and technical analysis itself occupies a secondary role in it. Sometimes my strategy gives good, sometimes normal, and sometimes very good results. Typically, the more active the market, the better the outcome.”

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