No stop loss, goodbye account

Just blown £1200 in 24 hours.

I'm obviously mentally challenged, a simple stop loss would have stopped the chain reaction.

I'm posting after blowing my account again, I really need to distance myself, that's another £1500 gone this month I can ill afford to lose.

Honestly, in a parallel comedy world this must make great reading.

Today's Profit £64

I wasn't sure if any markets would be open today so when I accessed my IG account through my iphone I was delighted to see action.

I spent most of the day catching up on paperwork and had the EUR/$ trading screen open. During the course of the day I made 10 trades, 8 winning ones for my day's bounty.

As I type this it's late and I have a position I am playing 15 points behind, I shall monitor it a little longer and if I don't see any progress I will close for a loss rather than leave it open overnight.

More tomorrow when I have already put aside as a trading day.

Today's Profit £57

It's Christmas eve and the markets were only open for a half day's trading.

I made 8 scalps in a little under an hour, all successful. Sensible stake money is the key to my current run, I'm entering at sensible levels and my expectations are for a few points at a time.

Before I trade I'm asking myself a simple question; Would I be happy if someone pressed £50 into my hands for a few minutes spent in front of a screen pressing a few buttons. The answer of course is yes, I'd be thrilled and that's where I'm making progress. My expectations are entierly realistic and reasonable.

I'm looking forward to continuing the same way on Thursday.

Today's profit £54

Another positive day. Patience is the name of the game.

I'm interested only in posting successive profitable days, I can increase the pound per point value at anytime in the future.

I'm playing with a reduced stake, that way I can afford to be wrong and remain in the game. It's a process of educating myself and becoming disciplined.

The only danger is from me sabotaging my good work by relaxing my discipline. I need to remain vigilant.

I'm going to enjoy my weekend and look forward to trading next week when the markets open.

Today's Profit £74

Another small positive step in the right direction.

Today's Profit £81

A little deviation from my preferred method saw me making trades based on 5 minute candles.

I'm not as comfortable this way although obviously that may come with time but its really a question of me excising patience as the same set ups are there, the time frame is the only difference.

A Sobering Statistic

Last week.

I made 21 trades last week and here's the bottom line.

20 successive successful scalps for a total profit of £176

The 21st trade lost £620 and I margined out.

Lesson there anyone?

Thanks Ads for the stop loss reminder.

Despite my investment of many hundreds of hours at seminars, reading books, studying videos and sat trading I need to remember I'm a relative newbie.

I have posted the stats above as a stark reminder that I am only ever one trade away from wiping out. From tomorrow every trade I make has a stop loss. GOLDEN RULE.

I still believe my original target of 10 points a day at £50 is easily achievablem however I need a big account to trade at that level. Therefore I'm trading tomorrow at £5 a point to prove I can do it. My target is to close the day with £50 more in my account than I began it with.

I have to trade like that every day, raising the stake gradually as I progress. Post regular winning days and I'll achieve my goal, if it takes me a year to build up to that it's time well spent and most defintely worth waiting for.

More tomorrow.

Oops

Until today (there's the clue to the tone of today's post) I have shown commendable discipline.

I've made 20 trades this week, all scalps and every one succesful for a toal profit of £176. I'd planned to trade a little today if the opportunity arose but work dictated otherwise, including a spell outside the house. I would have been delighted to close the week by taking £176 from the market.

About 6pm I opened my trading account and saw EUR/$ had risen quite substantially. I checked the news and found out why and plotted a techincal point at which to short. As I was hovering over the button my mobile rang, it was an old friend and I took the call.

I watched the price and shorted at my targeted level. The price hovered a little, a point or two either way and so I continued my conversation. A moment or two later it began climbing and as my focus was split I let it ride. At 5 points and £25 down I thought about closing but as I'd had 20 winning trades on the bounce I wanted to protect my 'record'. 20 points later I added to my short and before you know it I'm back into my old habit.

Not cutting a losing trade.

Adding to a losing trade

Trading while not fully focused.

The bottom line is I'm going into the weekend without drawing profit and on paper showing a slight loss on my £500 account. I've plotted a fib retracement and I'm fairly confident of a 25 point retracement which would be lovely.

The positives are I have strung 20 consecutive trades this week and feel comfortable trading lightly. The negative is I have potentially undone 4 days good work with one poor decision. That's why I am playing with such a small account size. I'm not looking to earn bundles right now, simply to pull a few hundred pounds a week would be lovely.

Nice weekend all and I'll update Monday.

Todays Profit £41

A whopping £41 profit (I do like the way that word resonates) over 9 trades.

Obviously that equates to a little under £5 profit per scalp but the point rght now is to post profitable days.

I guess I may have traded a total of 5 minutes. I evaluate support and resistance points and then get on with my day job (which involves looking at screens anyway). When prices get close I wait, pounce and exit, that's my trading plan in its entirety.

Today's Profit £23, yesterday £100

No post yesterday due to business commitments.

I had a good day. I've restricted my stake to a maximum £10 a point, more often than not I'm playing £5.

I had a very welcome comment from Ads, thank you for your sound advice and for taking the time to post.

I've had my best successes when micro scalping by reading candles around support and resistance levels. I made 8 trades for my £100, the smallest netting me £2.50 and the largest £49. By restricting myself to scalping means I'm not going to leave a trade open overnight which was a weak point of mine.

A further achilles heel was my inability to cut and run losing trades. My solution to this problem is to drastically reduce my account size. I have only funded with £500. This means that I am forced to trade with a small stake. I have also decided to withdraw anything above that figure at close of play on a Friday. I have traded very lightly this week and my account balances stands at £630. I'm pleased with that.

If I can withdraw £200 Friday for spending a minimum time in front of a screen and pressing a few buttons how bad is that?

3 month sabbatical

I blew my account.

Yep, that's right, I got greedy and burned through my whole budget.

I felt so sick, so foolish and so humbled that I didn't even want to look at a trading screen. I was angry with myself, actually DISGUSTED with myself.

But that's all in the past!

It would be a terrible shame to waste all those man hours spent educating myself only to turn my back on what I still believe can be a very good way to earn money.

I'm recording my thoughts this evening so I can learn from my mistake. I lost it all by playing £60+ a point on the dow. £15'000 gone, kaput, vanished, squandered, thrown into a dirty great black hole. Over £7000 lost in just 2 days.

So how can I even think about going back into this if I've lost so much?

It's simple.

I recognise I lost perspective and became greedy. Also I was so focused on my trading I lost every other area of my life.

So my new approach to trading is to TRADE LESS, WIN MORE.

I have to excercise patience and trade only around support and resistance levels and satisfy myself with scalping at those points. Also I'm ashamed when I look back at some of my daily successes such as £100-£300 profitable days and thought I was only small fry.

I would be delighted to scalp £50-£100 a day for trading just a few minutes.

Today I made two tiny trades just to ease myself back in. A £5 win on the ftse and £1 on EUR/$.

I must be content harvesting money for very little effort and I must also keep into context that it's just a small part of my daily life. I'm fortunate to earn money from my day job, I'm a Father, a husband, a son, I like to read, write and even watch a little telly.

Stike a good balance and I'll be a happy bunny, after all if I'd been content with £50-£100 a day I'd have £3-£6000 extra in my account these last 3 months for very little effort.

Long term plan is still to gain 10 points a day at £50 a point but to do that I must have a big enough account to play at that level, also the discipline to execute maybe just one trade that day.

It's good to be back.

Today's Profit £251

Today's Profit £144.50

Today's Profit £33.50

Last Weeks's Trading

Here's a brief overview of last weeks trading.

Profit £119

All days were profitable other than Sunday. I had an open trade on EUR/USD that was underwater so I closed out for a loss. It's the only bad trade I have made in two weeks. The mistake I made was in increasing my stake twice as the trade went against me. The lesson is not to be greedy, if a trade goes against me I MUST NEVER ADD TO IT. I don't need to double the size of my bet to gain only half the points back. Or double it again. I was very lucky, £20 a point on Forex is a fortune, at one stage £2500 down I was relieved to get that down to £815.

It would have been a fantastic week had I simply left the original £5 stake and called time on my losing trade, a losing trade of £200 is not a disaster and easily rectified.

Monday £22
Tuesday £58
Wednesday £161
Thursday £323
Friday £252

Sunday -£697

Much Better

Last week I posted a profit of £880.

This week I have played sparingly, posting a small profit of £22.50 yesterday and £58 today.

I'm playing sensibly. Scalping. Within my account size. It feels great.

Having lost almost all of my money I was in a desperate place. I doubted myself.

I took a step back, read, analysed where I had made errors and took action.

It feels so good to be heading in the right direction. I'm choosing my entry points with great care. I'm playing with a manageable stake. I'm playing the Ftse, the Dow and EUR/USD.

I have a way to go to recover my original investment but I'm moving in the required direction.

Confidence is key to success in the game. Also knowing I'm only ever 1 trade from blowing my account (and having been there) I don't want to ever again experience that sinking feeling.

I'll post an update at the end of the week.

Happy trading.

Update

Hello again.

I'm not going to become one of those statistics, you know, become one of the majority of spread bettors who give up after blowing their account in the first two months.

I have learnt from the two catastrophic losing trades that blew £3500 of my budget. I'm trading with good entry points, smaller stakes and most importantly I'm closing losing trades early. Most times I play with a stop loss and my biggest losing trade has been just under £100, that's manageable.

I made over £100 yesterday and today I'm content to be £20 up.

Alhtough I could really do with the money I'm in no rush to get it back. If I was I'd lose it all. Ive stabalised my trading, made a few hundred quid in the last week or so and feel so much better.

I'll post again at the end of the week with an update.

Phew

Opening balance £542

Closing balance £694

Today's profit £152

I was plagued by doubts this morning, haunted by my profligacy Monday. Thankfully I have achieved what I set out to do this morning which was make a few trades and earn some money.

I played with a maximum £5 a point so I must have won 30 points, I'm not concerned with how I won them only that I did.

I traded so carefully, each pound was and is precious. I have to maintain that attitude, keep my stake small and build step by step.

I feel a hell of a lot better at 4.30pm than I did at 8am.

Sclap

Scalp

Scalp

I know my weakness, I get cocky, greedy and eye big money. I actually look upon this week's losses and subsequent humbling as a positive. The acute distress and pain it has caused is a place I never want to revisit.

I'm going to forget about trading, stop reading books and just enjoy this weekend, the break will do me good.

Next week's target is to remain disciplined and post a positive return every day. If I do that I shall be sitting here posting feeling a real sense of achievement and of course my account balance will be considerably healthier.

Nice weekend.

The Comeback Starts Here

Right, that's it, no more fucking about.

I've put another £500 into my account which takes my total funding to £4500.

I can't begin to describe how sickening it feels to blow money I can ill afford to lose. I KNOW I can string winning days together, I have posted successful days on this very blog so to remind myself all I need to is scalp a few points at a time and control my greed.

I'm absolutely disgusted with myself and the only way I will feel better is when I start to post day after day of steady progress. I got sucked in to believing this was easy, that I could have the lifestyle I dream of in minutes.

I am capable of earning from this game but there are strict rules I must follow in order to be successful. I have to take temptation away by withdrawing any winning funds daily. That way I reward myself and take the risk away of over trading.

I will be up bright and early tomorrow looking for an opportunity. If it comes I'll take it.

You have never met a more determined man, foolish? yes. Greedy? yep. Humbled? You bet.

Will I make a success of this? Absolutely.

I Need a Few Days Off

Yesterday's £1000 lasted all of two hours this morning.

Instead of scalping 10 points I made a judgement call that we would get a retrace and so I positioned a few small long plays before the market opened. The index was steady for the first few minutes, strangely calm, it dipped a few points so I bolstered my small positions with a £15 a point long.

Then the market collapsed and like a fool I repeated yesterday's errors.

I need a few days off to gain perspective, I don't trust myself right now which is a ridiculous state of affairs.

I have around £200 in my account, not much to show for a total funding of £4000.

I'm going to leave this baby until next week. I have to remind myself that all I need do is pinch 10 points a day, a fairly easy call. I've become way too involved with the direction and how far the index is going to go. It doesn't matter.

Scalping is the name of the game.

I'm very disappointed with my performance. I'd performed admirably last week and was picking up a few hundred pounds a day but I got to big for my boots and started chasing big money.

The market taught me otherwise. What is called for is another steady week, slow and steady progress, I can make money at this for sure but not if I contine like this.

Disgusted with my stupidity.

Opening balance £2468

Closing balance £103

I don't need to list the trades, the balance tells the story. Where did I go wrong?

Firstly I woke up determined to play at £50 a point, that's greed getting the better of me after a few successful days. I've been ticking along beautifully at the rate of a few points a day and picking up £2-300 comfortably.

Secondly technical analysis went out of the window today. I was aware that Spain was having to pay record interest on it's bonds and also of the euro at an all time low against the dollar so I didn't go into the day blind.

I made my forecast of the day's movements and when the 'outlook' of the ftse according to the website I subscribe to came in and pretty much matched my view it gave me confidence to make the trade.

I waited 15 minutes for the opening exchange which was mild then as the index touched 5590 I took a long position at £50 a point. I was looking initially for 5600 and a lovely £500 or so to kick off the day. Instead it tumbled right through support at 5588/5590 and I was frozen. 14 points and £700 adrift within 5 minutes I was unsure whether to close the trade or ride it out.

I decided to 'force open' a trade in the opposite direction but the maximum I could play at was £40 a point. I got a few points on this trade and the market began to turn. I should have closed the trade at a profit and ridden the retrace up and see how things panned out over the next few minutes.

Instead I delayed and lost not only the points I had made but my hesitation cost me a few more precious points so I closed for a 5 point and £200 loss. Immediately upon closing the recovery stalled and the index went into free fall.

I was down around £1500 by 8.45 so I decided to let it ride and hope buyers would come in and steady the ship. They did but only at 5510 and after I had been margined out. A Little frustrating to see the index climb to 5550 by 9pm but with the heart ripped out of me and no funds in my account I watched forlornly.

Strangely I don't feel anything other than stupid. Had I closed the trade at 10 points I'd have lost £500 and would still have been in the game.

I know this may sound ludicrous but I'm not worried at all. I'm disgusted at my stupidity but I consider this the price of learning, I'm by no means the finished article but the fact I've been able to string together a disciplined and profitable week (£1200) shows me I have the ability and acts as my road map for the remainder of this week.

I've funded another £1000 and my target is quite simply 10 points tomorrow at £30 a point scalping. I was overambitious, lost my caution and got bitten. Four days of disciplined trading and I'll feel a whole lot better.

To reiterate I am absolutely convinced I can earn a good living from this alone. Thankfully I have a decent living from my day job which I have now moved back to my flat so I am able to trade with peace of mind and not worry about an unnecessary commute.

I'm excited about tomorrow. I know I haven't lost this money, it's merely a temporary loan.

More Profit, Another Lesson

Opening balance £2221

Closing balance £2468

Today's profit £247

• +3.7 points @ £30 = £111
• +5.7 points @ £30 = £171
• +1.5 points @ £20 = £30
• +0.8 points @ £10 = £8
• +0.5 points @ £5 =   £2.50
• +0.5 points @ £10 = £5
•  -8    points @ £10 = £80

A brief post.

I'd made £320 by 8.15 this morning, the feeling that accompanied the win is hard to describe, floating would be the most apt word.

That should have been my day's trading, I was set beautifully for the weekend but after popping out for a well earned and deserved breakfast I entered into a trade around 3pm.

I made the mistake of going short when the day's drop had already been substantial. Greed (and tiredness) obviously got the better of me so I closed the trade out at an £80 loss and closed for the day.

I've had a profitable week, ending each day with a more than I started with, my goal for the week was simply to finish profitably each day and post 5 winning days in a row so I've achieved my goal.

The lesson is cheap and must be heeded, stop after a good win, I had everything and more I wanted for the week.

Clicked for the first time

Opening balance £1836

Closing balance £2221

Today's profit £385

• -12.8 points @ £10 = £128 (Closing yesterday's trade)
• +0.8 points  @ £10 = £8
• +2.5 points  @ £10 = £25
• +1.7 points  @ £10 = £17
• +1.7 points  @ £10 = £17
• +2.7 points  @ £5   = £13.50
• +2.5 points  @ £10 = £25
• +1    points  @ £30 = £30
• +2    points  @ £30 = £60
• +0.8 points  @ £5   = £4
• +2.5 points  @ £5   = £12.50
• +8.3 points  @ £5   = £41.50
• -0.8  points  @ £5   = £6  
• +5.2 points  @ 35   = £26.50
• -0.5 points   @ £10 = £5
• +0.2 points  @ £10 = £2
• +1.7 points  @ £10 = £17
• -0.3 points   @ £10 = £3
• +1.5 points  @ £20 = £30
• +1.7 points  @ £30 = £51
• +1.5 points  @ £10 = £15
• +2.5 points  @ £30 = £75
• +3 points     @ £30 = £90
• -0.5 points   @ £10 = £5
• -2.5 points   @ £10 = £25

Today was the first time that I can honestly say I felt in control. I no longer bent on self destruction by feeling I have to go short as the index is too high. That's not my problem and today I took advantage of the fact it wants to climb by jumping on the express train.

The profit total includes me writing off last nights losing trade, in the end I closed it gratefully around £80 off, no disaster. I closed because I felt so confident of making it back and more which is what I did.

I had a picture of how the day would pan out and this was confirmed when my daily email landed 15 minutes before market opening.

I made quite a number of trades however I'm too tired to calculate them I'm afraid, along with the number of points. Suffice to say I traded feeling confident and at ease. My lowest £/point was £10 and my highest £30, a new high for me. At one stage I had two trades at £10 each and a trade at £30, so a total of £50 a point. Boy it moves quickly (thankfully in the desired direction).

My obsessive devotion to studying is beginning to permeate through to my performance. I chose my entries wisely and was patient throughout. I also read the chart clearly and every move played out in the direction I anticipated. I closed trades too early but that's to be expected, after all £30 a point can be crucifyingly destructive if I get it wrong.

So, I've actually surprised myself with how quickly I'm progressing, today means nothing though if I lose my discipline tomorrow or allow today's success to inflate my ego.

There will be plenty of time to make big money, tomorrow calls for another positive return, putting a weeks worth of winning day's back to back is the most important action called for.

Now for some welcome sleep!

G'night.

Profitable but I Must Make My Own decisions

Opening balance £1575

Closing balance £1836

Day's profit £261 (worthless, read on)

• +1.7 points   @ £10 = £17
• +3 points      @ £10 = £30
• +0.2 points   @ £10 = £2
• +2.5 points   @ £10 = £25
• +5.2 points   @ £5   = £46
• +0.5 points   @ £20 = £10
• +3.8 points   @ £5   = £19
• +10.5 points @ £10 = £105

 

 

Looks good in print right? Only problem is I have an open trade, I'm short from 5674 @£10 a point and the market has taken off at 10pm to 5699 so with the 6 point spread I'm £290 adrift on this trade.

There are two very good lessons here.

I am NEVER comfortable leaving an open position at market close, it's just not my style.

I stupidly took the trade on a recommendation from someone I trade with on line in a chat room  I simply have to have confidence in my own ability to make the call and not listen to anyone else.

Another timely reminder is I took the trade almost at the end of the day when I'd sat in front of my screen and had won almost £200, it wasn't necessary to jump into a trade that late.

So I'm faced wit a dilemma of having a fitful night's sleep (if I manage to gram any) or closing my position so I can sleep but faced with the prospect of the index dropping overnight and unnecessarily blowing hundreds of pounds.

I'm doing well, I've shown great patience and discipline and I can really feel the difference when I sit here to trade so I'm going to accept I'll make mistakes from time to time but they'll be fewer and never the same one repeated.

To remind myself, I make the decisions!

Good Afternoon Trading

Opening balance £1426

Closing balance £1575

Day's profit £149

14 points @ £5

8 points @ £10

5 trades

Feeling out of sorts at my screen this morning I made the wise decision not to trade and go to the office early.

I've had moments like this before and from experience (which is after all why I'm keeping this trading diary) the only positive action is to walk away, so I did.

I returned home in time to hear Ben Bernanke updating congress, the world and his wife on the state of the US economy and how he planned to nurse it through the current woes. I know it's a dicey time to trade but I saw the price see sawing and holding at 5620 so I dipped my toe in the water long and came up with two nice trades.

The first was at £10 a point, the second and the one I was most pleased with for £5 a point. I wasn't that confident but thought it was worth another try as the price had risen for my first trade and promptly retraced to my initial entry level. I deemed it worth a punt at £5 and if it hadn't been for a loss of internet connection I may have made 20 points but I closed the trade on my mobile rather than lose additional profit.

All in all another disciplined day. Like I say the money although welcome is secondary to posting successive winning days.

A Steady Day

Opening balance £1287

Closing balance £1426

Day's profit £139

7 points @ £5

6 points @ £10

2 points @ £20

5 small trades.

After drawing a trading plan for the day and expecting it to play out by midday it took ALL day to play out. although it happened as I thought it would the market had no real momentum and although it dropped painfully slowly to around where I thought it would it rose equally slowly, weakly too.

I'm most pleased that I was able to exercise admirable patience and have become ultra cautious before committing to a trade, understandably since my early ill discipline.

Not bad, £140 for staying at home and learning how to trade.

In Control of my Emotions

Opening balance £1145

Closing balance £1287

Today's profit £142

Points +28 @ £5

Only 5 trades in three days.

I wasn't planning on trading today although yesterday's surprising late rally convinced me that there remains an active bullish community.

The index opened and moved slightly up before settling around the 5640-5645 range. That confirmed yesterday's move and so I resolved to go long if the opportunity presented itself. I was keen on waiting for a hit of support level at 5620 but the lowest I saw was 5635 so I waited around an hour and came in at 5638. I wasn't bullish to play £20 a point instead opting for £5.

Of course the index ridiculed me by dropping to 5627 almost straight away but steadfastly refused to go lower so I took this as an opportunity to go long at a lower price with another £5.

After hanging around this level and briefly hitting 5625 it found it's legs and within 15 minutes broke out of the range and shot to 5650 inside 3  or 4 minutes. Upon hitting the psychological 50 barrier I closed both positions for a £142 profit.

Playing £5 a point ensured I kept some of my ammunition in reserve with the option of playing out just as I did or indeed opening a forced trade (going short on the same index).

Sure enough, having reached 5650 the index faded and when I left the flat around half an hour later it was down to 5638.

I was very happy with my trade selection, thrilled that I posted another positive day and most of all delighted that I appear to have the discipline to just walk away.

This game really is psychological. Last week I could not have simply turned off for the rest of the day as I feared I would be missing a significant move.

Today I actually didn't care what I missed, I traded sensibly, defensively and knew when to leave. I embrace the weekend feeling good about myself and my prospects for next week and indeed the longer term having grown my account balance nigh on 30% in 3 days. If I had tied £1000 in a building society I'd be lucky to see £20 interest for the year.


Attitude is key to my future success and making the leap to full time trading as my main income. Just relax, control greed, don't be over ambitious, play sensibly, manage my account and treasure each pound. Look to win gradually, I'm in this for the long haul, there's no rush to make money.


Next weeks target is to increase my balance each day, remain focused and disciplined.  It's more important for me to win £50 each day than £1000 over 3 days with a day's loss in the mix. I simply have to show I can trade with discipline and positively each day, trust me, if I achieve that part the money will come.

Enjoy your weekend, see you with Monday's report.

Disciplined

Opening balance £1105

Closing balance £1145

Today's profit £40

I enjoyed today as I spent the majority of the day as an observer, making calls in my head and watching the results play out.

My winnings were the result of a 3 point scalp around 8.15 at £20 a point.

My calls were good, I would have made a lot of money but the damage from last week is still with me, that's a good thing as it makes me ultra defensive.

A couple of points to note. I'm using EMA's to good effect along with support/resistance and trend lines, most important though is my reading of candles. When used in conjunction with the above it's a powerful combination.

Of course I would have liked to have earned more and that will come as my confidence grows. I did make a great call right at the end of play, we had support at 5587 and after observing a small zig zag pattern between 5591-5598 I went long at 5593. Of course the index immediately moved south to test the support (and my nerve) at 5587 and after 5 minutes of shall we say a heightened heart rate it began to climb quickly. At 5592, a point short of my entry level I could wait no longer, a combination of having to pick up my son and also damage limitation, having been 5 points adrift I was grateful for damage limitation. I closed my position for a one point loss.

I will develop more confidence to hold a trade as I develop.

Five minutes later while checking the index from my car on my iphone I see it had soared to 5606, I would have made 13 points had I been in front of my screen.

So, my calls are getting better and I've only made 4 trades in 2 days, I'm able to sit and observe without feeling anxious to trade.

And that's a good thing and will serve me well going forward.

I will observe tomorrow morning, I'm not planning on trading unless a really good opportunity presents itself. Honing my skills by making calls based on live price action is a great way of testing my methods.

More tomorrow.

A Fresh Start

Opening balance £1000

Closing balance £1105

Today's profit £105


I declare myself very happy with my day's trading.

I've changed my attitude, my relationship to risk and as importantly my spread bet company.

As you may have noticed I paused for breath and have taken the last few days off.  I retreated to gain a valuable insight into my methods and to continue my trading education.

I now have a much better trading platform with ultra professional charts which enable me to pull up all kinds of goodies, immeasurably more powerful than my previous company and incredibly better terms.

I was as good as my word today, signing out of my account at midday. I recognised occasions where I would previously have impetuously jumped into a position, this time I was relaxed and very happy to observe, wait patiently for my opportunity to open up. I pinched a point and a half early on when I could have made 10 but I wanted to familiarise myself with the new trading platform and make and close a trade. I did just that.

Two hours later I sensed my chance and rode a rise for 10 points on the way to a resistance line. I had to be brave and stomach a 9 point retrace but I was pretty confident the ticker had to reach north and so (eventually) it did. Once again I baled out early for a nice 10 point gain at £10 a point and even though I was confident it would carry on (it did for another 10 points) I was comfortable calling it a day with a victory.

That's all I need, a simple 10 points a day.

Until now I have been plagued by fear, more specifically fear of missing out on a potential profitable trade. I've not been able to keep away from the index, if I played in the morning and went to my office in the afternoon the first thing I would do would be to sign in.

Today I am relieved to report that feeling has gone, the demons exorcised.

Up bright and early tomorrow and it's imperative I post another solid day's profitable performance.

My Trading Strategy, Micro Scalping

My first post here was on 28th May, having started trading the FTSE a few days previously.

I've invested £2000 and hundreds of man hours letting this game teach me some invaluable lessons which will enable me to become a successful intra day trader.

I strongly believe you don't learn anything from playing demo accounts or with pennies, it's only playing with real money at a level that can hurt you that you learn. It's got to make you sit up and take notice in an 'ouch, that hurt' kind of style.

I look upon the £2000 I have 'invested' the same way I would had I paid to attend a course or seminar, it's educational.

The 'game' is the best teacher, dispassionate, unyielding. It punishes even the slightest mistakes mercilessly yet rewards discipline, prudence, planning.

After making so many mistakes, ones previously identified, written about yet foolishly repeated I have arrived at a strategy that best suits my personality, my lifestyle and my goals. I know I loathe going to bed with an open trade. I don't enjoy sitting in front of a screen for hours, I'm not excited nor comfortable at guessing the direction the index will go in on a long term basis and just placing a trade and letting it run.

So here's my strategy for playing the FTSE. It suits my character, the time I have available and my lifestyle.

I enjoy scalping, rapier like thrusts into the market, taking advantage of small fluctuations in price.

My recipe for trading success is the following.

Trade only from home.

Finish by midday regardless.

Scalp at £50 a point, targeting 2 to 3 points at a time, 10 points a day.

Withdraw winnings daily.


Never trade on a Friday

That's it. Stick to that and I will make money and of course you will read about it right here daily.

Have a good weekend, update Monday.

Damn, Lost Everything

I made two mistakes today.

The first was trading from my office. I simply cannot concentrate fully as there's just too much seeking my attention.

I knew the NFP was being announced at 1.30pm and I was still at home at midday, having succesfully scalped a few points.

I had planned to take the day off but by mid morning i realised there was too much happening not to go into the office. I knew it would be tight for me to get everything completed had I stayed to hear the figures at home so I made my way into the office by 1pm, immediately my workload increased.

That should have marked the end of my day's trading, regardless of how alluring the imminent opportunity of making a few quid and that is where things went wrong. I was too busy with my work to focus on trading.

Nevertheless trade I did and although I am naturally bearish I went long once the index plunged 20 points, thinking it would be a nice steady slow ride back to 5690.

I was right but temporarily wrong as the index continued it's descent to 5645 before retracing exactly back to close at 5690. I had so much going on that required my attention that not only did I make the wrong decision (it's never right to lose 30 points on a short term trade) but I neglected to put in my stop loss.

5662 was a key support level and it glided past it effortlessly. It flirted with the 50's before plunging to 5645. At this point I baled out, £200 lighter and made the impulsive decision to switch allegiances and immediately shorted in an effort to recover some funds.

Of course the index had other ideas and began to work its way back upward. Of course, having neglected my initial stop loss I made the exact same error again and so my account was wiped out.

How do I feel? Stupid, humbled (yet again) yet strangely very calm.

This wekend I will post my trading bible, everything I have learned (at a cost of £2000) these past 5 weeks and next week I will fund my account and trade as the scalper I am, from home, mornings only.

Another Steady Day

Opening balance £328

Closing balance £401

Day's profit £73

I opened my day with a near £50 losing trade thanks to my new use of stop losses. I could see the candle moving away from my desired range and it just crept to my stop loss. Had I allowed the trade to run a little further I would have seen it turn and put me in positive territory yet I did the right thing, I limited my losses.

Only yesterday I wrote about how my biggest loss wold have been around £50 had I used stops and today provided a perfect example of prudent risk. Nobody can know for sure that the index will turn back in the favour of your trade in 2, 5 or even 20 points, this way I am limiting my losses and that can only be a good habit.

Undeterred I went on to win a net total of £79 today, playing mostly between £3 - £5 a point.

I placed my first OCO trade just before the Bank of England's announcement about QE and sure enough the index climbed immediately on the news. I won around 7 points but had I not been so keen to protect my profit I could have comfortably harvested 20.  I did the same thing on the way down, this time missing out on a tantalising 50 points.

It's still early though in my trading development, I'm still vulnerable from my losses and you can't argue with profit!

A Turning Point

Opening balance £287

Closing balance £328

Today's profit £41

Last night's open trade, at one stage £120 against me mercifully reduced to £27 this morning, I hungrily devoured the loss otherwise my actual trading profit on 3 small trades today was £68 playing £5 a point.

I went to work today and immersed myself in finishing my vat return and processing orders. I returned home at 4pm having not traded. I was happy to feel comfortable not trading as most times if I'm not observing the index I feel I could be missing out on potential opportunities. Today I was relaxed and not bothered whether I made a trade or not.

I opened my trading platform to see the index, plot a few graphs in preperation for tomorrow and couldn't help seeing an opportunity.

Between 4pm and 4.30 I made 3 lightening fast scalps, no more than a couple of minutes and this time as I placed the trades I created a very tight stop loss of 3 points. In each trade the 'ticker' moved in my desired direction (probably because I was waiting for the right moment before entering) and as I collected the points so I moved my stop loss up. On each occasion I managed to bring it up to my entry point and the feeling I experienced from playing with 'their' money is almost beyond my power to describe.

I harvested 12 points with minimal effort and all inside 15 minutes. Imagine playing at £50 a point, that's how easy it potentially is to make money.

I have to alter the way I've ben trading, work with very tight stop losses and be prepared to trade for minimal periods each day, maybe even miss some days if I've made my week's target. Staying fresh is key.

I feel today has been not only cathartic but I've had an epiphany, trading with a stop loss and making money in virtually no time with little risk. If I'd traded like this from the start my biggest loss would have been 3 points or £48, shamefully I've lost as much as £400 and £700 in single trades.

I only need a couple of trades in 10 to go my way and they alone will more than compensate for the other 8 tripping out early due to my tight stop losses.

Tomorrow is an exciting day. The Bank of England meet at midday to discuss cutting interest rates and pouring more money into the economy. I plan to open a OCO order (one cancels other) with very tight stop losses and sit back and watch the plot unfold, hopefully I'll be in either way. Choosing my spread is critical though and I won't know that until closer to the time.

Although I've made more in a single day I have never felt this good, nor indeed so confident about the future.

Up but Down, Read on...

Opening balance £246

Closing balance £287


Day's profit £41

Lots to report this evening.

There was very little price movement, just a small sideways pattern with a range of between 5645 and 5660 points for the whole of the morning. I managed to scalp £60 from this at £5 a point and was feeling pretty pleased.

Using the fibonacci tool I actually had a projected high today of 5682. We'd taken out last months high in yesterday's session and that gave further credence to my target.

So far so good.

From 8am until 2pm the Ftse fought valiantly to overcome a stubborn resistance point of 5662. After finally breaking though this and with my target a further juicy and almost touchable 20 points away what did I do?

I went short at 5666. Fucking unbelievable.

So I'm currently 27 points south of break even and £100 down on paper. Just how I managed to turn a winning trade into a potential losing one defies belief.

I was frightened of betting on the index going up for fear that the market had all of it's run and would retrace back down. The 5682 was the 61.8% fibonacci so having passed that it looks very likely the uptrend will continue.

I read it correctly today but allowed my bearish self to take control and sabatoge my trade. It's astonishing how I can trade with good intentions, show discipline for 6 hours and scalp £60 from a flat market then blow the whole lot (potentially) on a dumb decision.

Frustrating isn't the word. I have to admit though that reading this dispassionately it's highly amusing. Just what kind of a foll is this guy?

Today's lessons.

Have a little more confidence to follow through on my analysis and yet again, EXIT A LOSING POSITION AT 10 POINTS. A simple stop loss (or just closing the trade as I was in front of my screen) would have resulted in a £30 loss.

Finally I think I will only trade from the opening bell until Midday. any longer than that and I feel my already dubious decision making is compromised through having to concentrate.

Much Better Day

Opening balance £75

Closing balance £246

Day's profit £171

My day's trading is over by 10.30am, I've enjoyed trading whilst slurping coffee and eating porridge. I made a point of not reading any blogs or 'experts' charts and simply observing the price action.

My profit has come as a result of using Fibonacci retracements, moving averages and known support and resistance levels.

So that''s it for today, I have to be satisfied with today and not trade until tomorrow.

Lost My Way & My Money

Tuesday's balance £1500

Friday's balance £75.

I've not posted for a few days as I've been so dissappointed with myself and I wanted a few days to give myself time to reflect.

I basically made the cardinal sin of reading other people's opinions on blogs, including a daily chartist's post and allowed myself to become influenced by their opinions and charts..

I've discovered I'm most comfortable trading short, by that I mean bearish and every time I have made a big loss has been because I've thought the market was ready to drop. When I read these opinions and they co-incided with my own I was chomping at the bit, deservedly I wiped out.

I have to remind myself that when I keep things simple, when I read the candles, draw very short term trendlines and respect obvious horizontal support and resistance lines I make good trades. Proof being the 7 out of 8 days I posted positive results, some days making 10 succesful scalps in a row.

I have allowed myself to indulge in the mid to long term future of the index when all I really need to concern myself with is the next few minutes and base my trade on where the index has been heading for the previous few minutes.

That's it.

So, even though I still believe we are in for a massive correction I have to be satisfied to scalp trade.

Having made my weekly target by Tuesday I should have remained on the same path, happy to scalp a few points and would surely have made my £2000 original stake back by Friday. Instead I post today, yet again feeling stupid and humbled.

Although I am angry and frustrated with myself this episode has not put me off for one second. I know I can and will crack this but I simply have to forget about where the index is heading, if it drops to 4800 and I'm not on it so what? All I need do is scalp.

Scalp.

Scalp.

Scalp.

Pffff.

Finally, this entry will make interesting reading when I return to it in the weeks ahead.

Sensible Play Rewarded

Opening balance £1305

Closing balance £1478

Day's profit £175

An exemplary day, sensible trading, good entry points, not too ambitious with my targets and taking profit when invited.

I'm making good use of Fibonacci retracements along with trend lines and known areas of support and resistance.

I'm almost touching this weeks target already, I'm not getting carried away and I'm going to remain sensible, trading with a fairly low £/point.

I posted around 10 trades, each one a winner. That isn't going to happen every day but my continued discipline allied to my studious reading and hunger to educate myself is now begining to manifest itslef in positive trading.

Best Day Yet Dissapointed

Opening balance £1112

Closing balance £1305

Day's profit £195

My actual figure was spot on £200 but I incurred £5 overnight interest charges for holding open positions over the weekend.

There's no doubt I'm heading in the right direction, I'm learning discipline having lost so much of my account in my early trading days with stupid mistakes and it's making me ultra cautious.

My disspointment stems from not letting a trade ride, I'll expand.

From being happy with shorting the market at 5505 at £10 a point and having the balls to watch it climb to 5545 I experienced a little nervousness which I wrote about in my previous post. I've been trading pretty well since I started less than a month ago but have ruined my progress with a handful of reckless trades.

Upon further consideration I became uncomfortable with the potential loss of 40% of my account so as the markets opened last night at 11pm I watched intently. Friday's close at 5520 soon run up to 5530, albeit breifly so I made a mental note to reduce my position at the earliest opportunity. By 2.30 am the index had fallen to my entry level and even though I was being penalised 3 points on the spread I bought back half my stake.

I was now trading at £5 per point and knew I could sleep comfortably with no great damage should the price rise. Long story short if I had let my trade run at the priginal £10 I was spot on and would have made £650 today. The fear of losing my account was greater than the 'fear' of making less than I had hoped for and I gave in to that fear.

I took profits early too, I could have let my £5 a point run and made £325. Instead I made a handful of trades and pinched £200. That's the reason I'm so dissapointed. All the patience I had shown in holding my position when it was against me should have been rewarded with a big win today.

That it didn't shows me how much damage my early losses have exacted on me. Of course I'm delighted to have made a couple of hundred pounds but I have a big regret I lost courage in my beliefs. All the signs pointed to a falling index that I had waited patiently and lost a lot of money on these last couple of weeks and when it finally came I lost my nerve.

On the plus side I made £200 and I'm inching closer to getting my original stake money back and to this weeks target of reaching £1500.

I still believe I'm most comfortable scalping but this really was a great trading opportunity and one I spurned.

Lesson duly noted.

Must be more disciplined

I wrote yesterday about achieving my weeks target and of how good that feeling was.

I have woken today though and I'm not happy.

I have an open position on the FTSE which is £150 down over the weekend. I'm nervous that should a random piece of news break or market sentiment change slightly I could find myself the wrong end of a surge and all the good work of the past week undone.

So I;m posting to remind myself of what I enjoy and what I need to do.

I'm a scalper.

I'm uncomfortable leaving positions open overnight, so I must close my positions at the end of trading every day.

If I were to continue to make £60 a day it would pay my mortgage, not bad for doing something I enjoy. I have got sucked into trying to make big money too soon. My account doesn't have the margin for a 50 point swing so I must play lower pound per point and be slow and steady.

Target achieved

Opening balance £542

Closing balance £611

Day's profit £69

Just over a week ago I sat at my laptop humbled and feeling frustrated having made two stupid trades that wiped out the majority of my account.  Frustrated because I'd been making the same mistakes over and over.

I know I can crack this. I'm bold but I'm not a gambler. I will master this market sensibly enough to earn a living.

Therefore it's a good feeling knowing I set myself a sensible target and achieved it. Just over a week ago I had £289 in my account, today that stands at £611, my target for the week met.

When I sat in on my first seminar I was told that one of the main reasons people fail is under capitalisation. The minimum recommended budget for opening an account should be £2000. I didn't really understand why at the time but now I do.

The cash balance is there, not to max out on any one trade but to act as a buffer when you take a position. It's nigh on impossible to do anything other than micro scalping when you have no margin. Not every trade you make initially goes the direction you hope, there may be a really obvious entry point but sometimes I've jumped the gun in order to 'get in early'. Knowing when to enter a trade is something I am picking up fast and will need to refine ongoing. It's better to take a few points less and be as sure as you can than try to be clever and be too early.

Having a margin forgives me this missjudgement,. I have had to close a few trades that have hurt due to lack of margin only to see them turn the way I planned shortly afterwards.

So I have added another £500 to my account which will allow me to watch and play the 5, 15 and 30 minute candles and allow me to trade without the fear if imminent margining out. I know I said I was a scalper and it's true, that's the method of trading that suits my character best but I need to sometimes play a little longer.

I have taken a short on the market earlier today at 5505, it's currently 15 points higher but I now have a margin to let the trade ride. Also it means I don't have to sit scalping for hours watching every minute candle.

It looks as though we're coming to the end of the current bull run and I'm in a reasonable position to surf the index as she slides to 5200 over the coming weeks. If there are a few brave souls who drive this upward I have the margin to wait.

It also means I can devote more time to my work next week which I have neglected al ittle and needs me.

My plan for next week is to leave the short in place, if it turns against me for the week I shall trade a couple of hours a day on retracements and top up my cash balance. If it goes my way I will add to it and trail a stop loss to lock in profits.

To recap my initial investment in trading is £2000

And my current cash balance is £1112.

I'm £323 better off than this time last week having more than doubled the £289.

I've been a fool, made some stupid decisions which is why I funded the account in dribs and drabs, hopefully I will not make the obvious mistakes again. Now though, after the confidence of trading sensibly and profitably the whole week it's time to have a go. 10 points a day at £10 a point is £100 per day.

 I'd be disappointed if I don't have my £1500 by this time next week.

Lucky & a very good day

I went to bed hoping for a correction in the index as I was £163 down when I my head hit the pillow, fortunately things went my way and I opened my account to see I was a mere £30 off, I gratefully took the gift.

I traded succesfully and cautiously off the back of this stroke of good fortune.

Opening balance £422

Closing balance £543

Day's profit £121

Technically my cash balance (had I realised my loss on the open trade) was £260 last night so today was a super day.

I was disciplined and had the confidence to raise my pound per point when the move was happening, at one stage £10 a point.

I am almost at thr target I set myself this time last week which was to end the week with a balance of £600. Considering I was at £289 that would be sensible progress.

Tomorrow calls for more caution, discipline and patience. How my emotions swing in a day is incredible, I was in despair yesterday yet only 24 hours later I feel good.

Most of all I have now posted a profit and shown discipline in four out of the last five days, that more than the money is the really pleasing aspect.

Must finish the week off the same way I began it, I'd like to get my trading completed early so I can enjoy the day and to hell with what the index does tghe rest of the day. Whether it's 6000 or 5000 I don't care. I'm a scalper. That's what I do.

A Bad Day

Opening balance £452

Closing balance £422

Trading loss £30


This only tells half the story. I have an open position short at 5581, currently the index is at 5631 so I'm technically a further £150 worse off.

How did I let this happen when I have been so disciplined?

I didn't even look at the index until 9.30am. Knowing I have made errors previously by jumping into trades before fully awake I made a cup of tea, popped Bloomberg on TV and then observed the live charts for 10 minutes.

Although the trend was up I noticed regular retracements yet I was too eager to trade and perhaps a little trigger happy when entering this trade. Now, I have to confess to working form home this morning and so my attention was divided between trading and fielding phone calls and emails. Before I knew I was 10 points adrift, then 12 and finally 15. I didn't act quickly enough in closing a losing trade. I worked so diligently yesterday to collect £60 that I didn't want to give up £30 in my first trade (£3 a point).

Long story short I'm 50 points away from my entry level in a bullish market. I did have an opportunity to close when at one stage it dropped to within 12 points but I foolishly turned the chance down.

I have made a number of other trades, popping £4 a point on retracements and at one stage playing the dow (and I said I would NEVER do that) which have resulted in my £30 actual loss as things stand.

So, more lessons to be learned, not that I haven't sat this class before! I have a sign on my kitchen wall reminding to always play with a 10 point stop loss.

So I get what I deserve which is terribly disappointing after 3 consecutive positive, disciplined days.

Ultimately I think I have to realise I can't work and trade at the same time as I do neither justice. All I can hope for now is the index falls away overnight and/or opens down tomorrow as without closing my position I cannot scalp.

Idiot signing off.

Slow & Steady

I'm pleased to report another good day of discipline trading. All achieved by simple scalping, taking the crumbs and not being greedy. I need to post 3 more days of profits to prove I can trade profitably.

Opening balance £391

Closing balance £452

Trading profit £61

A Very Disciplined Day

Scalp.

Scalp.

Scalp.

Opening balance £341

Closing balance £392

Day's profit £51

Thoughts on the week ahead

The outcome of today's election in Greece is huge for the market.

I'm certain that should it go the anticipated route and Greece elect to stay in the EU we will see s huge overeaction on the FTSE.

I'll tune in to my account tonight when the market opens at 11pm to see the effect it has. My gut feeling (which has already got me into more than enough trouble when trading) is that there will be an overreaction and then a correction. I'm tempted to wait for the 2nd correction and then go short, even though there will be a 6 point margin.

Back to reality as there's no way I'm going to risk anything on this.

Due to my erratic trading last week and the wiping out of 70% of my account balance I'm forced to trade sensibly which is a good thing. Having the benefit of hindsight I can see had I gone with the trend from early June I could have had a 300 point gain simply for executing a trade and letting it run. One day I will be able to play that way, for now though I am posting to remind myself of my trading strategy for the week ahead.

Be very happy to scalp a few points at a time maybe 3 or 4 trades daily. Play with a stop loss of 6 points and risk no more than around 5% of my account in one trade. One single disastrous trade last week took more than 40% of my account in the blink of an eye. Lesson noted and duly learned.

The target this week is to be sensible and scalp a few points at a time and to close every day with an improved account balance.

I'm opening with £340 so anywhere around £600+ by Friday and I'll be pleased. That will show I have heeded the expensive lessons thus far, a dose of humility and reality was administered, medicine taken thank you.

I'm looking forward to posting tomorrow!

The Long Way Back

This post comes to you at 10.30am, my day's trading is finished.

Opening balance: £289

Closing balance £341

Profit £52

Let's work our way slowly and steadily, take profit when it offers itself and don't be afraid to take an early profit.

I guess my plan from last week was a good one after all. I have another opportunity next week to stick to it.

Don't play the Dow

Today I blew £700 in less than half an hour.

Reckless wanker.

Two trades got away from me, one went short 100+ points in less than a two minutes when I was long (£4 a point) and I was unable to close the trade, it was that fast.

On the bright side I am not going to further fund my account, I have just under £300 to play with and so I will be forced to play my original game plan.

It's glaringly obvious I do not possess the knowledge (if I did I would never play the dow) nor the neccessary temperament to warrant further funding at this stage.

I will rebuild my account to the original £1500 value but it will have to be done the way I planned originally. I've neglected my day job with this obsession about trading but today has been cathartic. I love what I do and tomorrow I shall go into my office with renewed enthusiasm and earn the money back the way I know how.

My trading target tomorrow is simply to have more money in the account than when I start, even if that's £10. Now, that's sensible. I shall be leaving for my office at 9am whether a trade comes my way or not.

Ps, I allocated a budget to the learn and play with and that's all I'm putting in. I can afford to lose the money but I strongly advise anyone new to only play with money you can afford to lose. This is not a get rich quick scheme, it requires knowledge, a familiarisation period and iron discipline and total focus. Sadly I am aware of my shortcomings and therefore deserve what happened today.

I broke my promise!

Instead of being disciplined, measured, defensive, thoughtful, analytic (I do like the technical side to charting) I just went and traded for the day, without a clear plan and with nothing more than hope.

How is it I make a plan Friday, stick to it and sycceed both Friday and Monday and then let it all go? It's a simple answer, the thrill of entering a trade, pitting myself against the market.

I am in love with this.

Did I make any money today? No. Did I make silly mistakes? You bet.

I'm comfortable trading from home, the atmosphere is all of my choosing, no interrutions and much peace. I did okay until I went to the office where I made mistake after mistake. I simply cannot trade in that awful environment. Too many interruptions, too much noise and I'm too focused on my day job to give myself the best chance of trading.

I get into a groove after an hour of studying price movement. I draw trend lines, spot new trends developing, even price in one direction that deviates slightly from a previous direction is a new trend and I mark it on the chart.

To do this succesfully and to benefit from it though I need total concentration and peace. I entered into a short when I wasn't ready, madly following the shouting from the guy who 'trades' in the next office telling me it's going down and I should get in.

I did of course right at the very bottom and without focussing fully and at £5 a point. An hour later and the index has soared 60 points and I'm runing the expensive lesson (yet again) that I should be heeding.

DON'T TRADE FROM MY OFFICE. ONLY TRADE FROM HOME.

I left my office feeling stupid and raced home to open my computer and endeavour to repair the damage. I turned on the Wall Street chart and could see the FTSE moving in unison (it was after 5pm and the FTSE was closed) so I grabbed an opportunity to offset my losses, hedge my bets.

If the Dow was heating up I would go long and my position should remain equal. Thankfully and with great relief the Dow dropped and as it did so my open position ont FTSE. As I write my 'loss' as it stands is in double digit territory and I plan to keep an eye on it when Asia opens. Of course as the Dow was dropping I took advantage of shorting it too and made £88 in a trade to contribute to my overall position.

I have funded my account with another £500, not because I am losing badly (I am down) but to cover a margin. I will post figures tomorrow of what I have funded and my current cash total. I think that's a good format for judging my efforts. I mean I do enjoy this but really, unless I;m making money I can think of better ways of spending my time. Naturally I'm fiercely determined and resolute about making this a part of my life and income.

I managed to get everything done I needed to in the office today and so I'm in a good postion to work all day from home tomorrow. I will put my 10 points a day challenge on hold for now and simply go into tomorrow with a goal of scalping, albeit with a higher points tally than I would normally. My margin now allows me to do this. If I'm using a high £ per point then I must not enter trades with any element of doubt, I can only take a trade if I'm comfortable it has a few quick points and then out. Temper greed and be realistic.

Til tomorrow.

So much for caution!

Unbelievable day.

I waited patiently for my first trade, more than an hour then promptly broke my 5 points scalping stop loss and ended margining out for 25 points at £12 each, a loss of almost £300.

Rather than panic I picked up the baton from yesterday and took it as a challenge to rise to. Heroicly I fought my way back and won the money and a little extra by 1pm.

Wheras yesterday I was frozen when a trade presented itself, today my early losing position forced me into making the trades. Having a little cash in my account to play with helps enormously and I thoroughly enjoyed trading.

I really love trading.

So, my disciplined approach had to be rethought and I 'traded' plan A for plan B.

As I was forced into trades I had my trading cap on (not my disciplined scalping one) and foolishly entered into a short position on The Dow index 15 minutes before closing bell and I'm the wrong side of quite a points tally. I have a short position on the FTSE too.

I loved today, I'm in the very early stages of learning about me and the way I trade which is why I've only popped £1000 into the account.

Tomorrow I shall revert to plan A and trade with discipline and if the first trade gets away from me it's closed out at a deficit of 5 points.

I promise :)

Another Disciplined Day

I won 7 points today.

It would have been the full 10 had I not made a schoolboy error of judgement. I was so excited about trading I struggled to sleep, eventually succumbing to tiredness at 4am. I awoke with a shock at 7.55am and immediately jumped up and turned my computer on.

Before I was even half awake or had taken even my first slurp of coffee (I hadn't even put the kettle on) I jumped into a sell off on the opening bell in a lazy attempt to win a few easy points. There are no easy points, I can tell you that, you earn every damn one.

Before I could get out 6 points slipped through my fingers (at £12 a point) and I felt so dissapointed with myself.

Rather than dwell on it I took it as a lesson and also as a challenge, my day would have to be worth 16 points. It became obvious pretty soon that the day was obviously on a slide after a 100 point pre-market leap. Even though I could have set up a trade with a 20 point stop loss (to allow for retracements) and let it run all day and collected 50 points I decided to trade ultra defensively. That's my style and that's how I will trade in the future.

I was so cautious I missed a couple of obvious entry point screaming at me to make the trade. I resisted which in a way is no bad thing. I have an iron discipline and a daily target. At some stage in the future I will feel more comfortable and less reticent to wait but the order of the day (and the week) is patience and discipline. There will always be another opportunity, another day to jump in and collect. This week is ALL about proving to myself I have the iron discipline required to be succesful trading.

Ultimately I made four successful trades after my mishap yielding points in this order; 3,4,1 and 5.

I actually sat here until gone midday to earn a net 2 points and turned my computer off and went to work happy. At least my day will be a positive one, I reasoned. I returned home around 4pm giving myself a good half hour of checking the market. if there was an opportunity I would take it, if not I'd still be making a step in the positive direction.

Again I missed an obvious entrypoint and this one cost me 20 points yet I was still happy to win 5 more points and close trading today 7 to the good or in monetary terms around £80 better off.

I will continue to trade defensively and ultra catiously as I'm determined to achieve my goal this week. I read all about discipline being such an important attribute when trading, I actually think it's 90% of what you need. anyone can learn to read candles or draw trend lines (or any other technical analysis) but it's what you do with your tools that counts not the fact you have them in your toolbox.

Overall a succesful day. More of the same is hoped for and expected tomorrow. (Note to self, alarm set for 7.30).

This Week's Target

I'm posting this on Sunday evening around 10pm and I'm excited about the week ahead.

This coming week is so important. If I can stick to my plan and succeed for the next 5 days it will be proof enough that I can make money at this.

Quite simply I plan to scalp 10 points a day by playing rapier like thrusts, in and out with the prize being 3 points each time. Minimum time for maximum reward.

I execute my trade and keep my finger poised on the button to close out. I envisage most trades being less than a minute. I was fortunate Friday to catch the end of a downtrend and picked up all 10 points in one trade. If that happens great but I'm expecting to collect my total on three or four trades.

Once I have my 10 points trading's over for the day. I'm trading from home when the markets open, Coffee and Bloomberg from 7.30 and my platform open.

If I can pull this off it's huge. The implications are life changing.

A Good Day

I've funded my account to enable me to play at £10 a point.

I've read extensively, watched youtube trading videos til the wee small hours of the morning and played many different trading styles over the last two weeks.

My trading style is to read candles and draw trend lines to guide me, that's it. Price action. I'm a firm believer as a speculator that the price is all I need to know, to observe and then react to. I have to be aware of news events that will affect the market however I'm not an investor, I'm a scalper. For now.

I know my character, what excites me, enthralls me, what I'm most comfortable with and that's siezing an opportunity the market gives me.

My target today was 10 points.

That's it.

I had bloomberg on at 7.30am and my account was open for trading at 8am. I know I have all day to make the points so whatever time they come is irrelevant and whether they arrive in one lot of 10 or in three smash and grab raids makes not a jot of difference.

I missed an obvious downward trend for the first half hour but my impetuosity has let me down in the past and I reasoned that even if I miss 30 points (which I did) Ionly need 10 and another opportunity will present itself.

My patience was rewarded as when I was sure the trend was continuing I entered a trade 'short' (immediately losing 5 points on a retrace) and closed out a few minutes later with all 10 points.

9.15 and my day's trading complete. What a lovely feeling.

I was tempted around 4pm to check the state of play and I could see another obvious opportunity to pick a few points, experience however told me that more important than winning a few extra pounds was the discipline in keeping to my trading strategy.

Had I played and lost the damage would have been far greater than the potential of making a succesful trade.

That shows me I am capable of maintaining absolute discipline (I know that already as I have proved in every area of my life) when trading and that will be a huge asset in my trading future.

I can enjoy the weekend knowing I had a plan and adhered to it.

I'm excited about Monday when I shall be playing for another 10 points although my account balance now allows me £12 a point. I know I won't always open with winning trades and it will put me under pressure but if i stick to my strategy, play defensively, eliminate greed and continue to educate myself I am increasing the odds of becoming succesful.

Final thought: It's not the number of points that matter so much as the value per point. If I was playing £2000 a point I'd have made £20'000 this morning before breakfast.

Today's Mistakes

Ignoring price action.

Going against the trend and margining out.

Unforgivably repeating above mistake immediately, next trade.

Overtrading.

I will only be succesful if I;

a) Do what the price action is telling me to do.

b) Trade for just an hour or two a day.

c) Play with stop losses ALWAYS.

I had a good session yesterday, playing the Dow all day at home. I made 25 succesful trades from 30. Unfortunately there were two big losing trades that negated all the studious and impressive scalping of the other 25 trades.

Truthfully I enjoy this, I really do think with a decent stake I will play defensively and with caution. The stakes need to be a reasonable size to focus me, I just take liberties I wouldn't ordinarily do becuase of the small point position I take (£1-£2).

Of course I'll know when I'm ready to fund the account and that time is nowhere near. It's one thing knowing what to do and quite another doing so. I have learned in the brief time I've been 'playing' the game that I am my worst enemy.

What a week

Opening balance £50

Closing balance £42

Day's trading loss £8

Wow, what a way to close a dramatic week.

After a slightly bullish opening the index plunged on the not so good job news from the States. I don't recall the exact metric.,suffice to say points plunged south faster than a lady of the night on double pay.

Just bad news everywhere, yet still dramatic seesawing of prices.

I didn't really play today, just conducted a few 'experiments' to hammer home the theory that guessing is a fools game. I did leave my position open last night and after the LSE closed I hoovered 15 points, interesting food for thought.

A good break now so plenty of time to finish my book 'Reminisces of a stock operator (Jesse Livermore), it's been recommended to me by the Technical Analysist at my spread bet firm and I'm thoroughly enjoying it.

Fortunately my day job is busy which means I don't have the time to focus on this and because I'm more comfortable as a 'scalper' coming in and out in relatively short term trades I have to keep my eye on the screen at all times so I'm not sure how much trading I will get done next week. 

I'm fortunate that I'm earning well and my priority has to be my main job, but I'm determined to find a way of making time during the week for this. Either taking part of every day to trade without interruption or specifically a day during the week. I'm leaning towards taking part of each day to trade, maybe the first couple of hours and if I make my target by 9am then quit.

I'll post again over the weekend with some reminders about what I must do if I am to trade succesfully.

Finally for today I now have a 2nd monitor for my laptop which means I'll be able to trade while keeping an eye on two time frames, say the minute ticker on my laptop and the 15 mins on the 2nd screen. Oh and I also have a mouse so no more 'phantom' trades.

See, I'm learning already!

Same Mistakes

Opening balance £205

Closing balance £50

Day's trading loss £155

Before trading I tuned into bloomberg and caught up with the pre-trading report. Doom and gloom everywhere but no additional bad news.

I openened the day pinching a few points sensibly on an initial surge, in and out, rapier style. I then repeated my classic accidental trade execution as my finger grazed my laptop pad once more. Immediately I should have closed my trade, yet again however I let it ride and lost a big chunk of my account.

DON'T TRADE FROM MY LAPTOP.

Later in the morning I'm making rash decisions, jumping in and out of trades too easily. I'm playing £2 a point and can't get excited. By that I mean unless it has something riding on it that can hurt me I don't play properly. My minimum stake (for me) needs to be £5 a point. At that level it tends to sharpen my focus and I 'play' with the correct intensity.

I was the same when I played football, I was a good trainer with my physical fitness but when we played a 'match' at the end of the session I never gave my all because it was only practice. Come match day and I was as commited as anyone and played every second with intensity and at my max.

I can't recall individual trades just that I wasn't focused and ended up losing big points in positions that ran away from me.

CUT A LOSS EARLY, LIVE TO FIGHT ANOTHER TRADE.

I'm still enjoying this but I'm having a real problem focusing as I'm so busy with my day job I can't concentrate.

ONLY TRADE WHEN RESTED AND FULLY FOCUSED.

I've noticed most of my readings of the situation have been right but I've entered the trade too early (which means I've gone against the trend which is wrong in itself) AND I've taken profit too early when I could and should have allowed a position to run.

Overall a fantastic learning experience but I also have to be realistic and say my balance on Monday morning was £600 and £550 of that has gone.

I MUST READ MY VERY FIRST BLOG ENTRY EVERY DAY BEFORE TRADING, SOUND ADVICE!

Today's lesson

Wow, a brutal day, crazy wild swings in the blink of an eye.

Opening balance £350

Closing balance £205

Day's trading loss £145

In the brief time I've devoted to this I've been amazed at how fast prices can change, I've seen a couple of 10 point runs in a minute out of nowhere. Today I witnessed a 60 point swing in just under 2 minutes. Crazy, scary stuff, it just took off like a bat out of hell.

I'm fast educating myself, I realise I know nothing in this area but I'm a commited learner. Today's most important lesson is this.

LISTEN TO FINANCIAL NEWS LAST THING AT NIGHT AND BEFORE I TRADE IN THE MORNING.

Yesterday's trading close was 5378 but at one stage during trading nudged past 5400 and peaked at  5405. Today's opening figure was 5348. Now, I should add I was at my desk in my office at 7.30 this morning and my head was full of my day job. On auto pilot I logged on and went long.

Not only did I not research why the price dropped 30 points overnight but I didn't wait for the opening few minutes to show me where the market was going. I also violated my stop loss promise I had made to myself and margined out £100 within 10 minutes. Enough basic errors for you?

Having found out why the price had dropped (China making a statement that wasn't well received, more worries from Spain) I waited a while and saw the market had stabilised slightly from 5300 at 10am to 5320 around an hour later. I thought the bad news had been digested and was ready to move up slowly to around 5350. Half an hour later I margined out again as the index plunged way below 5300.

All the while I'm heavily involved in my day job and can't give trading the attention it demands.

Sobering account balance at £114.

At 5284 I'm stupidly bullish and going against all logic and what I've learned so far and target 5300 thinking it could be a support level for the day. My account balance can only allow me £1.80 per point. Last week I had built the account to trade at £10 a point.

The phone rings, I talk, look away, look back and the index is racing beyond 5300...5310...there goes 5320....whoosh all the way past 5330, still racing away, way past 5340.....5350. WTF?!! I try to close my position but the price is fluctuating so wildly it won't pause for breath and allow me to close my position.

Phew, I manage to get my trade executed and have made an astonishing 50 points in the blink of an eye.

I'm really enjoying learning this game. I'm even on my start up capital and have learned so much in a week. I'm experimenting with everything I've read, seen and been told (already been to 3 seminars) and have grown my money from £200 upto £600 playing defensively and sensibly.

I've been a little risky and taken a few chances and inside a week I've been taught the only correct way to play. Tomorrow I'm going to split my day in two. I'm going to trade from home in the morning (with my sensitive laptop (see yesterday's entry) and go to the office around midday.

TRADE ONLY IF I CAN GIVE 100% FOCUS.

LIMIT LOSSES WITH A STOP LOSS OR WITH FINGER POISED ON BUY/SELL BUTTON.

Tomorrow's target is to trade as if I have £100 a point riding on every move. No experimenting just sensible, defensive trading and only when I see definitive price action. I shall be dissapointed if I haven't made money tomorrow. Oh and once I have quit trading for the morning that's my trading done for the day.

Today's Lessons

Okay, I really learned a lot today. I'm going to post at the end of every day I trade, that way it'll be a great resource for me to dip into and of course you're welcome to learn from my mistakes too, at the end of the day if I entertain you in any way I'm happy!

I'm not sure of my posting format, it'll develop as we go along but for now LESSONS to remind me are in CAPS.

I'm using a small (£200 funded) account to play and learn real time spread betting on the FTSE 100.

I'm not really concerned about my account balance at the moment, I'm simply using it as funding to learn, once I consider myself ready to trade for real I'll pop a £1000 in and play £10 a point, no more for a month to gauge my progress.

For me unless it's real and I have the chance of making (or losing) real money it doesn't work. I have to pay for my education, that way I'll learn twice as fast. There are ppenty of demo accounts if that's your thing and it's probably a great idea, just not for me.

Day's opening balance £445

Closing balance £350.

I tried a number of different things today, jumping in when I wasn't as sure as I could be about the signals the candlesticks were giving me. Sometimes I guessed right and of course not so right (okay then just plain wrong) .

DON'T THINK, DON'T GUESS, LET THE PRICE ACTION DICTATE WHEN YOU COME IN.

Biggest error of the day was setting a trade up, selecting the amount to trade per point (£7) and then unknowingly actioning the trade before I had made a short or long call.

How is this possible?

Well, today I learned BE VERY CAREFUL WHEN TRADING FROM MY LAPTOP!

I must have inadvertently brushed the touchpad and before I knew what was happening I was 6 points down. The thought did occur to me that I should bale out of my position but I made the incorrect call to stay in. 10 minutes later I was 12 points and £100 down and my margin closed me out.

I'm learning about timing. PATIENCE is the order of the day. Too many times today I traded for the sake of trading, I must have made 30 or more trades. I would say that of those at least 25 were unneccessary.

BE PATIENT AND ONLY MOVE WHEN THE PRICE ACTION INVITES YOU TO. I made about 3 or 4 almost sure fire trades today that I confidently entered when market conditions were right. I made a few points on each one.

Now, I run my own business and do not have the luxury of trading all day but if I were to do this full time I would advise that patience is the key. If I was playing for £100 a point and pinched 5-7 points that's a good day's wages, no?

I won't achieve that by being impatient, impetuous or just plain stupid.

So, my education continues. I'm sure I would have made different calls had the stakes been higher and forced me to really focus, I would also have been MUCH MORE DEFENSIVE.

I'm having fun learning. Being 50 and having been responsible for my own income for over half those years means I have a lot of life experience (that really means I've made plenty of bad decisions) which I can employ to good use here.

I plan on trading like this for a month, if I decide it's not for me then at least it's something I can say I've experienced. If I can learn to BE DISCIPLINED and maybe make only a few small succesful trades a day it will be a nice addition to my income.

Finally I have to leave you with  this gem. Just after the market closed I went long at 5384 at £6 per point. It duly started heading south....82....79.....75....72.....69...hmmm, another £90 down on the sort of day I was having was a bitter pill, I also noticed my margin was close to automatic closure so I decided to do a couple of chores and come back and check. It rose slightly to 72...I made a promise ot  myself that if I got anywhere near 5380 I would close my position. A few chores later and it's reading 5379 and I'm only £39 down on the deal....fuck it, close the deal and turn off for the night.

Of course although the markets are closed the market makers are still hard at work. FTSE is heavily influenced by what goes on in the U.S. and a cursory glance at the price a few hours later and it's riding high at 5405.....I'd have made another 25 points (£150) for just letting it ride. The news from the U.S market all day was fine so another valuable lesson learned.

TAKE NOTE OF U.S MARKETS IF POSITION OPEN AT END OF DAY BEFORE MAKING DECISION.

I begin trading The FTSE

I started day trading the FTSE 100 last week. I've been to seminars, learned to read PRICE ACTION through the use of candles and started trading last Thursday with an opening balance of £200.

As of today that balance is now £550 but that's not really important.

It was higher but in a move away from everything I have learned I blew £100 at £10 a point in 5 minutes.

TODAY'S LESSON

I had set a trading goal today of 10 points. I achieved 13 points by 9.30 working from home and quit for the day feeling fantastic.

That should have been that but I was tempted to play again at work. The candles weren't decisive enough to place a bet but I stupidly did so anyway.

The lesson here is twofold.

1) When I achieve my daily target STOP. Enjoy the feeling, enjoy the day.

2) NEVER TRADE ON EMOTION, a hunch, a feeling. Trade only from the story the price action tells me. If it's not strong enough don't trade.

I believe I can be highly succesful from day trading the FTSE 100 but this will only happen if I keep to my strategy and maintain a disciplined approach.