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!
Thursday, 31 May 2012
Wednesday, 30 May 2012
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.
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.
Tuesday, 29 May 2012
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'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.
Monday, 28 May 2012
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.
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.
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