I know when it's time to quit

I've lost £8000 this month and £30'000 in the year since I began spread betting with enthusiasm and high hopes.

My spread betting statement and bank account make sobering reading. I convince myself I just need more funds to hold a margin on my trades but It's hard to argue that I'm gambling and losing all the time when money hemorrhages from my account and non comes back.

It's time to stop.

Is it possible I could make money from this? Yes

Will I make money if I continue as I am? No, I will lose everything.

The real question is why am I losing consistently. Here's my take.

I work for myself, I create my own life and live to my blueprint. To do that means I have to take risks. It's a hell of a risk not to have a penny income guaranteed on a Monday morning but I can't live any other way. My attitude to risk though does not lend itself to successful trading.

MISTAKES

Trading too many instruments in one go.

Trading too large a stake pp for my account.

Trading too often.

Trading without stop losses.

Not trading consistently.

Insufficient funding.

WHAT I HAVE LEARNT

Be content to earn a little at a time, lots of crumbs make a delicious cake.

Trade only one instrument at a time.

Fund account with a minimum of £10'000

Play with a maximum £10/point.

Have a daily limit (profit and loss) and stick to it.

Scalping actually works best for me.

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THE FUTURE

I'm not saying I will never trade again but I'm defintely not touching this again this year.

The truth is I've been desperate for money and that has shown in my trading decisions. I've been trading to fight my way out of debt and that has only succeeded in increasing my debt substantially. Trading in desperation clouds your judgment.

I've had a good year personally workwise and could have reduced my debt instead of throwing it down a black hole. I shall now have to realise assets to raise money to pay off all my debts. When I'm debt free I may look at this differently, I may decide it's not worth the risk starting again.

In any event I have the discipline to stop now. I know when it's time to quit.

See you around and good luck to you, anyone who takes money from the markets regularly is a hero and deserves every penny.

Weeks summary

I'm underwater with my USD/JPY trade to the tune of around 250 points. That's not unusual for forex and I funded my account sufficiently to allow for this.

In the meantime I've not pancicked and this week have scalped £900.

Now I need to remain disciplined and vigilant and not jump into any other trades.

I'm allowing myself til the end of this month for this trade so a couple of weeks to get things looking healthier and as you know a lot can change in a day.

Today's Profit £70 but.......

That's profit on completed trades.

I have open positions on FTSE, DAX and USD/JPY which are currently underwater to the tune of £2000, mainly the fx trade. There was a crazy 370 point drop today (high to low) which is a complete overreaction to the BoJ not adding further stimulus therefore devaluing the yen and the market didn't take kindly to it.

We're only 50 points from the low as I write this blog. I see this as an opportunity and have scaled in longs. Previously I would have gone in heavily but with the benefit of a little experience I delicately laid longs at intervals of 50 points or so. I have funded the account to cover large fluctuations and shall be patient for a couple of days as it climbs. My initial target is 9800 which will bring in £900 profit. The 50 day ema is 9930 which would bring in a further £1500. I don't rule out hitting the 100 handle in the next few days either.

If I continue to talk so much about USD/JPY I shall have to rename this blog!

Today's Profit £66

I decided to simply scalp today with £2 per point, longest trade 20 minutes, shortesr less than a minute.

The FTSE was a little slow so I focused on USD/JPY as Fridays candle was a perfect bullish hammer. I could have traded a little bigger and a lot more ambitiously but I spent most of the day catching up on paperwork and was more than happy to pinch a few pounds in the background as I worked.

I'm busy most of tomorrow so may not be able to trade, in any case I will post.

Dipping my toes

Unless you trade the following won't sound like success but believe me that's exactly the way I view it. At the very least it's progress.

I've been back in a few weeks now. I've not made money but I'm making progress. I'll explain;

I funded my account 3 weeks ago with £1500, traded for a week and took £1500 back.

A couple of weeks ago I funded £2000, traded for a week and took £1500 back.

Last week I traded with £2000. At one stage I was £1100 in profit. I continued to trade and finally broke even at £2000.

How is that progress?

In the past I would have lost £1500, £2000 & £2000. A total of £5500. Okay so I'm £500 down but that represents huge progress.

You don't go from losing thousands to winning thousands one day to the next, not consistently anyway. The last few weeks have shown me that I am getting closer. I'm using much healthier trading sizes, no more than £5 per point and this allows me to survive a fluctuation of 100 points or more and not margin out. Believe me when I say that trading relative to the size of your account in more important than a stop loss.

I would have made money but I made a couple of poor (not fatal) decisions.

Firstly I should have stopped trading when I was £1000 in profit. That was my mental target and without fail I should have banked it at that point.

The second error was surviving a drop of 50 points on the DAX, watching it climb into a moderate 10 point profit then bring a stop loss up too tight. I margined out for a £20 loss when had I shown a little patience just 2 hours later I would have ridden the 150 point climb (I was long) at £3 a point. That one trade would have realised £450 profit.

Again although I really could do with the money I still believe it's more important to view my trading in an overall picture which is me learning to control my emotions.

My target for next week is the following;

I have a pot of £2000 and as soon as I make £1000 profit I will bank the money. At £5 a point that equates to 200 points.

I shall update daily next week.