Final thoughts

I backed up my thoughts on my last entry in July about how the Dax would hold with money.

I was long £2 point. I added another £2 point further down and so on. In the end I gave up at a loss of £16500 with the Dax at 9930. That was a good decision.

It's taken a lot of soul searching to commit to being honest about this post. I could have deceived you and said I've not traded but I have to be honest.

I've made my last spread bet. Over the last 3 years I've lost probably around £30'000 year 1, £40'000 year 2 and around £20'000 year 3. That's a whopping £90'000.

I'm not a gambler, I don't bet on sports, horses, visit casinos nor gamble online. I genuinely thought I could make money betting on the financial markets. In 3 years, which I consider to be a long enough 'apprenticeship' I've not mastered my emotions and I don't think I ever will.

I was successful scalping but I don't have the discipline to keep it that way.

So this WILL be my final post. My journey is done.

I have to cope with the shame of losing that sum when I could have given it to members of my family who could really have benefited from it. I'm not going to beat myself up over it though. It's done, I tried and I'm man enough to know when to stop. Of course there's regret, disgust, a modicum of self loathing and most of all SHAME. but those are negative emotions and won't help me one iota going forward, it's history. All I can do is live my life from this moment on.

I wish to remain anonymous for obvious reasons so I shan't divulge too much information. I've made life difficult for myself financially for the next few years but I've not made life impossible. Fortunately I have a business I run and I've earned £9000 from my 'day job' so far this month. That could have been a wonderful bonus for me, instead it goes down a black hole named 'IG Index' but it's over, they won't be getting a penny more from me.

I realised I had to stop when I went out for an Indian meal and lost £250 trading whilst eating. That's not the life I want to live. I've had enough sleepless nights checking my positions on the trading app on my phone. I've had enough spread betting full stop.

Incidentally I went online and answered Gamblers anonymous 20 questions honestly to see if I had a problem (in their opinion). If you score 7 'yes's then you do. I scored 3. I don't think of myself as a desperate gambler, I don't need the buzz, I simply wanted to create another rewarding stream of income that I could take with me anywhere in the world at any time. It's not for me, I know that now without doubt.

To anyone who has read this blog over the years and stuck with me I'd like to thank you, most of the comments I've had have been supportive, I genuinely wish you all the best with your trading and thanks for reading with me this long.

It feels cathartic to sit here committing thoughts to my screen knowing any second I shall hit the publish button. This final entry is closure for me.

I'm now going to throw myself into my day job knowing I can control what I get from my endeavours.

Cheers and goodbye.

July Final + £150

I'm calling it a day (actually to be more accurate, a month).

I've been as high as + £750 this month but I've lost my rhythm, I can feel it. Gone are the days when I lose thousands on a trade, a painful loss now is a few hundred pounds which shows I'm alive to risk, that's good.

It's more important I close the month positively than trade on knowing I'm not at my optimum.

It's been a month with a lot of emotional stress and upheaval for me (I moved out of my marital home) and so I shall take this week off and just watch the markets.

I do fancy 11'000 to hold on the Dax and a retest of 11600 in the not too distant future.

Good luck with your trading.

This Month so far + £267

I moved home last week (and left my wife too although we're on good terms) so I'm obviously tired and emotional. I traded a little last week but as you can see I'm down from last week's balance.

I shouldn't have traded but whatever happens I've ensured I post another positive month as I took last months profits and £100 from this month's profit for exactly that reason.

Here's my thoughts for the DAX for the coming week. The full text hasn't travelled with my saved image so I'll summarise: If we break above last week's high of 11800 that's a decent BUY signal but I'm more comfortable buying lower down on the 11530 Fib level, I've popped two possible BUY green arrows, the lower is the 38% Fib level.

My last chart posted on here 28th June gave a good possible entry level at 10600, if you'd bought and held you'd be enjoying a decent month!

Best of luck with your trading and I'll post again at the end of the month.

Quick update + £500 so far this month

I'm £500 to the good so far this month and that's after Friday's reminder to remain patient and keep disciplined.

Friday was my 1st losing day for 3 months, I forced a trade instead of remaining patient and spurned a chance to take a £50 loss and ended losing £250 for the day.

Nevertheless I'm trading profitably and one poor decision hasn't hurt me (unlike many occasions in the past) so really Friday's loss is a cheap lesson revisited and duly noted here.

It's so important to keep a trading journal, to note not only your trades but your feelings for taking that trade. You are never safe from your emotions so recording them can only help your future trading.

I move home next week so will be trading lightly, if at all.

Good luck with your trading week and I'll update at the end of the month.

June Final + £1606 (803 points)

This month:

Starting balance £300
Closing balance £1906

Well, that's another decent month under my belt.

139 trades

132 Winners
7 Losers (3 today!).

I've lost my nerve so have finished for the month. I traded awfully today. My RSI alert bleeped on my phone to alert me that the 5 minute candles were overbought. I ignored it, saw the index fall 100 points then shorted 3 times, each time from a lower level and each time I didn't have the courage to stick with it.

Immediately they went against me I closed them all (within two minutes) for the cumulative loss of 35 points. Had I kept them open for just 5 minutes they would all have made money.

It's interesting that I have recognised my feelings and have called a halt to the month a day early. Previously I would have traded on due to the volatility in the market but I've achieved everything I want this month so why jeopardise anything? Exactly.

When the mood strikes I shall trade again. In the meantime I must relax.


The Future

I have a short, medium and long term goal

Short term

Post consecutive winning months.

Medium Term

Add a £1 per trade per month i.e. £3 a trade for January, £4 a trade for February and so on.

Long term

Leave the funds build in my account to support the higher stake and progress to the point where I earn £10'000 month from my trading.

Ultimately I would love to host a regular seminar (where I can show my trading record from my platform to substantiate my profits) and prove to spread betters that it's possible, despite all the doubters to achieve success at any age coming into this game. I'd like to share my painful learning experiences to help others avoid the costly mistakes I made.

That's what I'd love to do. That's my target.

Good luck with your trading.

.

Dax Daily Chart & Thoughts On My Progress

Volatility is a traders dream. With the news coming out of Greece IG have a 400 plus point drop showing on their Sunday book.

Here's a chart since the all time high of April 13th this year.

This shows a clear downtrend over two and a half months. Make of this chart what you will. It's taken 3 years to realise I'm a short term trader so it makes no difference to me if we're 1000 points higher or lower but for all you swing traders and longer timeframe traders the market has been revealing it's next move for some time.

If you take a position and hold for months or years this may well be a 'buy the dip' opportunity even though there may be better entry points below.

Personally its taken 3 years to get myself into a position where I'm comfortable just watching the market move and waiting for an opportunity to pinch a precious few points.

For me it's all about the points.

If for the last two months my stake was as high as when I lost big money I would have made my 3 years losses back in two months. That's how important points are and how fine the line is between total despair and fulfilling one's wildest most ambitious dreams. The potential is life changing as I've always thought and written of throughout my blog.

I will always be learning but there comes a time when one has to realise they have a sound enough knowledge base with which to push on.

I have reached base camp and continue to push on with total respect for the markets and a short, medium and long term plan that I will share with you in my next post.

 

June Update + £1411 (£2 point)

Good afternoon,

I'm delighted to be the bearer of more good news, as you can see from the headline this has been another positive month.

I've been scalping the DAX reading the 5 minute candles. I have the 5 min chart open along with the 30 min chart and also the daily. I know support and resistance on all and the only indicator I am using is the RSI.

I trade two ways:

PHYSICALLY TRADING

1) I start a trading session by watching my screen and when I see overbought or oversold conditions I manually enter a trade. Timescale mostly from 10 seconds to around 2 minutes although I do let some winners ride for a maximum of 30 minutes.

RELAXING WITOUT PLATFORM OPEN

 2) I have my RSI alert set up (IG platform) to sound on my iPhone when RSI is either 80 or 20. I also set it for support and resistance points I have identified earlier in the day. This means I can go about my day and only consider trading when market conditions give me my highest probability for profit.

This month I have made 103 trades, 100 winners and just 3 losing trades I manually closed.

I feel confident in my ability to read the candles and trade this way. I may not trade again this month as the most important thing is for me to post positive returns every month. The money os nto important, I'm more focused on the points. 700 this month is a good harvest. I have plenty of time to up the stake but that won't happen this year.

I had a bad losing month this year which actually was down to me starving my account of funds. Yes I made a mistake by trading more than one instrument at a time (I never do that now) but my call was the right one, just failed due to underfunding.

It's been a long and emotional 3 years but I can feel the change in my attitude to risk and my confidence in my candle reading.

I have always though that if someone else can make money from the markets SO CAN I. I was not about to give up just because I'd made mistakes. Learning is about making mistakes, recognising them and working hard not to repeat them. There's still a long road ahead but I face the journey with confidence and humility.

Whether you've been with me all the way on my journey or recently discovered my blog I'd like to thank you for reading and wish you much success in your trading.

May: Interesting Month +£800

Okay so I conducted my trial over a month and not a week, hence the delayed report.

I'm pleased to say I made £800 this month, all trades at £2 point and with a 10 point stop loss. I closed many trades manually for a few points profit as I didn't like they way they were behaving.

112 Winning trades
28 losing trades

So, by being really careful and pinching a few points here and there with minimum exposure to the market I'm £800 tax free better off this month.

I think we have the blueprint going forward don't you?

I could let the experiment run on metrics without my interference, say keep to a 10 point stop & limit and go through the results at the end of next month or I could continue as I am....I have a few days to think about it.

Hope you all had a profitable month.

Thank you for your comments

Having a modicum of intelligence means I am able to read criticism without my defence mechanism kicking in.

I can't argue with any of the observations made, in fact if I am to be successful I need to listen to traders who have taken the time to pass on their wisdom. I am so very close to making this work now and I am certain I WILL make money from trading. To achieve that though I need to employ an iron discipline.

I can't argue with the fact that I am still losing money. I have learned to trade at a smaller size which is why my losses have been considerably smaller than previously.  I knew I should only trade one instrument at a time but I broke that by trading 3 indices and that resulted in my loss last month. I simply cannot break a golden rule like that or I will continue to pour money into IG's coffers.

I spent the weekend as advised by someone from the comments section listing every trade I've made in the last 5 months, the results astonished me.

Winning trades 781
Losing trades 329

More than 2 out of 3 trades I make are winners, yet I lost money?

I have a talent for making successful trades that is only eclipsed by my talent for losing money so the question is how can I utilise my talent for spotting a winning trade and earn from it?

The answer is simple: if I played a ratio of 1:1 I would make money, for example 10 points stop loss, 10 points limit.

So when I next trade I resolve the following.

Only trade one index at a time

Every trade to have a 10 point stop loss

Maximum 10 trades a day over very short time frames

At £2 point if every trade lost I'd be £200 down for the day, that's my maximum loss.

I then have the option of closing for a 10 point win or keep an eye on the open winning  trade and bring my stop loss up to 10 points.

I will trial this for one week at £1 point and post my results at the end of that week.

Good luck with your trading and thanks for everyone who has taken the time to comment.

April +£500 profit

I've finished trading for this month.

I've made £500 which is positive and I'm going to ensure the month remains profitable by ending on a good note.

I can't target undoing the damage of last month, if I chase that loss I risk doing more damage. Better to record a profitable month and take some time out of the markets.

I made two mistakes last month to rack up the loss: 1) trading more than one index (I traded three) 2) I didn't find my account sufficiently and paid the price.

Jan Profit: £440
Feb profit: £500
March loss £5500
April profit: £500

(Total year to date LOSS £4060)

I oreict the dow to make a record high this month and nudge 18500

March final -£5500 (loss)

Back to some bad habits I'm afraid but the loss really was incurred after trading hours final day of March.

I was long FTSE, DAX And DOW, £5 point each index. I was bullish having bought into a dip albeit too early but happy to hold. Rather than fund my account adequately I was drip feeding in units of £500. I was actually awake and watching around 2am this morning when to my horror DOW dropped 150 points inside 2 minutes and the other two indexes follows accordingly, before I could fund further I was margined out.

Of course I've written about inadequate funding previously and what's most frustrating is I had the money, I just didn't want to commit it in one go. I've paid a heavy price. Of course all 3 indexes have recovered spectacularly this morning and I'd have had my money back or very very close to it.

Gutted.

On the plus side I've made £400 this morning towards April's total which I shall post at end of months trading.

Here's the yearly picture:

JAN: £440 PROFIT
FEB: £500 PROFIT
MAR: £5500 LOSS

(Total this year so far £4550 loss).

This week so far +£126

Short DOW £2 from 18278 for 16 points

Long DOW £2 from 18150 for 12 points

Long DAX £2 from 11308 for 3 points

Long DAX £2 from 11250 for 11 points

Long DAX £2 from 11237 for 18 points

Long DOW £2 from 18072 for 25 points

Long DAX £2 from 11211 for -12 points

Long DAX £2 from 11202 for -10 points

(Total points this month 63)

Year to date

January +139 points £440

February +244 points £500

I've finished trading for the month. I have a profit and I'm keeping it. I expect the index to rise for the early part of the week before fading towards the latter part but I'm not trading again until March.

Good luck with your trading.

Switched off and lost: -£240

i got a very good lesson into the close last night.

I made the mistake of pulling £500 profit from my trading account, drawing a line in the sand for the month by saying that's the minimum I will make.

By doing so I relaxed and lost my focus. I took a short on dow for £2 point from 17996 and went for something to eat. I margined out 120 points later and lost £240.

I've still had a good month but have been reminded of how important focus is.

(Total points for the month 244).

Today's Trades + £82

Three trades today:

SHORT FTSE £2 from 6912 for 4 points

SHORT DAX £2 from 11042 for 12 points

LONG DOW £2 from 17898 for 25 points

(Total points this month 364)

Today's trades + £107

6 shorts today, split between DAX and Dow all £2 point for 53 points.

(Total points so far this month 324)

Today a Loss - £20

SHORT £2 DOW from 18018 for a 10 point loss :(

I didn't fancy holding and hoping so closed for a loss of 10 points.

(Total points this month 271)

Today's Trade + £83

One trade today:

SHORT DOW £2 from 18022 for 42 points.

(Total points this month 281).

Today's Trades + £94

SHORT DAX £2 from 10932 for 8 points

SHORT DAX £2 from 10946 for 2 points (cut short as didn't like the way trade was acting).

SHORT DAX £2 from 10941 for 30 points

SHORT DOW £2 From 17952 for 7 points

(Total points this month 219).

Today's Trades + £98

Afternoon,

Two small scalps at the open on DOW;

SHORT DOW  £2 point from 17824 for 3 points.

SHORT DOW  £2 point from 17822 for 12 points.

After hours SHORT DOW £2 point from 17957 for 34 points

That's 172 points this month added to last month's 139 points.

Today's Trades + £59

A number of small scalps today, longest 5 minutes, here's the net result:

SHORT DAX @ £2 point for 29 points.

One trade today + £84

Just the one trade today:

SHORT on DOW @ £2 point from 17925 for 42 points.

Today's Trades + £77

Afternoon,

Just a very quick entry:

SHORT @ £2 point on DOW @ 17787 for 14 points.

SHORT @ £2 point on DOW @ 17846 for 11 points

SHORT @ £2 point on DOW @ 17852 for 13 points

Today's Trade + £80

Good Afternoon,

I've made a trade today so see no reason why I shouldn't pop it on the blog.

FTSE short for 30 minutes @ £5 a point from 6857 for 14 points = £80

I saw a near 100 point rise and took the fade. That's £80 more than I had this morning and 14 points to the good this month already, a lovely relaxed trade with absolutely no pressure as I'm trading a relatively small stake and not looking for too many points in one go.

I'll post after my next trade although I do fancy FTSE to fade further I'm comfortable having no exposure.

A New Entry, Jan profit £440

Good afternoon.

I've been amazed at the number of page views this blog still receives, considering my last entry was back in September of last year 50 pages a day is staggering. I've also received a few comments so I thought I'd post a quick update.

Plenty of spread betters have an unquenchable thirst for knowledge, of course the rewards if you get this right can be astronomical so it's understandable traders search to learn from others mistakes (and successes!), that's exactly the route I took. That's another reason I'm posting this update, hopefully you can learn a little from my tragic errors and also see that if you have an unswerving belief and are determined to crack it that it's possible.

I did my numbers recently and calculated its cost me a whopping £75000 to learn this game (and of course I will never stop learning). That figure is in the past and not a target for me to chase, if I do I will lose as I'll repeat previous mistakes. In hindsight I would've traded with smaller stakes but over trading, trading too big and controlling your emotions are all part of the learning process.

The 'secret' for me has been to cut my trades to the minimum and to lower my stake per point. Cutting my trades means I trade infrequently and am more considered about my entry points. This year I have made just four trades. Three on DAX and one on DOW.

Here are my trades this year.

A 1 minute short scalp on DAX @ £10 point from 10435 for 7 points: Profit £73

A 30 minute short on DAX @ £2 point from 10650 for 34 points: Profit £67

A 30 minute short on DAX @ £3 point from 10651 for 35 points: Profit £105

A 30 minute long on DOW @ £3 point from 17448 for 63 points: Profit £188

A quick calculation shows 139 points for £436 Profit.

What to make from this?

Firstly in almost all of the previous months I've traded I have lost money. This month I have made money. If I don't trade again this month (and I'm not) I'm guaranteed to MAKE money.

Secondly by vastly reducing my £ per point I take all the pressure off myself, I feel much more comfortable trading at a smaller size.

Thirdly I'm endeavouring to prove to myself that it is possible to make money consistently from this game, that's my target. The figure I'm interested in is the +139 points for the month.

I plan to post again at the end of February. My target is to make positive points. I'm aiming to post on here 6 consecutive months of positive returns, then all I need do to earn more money is raise my £ per point.

So there you have it, simple really.

One instrument at a time

Make far fewer trades.

Trade with a smaller stake.

Stop losses I hear you cry? By trading a low stake means I can trade with comfort and not worry if a position moves against me but by waiting for these entry points I was as confident as I could be that they would move immediately in my desired direction. My DOW trade was yesterday as the index plunged 360 points, I thought it was overdone in the very short term and as I saw it recover a little I then placed my trade. I was looking for 17450 and closed when it touched.

My DAX trades were made after similar moves and that really is my entry criteria; wait for a dramatic move them harvest a few points when it's thoroughly exhausted the move. Overbought/Oversold then pounce.

A big mistake I made was trying to trade full time, spending hours in front of the screen. That's a sign that I'm trying to force the issue and it's really not necessary. Less is more.

If you're looking for some excellent reading material I recommend 'Market Wizards' by Jack Schwager. It's from the late 80's-early 90's but don't let that put you off, it's invaluable reading. He interviews top traders from their day and the common theme amongst almost all of them is that all lost heavily when they started and it took 2 to 3 years before they developed a mastery. I have a single mindedness that meant I was going to be successful at this whatever it took. If someone else can do this so can I. The book is BRILLIANT and a must read.

Catch up with you again next month.