FT has been trading full time from home for two years, with nothing but four kids and a beach to distract him .
He fills his spare time with weight training and rugby, though more coaching than playing these days.
FT mostly trades the forex markets and although he plays FTSE on occasions his bread and butter market is £$.
He likes to think that his technique is evolving but still hasn’t the temperament or money to back the big calls. He prefers to trade between 1 and 3 times a day, aiming to take regular small gains, but feels part of the evolution is in not dealing if the conditions don’t feel right.
Googling Up A Profit
Wahey! What a profit. Yesterday I lost money on two live deals, but made a packet on a pretend deal in Google. I just need to have a word with the trading gods to help me where it really matters.
First off, I traded my plan in GBPUSD, but it didn’t work out. I’d been looking to buy GBPUSD either on a pullback to the low $1.98s or on a break of $1.99. The good old British Pound had put on an impressive performance breaking $1.99 with enough punch to push on to $1.9930. “Too hot for me,” said I and waited for a pullback to place a £5 spread bet to buy at $1.9898. I’d reckoned that within a pip or two the $1.99 level would now act as support. However, in a jumpy market ahead of the Federal Reserve meeting I kept my stop as tight as a Scotsman’s generosity, placing it at $1.9881. After the early burst of enthusiasm traders had lost interest and Sterling trailed off, landing me with a bill for £85, pretty much matching my winnings from the day before.
Google, on the other hand…what a trade. Checking my charts yesterday morning I’d had a suspicion that Google was struggling, despite the Dow perking up. My trade plan was to watch for a new low in the stock and if it broke below $549 I’d sell. BINGO. Google hit a new low and I hit the trade button, selling £1 at $549.03 on an uptick . Now, I’ve not dealt in US stocks before, and this highlighted the sense in demo-trading at first. The £££££s can move very quicky; my £1 bet was soon up £400, before dropping to £150 loss, then rising again. It’s worth investing in a thermos flask and some incontinence pants coz you won’t want to leave the screen. At one point the trade was over £800 in profit so I kept rolling the dice. In the end I closed out at $543.80, sticking a pretend £523 in my back pocket.
Next up on the demo accumulator was my £5 long spread bet in BHP Billiton. It’s come back from yesterday’s highs but at a current bid price of 1440p I’m showing a pretend profit of £92.
Well, aren’t I just the dog’s b*llocks? Err, no. I’m afraid not. My other proper deal was selling the Dow at 12380. It was only a £1 spread bet, but it’s about £50 offside at the moment. Patience Grasshopper, patience.
Remember to plan your tea around the main event tonight; the decision on US interest rates will be out at 7.15 our time. Before that, around lunchtime, the US ADP employment change and first stab at Q4 GDP might spook the markets.
Before that, if you’ve got a couple of minutes to spare……
Until then, Happy Trading
January 30th, 2008 at 1:01 pm
GOOG scares me witless both on the speed and size of its moves! As indeed amply demonstrated by your demo account P&L!
Fine if you ‘lurve’ volatility and get the direction right. I always have to put 2 pairs of nappies on when I trade this one-and its not because I drink too much coffee!
Caveat: GOOG has results after US market closes Thursday-see my TWL blog entry. Then trade it!
Or if you can’t wait that long, tee it up on the Fed announcement-for a ‘whiteknuckle’ ride!
January 30th, 2008 at 1:57 pm
Cheers GG, I know what you mean. A bit like walking along the Mile End Road in a Gunners shirt. I’m going to leave it alone post Fed and watch the results tomorrow. Just brought my stop up to break-even on BHP. Interesting that markets aren’t displaying strong bear market characteristics.ie strong durable goods (good) weak GDP (good).Post Fed reaction will be interesting
January 31st, 2008 at 9:49 am
Thanks for the advice FT, had my dinner with my laptop open. Got an 80 point jump on Wall Street in about 25 - 30 seconds and took it, yeah hey
Johnny
January 31st, 2008 at 9:59 am
Hey nice one Johnny. I saw a short on the Dow turn pig ugly, so ignored the obvious spike up and took the missus out. By the time we returned the markets were considerably lower! The cavalry are getting low on ammo and the indians are still attacking.Will the BoE and ECB reinforcements arrive in time?