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.
Suddenly Everyone Wants A Bit Of Fannie
Where’s that bloody cat when I need something to kick? Granted, my £2 Barclays bet wasn’t going to get me a villa in Spain. But the manner in which I was jerked out of the trade, and the subsequent rally had me spitting blood.
Early this morning I was busy knocking out an article on the latest Fed actions (Clever, But Will Fed Bluff Work?). Equities were, in my opinion, too high but I had my short in place against scrappy longs in Barclays and Friends Provident.
I’d turned my squawk box off to help me concentrate, but glanced up to see equities steadily dropping. “Good,” I thought, “the rally was overdone; this is a sensible correction.”
The move was gathering pace, but my Barclays bet was dropping as quickly as the broader index. That doesn’t usually happen. Pressing my squawk into life told me that rumours of HBOS going tits up had sent their shares down 18%! The whole banking sector was suffering, and for a moment I was relieved when I was stopped out of my Barclays for break-even; if there was any truth in the HBOS story, things could get really ugly.
Things did get ugly, but in the other direction. With me out of the way Barclays was free to put in the spurt I’d previously been hoping for. A whole chocolate box of good news sent equities higher, with Barclays hitting 430p. Bugger!
So, why did the wind change? Well, in no particular order, this happened:
Morgan Stanley’s results were better than recently downgraded expectations; they had little effect at the time but added to the overall mood of optimism.
The HBOS rumour was denied by both the company and, more significantly, the Bank of England. Subsequently the FSA (financial police) said they’d been asked to investigate dodgy dealings in bank shares and the spreading of malicious rumours (I hope they get the b*st*rds).
A relaxation of capital constraints for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac was announced, allowing them to invest an extra $200 billion in dodgy US mortgages. Strangely, this was seen as good news for both companies, sending their shares up 10%.
So equity markets are happy, gold’s taking a breather and Heather Mills certainly isn’t going to be financially crippled.
Happy Trading
March 19th, 2008 at 4:25 pm
And there was something called the VISA IPO……
(yeah crept up on me under the radar whilst I was looking for global financial melt down) -in which I think Barclays either has a decent slug of equity or has got the dosh instead
Visa placed at $44, hit $67 currently $60 give or take £40 bn mkt cap
Now about the timing of the Fed cut in the discount rate,….. did they all apply for Visa stock and ‘make sure’ it got away to a flyer? Hmmm