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.
Should have Stayed At The Gym
At lunchtime I had to check through my international calendars to see if I’d missed a public holiday; God it was dull. I even succumbed to the dreaded ‘boredom trade’ and paid the price.
I took an early morning executive decision to do a gym session on the way back from the school walk. My second executive decision was to carry on pumping rather than rush back for the UK GDP number (yes, it’s an important number, but rarely far enough from consensus to cause a market move).
Both of these decisions were better, and more profitable, than my third big moment of the day. Looking at the EURUSD chart the Euro had been clobbered for the third day running. An attempted rally had failed dismally and the price had fallen back below $1.56.
I placed a £10 bet to sell at $1.5595 with a stop loss at $1.5625, just above the previous high. I’d seen more movement in the Fulham defence than in EURUSD over the next hour. In the end I closed my bet at $1.5608 for a loss of £130; I closed the bet when a downward trendline was broken, but it was a false alarm and with more patience I could have exited for a small gain.
Later, I made up most of my losses by buying EURUSD, though again it was as easy as stirring toffee. I’d noticed a pick-up in the Euro, but waited for a break of $1.5621 before buying a £10 bet at $1.5623. I closed half my bet at $1.5634, bringing my stop up to ‘24, then let £1 bets go at $1.5633, 34 and 45 before my stop was hit. Total gain on the trade was £100, leaving me £30 short on the day. That’s OK, I’ve not had as bad a week as Gordon Brown, Ronaldo or Amy Winehouse.
AAAAGGGGGGHHHHHH! I’ve just looked up to see my EURUSD chart; now the damned thing’s started to move, but it’s nearly the weekend so I’m going to leave it.
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It looks like HBOS are after the free Bank of England cheque book and pen as the first bank to use the new liquidity facility. On Wednesday it closed a £9 billion securitisation deal, and get this, they kept it all. Although from the outside it appeared to be a new bond issue, the structure suggested it was tailor-made for use in the Bank of England’s bailout scheme. The 2% share price rise is in line with other banks, though Alliance & Leicester were once again ahead of the pack.
Finally, for all those guys looking forward to shopping with the missus tomorrow, here’s the perfect response to the most frequently asked question of all.
But book a spot at Casualty first.
Enjoy the weekend, and don’t forget the Saracens, Munster clash on Sunday
Enjoyed this post?
April 25th, 2008 at 4:18 pm
Know what you mean. My boredom trade was to short Signet at 67.1. Only to close sharpish at 66.6 when some hefty order book volume made further progres look unlikely.
As the week draws to a close, here’s something to ponder. This morning’s headlines on the BBC business site: “Microsoft sees slide in profits”, “Mass meeting ahead of oil strike”, “UK economic growth starts to ease”, “UK retail sales on slide in March”, “US new home sales at 16-year low”, “Court orders to secure loans rise”.
Oh, cheer up, it’s almost the weekend. No? How about this then. The RSI-20 on the daily FTSE has been giving an overbought signal this week. Last time that happened was back in October. When the index was over 6700. And we all know what happened next.
Have a good weekend!
April 25th, 2008 at 4:32 pm
Aother bearish sign. I gave up waiting and wrote a scrsp of 5650 calls. I may regret that, but size is only bait to try and lure the market lower.
Enjoy the weekend
April 25th, 2008 at 8:13 pm
5650 calls-shirley some mistake-or are your underpants larger than I gave you credit for?
5650 puts, 6550 calls? Either way I’m not liking the level that the FTSE is at at 9pm tonight!
Agree that all the headlines suggest that we should be 1000 points lower on the Dow, but I am moderately impressed that there is obviously quite a lot of money thinking up we go, given the retreat in short bonds/resurgence in the buck. Doesn’t mean it is right mind you.
Unheard of for me, but I bought some May Dow OTM calls today.
April 25th, 2008 at 9:34 pm
oops.my mind was already on tonights football.Well spotted gg, yep it was the puts. I’m guessing I’m going to be waking up to some unwelcome bank prices on Monday. Might get to write some 6400 calls,but like you find the level of interest a bit scary.