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Mr FT is a self-employed spread better. After 18 years in fund management he was given the choice of moving to London or .. not. ‘Not’ won out.

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.
 Is The Euro Vision Over?
Posted by FT on February 15, 2008
Category: Views & Opinions, Economics, Currencies, Graphs & TA by FT 2 Comments

What’s on my mind this week? The Euro. And why, even without rate cuts, it looks set for a fall.

Monsieur Trichet has been getting a pretty rough press recently. He’s been portrayed as the tough, uncompromising figurehead of the European Central Bank (ECB); the pantomime villain who in the face of slowing global growth has warned that European rates might need to rise, not fall.

Now, it really pains me to defend a Frenchman, but he’s in the right. He and his fellow members of the European Central Bank are only doing what it says on the tin. But they won’t stop the Euro from falling.


Mr FT is a self-employed spread better. After 18 years in fund management he was given the choice of moving to London or .. not. ‘Not’ won out.

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.
 Get Shorty
Posted by FT on January 31, 2008
Category: Views & Opinions, About Trading, Graphs & TA by FT Comment

Get Shorty
He-he-hey! Tell you what, I’m six foot four, and I love being short!
That’s why I prefer spread betting to investing. As a rule of thumb, investors lose money in a falling market, but for us traders it’s 3 oranges in a line, Kerching!

A recent newspaper headline read “Private investors steer clear of volatile markets.” Last quarter there was a net outflow of £600 million from equity funds, and not at the top of the market I’ll bet!


Mr FT is a self-employed spread better. After 18 years in fund management he was given the choice of moving to London or .. not. ‘Not’ won out.

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.
 Shaving My Face And My Profits
Posted by FT on January 22, 2008
Category: Trade Diaries, Shares & Indices, Graphs & TA by FT Comment

Blimey, I like a bit of life in the markets but these past few mornings have had me nipping down the chemist for extra beta-blockers. Despite going into this morning’s sell off with a £4 short position in FTSE I’m currently sitting on a £490 loss, which feels as comfortable as a bad case of haemorrhoids.


Mr FT is a self-employed spread better. After 18 years in fund management he was given the choice of moving to London or .. not. ‘Not’ won out.

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.
 More Pies Than Fingers
Posted by FT on January 16, 2008
Category: Trade Diaries, Shares & Indices, Currencies, Graphs & TA by FT Comment

I haven’t gone near the currency market today. At the moment there are more pies than fingers to stick in them. I’m still playing the FTSE spread bet and with massive volatility in equity markets I’m concentrating all my energies on the one profit centre.


Mr FT is a self-employed spread better. After 18 years in fund management he was given the choice of moving to London or .. not. ‘Not’ won out.

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.
 The Fun Starts Below The Neckline
Posted by FT on January 3, 2008
Category: Trade Diaries, Currencies, Graphs & TA by FT Comment

I know I’ve said it loads of times, “Better to miss a profit than to actually lose money”, but it’s a bit like saying “Avoiding the risk of chlamydia is better than not having sex”; it’s worth weighing up the odds on each occasion.

In being cautious yesterday I missed out on shorting FTSE and on gold and oil both rallying to record levels. I’ll forgive myself that one as my only history in gold involved losing money last year and fancying that woman in the 1980s Gold Blend adverts.


Mr FT is a self-employed spread better. After 18 years in fund management he was given the choice of moving to London or .. not. ‘Not’ won out.

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.
 Here Is One For Next Week
Posted by FT on October 19, 2007
Category: Trade Diaries, Shares & Indices, Currencies, Graphs & TA by FT Comment

I’m not going to deal in the currency markets today; with the G7 meeting starting there are plenty of nervous traders out there so I don’t see the sense in risking my capital.

But, here’s a trade I’m watching carefully for next week. The equity market sell-off has predictably led to the Yen strengthening as traders close out carry trades. This has pushed the GBP/JPY rate below its 200-day moving average, which in the dark arts of technical analysis, is pretty important.


Mr FT is a self-employed spread better. After 18 years in fund management he was given the choice of moving to London or .. not. ‘Not’ won out.

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.
 This Is One That Went Wrong
Posted by FT on October 3, 2007
Category: Trade Diaries, Currencies, Graphs & TA by FT Comment

Curses! I had expected that when GBP/USD woke from yesterday’s slumber that there would be a quick trade in it. Unfortunately I was having a late breakfast during the 10 minutes of mayhem. Sterling fell a very rapid 70 pips against the Dollar - for no particular reason that I could see. How dare the markests not move without warning me first.

Over the next hour and a half it recovered all its losses and somewhere in the middle of that I sold GBP/USD for a fairly quick loss of £72. I’ll explain why I felt so generous today:


Mr FT is a self-employed spread better. After 18 years in fund management he was given the choice of moving to London or .. not. ‘Not’ won out.

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.
 Hell Hath No Fury…
Posted by FT on October 1, 2007
Category: Trade Diaries, Currencies, Graphs & TA by FT Comment

So, we wave goodbye to the entertaining Tongan rugby team, complete with inside centre Paddy Power but minus their green hair.

Hell hath no fury like a broken resistance line.

Regular readers won’t have failed to notice me droning on about how effective the downtrend line in GBP/USD has been; I’ve based quite a few winning trades on the assumption that the price would struggle to break through the trend line and I reckon I wasn’t alone in that.


Mr FT is a self-employed spread better. After 18 years in fund management he was given the choice of moving to London or .. not. ‘Not’ won out.

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.
 Is That Toe In The Water Safe?
Posted by FT on September 26, 2007
Category: Trade Diaries, Economics, Currencies, Graphs & TA by FT Comment

I’ve got to hand it to PaddyPower; most Spread Betting firms launch with a free gift and a guide on do’s and don’ts. But PaddyPower provide a 2-month real life illustration of how exciting it is to trade the markets, and they’ve done it at the most ‘interesting’ time in the markets for the last few years. Now that is damned impressive.

So, after all the excitement is it safe to dip a big hairy toe back in the water. Or should we run like hell to the safety of the beach hut?


Mr FT is a self-employed spread better. After 18 years in fund management he was given the choice of moving to London or .. not. ‘Not’ won out.

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.
 Stop Losses Need To Breathe Too
Posted by FT on September 25, 2007
Category: Trade Diaries, Currencies, Graphs & TA by FT Comment

Sterling sold off overnight and I think there were two reasons. The newswires were blaming the Independent newspaper, which reported that the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (which is supposed to compensate savers who lose their deposits) has only £4.4m. FOUR MILLION SQUID! That would have needed a variation on the bread and fishes trick to cover Northern Rock savers!

Shocking though this is, I’m not sure it’s big enough to knock a cent off GBP/USD overnight. The other reason that I have some time for is shown on the chart below.


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