Hi All

Looking to gain a small following for an experiment, gonna spreadbet 1,000 of my own hard earned with a view not to stop until I hit 25,000 or lose the lot!!

It'll be across a range of Index, equity & FX trades starting small and building the pot (or lose the lot) will be using flat stops and running profits with trailing stops.

If you want to follow every trade and watch the spiral up or down feel free to follow me on www.twitter.com/eyetrader - where I'll be simply be posting each trade as I click the mouse

BTW this is not spam, I'm not selling anything, I dont want any donations, more of a personal challenge that I'm going to conduct in public!!!! I'm hoping to see a few tips on here as well as my own strategies and ideas.

Lastly I'll be donating 5,000 of the profit (if/when I make it) to charity

May the slaughter commence :)

Eyetrader

Exactly. As an example, you could average 40% winners and you would still make money overall if the average win size was more than 1.5 times the average loss size.

Yep spot on.

Probably missed other points in that list aswell hilary.

Im finding now that paying attention to intermarket relationships is a big big biggy.

more seriously .... because it is human nature to avoid biting the bullet so losses continue to mount .... also, stocks fall a lot quicker than they rise, so it's easy to be caught out ..... and finally, it's a truism that we take profits too early - even if, as i often say, no one ever went broke taking same

Yep excelent points cyners could you please add that to the char thread.

First time you have ever taken me seriousyou plonkers!!!

Probably a no brainer but also take into account spreadbetting companys spread and charts on entry and exit points from real time.

And avoid Tabbys horse tips

tab. i knew were you were coming from.

Cheers.

Goldfingerfrom my own perspective...I believe the key to success is research[risk accessing]conviction and disciplineI have nothing against trading as I have done it many years as a Bookmaker[when Jeff understandshe might make money on my selections] you also have to do your research but the conviction and discipline are totally differenthow many times do I hear on these bbs that a profit is a profitobviously true but you need that every time you are posed with constant changing circumstances that involve very small %squick decisions for a fast bucknearly all my investments are long termeither property or stocks or other collectables I use the same systemit has made me luckyI am not clever just follow a clever systemI have had a large punt on blnx @12p thanks to two peoplenow a full grown idiot could not have lost money on blnxbut? I know a trader that has achieved this on several occasionsits a tough game and one that I am not sufficiently smart enough to attemptI will stick to being a lucky thicko

Dont look a thicko to me tab, looks like you know what your doing well done.

Must say I have both a short term and long term portfolios and my investing methods are far different to my spreadbet metholodgy.

Now trading full time rather than investing part time after retiring at 50 a couple of years back.

Keep up the good work.

cheers.

Post from across the road at scrazie from sister thread re- to 14 grand trading account.

GF, I don't think 14k is enough to live off. Would be too much pressure for me to "get it right", to much pressure to over trade, I can't bring consistent returns throughout the year.

For me it would depend largely on other factors: does he have other income sources to cover food and living expenses, is he single, accommodation sorted, if so, then yes, I think 15k is plenty.

Personally I would want to own my own home and be running some other business on the side before going full time.


I would add to GFs list:

- Don't blindly follow tips, DYOR

- Tight spreads are crucial, esp when spread betting

- Get comfortable with charts

- Get comfortable with cash flow, reading general accounts etc (you might as well if this is going to be your job).


Possibly controversial and counter to GF:

- don't worry about beta, lots of money to be made on certain oilers, miners etc, esp when markets fall through support

- always use guaranteed stop losses for spread bets

- always use price alarms for stock positions, never trust the stop loss in your account

- always have a mobile device that can trade, use price alarms(!)

- never be 100% long

- if your fully leveraged and invested, stay very close to the screen and start taking profits

- don't invest everything in stocks

- set your entry, stop loss and profit targets before trade entry, make sure minimum 1:2 risk/profit ratio, use trailing stop loss

- don't overtrade, if you like a trade, use price alert to only buy at support and sell at resistance

- if the profit on your account looks too good to be true, it's probably time to take it, immediately!

- keep a record of trades, reasons opened, give the trade a rating betweem 1 and 10 how sure you are, give reason for closing, evaluate your trades some days later

- make sure the majority of your trades are with the market (trend is your friend)

- don't read individual stock threads,

- do read international press- int herald tribune or my preferred is FT

- use sentiment indicators to help spot turning points and qualify what you read and where you interpret the general market going

- never bet more than 2% of your account: except when the no brainers come along

- bet big on the no brainers (but remember they will not come around more than once maybe twice a year, it will likely be due to a macro trigger)

- don't be scared to get out of the market for weeks or months at a time

- another opportunity will always come, so don't worry if this one doesn't happen

Why does it need to be so complicated with loads of fancy rules? Whatever happened to kiss?

Well it is Spread betting with more risks than your normal broker account hilary.

My experience, Goldfinger, is that the risks are normally self-inflicted by punters who over-leverage small accounts and run stops which are unnecessarily tight and easily gunned.

You don't need a list of 100 rules to avoid those mistakes imo.

A relative of mine is a great investor, makes heaps of money, but is a hopeless spreadbetter, and has never made any money at it - he reckons the mindset is different with s/b'ing, and it seems to be to do with timescale, and as Hilary says, over leverage of accounts, no matter what the size.

FWIW I don't think the instruments you trade matter much, whether it's indices, Fx or stocks, as long as you get the leverage right. It's taken a long time for me to realise this!

Lots of similarities in your rules and mine, goldfinger.

I avoid exploration stocks (oils, mines) and risky biotechs. I usually bank profits on the eve of Results (as even if Results are good, they can be accompanied by some unpredicted corporate action). I keep stakes small in relation to overall pot. I occasionally cash in everything and start again - or reduce stakes take a few days break and close out entitre portfolio every now and again. I use trailing stops. I use charts but in a very simplistic way - the fewer indicators the better.


Too early to report progress on my 12 month mission - three days is nothing. But by last night's close (Day 3) my 14,000 was 15,384 which is nearly 10% up (9.89%). The portfolio now has 43 stocks in it, and is 45% cash.

fully agree with Hilary too - it's about capital management and not being over-exposed ie thoughtful risk-management. That means fully understanding the risk rather than just recognising that there is one. I'm very much a kiss man too. My own S/b experience began very slowly with too much caution I suppose, but it did mean that by trading very small positions, I learnt a technique with which I was comfortable and that was profitable overall. I spend far less time p*ssing about with the markets these days as I'm very busy in my profession, but I took 5 years to turn in a 2,500% profit after an original aim of beating the bank's interest rate. I have to say though, that it was easier to do a few years ago, what with less sophisticated trading software and lax rules from the s/b companies. Level 2 was rather easier to read too which made for easier bot-prediction!

and



equals



It's all that the likes of JP Morgan and Rothschild, etc ever had before they invented those computer thingies. They somehow managed to do OK.

I used to draw my own charts on graph paper updated manually every day. Didn't have a computer when I first traded shares - just teletext prices and a dial-up automated sharepricing service. Then got a computer and joined ESI (which some here will remember)

i just use a chequebook!