Hello All,

I just thought I would introduce myself, my name is John and I live north of Nottingham. I subsribed to "Shares magazine" 3 weeks ago and have lurked on this board since then in a attempt to educate myself and hopefully, pick up some tips.

Except for a very short foray into world of share trading 13 or 14 years ago, I really am a begginer. Back then, I started with a copy of the "Investors Cronicle" a free trial of "Penny Share Focus" and 2000, I dipped my toes and quickly burnt my fingers. With the help of "Medeva" (I think it was called, does anyone know what happened to them?) I doubled my money in a matter of weeks, "WoW! I'm good at this", I thought, "this is easy money", my next killing, I decided, was going to be "Farranti International", new management had been appointed and ... well.. the name had a nice ring to it! -:) so I sunk the whole 4000 into the shares which immediately bombed!!! 4000 was alot of money to me then (as it is now), untill recently I was unable to look at a share mag, financial page, or hear the state of the footsie without a shiver of dread (literally!) running through my body.

I now seem to be over my mental dread of shares, so with a pitiful amount of capital, I have just started trading again, any advice, recomendations (even to sell up and put it back in the post office) will be appreciated. In the words of Bilbow Baggins "like to little butter, spread over to much bread" here is my portfolio

Share Amount

ACV 214,827
COST 1,757
ETQ 12,852
FUL 4,790
GLD 2,851
KTS 5,027
OBS 5,615
OXS 2,250

I sold NBT at a small profit to buy ETQ on friday morning at 13p and generally feel quite happy about my selections, I realise (I think) OBS is for the long term and ACV is a total punt. I will have 5000 next month to invest but can't decide wether to add to what I have already bought or go with the other shares I want to invest in. OH! I almost forgot, from the Farannti days I bought 2170 ARE shares but lost the certificate, I just paid 43 to have it replaced, I also missed the 1999 high -:((

My long term goal is to provide a pension for myself, I'm 48 and the only pension I have is the one I transfered from the NCB to one based on U.K. equities after the last gulf war and that's not looking great at the moment.

Anyway, please don't reach for the squelch button, I won't be posting very often I don't suppose, bye for now and good luck to you all.

"life is a lesson, you learn it when your through"

John

John

1) If you're trading on 'recommendations' then you'll most likely be late in and late out - Get yourself either onto a fundamentals or charting course and make your own calls. Your answer to (3) suggests that you ought to focus on charting (since you're 'active', and presumably trade on short term sentiment rather than a belief that the market doesnt yet understand a company's true worth (which requires a longer time frame and less fiddling with your position))

GlomTC run a decent set of courses with teachers who are regular contributors to the traders board here (including crocodile, bullshare and Elsie. Elsie also does a great line in shampoos and sets) - i think their address is www.glomtc.com.

Alternatively, or even in addition, get yourself a copy either of John Murphy's book or of Edwards and Magee.

Don't get hung up on PDX - I believe it has a great future but at the end of the day it's a punt. The reference to them in my profile was somewhat tongue in cheek. Sure, buy a few and tuck them away, but with a 10% - 15% spread and an NMS of about 500 it's hardly a traders share.

(2) Again - get yourself on a course. You ought to have a plan. And it would benefit you to understand the money management and risk management factors that feed into a plan. Most succesful traders plan a trade and then trade the plan.

(3) I was expecting you to say 'every Tuesday', 'once a month' or some such. Instead, you've identified the busiest and most volatile times in the UK market - if you have the inclination you could daytrade those sesions and close all positions by the end of each session. The point is that you are either an 'active' trader, or have the time to become one. Certainly, you are at your screen at the times when changing sentiment is most evident.

(4) So you have paved the way to trade US - again, a charting course and an awareness of money management will help you to take advantage of the tight spreads and lovely volatility that the Yanks have to offer.

(5) NP - some brokers require you to 'pay' for, say, 20% of what you buy - they lend you the remaining 80% and charge you interest on it. Probably best to keep away from a margin account until you're more sure of yourself.

(6) I don't know tradindex - sounds like a spread betting co. Personally, I dont rate spread betting at all - the spreads are far too wide for my liking. Some traders swear by them though.

Where's North of Nottingham? I live in London, but work in Chesterfield.

Best of Luck

Gausie

Gausie

I realise I'm late in waiting for the mags to drop though the letterbox, the printer then the distributor and then the postmen have all bought the buy recomendations before the customer receives the mag -:(

I'll be checking out Glomtc.com as soon as, I always intended to gen up on day trading but I was hoping to increase my capital a little before taking the plunge.

TradIndex is a spread betting site, I though this was how to sell short doh! I would really appriciate if you could point me in the right direction on short trading, web sites etc.

North of Nottingham is Sutton-in-Ashfield, M1 junction 28, my wife is from near Chesterfield, a place called Stavely.

thanks again for your help.

loafy

loafy

I'm not suggesting you daytrade - rather that you learn an objective technique that suits you for your position trading - training is not just for day traders.

Let me know how you get on with GlomTC

Any progress?

At least he hasn't mentioned PDX

:-)

Happy Easter Gausie

Dil

Dil - posts 3 and 4 ;-)

Gausie,

yes, I checked the website out and would love to sign up for the 3 day course, sounds ideal, unfortunately I can niether afford the fee or the time off from work at the moment. I'm making do with the two Zulu books ( no, not Isandwala and Rorkes Drift) and two books by Toni Turner, "day trading online" and "short term trading" which have alot of charting info, ah ah, time will tell if there's enough :-)) OXS 3 for ..er.. Christmas next

Good luck loafy.

It's a tough call - pay for a course or pay for experience. The course is usually cheaper .....

... by a factor of at least 10 if not 100 or more...

Gausie:
As one who benefited from your posts on ADVFN especially the Introduction to Day trading posts, which I printed off and still occasionally peruse:-)Many thanks and its great your carrying on your help to newbies here.
Im still learning/losing/winning.
The courses are vital. I went on "New Skills" TA Courses and the Will you win or lose both very good.Ive been on Crocs course Successful Day Trading which is also excellent, and the cheapest! :-)
Good luck loafy.
Iain

Iain

Wow - that was a lifetime ago! Think we were still in the bull market when I posted that stuff.

Glad to hear that you've built on it - and I guess the fact that you're still about speaks volumes about your ability.

Gausie

loafy

hi
just spent 30 mins compiling something for you but it got lost in cyberspace, so a precis.

dont take ANY advice from a bb ( exceptions will occur once you get to know a few posters, notably gausie, who introduced me to another site )

remember to spread your risk......5k invested in todays winner can so easily turn into tomorrows loser

did i mention.....DONT TAKE ADVICE FROM BB POSTERS ( this post excepted )

good luck

rod

superrod,
do you ever belt up?

oooooh

i have a stalker

:o))

cant see whats wrong with giving the only sound bit of advice you will ever see on a bb.