China's FTSE 100 swing trades

China Diapers

China Diapers

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I am trying my hand at swing trading FTSE 100 stocks. I am using the floor trader method with a few modifications, taking profits at the previous swing low/high (thanks Barjon) and as well as the 9sma and 18sma using a 50sma to help stay with the trend. Stops and entries at either end of the reference bar.

I paper traded this for a while and the results were not bad, since starting trading with a small account the results could not have been worse, 5 trades with a 100% loss rate. I am hoping this is due to the range we have been stuck in the last few days and once the market decides on a direction I'll start seeing some winners.

Trading stats. I am currently long ANTO.

Anybody who wants to chip in and say hi, give advice, heckle, please feel free.
 
Last edited:
How many trades did your test consist of?

5 losers in a row is nothing, especially in current choppy conditions.
 
China Diapers said:
I am trying my hand at swing trading FTSE 100 stocks. I am using the floor trader method with a few modifications, taking profits at the previous swing low/high (thanks Barjon) and as well as the 9sma and 18sma using a 50sma to help stay with the trend. Stops and entries at either end of the reference bar.

I paper traded this for a while and the results were not bad, since starting trading with a small account the results could not have been worse, 5 trades with a 100% loss rate. I am hoping this is due to the range we have been stuck in the last few days and once the market decides on a direction I'll start seeing some winners.

Trading stats. I am currently long ANTO.

Anybody who wants to chip in and say hi, give advice, heckle, please feel free.
Click to expand...

Why ftse100 stocks?
The cost of the spread & slippage will kill any edge you have. Trade something that is cheap.
 
D70 said:
Why ftse100 stocks?
The cost of the spread & slippage will kill any edge you have. Trade something that is cheap.
Click to expand...

Hey. FTSE 100 because I am UK based and am more familiar with the stocks and what's going on in the news.

It's early stages so if it turns out FTSE stocks are too expensive I will look into trading US stocks.
 
Benj1981 said:
How many trades did your test consist of?

5 losers in a row is nothing, especially in current choppy conditions.
Click to expand...

Yip I hear you on the choppy conditions.

I took around 60 paper trades, although to be honest there was a lot of trade selection tinkering going on during this process.
 
China Diapers said:
Yip I hear you on the choppy conditions.

I took around 60 paper trades, although to be honest there was a lot of trade selection tinkering going on during this process.
Click to expand...

Well so long as you're trading on small stakes to start with, it doesn't matter, as you'll learn much more from "live" trading, even at pennies per tick. But if you're not, reduce your size immediately until you're confident enough with your strategy, so that the execution of your trades happens without hesitation EVERY time.
 
Benj1981 said:
Well so long as you're trading on small stakes to start with, it doesn't matter, as you'll learn much more from "live" trading, even at pennies per tick. But if you're not, reduce your size immediately until you're confident enough with your strategy, so that the execution of your trades happens without hesitation EVERY time.
Click to expand...

Don't worry, we're talking small stakes here :)
 
China Diapers said:
Hey. FTSE 100 because I am UK based and am more familiar with the stocks and what's going on in the news.

It's early stages so if it turns out FTSE stocks are too expensive I will look into trading US stocks.
Click to expand...

Assume you're doing this on CFD or spreadb'ting.
If so, make sure you check the cost of spread before trading. Put in a threshold of max cost of spread. For example, BP is relatively cheap, Paypoint is relatively expensive.

If you have to trade forward months vs rolling cash. Rolling cash is cheaper than the forward months (unless you're holding the trades for a long time which I dont think you are).

Costs are EVERYTHING.
 
The amount of money I am using is too small to justify CFD's so using spreadbets, rolling cash.

I will keep an eye on the spreads, thanks.
 
Agree with D70. the spreads on FTSE 100 stocks vary wildly, so maybe create a spreadsheet of the FTSE 100 and input the spreads of each stock from your broker, and then calculate the percentage that the spread is. Then you can filter out any stocks that are too expensive.

For example on IG index as I type BP is 453.75 - 454.75, which is a 0.219% spread, whereas Paypoint is 685.8 - 696.7, which is 1.56% spread.

So if you insist on trading the FTSE stocks, then give yourself a spread limit as D70 said and don't trade anything that is above it, as starting a trade 1.56% down is just silly. Max of 0.5% or less ideally imo.
 
OK OK OK. I will do some research this weekend and if it really is a no brainer to trade US stocks I will have to consider it :)
 
Here's an excel file with the FTSE 100 stocks and the bid, offer and spread % for you to fill out. Just put the bid and offer prices in and it will calculate the spread for you.

I've set the GOOD highlight to be anything under 0.5%, but you can edit that to whatever you want. For example if you want it to be anything under 0.25% then this would be the formula:
=IF(D2>0.0025,"BAD","GOOD")
 

Attachments

  • FTSE 100 Spreads.xls
    39 KB · Views: 305
Last edited:
Here's the S&P 500 stocks excel file. Same thing but with the good set to below 0.25%. Again you can change to whatever you like once you've put in the spreads.
 

Attachments

  • SP500 Components Spreads.xls
    89 KB · Views: 331
Good luck with this China.

Actually, I had ANTO as a potential buy also, as 13/08 inside day formed valid hikkake, but price never confirmed entry and signal has now expired.
 
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