BlueChilli
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apologies, don't mean to butt into thread without calling trades... unfortunately I've been sitting on my hands all week with not one trade (I only trade EU). No set up that I look for has established itself this week..
Tarhini_Trade
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its meant to call positions and set ups. (See the first post)
BlueChilli
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well, I actually read it mostly for the humour, and insight into daily price action
Pippy5000
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I'm here to talk about life insurance.. Did you know that for less than $50 per month you can protect your loves ones in case of your untimely demise? Yes, for pennies per day you can buy a Pippenworth Financial whole life policy with up to $150,000 in death and burial benefits.
lol!
Masquerade
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Apologies in advance if this seems like a life story, i'll try keep it brief.
Bought a few stocks at university, graduated from university, applied to accountancy jobs, didn't get them. Applied to investment banks as I always wanted to do something in that. Wasn't successful. At the time I was semi-interested in trading and did an occasional bit.
Tried doing all sorts of stupid stuff spread betting, jumping about scalping ftse, wall st, then I decided to do some shares. I risked about half my account on some trades. I thought it was pretty normal. Won some, lost some - realised I was punting and decided to stop. Spoke with another trader and he told me the conventional stuff, using 20 pt stop losses and I was risking 3%/account on each trade. It was just too swingy and I was having 20% swings in my account on a regular basis. I started messing around with small stops and putting on really small stops <10 - I figured I could lower my risk so it'd be easier to be profitable by going for reasonable profits which are achievable and even do double size. If you would normally risk 2% account over 20 pips and going for 40 pips on a trade. Then if you risk 7 pips and go for 20 pips (which should be easier to get in the market) using 2% you'll be better off. Right? RIGHT?
Eventually realised I was just burning through money due to my discipline and I just wasn't that good and stopped. Then I learnt an important thing. Leverage and not too use too much of it. I started trying to go for bigger moves and this isn't conventional advice and something i've learnt from experience. But I opted not to use a stop loss on my account and not to take a loss unless it jeopardised the future of my account. I had also started averaging positions. This actually worked great in a trending market. I wasn't really doing anything special but buying on dips and not even with huge levels of accuracy, just basic support/resistance and looking for dips and waiting for the bounces then getting in.
I was doing this on eur/usd mainly as it was the most predictable and also it's a liquid market with low spread. I'm a bit of a gambler at heart though and I did try it out on chf/jpy too. I was doing well on it, but then I averaged a trade 3 times and lost about 20% of my account before I admitted defeat. I vowed to stick to eur/usd, topped up my account to a whole number and stayed with it. I made it all back and more over the last few months. I thought I was doing great and had it all nailed. Then things got messy, dubai/greece/$ strength and BOOM - before I know it i've got 3 positions on eur/usd and it's dropping like hell and my losses are growing. I admitted defeat and took 20% hit which halved my profits for the year.
If you're still here then there's somewhat of a silver lining I guess. I learnt to try manage my losses. I'll be using stops on my trades and not taking such big losses. Also if things look bad to just not bother with it and not to average. It's better I lose £xxx now rather than £xxx,xxx? somewhere down the line. I did trade eur/usd and sometimes gbp/usd. But i've been having more success lately trading usd/jpy with a smallish stop and I think there's a good chance i'll be trading usd/jpy and maybe usd/cad (less certain) if they look good in the new year. I'm just going to see what I make of the markets in january because for now i'm not sure if I want to be long or short of gbp/usd and eur/usd.
For you, i'd really recommend getting an account somewhere you can trade smaller as it's going to work out cheaper if you're learning. When you have a £500 account and £1/pip you're still taking big risk and unless you have some significant edge it'll only be a matter of time before you lose it. I've been there and thought up all the excuses to myself at the time, but fact is I was trading too big relative to account size and in an unprofitable way. You'll have time further down the line to make the mega-bucks, but for now it's important you don't lose significant amounts preventing you from trading at a later point.
Think i'll end it there - i'll pop back after I get off the phone from the book deals.
BlueChilli
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:|Travis?! ....that you?
BlueChilli
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Apologies in advance if this seems like a life story, i'll try keep it brief.
Bought a few stocks at university, graduated from university, applied to accountancy jobs, didn't get them. Applied to investment banks as I always wanted to do something in that. Wasn't successful. At the time I was semi-interested in trading and did an occasional bit.
Tried doing all sorts of stupid stuff spread betting, jumping about scalping ftse, wall st, then I decided to do some shares. I risked about half my account on some trades. I thought it was pretty normal. Won some, lost some - realised I was punting and decided to stop. Spoke with another trader and he told me the conventional stuff, using 20 pt stop losses and I was risking 3%/account on each trade. It was just too swingy and I was having 20% swings in my account on a regular basis. I started messing around with small stops and putting on really small stops <10 - I figured I could lower my risk so it'd be easier to be profitable by going for reasonable profits which are achievable and even do double size. If you would normally risk 2% account over 20 pips and going for 40 pips on a trade. Then if you risk 7 pips and go for 20 pips (which should be easier to get in the market) using 2% you'll be better off. Right? RIGHT?
Eventually realised I was just burning through money due to my discipline and I just wasn't that good and stopped. Then I learnt an important thing. Leverage and not too use too much of it. I started trying to go for bigger moves and this isn't conventional advice and something i've learnt from experience. But I opted not to use a stop loss on my account and not to take a loss unless it jeopardised the future of my account. I had also started averaging positions. This actually worked great in a trending market. I wasn't really doing anything special but buying on dips and not even with huge levels of accuracy, just basic support/resistance and looking for dips and waiting for the bounces then getting in.
I was doing this on eur/usd mainly as it was the most predictable and also it's a liquid market with low spread. I'm a bit of a gambler at heart though and I did try it out on chf/jpy too. I was doing well on it, but then I averaged a trade 3 times and lost about 20% of my account before I admitted defeat. I vowed to stick to eur/usd, topped up my account to a whole number and stayed with it. I made it all back and more over the last few months. I thought I was doing great and had it all nailed. Then things got messy, dubai/greece/$ strength and BOOM - before I know it i've got 3 positions on eur/usd and it's dropping like hell and my losses are growing. I admitted defeat and took 20% hit which halved my profits for the year.
If you're still here then there's somewhat of a silver lining I guess. I learnt to try manage my losses. I'll be using stops on my trades and not taking such big losses. Also if things look bad to just not bother with it and not to average. It's better I lose £xxx now rather than £xxx,xxx? somewhere down the line. I did trade eur/usd and sometimes gbp/usd. But i've been having more success lately trading usd/jpy with a smallish stop and I think there's a good chance i'll be trading usd/jpy and maybe usd/cad (less certain) if they look good in the new year. I'm just going to see what I make of the markets in january because for now i'm not sure if I want to be long or short of gbp/usd and eur/usd.
For you, i'd really recommend getting an account somewhere you can trade smaller as it's going to work out cheaper if you're learning. When you have a £500 account and £1/pip you're still taking big risk and unless you have some significant edge it'll only be a matter of time before you lose it. I've been there and thought up all the excuses to myself at the time, but fact is I was trading too big relative to account size and in an unprofitable way. You'll have time further down the line to make the mega-bucks, but for now it's important you don't lose significant amounts preventing you from trading at a later point.
Think i'll end it there - i'll pop back after I get off the phone from the book deals.
some really interesting stuff and something i can definately relate to!
really appreciate it the comments!
any companies out there that do smaller stake sizes?
Pippy5000
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CMS and FXCM offer 10cent per pip micro lots, but you can trade with up to $25 per pip on a micro account..so you start off small and build your way up if you have the talent to do it.. if you don't then you only lost $50 rather than $5000..
Hi mb,
Yeah kind of new.. been sitting on the side lines for a while trying to learn as much as I can.. Decided to put my money where my mouth is and cease being a spectator..
Im looking for the 1.59 region.. although I'm starting to hope a little too..
Masquerade
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Well it's just a taster, it's the foundation for when I enter the top 30 under 30 and then book sales will really take off. This is just my legacy and you're the privileged few who get to follow my rise & falls.
I personally use Oanda. They're great for me, you can trade really small if you wish and you can set it to work out your stake size for your account. So you can risk x%/trade without having to do any calculations. They fill me very quick and spreads are smaller. 0.9 on eur/usd in market hours, i've seen it as low as 0.6 at times and out of hours it's 1.2. They have plenty of markets and the interface is pretty good once you're used to it. A bit of a hassle to open an account though. I tried Alpari and wasn't too keen on them. I'll stick with Oanda for now.
Pippy5000
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well.. I've been stuck in a 12 pip range for 5 hours so I'm cutting loose a bit.. I don't really know what to expect for tonight.. should be all about the Chinese and that UK data. I have some motivational cat posters ready to roll should I need cheering up at any point..
life's never purrrrrfect Dave..
life's never purrrrrfect Dave..
