Hey all,
This is my second post here and I've been doing lots of reading. I wanted to share my experience so far so other don't make the same mistake, but also an opportunity for me to post my progress against my target.
My first 3 weeks
So I signed up for an account with IG index and deposited £20.00 to start trading at 0.10p per point. Before placing my first trade I watched the markets and went for the one with most activity, which was Crude oil.
Due to the margin requirements, I found that I had very little liquidity to provide a buffer for Market dips so I topped up my account with another £30.00 giving me a balance of £50.00 to trade with.
I placed my first trade at 0.10p on US light crude and I watched. I had no strategy for entry or exit, I just jumped in. Within 10 minutes my meagre 0.10p had turned into £10.00 profit, so I sold and took my profit. What a buzz!
I spent the next few days trading in oil with a very good success rate, my account was up to £112 by this point so a nice little profit.
I gained some confidence and decided to up my trades to £1.00 per point, which had greater margin requirements, so I upped my account balance to £500 so I could trade larger in oil.
I spent the next week trading oil and watching the other markets with interest. I managed to make over £200 profit on oil and started to look at diversifying my trades; at this point I had very small losses of just £4.00 odd.
After looking at some charts on indices I saw an opportunity to get in and I placed buy orders in the FTSE, Dow and Dax. This proved to be very fruitful and I managed to gain over £600 in profit.
By this point I was trading in various different markets and due to margin requirements making some markets out of reach for me where I thought good opportunities were I upped my account balance to £2.9k.
With this new trading power I started to place buys and sells in the FTSE, Dow, Dax, S&P500 and Light Crude and I again made some profits albeit smaller than previous.
I had it in mind to close my open trades once they were in profit and withdraw my full account balance and profits, with the aim of starting off small again and remaining small. Eventhough I had made a good amount of profit, I felt that I was getting in over my head.
Before I did the sensible thing and withdraw my account balance, I saw more opportunities opening up and decided to place buy orders in indices.
And then it happened
I watched my buy orders go into a nice sizeable profit and all indicators I interpreted told me to hold out longer for the full profits to be realised. So I went to bed quite happy and woke up the next morning.
Switching on the news, Earthquake hits Japan. I log onto IG index to see my once profitable buy orders now in the red and the Market seemed to be in free fall. I quickly sold my trades and took the loss hits. Majority annoyed by my first substantial losses I watched the Market with determination to recoup what I had just lost.
I waited for what I thought would be the Market bottom, earthquake hit, tsunami hit, ok nothing else can happen and stocks will rally. So I placed buy orders. HUGE MISTAKE!
Nuclear crisis raises it's head and the Market starts plunging. So I again accept my losses and close off my trades. By this point all my previous profit has gone and my losses have eaten into my capital.
I again stupidly thought the Market could not go further and during a moment of a small buying surge I jumped in and bought. HUGE MISTAKE!
The Market dipped again and again as reactor after reactor went boom! In order to stop further losses I hedged my bets by opening sell positions on the same indices for the same amount per point.
I have been in this position now for a good few days now and markets appear to be slowly recovering albeit cautiously.
The financial damage from my stupidity? Over £2,900 in realised profits and £5,000 realised losses.
I am left with just over £1200 in my account balance with some trades still open which are hedged, so I have no liquid capital for manoeuvre at the moment.
My mistakes
I got over confident from my run of profits early on and got greedy and upped my point per trade.
I tried to chase and anticipate the Market.
I invested too much capital too early
I revenge traded which was a huge mistake
I hedged my bets instead of taking my losses, which allowed me to capture some profits in the short term, but have provided more losses than profits.
My short analysis
In my short period of live trading I have made 243 trades with a success ratio of 55%. however my losses have been of greater value in comparison to my profits.
My mistakes have been a huge and beneficial learning curve and I have learned a lot about myself and my trading style.
The way forward
I now have a net loss of £2,158.39 which will be my target to recoup. I intend to do this thinking small, using small positions and managing my money and risk much better than I had done previously.
I will manage and realise my losses before they get too big
I will use smaller capital in stages to limit further risk to my money
I will use smaller trades per point
I will not chase the Market
I will wait for the Market to come to me and not me go to it
So be warned, this newb is a noob in a major sense, things can spiral so quickly and the risk you are open to can be very high indeed. I was naive.
Target against loss progress:
Loss: £2,158.79
Progress: £0.00
This is my second post here and I've been doing lots of reading. I wanted to share my experience so far so other don't make the same mistake, but also an opportunity for me to post my progress against my target.
My first 3 weeks
So I signed up for an account with IG index and deposited £20.00 to start trading at 0.10p per point. Before placing my first trade I watched the markets and went for the one with most activity, which was Crude oil.
Due to the margin requirements, I found that I had very little liquidity to provide a buffer for Market dips so I topped up my account with another £30.00 giving me a balance of £50.00 to trade with.
I placed my first trade at 0.10p on US light crude and I watched. I had no strategy for entry or exit, I just jumped in. Within 10 minutes my meagre 0.10p had turned into £10.00 profit, so I sold and took my profit. What a buzz!
I spent the next few days trading in oil with a very good success rate, my account was up to £112 by this point so a nice little profit.
I gained some confidence and decided to up my trades to £1.00 per point, which had greater margin requirements, so I upped my account balance to £500 so I could trade larger in oil.
I spent the next week trading oil and watching the other markets with interest. I managed to make over £200 profit on oil and started to look at diversifying my trades; at this point I had very small losses of just £4.00 odd.
After looking at some charts on indices I saw an opportunity to get in and I placed buy orders in the FTSE, Dow and Dax. This proved to be very fruitful and I managed to gain over £600 in profit.
By this point I was trading in various different markets and due to margin requirements making some markets out of reach for me where I thought good opportunities were I upped my account balance to £2.9k.
With this new trading power I started to place buys and sells in the FTSE, Dow, Dax, S&P500 and Light Crude and I again made some profits albeit smaller than previous.
I had it in mind to close my open trades once they were in profit and withdraw my full account balance and profits, with the aim of starting off small again and remaining small. Eventhough I had made a good amount of profit, I felt that I was getting in over my head.
Before I did the sensible thing and withdraw my account balance, I saw more opportunities opening up and decided to place buy orders in indices.
And then it happened
I watched my buy orders go into a nice sizeable profit and all indicators I interpreted told me to hold out longer for the full profits to be realised. So I went to bed quite happy and woke up the next morning.
Switching on the news, Earthquake hits Japan. I log onto IG index to see my once profitable buy orders now in the red and the Market seemed to be in free fall. I quickly sold my trades and took the loss hits. Majority annoyed by my first substantial losses I watched the Market with determination to recoup what I had just lost.
I waited for what I thought would be the Market bottom, earthquake hit, tsunami hit, ok nothing else can happen and stocks will rally. So I placed buy orders. HUGE MISTAKE!
Nuclear crisis raises it's head and the Market starts plunging. So I again accept my losses and close off my trades. By this point all my previous profit has gone and my losses have eaten into my capital.
I again stupidly thought the Market could not go further and during a moment of a small buying surge I jumped in and bought. HUGE MISTAKE!
The Market dipped again and again as reactor after reactor went boom! In order to stop further losses I hedged my bets by opening sell positions on the same indices for the same amount per point.
I have been in this position now for a good few days now and markets appear to be slowly recovering albeit cautiously.
The financial damage from my stupidity? Over £2,900 in realised profits and £5,000 realised losses.
I am left with just over £1200 in my account balance with some trades still open which are hedged, so I have no liquid capital for manoeuvre at the moment.
My mistakes
I got over confident from my run of profits early on and got greedy and upped my point per trade.
I tried to chase and anticipate the Market.
I invested too much capital too early
I revenge traded which was a huge mistake
I hedged my bets instead of taking my losses, which allowed me to capture some profits in the short term, but have provided more losses than profits.
My short analysis
In my short period of live trading I have made 243 trades with a success ratio of 55%. however my losses have been of greater value in comparison to my profits.
My mistakes have been a huge and beneficial learning curve and I have learned a lot about myself and my trading style.
The way forward
I now have a net loss of £2,158.39 which will be my target to recoup. I intend to do this thinking small, using small positions and managing my money and risk much better than I had done previously.
I will manage and realise my losses before they get too big
I will use smaller capital in stages to limit further risk to my money
I will use smaller trades per point
I will not chase the Market
I will wait for the Market to come to me and not me go to it
So be warned, this newb is a noob in a major sense, things can spiral so quickly and the risk you are open to can be very high indeed. I was naive.
Target against loss progress:
Loss: £2,158.79
Progress: £0.00
