FTSE Beater's Blog

[FTSE Beater]

Hi Ho Hi.......

....it's off to work I go
Well, after 10 months of trading, it's back to work again - doing the 9to5 (well for a couple of weeks at least). In the 10 months I've been full-time trading I've been on a very steep learning curve, and once I've saved up a few pennies I'll be trading again - with a much better idea of what full-time trading is all about.
Obviously I won't be posting as much (unless they've got an internet connection at work), but I'll try to add things when I have something useful to share. Could take a while that though.
My aim while I'm working is to use autotrader to replay the days action in real-time, so I can still keep my skills sharp, and hopefully post up charts on Eurostoxx to show what I could / would have done.
Thanks for reading and take care.

 

[Helenqu]

Hi Mark,

All the best at work today. At least the replay facility means you can continue to learn while you are unable to give the time to the markets. Save hard and be back soon

Love Helen

 

[Trader333]

Hi Mark,

It is a shame that you are having to leave trading full time for now but it may well be for the best. Can I ask what is autotrader as I thought it was a site for buying and selling cars ?

And do you know what it is about your trading that has not worked out ? The reason I ask is that if you dont then what will stop you making the same decisions again ?

Good Luck


Paul

 

[FTSE Beater]

Hi Paul

It is a shame, but I feel I've achieved a lot.
Autotrader is a free add-on to IB to use as a simulator or trading platform - has loads of auto trailing stops and funkybits

Here's the link http://sling.to/autotrader/

What went wrong was pretty simple - I ran out of money. I wasn't making enough to live on and slowly the account was wasting away. I was also hardly going out (to save money), which meant I was around the house a lot of the time - which started to get me down.

The problems came in December when I went through a large drawdown - and I was looking to get it back over January, but with the war making trading difficult - it was the final straw.

How to avoid it in the future is to work hard now to save the money to go back into the market again. In the meantime, I'm putting together a better strategy for the markets and using autotrader to play the data back in real-time so I can't cheat.

Hope this explains everything


Hi Helen

I'll be back as soon as the monies there to do it

Take care both
FTSE Beater

 

[Trader333]

Hi Mark,

Thanks for the link, I will take a look at this. You are probably not going to agree with what I have to say now but I will say it anyway. Looking at your technical analysis posts and approach to trading, I cannot find anything wrong with it. Now this says to me that it is your money management that needs to be worked on and not an even better technical approach. Out of all the best traders I know of (who trade futures,) it is those who are best at money management who are a country mile more successful than those who dont. You may be doing this anyway but if not then in my view you would be well advised to give more attention to this area.

All The Best


Paul

 

[FTSE Beater]

Hi Paul

Good thinking, and my money management has been good, but due to lack of money I have been trading on a high % risk recently, so more money will help lessen that.

I agree, I still believe I make a better analysis than trader
I'm also taking a long hard look at my emotional side, and after reading Mark Douglas Trading in the Zone, I realise that most of my drawdown was due to poor emotional control. Having a small series of losses soon snowballed into a long string of losses and a complete lack of confidence in my abilities. THIS WILL NOT HAPPEN AGAIN!!!!!!

Keep throwing ideas at me Paul, I do love to hear them

Take care
Mark.

 

[FTSE Beater]

Work

WARNING: Contains a lot of non-trading related rambling.

Hi all

Well, with my first week over with at work it was time for some reflection on life. The problem with working in an accounts department is that your typing the same numbers into the same boxes – which means your mind runs on tick-over, leaving your conscious mind free to think about the important things like: at what point does a CCI divergence become a safe short entry? and WHAT ON EARTH AM I DOING WITH MY LIFE

The first question will have to be answered by Chartman.

The second got me thinking about how my life was going and what direction it was taking. It’s at times like this I wish Les Carlin would open up his own Trading Psychology centre. Anyway where was I – oh yes. The conclusion I came to is that I don’t really like my current life, which in itself is really weird as I have a great family and supportive friends, safe living conditions, work and the knowledge that my whole life is ahead of me.

I started to think What would make my life better and how I can improve it? The only things I want are a small house in the country, fast car and a successful trading business. Here lies the problem, to achieve any of these things will take a long time. So I’m currently looking for some very short-term fixes, which at the moment is dominated by getting myself back in physical shape.

There you go, an insight into my current state of mind – it’s not pretty.


On the trading front, I’ve stripped down my trading to the bare bones and taking the advice of Trader333 and getting back to basics, and using my analysis skills better rather than looking for something different.

I’m trying to post as much as possible at the moment, but work really is getting in the way. I was hoping they would let me off for good behaviour, but no such luck.

Take care and thanks for reading.

 

[Les Carlin]

"It’s at times like this I wish Les Carlin would open up his own Trading Psychology centre."

Believe me, i've thought a lot about it. I have this vision: a few people using my place to live trade, while i peer over their shoulder and make nasy comments about their lives, habits and attitude to trading. )

Seriously, its something i would really like to do, but i won't touch it until i can demonstrate my own trading ability. And right now that's getting a rough ride. Just so few opportunities in the S&P - i'm not making a bean - in fact i continue to lose, altho' my discipline is still good. I decided today to suspend further trading untill the war conditions stop influencing the markets so heavily.

 

[darrenf]

FTSE beater. I was wondering what has made you give up trading full time (at least for the time being). I remember reading somewhere on here not so long ago that you had made a return of c 500% in your first year of trading. That sounds excellent to me. What happened?

 

[FTSE Beater]

Hi Les

I think you would have to peer over them for a while, but it would be a very good business

Hi Darrenf

I was upto 300% return after 5 months at one point. The return was high because I started with £1000 and I was trading a pretty high risk strategy. The problem came in December when the war slowed things up, and I wasn't trading great. The other problem was I had to start taking money out of the account to live, this meant I couldn't trade as I wanted to and the account was getting drained bit by bit.

A 300% return was good - just not good enough
I knew when I started out that the chances were I was going to fail, but on the upside I now know a lot more about full-time trading than ever before.

Hope that answers your question

FTSE Beater

 

[Austin_Clone]

Hi Mark,

You set yourself an almost impossible goal it seems. If a professional trader/hedge fund manager can return a consistent 25% annual return to his investors, he will have to fight off the influx of money.

Whether it's 500% or 300%. each are fantastic returns that very few of the 5 to 10% of the "successful" traders achieve.

Regards,

Austin

 

[FTSE Beater]

A complete break

Hi all
This is just a quick entry to say that I'm taking a break from trading for the next month.
It was pointed out to me that I hadn't taken a break for over 4 years now - the result being that I've lost my usual passion for trading. I'll be back in late June, so until then trade well and make consistant progress