How good are you at trading - just be honest

[olivertomahawk]

After many years of “sort-of” trading; buying some underlying stocks, placing some spread bets on various markets but never having a coherent strategy I took the plunge in June last year and wanted to see if I could actually make some money spread betting the UK markets. I work in the financial industry and have read so many books, blogs, and articles about trading I cannot even begin to count. So I have some knowledge. Over months, I worked on a system to select stocks to bet on and I was off!

I have done pretty well so far, from 22-June last year to 29-Nov I turned £30k into £59k. Then from 30-Nov to 20-Feb I turned £30k into £60k (which I kept a blog about, for one of various reasons was to keep an online journal). I then began my third attempt on 26-Feb and closed all my positions on 11-Apr after making a £8,350 profit. My system seems to work but it clearly works well for bull markets and as soon as the heat comes off, my profits dive. So, I am sitting on the side lines for the moment before I work out what to do.

I am still in a full time job but am doing this so that one day I can trade for a living. But as everyone has said, it is extremely hard! Money management, risk, when to enter, when to sell, what level to set stop losses, when to take profits, to hedge or not to hedge are just some of the things I am constantly grappling with.

It's certainly not for the fainthearted but it will certainly keep life interesting !

 

[Nikhil Dogra]

Well to be honest every wisdom we hear about how we should behave in markets is total bull **** and I think its the one sole reason of losses.
I sometimes feel that trading is not going well for me other times i feel as if i couldn't do anything wrong , i trade full time alone from my home and have been since last 2 years. I honestly don't know how good i am at trading i.e. I make gains which i spend on living and end result is back to square one. I may be trading well but i am not "growing" in terms of account size!
So i don't know what i should believe and i feel analyzing one's own performance is biased either we put ourselves down or justify mistakes depending on circumstances.
I used to enjoy trading when i make in a day what most my friends make in a month and flip side is loosing in a day what most my friends make in a month!
I am not enjoying trading not because of losses rather the thought of having to withdraw money for a living and starting at point A again. I can't increase my position size beyond a certain limit as other concerns like "what if" i get spanked hard then i might have to start at few steps behind point A. Sometimes i am right 30% of the time,other times i am right 80% of the time. Not really sure what to make of this.
I am a diversified systematic discretionary day trader diversified in 5-10 markets depending upon activity and position size allocation

 

[Steven2805]

My first ever experience with the markets was a crappy 6 or 8 week intensive course which never even touched the surface. It taught the most horrific MacD cross strategy ouch.

With my new found knowledge of the MacD I started trading and lost around £200 over a 2 month period. Decided that what I had been taught was boarding on complete bull so stopped trading and begun researching for myself.

Created my own strategy from the ground up with all the available information on the internet. My one key reminder was keep it simple, which I did.
Not quite at the point where I could start placing money on my new strategy I contact a personnel coaching team and have been working with them for around 7 months perfecting my developed strategy, with some care full tweaking W/L on back testing is getting mid 80%

Started my live trading on January so far my results
Jan = BE
Feb = W (0.55%)
Mar = L (2.00%)
Apr = W (13.20%)

Sticking to a rules list and care full emotional management, here is hoping May can mirror the April success

I work part-time which covers all my out going payments and gives me some pocket money so am not reliant on trade income, my plan is to save like a mad man and build a nice health account

 

[Windlesham1]

IKNOW the only way to win is to be mentored-like every successful trader. I'm hoping to get a group of options traders together. I have 13 years experience and I make money,though last 2 years not so much as busy with unexpected work for a charity.

 

[Giovan]

tricky question to answer. Each year I trade better than the previous year, make more money and loose less....does it get any better than this?

 

[perox]

I am still a breakeven trader with less than 10% per annum. I am improving my trading since started 02 years back. Long road to go & my aim is to become a consistent trader.

 

[resistance]

I cannot say that I am a good trader because I am still unable to control my emotions. I am in net profits but these 2 weeks were pure loss and I am feeling quite low now.

 

[neil]

I made seventeen pound profit on ftse today :clap:

 

[j2o]

I made seventeen pound profit on ftse today :clap:

Don't spend it all at once, I know cat food can be expensive.

 

[Nikhil Dogra]

I have started recording timing element since last 2 weeks. My trade stats goes like this for the last 2 weeks for intra day positional trading. I have stopped scalping for good now. I am just concentrating on getting myself relaxed for accepting losses and i am coming to terms with distracting myself in trades. As a scalper i have had a love affair with the DOM window, divorcing myself from it now as it was making me cutting winners short. Letting winners ride is even tougher than accepting losses, so far i have been following trailing tools to the letter, i just hope and pray that i continue with this. These 2 weeks were SO UNCOMFORTABLE for me but the rewards were greater than my usual scalping for sure!!

Number Of Trades - 97
Winning Trades - 50
Loosing Trades - 47
Win% - 51.5%
Loss% - 48.5%
Avg Win/Avg Loss Ratio - 2.64
Avg Win Trade Time - 76 Minutes
Avg Loss Trade Time - 27 Minutes
Profitable Trading Days - 88.88%
Loosing Trading Days -11.11%
Average Position Size - 2.5 Lots
Markets - NSE Nifty 50 Futures/ MCX Crude Oil /MCX Natural Gas/ MCX Copper

 

[resistance]

The losing days has caused you much loss. Is there some problem with risk to reward ratio? As I see you have won 88% days but the net winning trades are just 51%.

 

[Nikhil Dogra]

The losing days has caused you much loss. Is there some problem with risk to reward ratio? As I see you have won 88% days but the net winning trades are just 51%.

In each individual market system's accuracy is ranging from 34% to 100% but collectively win% is only 51% week-on-week basis [yesterday i had a profitable day on 42% accuracy] . For the first time i am cutting losses short so thats why i have a good amount of loosing trades. I am observing the average time of trades through which i have started to cut losers short for example if market is not going anywhere in - 30 minutes i will get out with less loss than my allocated loss limit and that has been right 100% of time... Say i am risking 1500 and in 30 minutes its not going anywhere i will take a 500 or 700 loss instead of waiting around for market to wipe out the whole 1500 risk limit.

I am focusing on these 3 since last 2 weeks
a) Avg Win Amount > Avg Loss Amount
b) Avg Win Trade Time > Avg Loss Trade Time
c) Accuracy >50%

if i am able to achieve 2 out 3 i am happy on daily basis and i have shifted my goals from $$$ to these criteria. My observation has been letting algorithm to follow the trend while we as analysts focus on catching tops and bottoms and deciphering the market conditions.

 

[resistance]

Yeah 2 out of 3 is very good winning ratio but it can also be 1 out of 3. Still if you are managing to get about 60% winning trades in a month then it is a very good going and it is categorized in profitable traders.

 

[neil]

Yeah 2 out of 3 is very good winning ratio but it can also be 1 out of 3. Still if you are managing to get about 60% winning trades in a month then it is a very good going and it is categorized in profitable traders.

I made twenty three pound total profit this week so thats a few beers for me and a fish for the cat. Onwards and upwards

 

[Nikhil Dogra]

Yeah 2 out of 3 is very good winning ratio but it can also be 1 out of 3. Still if you are managing to get about 60% winning trades in a month then it is a very good going and it is categorized in profitable traders.

What i meant was not my trading accuracy rather my goal is to achieve 2 out of 3 from the following in my trades and if i am able to do that i am happy
a) Avg Win Amount > Avg Loss Amount
b) Avg Win Trade Time > Avg Loss Trade Time
c) Accuracy >50%

This week i am happy that i achieved a) and b) , this week c) was less than 50% i.e. 45.5% this week
a) means i won more than i lost despite c) being less than 50%
b) means i followed the most quoted axiom "cut looser short and let winners ride" by cutting loosing trades by 30 minutes max while letting winners ride to about 80 mins

 

[Babyblush]

Been trading since three years and from then lost more than $10000 by trading, investing in HYIPS and so on. Now earning from forex which i consider as recovery of my lost funds.

 

[NVP]

one traders "Good" is another ones "Bad" ...............profits are just all about perspective..........assuming one has been accurate and consistent in calculating "profit"

just start by getting to say a rolling profitability (>0) over say your last 20-30 trades all the time and then start to take the bar higher .....one you are comfortable with a rolling setting use it to manage your expectaions and progress ..........

N

 

[SlowlyButSurely]

I often make my best decisions/trades and earn a good profit after I have not traded in a while and I only trade because I have done extensive analysis and feel the trade has a high success rate....

My problem stems from the aftermath, several times I will throw my profits right back, trying to trade the retrace of the move etc...just general poor trading behaviour. If I can cut this out then I could be pretty decent. Probably.

 

[Nikhil Dogra]

I have finally acquired an advanced skill in my trading - knowing when NOT to trade
i have learned to accept that each and every move cannot be participated in and having no position is the best way to grow the a/c along with indulging in mini-vacations every week
i have learned to isolate and identify "weird feelings" i get when i put on a position and the "30 or out rule" works as well , If a position is not profitable in 30 minutes GET OUT! (i am a intra day trend follower so its one of my rules)
If things have to trend they trend else why waste holding a position intra day if it doesn't even begin to move in 30 minutes, we can always get in later when it is actually moving!
I have stopped over - analyzing as well now, TA is great but excessive TA is just as bad!

 

[Giovan]

Loose at times, win more times and profitable at the end of the trading day......