Hello All,
Think it only right and proper to introduce myself, and put a little about myself, and my aims and ambitions.
Mid 40s, Brit, worked all my life with my hands rather than my brains. Hasn't been easy at times but have worked myself into a reasonable position engineering in the oil industry. My wife has a retail business which like many is struggling, but we are comfortable, but not exactly living the millionaire lifestyle.
I have looked at trading starting over 15 years ago, but like many did nothing about it. Lost interest but have come back to give it a second visit. I like to think that I have some intelligence, but am not the sort to think he knows everything, too many hard lessons in my life have proved that. I'm bit of a news junkie, like the Today prog, read the Telegraph and have blogged before on news type sites about politics. I have thought that although this is fun I really should try to put it to some use, and if I can get into trading in the same semi-addictive way I watch the news, then maybe, just maybe I might be able to make some money from it.
I have a spreadbetting account, and have dabbled a bit over the last 6 months. Opened up with £700, and was break even last week until I went £2 a point short on the FTSE 100, this was Tuesday just before it went up and lost me £300, stopped out at 5700. In truth I am happy with my start, best bet so far was New Britain Palm Oil, opened long at 553, and closed at 772. What it has taught me so far is that I think I have the mentality to handle the wins and the losses, at least at these small amounts.
More importantly it has got me looking, trying to find out, reading and wanting to learn more. I am under no illusions that there is so much to learn, that I am a novice and it will be a good deal of time before I see any real profits, if I ever see any profits. From what I have seen from trawling the interweb this looks like a good sight. Have read the beginners thread and it appears to be good, down to earth pragmatic advise.
Boswell