Hi
This is to introduce myself. My name is Paul King (not a very innovative name for t2w forum, I’m afraid!)
I wonder what people who read introductions might want to know?
I am 42 years old and I live in France. I am lucky enough (thanks RyanAir and the internet) to be able to hold down a UK job and enjoy a very rural lifestyle.
I was introduced to spreadbetting last autumn by a work colleague who kindly gave me the details of two spread betting companies and an ‘information and recommendation’ company that he used. He mainly focused on indices and FX.
I was very excited by the opportunity to make some extra money ‘part time’ and possibly learning how to be able to make better return on my small share portfolio than I had for the previous ten years or so as a ‘buy and hold’ investor, with absolutely no clue as to what I was doing. As I thought about the prospect more (and as my colleague told me of what he had made with each of his trades each day) I began to think about being able to ‘trade’ from home and not have to commute every other week as I do at the moment to make a living. Then the news broke about Northern Rock, and it was plain for everyone to see that their share price was going to fall dramatically the next day. No surprises that my work colleague enjoyed telling me that he just sat watching his profit grow as the share price fell.
So, armed with my spread bet account and the date for the Bank of England monthly interest rate announcement, I was glued to my computer to see how the ftse and cable reacted at mid-day, on the day of the announcement. They started to move, so in I jumped at £5 a point on each…….
…and watched my loss grow & grow, until stopped out at the spread-bet companies pre-set level. Hero to zero in about 40 minutes (of course I didn’t stop the losses sooner, because they were about to turn around weren’t they?) Needless to say, what I had done wrong here, my work colleague later advised me, was that I needed to have one long order with one spread-bet company, and one short with another, both with tight stops and set to open just outside the trading range of the half an hour or so before the interest rate announcement.
That approach has been more successful (if the orders don’t open, I don’t lose anything!), but it’s not the 'holy grail'. I am still periodically paying into my spread bet accounts, not building up my trading capital and withdrawing my profits.
On reflection, its quite amazing how naive a 42 year old qualified accountant can be, particularly one who is decidedly not a risk taker and over analyses any decision before actually doing anything in ‘normal’ circumstances.
I have since purchased and read a book, entitled ‘trend trading for a living’, which explains some technical analysis set ups, but more importantly to me, is written by some-one who also started out by loosing an awful lot of money, despite being a well educated, no risk taking individual, but now is financially independent.
Whilst this has helped my self confidence and belief in the potential of day & swing trading, I couldn’t see how to apply its teachings to the live markets. Could I really be that dense?
Fortunately I have now found ‘trade 2 win’ wonderful web site forum and more significantly ‘Trader Dantes’ thread explaining ‘pins’ and an awful lot more. Although glued to the computer for hours (literally until 3am in the morning) I am still only up to January of this year in the thread, but I feel I am really learning some practical lessons that I can apply – from TD’s wisdom, but also other contributors very open identification of their short comings and strategies to overcome them.
I intend to compile my ‘trading plan’ this week (another incredibly useful contribution to t2w), and if nothing else, won’t be trading on the three minute, five minute and half hourly time frames again for some years to come.
I feel that with the correct application, training, determination and a positive attitude I will be able to replicate the success I have had in the past in a ‘career’ environment, to become a trader, leading to financial independence. This would mean spending all of my life at home, not just half of it.
However like accountancy and indeed general management, it took four plus years of academic study to be come a qualified accountant, a further four of study years to obtain a MBA and only after that (despite being in work all of the time) did I actually feel that I knew (ie had the practical experience) what I was doing and could competently manage situations as they arose.
So I now consider myself a rather aged apprentice to those members of the t2w forum that are prepared to mentor me!
I apologise for this is a rather long introduction. The site content that I have discovered so far is so informative, helpful and supportive, that I wish I had found it five or more years ago, and I want to focus my time on reading and learning more. My thanks to all involved for the free sharing of their knowledge & experience and mentoring.
Good luck to all, and many thanks to 'TD'