Hello everyone, I do indeed have to apologise I have been terrible at keeping in touch
As for the reasons why I do not frequent our site any more, they have more to do with the equity underlyings I am dealing with these days, rather than with certain sad comments which sadly are inevitably galore on any public site. I am 99% Emerging Markets trader these days and I do not think I should be distracting beginners with what is seemingly riskier markets to trade. I emphasise "seemingly", since in reality once you know what you are doing and reading the charts properly, they are not any riskier than STOXX50
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But again - there is a certain learning curve for any beginner, and I think trading SPX where hitorical volatilities are less than 11% on both 3 months and 1 yr time frames is a good starting point.
Do not take me wrong - EM vols are also smacked - however there is a big difference for cash trading. Mature markets' vols collapsed on price congestion, i.e. price going nowhere, whilst EM's vols are low just for the simple reason that EMs that I trade just go up and up along a straight line - see Saudi and Russian indices price action attached.
It's been a delight to trade certain EM stocks as well, both Blue Chips and 2nd tiers. Sberbank (SBER RM) has been a massive star this year, and I am very bullish for 2006. Obviously Gazprom (GSPBEX* RU) is on everyone's lips - but the beauty of Russian markets these days is that they are no longer one stock story (unlike Saudi, which I also like but I know Saudi limitations - it is a one-commodity market, well apart from a bit of cement and telecoms of Etisalat variety). There are massive opportunities in Russian markets in 2006 which are NOT oil and gas related, the most notable obviously being SvyazInvest. In this regard I like regional telecoms like Volga and NorthWest (NNSI RU and SPTL RU) which me thinks will be massive stories next year.
Quite a few "Short" stories as well of course - look at Pyaterochka's (FIVE LI) price action - biggest Russian IPO of 2005. Trading Pyaterochka over the past 2 weeks was a bit like going back in time and trading NASDAQ stocks in 2001
C'mon chaps with the spread btwn 10 yr US Treasury and Russia's 30 yr Sovereign at 115 bp now, Russia's a bloody developed market now!
I still go back to good old Spooz and punt there sometimes
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but I have to admit it is often times a bit boring.....
Plus extensive travelling :cheesy: without 50 Latin ladies tho
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- so you'd perhaps excuse my absence on these forums.......
I wish everyone a very prosperous 2006, and most importantly, loads of fun trading!