Spreadbetting journal ( gbp 300 investment)

[dolphie]

hi all,

am a beginner (4th week trading) but studied economics and work in corporate in finace dptm.

now is my 4th week trading. i made 1k if first two weeks ( due to my platform having beginner set up which has half spread and half min bet) which only lasts two weeks.

in 3 rd week i lost 1.2k getting used to normal spread and bigger bets and i risked too much because i set myself too big expectations and focused on money.

this week am following bloomberg closely and very picky about the trades.
so far made 200gbp ( mon And today) right now my strategy is to learn and made at least 100gbp a day and not be greedy, i think if i learn the money will follow.

i work full time so it isnt easy to combine learning and demanding work, but i enjoy spreadbetting and it becomes my hobby.

i think greediness followed by fear after lost trades are biggest set backs.
my strentht is that i know when to exit my weakness is greed-

 

[dolphie]

i changed my broker ( starting on monday) because after ' begginer' setting expired its too much risk. they now have min £2 per point of dax , ftse; is just too much comparing to my investment. when i opened platinum trade was (£10), saffa indice (30£)

this week i havent made anything after all but havent lost and it was very difficult week with footsie being weird after budget announcement, then japan indes has risen and sharply fallen after bank of japan meeting and i was there waiting at 3.30 am lol. talking about taking opportunities...and jpy got crazily strong yet again; i realised i need to find a broker that is cheaper as in has 0.5 per point eg Dax, ftse. i think the broker i used before is for more professional traders with bigger capital and am learning i want to play around without needing to be extremaly careful and stressed...i can invest max £500 right now because i want to frelly enter trades on small bets without being stressed if i loose, i want to learn.
it took me long time to find uk based and run broker because there is so many they have flashy platforms and just seem untrustworthy. but i found one amd tested it on friday on their demo version.

it was interesting to see how Dow jones and us500 ( S&p) reacted after no change in inteerest rates announcement and how usd dropped upon inflafion forecast. definately will prepare my system for the next announcement, the movement was so fast i heard them talking about setting an algorythm but didnt understood the message, only realised when the thing just jumped then fallen before the interview... now am going to open two positions each two minutes before with stop loss and let one go...well am gonna sit and catch it before falls again.... i am with two brokers now so will set two positions with different direction.

i really enjoy trading so far and looking forward to scalp indices at 0.5 per point again , can always invrease it if i want to...i think £1 per point is good enough
my best time trading are 6am-9am gmt really most profitable, then from US opening for another few hours. monday is weird friday is crazy, tue, wed, thu best. then this week i lost everything i earned because i overtraded...US market operates competely different from european and technical analysis doesnt work as well (from my little experience)
shame new broker doesnt have saffa indice, my fav for scalping altough once i lost £300 because i was greedy after getting £150 out of it. i thought i got out too early maybe i need to jump back and it went down immediately. many time i made this error i got out ( in my head right time) then contradicted myself and jumped back again thinking i got out too early just to loose.

and i promised myself no more nikkei scalping because altough i make something it normally spikes up at 1am really nice ( if nothing major happens like another negative interest rate announcement) but then i am staying up umtil 2am uk time and i need to wake up at 6am to get ready to work and i cant manage with sleep deprivation, so no more nikkei, australia indices.

 

[dolphie]

new broker has an awful platform comparing to my first broker, i didnt even realise it could be so bad, like i have to trade on the phone because i work full time and i need excellent connection, now a, with two brokers, but i input stop loss and take profit in the "bad one" so i am not exposed to connection issue... new broker is really cheap in spread prices, great for forex deals...like 10-15 point ones...
so back to my expensive broker...i need to learn to trade big haha £2 per dax point...

anyway i havent earned anything really difficult week.

but i feel US markets will fall again.

my trading startegy is changing now as i learn more about markets... not as much pf a scalper now...

well all euro markets are crazy about brexit, and pound is weak.

usd gone up but i dont think for long,

i sm trying to build my capital, but in a different way now, maybe more long term trade.

so far my investment is way above £300, to be exact is now: £2200 deposited, £800 withrawn= £1600

i made mistake to withdraw, i shoulnt. anyway my aim is now to build my capital. i think my first two weeks looking at analysis markets were in rise state in general thats why i was lucky.

my working caapital is now: £500, but i was in the market in most volatile times, from fed announcement to bruseels attack. i want to learn and learning on demo isnt as taking in...

so money making strategy is on the side for now... learning and slowly building my capital so i can do more long term trades.

 

[dolphie]

this week all my predictions were 100% on because i started to learn market and fx reaction z bit better and because of busy US market and i made £800.

it was kind of easy because janet yellen talked about being careful not to increase rates so i managed to catch some of market rise and today was like the highest day i think in 2016 after job market being above fcast i knew that usd will appreciate immediately so i bough it against majors, altough the report it was bit confusimg at first because the actual unemployment rose by .1% so i wasnt sure and also the danger of higher rates coming earlier...
so i knew today if employment above forecast to go long on usd against other currencies ( short term) and i went long on all indices when market opened and uptrend started , i also knew gold will go down in short term. then i noticed that euro markets appreciate when us markets do, so i went long on dax and cac and got something there-
it was easy today and after fed talk on wed.
so i think i am completely changing my stategy and only being active around high impact news and i prefer us markets for sure now as i like uptrend.

 

[forker]

Just be careful. Sometimes news can be positive yet the market is selling. Anyway well done on a good week.

 

[dolphie]

Just be careful. Sometimes news can be positive yet the market is selling. Anyway well done on a good week.

true even today initially us indices actually fell only to pick up later...

 

[forker]

Out of interest sake, are you trading on your mobile or Web.

 

[dolphie]

Out of interest sake, are you trading on your mobile or Web.[/QUOTE

mobile most of the time.

 

[forker]

I also do some trading on mobile. There was a time when I did most of it on mobile. The only thing I don't like about it is the lack of a good order manager and ease of which to drag and drop orders. These days I do most of it on my pc but still open trades on mobile every week.

 

[dolphie]

I also do some trading on mobile. There was a time when I did most of it on mobile. The only thing I don't like about it is the lack of a good order manager and ease of which to drag and drop orders. These days I do most of it on my pc but still open trades on mobile every week.

web trading would be the best but i work full time i manage to have bloomberg market news on all day; i do occasionally open platform at work ( i have two screens) when i have lot of trades open ( like yesterday after payrolls i had 11 trades on i trade .5-1£ per point) or when am tired of looking at mobile or less busy. my mobile app is on all working day so i keep my eye on the trades and has the fingerprint log in which is very fast in case i log out. the technology nowadays is superb -the other day i was off and sitting with a coffee in the park and trading on mobile-

 

[AspiringTrader.]

after job market being above fcast i knew that usd will appreciate immediately so i bough it against majors, altough the report it was bit confusimg at first because the actual unemployment rose by .1% so i wasnt sure

That threw me too.

I took a small short on the eur/usd, though i didn't play it out too long as i was thinking it could reverse it's losses at any moment having the unemployment come out at 5.0%. It eventually recovered most of its losses.

 

[dolphie]

That threw me too.

I took a small short on the eur/usd, though i didn't play it out too long as i was thinking it could reverse it's losses at any moment having the unemployment come out at 5.0%. It eventually recovered most of its losses.

indeed; usd rise was short lived most of currencies recovered ( well not gbp) it could be because not a clear sign of employment improvement further confirms the fact that rate hike wont happen in april.

 

[dolphie]

This week was weak... I expected us rally to continue and it didnt, asian markets were very low, jpy got too strong. I had jpy crosses long but should have held them longer time.
I am not very good in bearish market; sell offs am always scared because i know any minute markets pick up. I didnt place many orders this week only after fed minutes and the following morning.

on monday i didnt manage to get anywhere, on tuesday morning i lost some trades because i had wrong perception about US markets; then wed after FED minutes which i thought would create more movement but i earn something on US indices and i sold USD against majors, and bought gold, that all took some time to kick in really but at the end it all brought me some profits.
then thursday was a big sell off and i lost everything i made day before, i missed some news .. and was convinced ( again) they would regain...

friday i sold gbp against majors and bought coffee and thats it i got out because overall it was week of gains and offseting losses. i think i need to learn how to act only on facts not on my own "gut" that is basically wrong

the good points: didnt jump into trades at the end of the week
bad points: cannot cope with market sell off

Next wk waiting for china trade balance result and seems wednesday is quite busy so some opportunities-

 

[dolphie]

strategy wise though. there are two stategies i came up so far with ( for indices, commodities), because i only tradeforex on news never try my luck with those so probably the steadiest income is forex.

so i have to either have a strategy of placing stop and accepting loss and getting out moving on ; or not placing stop at all... therefore wait day or two until they go back to their level.. but that is big risk to my small capital...i stopped using stop on gold i use but is very wide stop like almost impossible to reach, indices are tricky ones but only euro indices am worried about because pre brexit its just very unsure territory, so am very careful only jump in on opening at 7am and getting 50pips out of them ( when am confident they will open a bit higher though they do talk in the morning on bloomberg about those and their analysis makes sense; because am not good in sell offs yet) i started to use order buy 20 points above 5 minutes before open i set oder on dax and it usually works altough this could as well get one to a mess... subject to only placing that upon some confidence.
with US markets though now corporate profits coming in so i may just sit quiet , maybe i will try to get in after retail results. ill get myself occupied with china events and forex short term volatility arising from other high impact events.

china though is big one because then if they manage to get their trade surplus above fcast then this could push jpy big lower? anyway am gonna do forex deals on aud and copper.

for this week am gonna be more disciplined and prepare my trades upon events how many orders,what kind orders do i place, how many pips i expect ( studyjng historical data)

i need to learn much more about indices.

 

[dolphie]

this week am proud of myself i finally got used to "normal" size bets and made £550 this week its first time using bigger bets, i did have small bets longer than initial 2 weeks because i called and explained am a very begginer and cannot cope with double bets and cant find better broker. i tried to find better broker than my first one but altough am using two now, one ( with small bet size to risk- they have about acceptable platform and 0.5 pp on indices and all other bets) and the regural one to only bet when am sure ( ie after high impact economic releases , oil going down before doha, then cad depreciating against majors) and gold going up in overall economic uncertanity). they are best for me so i had no choice but to learn to deal with bigger bets. actually it started working fine because i am placing orders only when am sure of outcome and not risking.



this week i was mostly focused on china and then how everything folowed from there, then corporate earnings i did made some pips on US stocks only when i realised they had all profits for the day. it was the day when beige book was out i think about 150 and i made 100 on gold going up and down, but now i have PL open with ( 40) on gold but i am not afraid of holding gold right now. then cad interest rate i i made about 100,i made lots pips yesterday with oil slumming down about 100 and 100 from cad depreciating as result.

i slowly start to get an idea how it all flows together and this week i didnt place many bets actually, there more things i could do. i only learnt about cad relation to oil later, if i knew i would have gotten more.

well tommorow is doha meeting so i am going to fill an order depending how it goes, its going to be an experiment, i am going to fill it in my risk 0.5 bet account because am not entirely sure how its gonna work out and coffee order i feel if they get rid of rousseff coffee gonna jump up.

good points: i was very carefull and it paid off, i didnt overtrade and actually was less tired and got more capital built on normal size account, i think trade less for bigger stake is something to move forward with in few months. i also didnt deposit since 24 march which is a very good sign i actually withdrawn £200 because wanted to reward myself for being careful in my trading; and i have working capital to deal with,i dont want to deposit i want to slowly grow my small capital. i did deposit into my " risk account £100 to test it but i managed to keep it fluctuating so no need to deposit more there; i am just experimenting with that account.

bad points: actually this week i think ive done well because i didnt risk much, i start to gain more knowledge it was enough to keep me busy without needing to jump in situation i wasnt very sure of. obviously lots of learning to do.

my challenge is to become consistant not to blow my account next week. what ill be looking forward is how the oil meeting will go and most will flow from there, then my coffee i really feel is gonna jump up at some point, then corporate earnings; there are other like ecb interest rate, i didnt have chance to look into calendar yet, but tommorow i am gonna prepare for those, so see what happened last time and how it affected crosses. most important not to loose even if i dont get anything i want to start being consistant, better get less than loose more.

 

[Mr Sept]

this week am proud of myself i finally got used to "normal" size bets and made £550 this week its first time using bigger bets, i did have small bets longer than initial 2 weeks because i called and explained am a very begginer and cannot cope with double bets and cant find better broker. i tried to find better broker than my first one but altough am using two now, one ( with small bet size to risk- they have about acceptable platform and 0.5 pp on indices and all other bets) and the regural one to only bet when am sure ( ie after high impact economic releases , oil going down before doha, then cad depreciating against majors) and gold going up in overall economic uncertanity). they are best for me so i had no choice but to learn to deal with bigger bets. actually it started working fine because i am placing orders only when am sure of outcome and not risking.



this week i was mostly focused on china and then how everything folowed from there, then corporate earnings i did made some pips on US stocks only when i realised they had all profits for the day. it was the day when beige book was out i think about 150 and i made 100 on gold going up and down, but now i have PL open with ( 40) on gold but i am not afraid of holding gold right now. then cad interest rate i i made about 100,i made lots pips yesterday with oil slumming down about 100 and 100 from cad depreciating as result.

i slowly start to get an idea how it all flows together and this week i didnt place many bets actually, there more things i could do. i only learnt about cad relation to oil later, if i knew i would have gotten more.

well tommorow is doha meeting so i am going to fill an order depending how it goes, its going to be an experiment, i am going to fill it in my risk 0.5 bet account because am not entirely sure how its gonna work out and coffee order i feel if they get rid of rousseff coffee gonna jump up.

good points: i was very carefull and it paid off, i didnt overtrade and actually was less tired and got more capital built on normal size account, i think trade less for bigger stake is something to move forward with in few months. i also didnt deposit since 24 march which is a very good sign i actually withdrawn £200 because wanted to reward myself for being careful in my trading; and i have working capital to deal with,i dont want to deposit i want to slowly grow my small capital. i did deposit into my " risk account £100 to test it but i managed to keep it fluctuating so no need to deposit more there; i am just experimenting with that account.

bad points: actually this week i think ive done well because i didnt risk much, i start to gain more knowledge it was enough to keep me busy without needing to jump in situation i wasnt very sure of. obviously lots of learning to do.

my challenge is to become consistant not to blow my account next week. what ill be looking forward is how the oil meeting will go and most will flow from there, then my coffee i really feel is gonna jump up at some point, then corporate earnings; there are other like ecb interest rate, i didnt have chance to look into calendar yet, but tommorow i am gonna prepare for those, so see what happened last time and how it affected crosses. most important not to loose even if i dont get anything i want to start being consistant, better get less than loose more.

Concentrate on your 'Wins' and managing them correctly. WASH and REPEAT. Stick to 'Three' markets MAX. No FX. Make your Trades One at a time and focus on that one Trade only, while watching the other potentials. Keep away from News.

 

[dolphie]

Concentrate on your 'Wins' and managing them correctly. WASH and REPEAT. Stick to 'Three' markets MAX. No FX. Make your Trades One at a time and focus on that one Trade only, while watching the other potentials. Keep away from News.

i am not sure if you read my thread but i do only trade on high impact news...
and i trade forex too, one position at the time isnt for me, forex and markets and all correlated, so potential is there to have few trades open at the same time.
thanks for your time and input though,

 

[dolphie]

this week i messed up massively...

i managed to get my account to £1k on sunday; i gained on oil; held two postions over the weekend, so on sunday at opening on profit automatocally on open at £450. BUT i thought oil will continue to go down AND missed the news about kuwait strike basically i seen the news but my knowledge isnt that good, so i kept on holding plus went short on cad pairs so on monday afternoon i managed to blow my whole 1k...

i am so upset with myself that this week am having break because i created image in my head and wanted it to happen... as opposed to trying to dig deeper or basically stop when things were half way through at least...

so very bad poits: all or nothing attitude
worst point: expecting market to behave as i want it to behave

i cant blame myself for lack of knowledge but i need to remeber markets are moving so fast

its not even about the money but how could i be so stupid

i think i was tired too because over the weekend i put my attention to oil meeting and didnt rest much

this is like slap on my face really, i know am beginner and people loose and i all but this is so difficult psychologically i got carried away with success but is so difficult not to...

now that i failed i dont have energy to be on the market this week.

i am not afraid of making mjstake and loosing amounts i am loosing but what scares me that i felt invincible and i was sure and worst of all i created an image in my head and kind of got stubborm with it...

i think learning markets isnt as difficult as learning how to trade mentally because one can make money but loose it very fast.
its in human nature to want more and to try after success and to be optimistic ans here you cwnnot do that.

i got involved now so am going to carry on because i need something extra for my own benefit of developing but i am starting to doubt can anyone actually make money consistently, and not just making profit but how not to get carried away wnd overconfident because this is so human.

i dont know maybe i do break next week too, but i doubt because already starting to miss trading; definitely will be there on US payrolls- took a half of
day off- they have great payroll figures so far, so payrolls should bring some profits.

mentally this is so difficult because i gave so much time and energy and i didnt respect that enough because within 1 day i managed to loose my 6 days worth made profit. and what was i thinking? the issue is that i wasnt i was stubborm and believed its gonna all turned round and it didnt.

well i dont have any hopes for next week because have no account to rinse- will deposit and work my way through again. i wish i was wiser mext time...

 

[barjon]

dolphie

As Ed Seykota says "the three basic rules of good trading are: 1. Cutting losses, 2. Cutting losses, 3. Cutting losses."

You've learned a painful, but valuable, lesson - don't do it again

 

[Oscar Reed]

dolphie

As Ed Seykota says "the three basic rules of good trading are: 1. Cutting losses, 2. Cutting losses, 3. Cutting losses."

You've learned a painful, but valuable, lesson - don't do it again

@barjon
If I done that.
I would have no account left.


@dolphie
Good thread.
Guess you gone from IG to CMC
Try FXCM have smaller size's and lot a lot easier platform to mange on the run, rather than CMC.