Trading Diary July 16th

Start getting too comfortable and you break the rules. So far 55 pips up on the week and I play without caution and lose twice. Firstly I entered the trade far too early believing I now have an instinctive idea of were the trade was going!

To be honest on review, the signs were fine but the rule I broke was the entry time(after 7). I have incurred most losses when the trade happens before 7 and yet I still take the trade when I think I see it.

I entered my short trade around 6.50 It then reversed promptly with 4 green candles. I cut my losses by 5 pips but in total loss 20 pips

Stupid yes, but not as stupid as going in again especially when it had hit the pivot point 4 times and failed to break through. The pivot point R1 and also 400 were on the same level. This does not occur too often. But its a doubly strong support or resistance line. I will approach that sort of situation with more caution.

It proved to be the stumbling block all morning. At the point that I went long (reversal trade after loss) it had reached 16405 and convinced it had now sufficiently broken the pivot and 400 level I entered the trade.


I had 6 - 8 pips at one point but this was short lived. It reversed the next candle and I cut my losses at 25 pips.

What happened? I have been playing the breakout a lot more due to the recent channeling of cable. It has not shown a clear trend, playing on a smaller time frame like 5Min's means you can take points while its channeling.

But today it channeled in an even smaller range and I finally experienced a lot of what was happening on the 1 hour fx strategy. I recognised this even more when I then played cable on the hour. It did nothing for two hours and I got out with 3 pips.

Some in the skype chat stayed with it for nearly 4 hours with different degrees of success!
That was three trades for me and I felt it time to stop trading. Will make the points up tomorrow!

To Your Success!

Trading Diary Wed 14th July 09

Wow after a cautious two days the markets went like a rocket this morning. Adrian had finished trading by 9.30 after taking 40 pips on cable breakout and 15pips on ftse strategy. They all went long and I'm writing this at 13.41 and they are still going!

Fig 1 (GBP/USD)


As you can see I got in twice in the space of 20 minutes on the above breakout (Fig 1). In total I scalped 35 pips. I have established the breakout as my key trade. I then trade the ftse and Fx hourly strategy if I have no other trades.

Adrian trades with me most mornings and we support each other in the kill or be killed world of spread betting. I thank him for his hypnosis cds in making me a calmer person when actually in the trade. Check out his site for more info!

We support each other by reviewing good and bad trades. This is essential in your trading growth. You pick up on your mistakes and can also be open and honest about what you did.

Trading can be a lonely business!

Fig 2 (ftse)


I include the ftse trade today, from opening it broke the signal to go short. We ignored it and instead waited for more clarity....Adrian got in on long as the numbers show in graph and finished on 55 pips in total for both trades.

There was also a trade at 7am for Eur/Usd, I ignoring the 1 hour strategy trade due to waiting for my favoured cable breakout. I include the chart below to show you what happened. In total there was 56 pips if you waited for the hour, or 76 pips if you was watching the trade!

As I won on cable anyway, I was not too unhappy about the missed points.

Fig 3(FX EUR/USD)


To your success!

Tuesday 14th Breakout Trade!

I questioned recently whether I was Trading with fear? The last two days have answered my question. The decision of reducing my trades now looks to be a good one.

Most of the Forex pairs are proving a challenge to say the least. The markets are very uncertain and The skype trading group are having more losses than normal. Its the major uncertainty as to recovery or non recovery?

I did not wake up on time today, (Normally 5am) when I finally got the charts up and running cable looked to have moved a bit already. As already stated its currently channeling so I like the morning volatility of when it opens. It then dropped back to near the 50 level.

When its playing at 50 level I'm very weary as you know if you have read the blog previously. It quickly moved Back up after pull back on one red candle...That was my sign and I made some quick decisions to go in at 16270.00 due to the macd and histogram signs!

The other key indicator was the up trend and knowing there was a good chance it would go another 3 green candles. Taking into account I.Gs spread the entry was 16273.60 I then exited the trade at 16291.10 for a nice 17.5 pips. I trade the breakout on 5min candle so again the speed of the trade is obvious!

More detail this week on the other strategies....and as normal your comments or requests are very much appreciated.

To Your Success!

Forex and Trading Strategies!

Being a forex trader can seem very exciting. The majority of people who teach you to trade will always say if you want to make money you need to trade FX.

I trade three strategies on a regular basis, these are ftse at 8am, the forex hourly strategy and breakout trading. I also use a strategy on crude oil if the signs are correct. The oil strategy depends on the range and circumstances and is too subjective at the moment.

If you take last week as an example oil dropped nearly 30%, experts on bloomberg are contradicting themselves and are very unsure of where it's going. For this reason that strategy is currently on hold!

I will also say I probably have too many strategies! Analysis paralysis can be a huge issue when you become a trader. In your early days you will look for the holy grail of strategies and realise it does not exist. The only way to become a good trader is to find a strategy that suits you and do it over and over again until you get it!

Whatever you do Forex should be one of the strategies you use. It is the most liquid market and the brokers can not tamper with it as Much in terms of pricing issues!

Did not trade this morning on my favoured cable, the move happened while I was asleep at 3am. So there was no early morning breakout and the hourly strategy was ruined for the rest of the day!

To your trading success!

Spread Betting Versus Shares

Spread Betting: Reduce Taxes On Your UK Trading Profits!

The late Benjamin Franklin is remembered for once famously saying, "There are two things you can be sure of in life - death and taxes!" When an opportunity to make money and not pay any tax on the profit comes along, it's fair to say that most people would take a second glance. Financial Spread Betting falls nicely into this category.

Leverage

Spreadbets are leveraged, so with £1k margin, if you use, say, 10:1 gearing, you can gain the equivalent to £10k's worth of shares. Of course, then it only takes the shares to fall 10% to wipe out your margin. It's the same principle as property investment (with a mortgage). With traditional share dealing more money is required to cover the same amount you could with a spread bet. Of course with leverage comes risk - ultimately it is up to you to use good judgement and use leverage wisely.

Share trading		Spread bet
Current share price	464p	464.7		The slightly higher purchase price is to take into account no commission with spread bets
You buy	10,000 shares	£100 per point		100 shares = £1 per point spread bet. Therefore 10,000 shares is the equivalent of a £100 per point spread bet
Initial cash outlay	£46,400	£4,647		Spread bets on shares only require 10% of the toal trade size as a deposit
Stamp Duty	£232	£0		Stamp duty is not applicable to spreadbets saving 0.5% on all buy transactions*
Commission	£15	£0		Your current stockbroker may charge you a flat rate of £15 for example for a transaction of this size. Spread bets never incur any commission
Total outlay	£46,647	£4,647
You were correct and the share price of ABC Plc rose to 494p over the next month. You decide to close your position.
Current share price	494p	493.3p		The slightly lower selling price is to take into account no commission with spread bets
You sell	10,000 shares	£100 per point		To close an open 'long' postion you sell
Commission	£15	£0
Profit	£2,735	£2,860
Less Capital Gains tax (40%)	£1,101.20	£0		Spread bet profits incur no Capital Gains Tax liability. The rate used is based on a higher earner tax rate. Tax laws can change.
Total Profit after tax	£1,651.80	£2,860
Return on Capital	3.5%	61.5%		The significantly higher return on capital was the result of a much lower initial capital outlay for spreadbets as opposed to share trading
Note, if you were not correct in predicting the direction of price movement of ABC Plc you would lose money. Profits and losses can quickly exceed your initial deposit.

Trading Diary 2nd July

The markets are ranging so taking them very cautiously. Strategies on ftse and hourly strategies on cable are difficult to asses at the moment with no major moves. Generally as most know, the markets are usually trending up or down. But as we move into the so called recovery, the markets seem to be changing month to month.

With this in mind I have restricted myself to the gbp breakout in the morning. The number one point of trading is to preserve capital. Number two point in trading is to preserve capital. Number three point in trading is to remember points one and two!

Having said that ftse won 4 out of five trades last week so maybe I'm being over cautious, which is not a bad thing. As long as I am not trading with fear.....Not sure yet on that one. My Thursday breakout is above...Any comments let me know!

Effective Mind Control When Trading!

Trading can become a stressful game, you need to learn to control your mind to be a great trader.

learning to control your mind is not a sheer question of will. If it were, millions of others would’ve long be liberated. Instead, you need to be connected to a system which is able to teach you the secrets of controlling your mind, rising above reality and seizing your inner potential.

1. Trade in a calm assured state!
2. Destroy limiting beliefs!
3. Vision your trading goal so no matter what happens you are 100% solid in your belief of success!

The goal of the Silva Method is to teach you how to use more of your brain and activate the untapped areas of your mind.

If you envision the life of your dreams in your head, you WILL live the life of your dreams in this present reality. Imagine being stress-free? Where you’re no longer in the rat race because you already made it.

Imagine moving on to bigger and better things? That even when past memories are still there, the power that these past memories have will be banished forever.

As always, to your Trading Success!