Hi all, I am new on this forum, but have been trading for a while. (well more like 1,5 years, went to fulltime since january) Founding this forum trough google. (since i trade fulltime my life is build around it anyway). Now i live in a shitty trading country called belgium, where we have a tax called "speculationtax". Meaning i can't day/swingtrade individual stocks under 6 months whitout paying 25% tax on profits (losses not deducted). So the market has changed in my country. I started trading ETF's and derivitates like turbo's since beginning of 2016 (when the law got implented here since those are excluded). I Trade commodities based on newsitems and etf's based on TA + news items. Since january i got an annual return of 632% (had some flat starts, then some losses now up again). Tax i am paying = 50% (losses included). ==> for now will be 33% soon if i change my paperwork. Net profits since january: 90k euro's (losses deducted) Take away around 3k every month from trading account to bank, invest around 2k of swinging profits to long term etf's whitout margin. Markets i trade most often: - Brent futures - Crude futures - Aex etf - Dax etf - Gold etf - Silver etf - S&P VIX And its derivates like turbo's (no pain no gain, no risks stop trading!° My strategy and golden rules: - I always have 50% of my brokers account money not invested (golden rule incase i got everything wrong! Or in case of a crash when i only have long positions open ) - I don't use stoplosses during active trading, but cut short when a trend is set and macro news is against my positions (unless for weekly swing positions) - I turbo scalp during volatile houres in line whit my general midterm positions - I use index ta's for a period of maximum 1 week. - I read in on macro news every hour and investigate how it inflicts my positions. - Psychologic scalping is a big win for me, when an index whit start position of 1000 is dayfluctuating between 1000 and 1020 i go short when it hits 1020 (while most will think a trend is set (works awesome on turbo's)). - During overnight i leave positions open if next trading day favors me macro-economically and ta wise while setting larger stops to bypass aftermarkt volatility. - Only exception is the s&p volatility which has giving me 50% switching short/long from januari on its positions, i leave that one open longer. - Together whit the 50% i leave in cash as buffer, i spread! But i never spread long and short together because of corelations. I am wondering if anyone else on this forum has experience whit etf and commodity swinging. And how much you guys use TA, macro news or other elements to boost your procent.
Perhaps important note since this is mainly a usa forum: Average income in my country each year is around 20k (from labourincome) net gains a year. Puts my 90k profits + 20k starting position in perspective giving i always have maximum half of my brokersaccount in cash meaning: 55k cash - 20k starting = 35k/2 (taxes) = 17,5k net gain this year so far. Until i got my new statute approved which will enable me to pay 33% instead of 50% taxes.
I don't do cfd's because the underlying value doesnt match the real one + the stoploss margin is to small to utilize the system i use. Reason why i am sticking to regular market, where indices and its derivatives fit my system. Offcourse i know i need to pay taxes 50% atm, 33% soon. But i rather pay taxes and have profit then moving to the cfd market and risk to much. Key to my succes is to speculate on shortterm (day + swing which involves risks) on defensive tools (etf's (spread) and its derivatives (risk)). If that means i need to pay taxes so be it, but at least i can live from it, and the fact that i got my starting capital almost extracted back + i reinivest a good portion of my swing/daytrade profits back into the system its an accumulated intrest story. Offcourse there will be losses as well, no system is bulletproof. But that's why i keep 50% cash as buffer. For exemple i have all my positions closed except for 1 atm: Aex turbo long whit a leverage of 40,... . Aex reached a new high around 457,.. this week and had a small correction. Scalped it on friday and made some profit before opening overnight long position when it was near its lower-low (which was 449,..) according to my ta it has support at 452,448,444 while 452 got breached its looking like a turning point. Stoploss is pritty wide and beneath bottom bottom, and beneath average. Ta indicates correction was flatting out + macro news/indice news for monday/thuesday doesn't seem to dangerous for my long position. Only risk is the overvalued oil atm (since royal dutch shell has a big share in the index), but that gets outweighed whit some shares whit rising potential next week. If i was going to play that same indice whit a cfd i would mostly likely be forced to play at a 100 leverage which also has consequences for the stoploss. So i don't play cfd's . I prefer to play risky on defensive products or its offensive counterparts on very short term. And sometimes i leave open overnight like i did now whit aex. Since aex has potential ta wise to hit 475. Aftermarket is proving me right so far... . (hit 453) And also have this open most of the time velocityShares Daily Inverse VIX Short Term but closed my long gaining 7,..%
I would take a second look ... the cfd and the underlying go hand in hand ... oanda has good spreads on cfd's ... you can use their demo for free so you could have a look ... the fact that you don't have to pay taxes is not a minor thing ... for the record: don't get too cocky I have seen too many one year wonders in trading, you haven't been too long around the block, it could just be luck ...