Thanks for your comments Steve, And no I certainly would not bet £100 a point, I am nowhere near ready to do that yet Helen
the key is wether you feel you are gambling, or wether yu feel you are in control we all feel we are in control when we are on a winning position, but its when u feel that u r in control when u have made a loss that is key losses are as important as wins and to feel that the losses u make are in line with your trading style do u have a defined and repeatable strategy to always enter and exit positions, or is your trading based on gut?
Hi, There doesn't appear to be many of us round here! I'm from Yorkshire UK and have been trying my hand at FTSE 100 Futures trading for the past few months. I use the Easy2Trade platform and pay £8 round trip. Down over a grand so far but making fewer mistakes now! I don't think direct access futures trading has taken off over here yet. Does anyone else use Easy2Trade?
Hey! I am in Yorkshire too, have been trading the U.S. NQ futures for the last couple of months. Feel free to contact me, and it would be great to chat with other UK based traders. Paul.
Hi Steve, No I don't feel I am gambling at all. I feel confident with my time frame and my ability to exit both losing and winning postions. BUT There are times when I don't feel in control and it's my own fault because they inevitably occur when I am trying to trade with the children about. You can guarantee that as soon as I am in a trade that needs absolute concentration there will be a demand for a drink or help with toileting or something. And that IS my own fault. I want to trade but the summer holidays are not a good time, what happens is that I end up with a loss that is bigger than I planned for. (Typically I consider a loss of 12 points on Dow acceptable and 8 on FTSE) more than that and I know I can do better. Happened today, loss of 30 points on the Dowwhich should have been 12 because I was dealing with a frog in the living room Such is life.
Hi every one I have been a full time trader for the last, well a long time. Trading the big S&P contract by the seat of my pants for the first ten years and then started to develop what I learnt into a trading system which I am now trying to program into trade station (almost finished). It is always good to hear the experiences of others as it is a lonely game especially when the drawdowns come and they do. Stevet I love your bullishness and enthusiasm but channel it wisely into the beginners as sleeping at night is as important as making money. I spent so much time trading and not sleeping at night that it cost a divorce and my trading capital (well spent it while I was distracted) so I am starting out from scratch (any ideas on how to tern scratch into a little) but fortunately with a lot of experience. You don't need the best system in the world just an edge and the ability to scale up/down in a way that does not expose you to ruin. I live is Surrey and any one near ? Any way Stevet if your looking for an exchange of ideas or a debate I should be able to provide both and the newbie with some guidance. to get my attention email me direct as I am not a big user of chat rooms.
secrets ok, trading the big s&p, i guess by phone, with everyone taking you for a ride, and charging you through the nose to make u suffer - you must really know pain!!! trading eminis with full transperancy, narrow spreads, litte slippage on fast moves, cheap commisions, easily scalable, open and close in seconds, able to set limits and stops immediately - must seem like heaven to you!!! and i am more enthusiastic than bullish, but there are great opportunities for those who can learn to trade, and the only way to learn is to suffer - its a shame, but a fact - there is no university to learn trading - and thank goodness there isn't since you would learn trading, but they'd teach how to lose trading, not win i knew of a similar situation to the one u described about yourself did u used to live in london? helen you are definetly getting there - i learned everything i thought i had to learn and then i discovered that facts like - never trade when u have a hangover, dont feel good, feel pissed off, take a phone call while u r trading - blah blah - i then learned this stuff is as important as any other and then i reacted to that learning
I am from Surrey as well. I would like make a comment on spreadbetting: If you are lucky enough to make money out of spreadbetter, you could have make mega money in futures. I did have the bad experience of trading with deal4free. Before anybody defends spreadbetters, i would invite them to read the small print. One of the major item of the agreement is that spreadbetters can quote any price they like and it may not necessary represent the market. price. with CMC or deal4free they don't even keep your money under segregated account. So what ever money you have with them, it is in their own account. if you search ADVFN BB for "CMC" you will hear more shocking stories. I used todo mainly FTSE options with mybroker but i have given up as FTSE options a) not liquid b) you cannot sell short on line Lately I have being doing options and stock combinations on US markets. good luck
Hi all, If anyone out there wants to join us at the Green Man Pub opposite Gt Portland St Tube on 4th September round about 7ish there are a group of TMF/T2W people meeting in the downstairs bar. It's very informal and friendly and though most of the people there will be "investors" and "spreadbetters" rather than "proper" traders it is usually a good night out. If you need more details let me know.