Jesus, where to start? Firstly no-one said there were only two guys doing well, there are a lot of guys doing very nicely thank you, I just mentioned these two boys as I know them very well, and as they have both only been trading live for a year and I was highlighting the fact that you can get to a reasonable level of success very quickly if you are any good. In other words there are no limits. My situation is that I have never been in that league but have always been up at the end of the month. No-one gets binned for making a hash of one trade and believe me there were plenty of guys that got hurt on the same figure that I did, however there were plenty that made more than I lost on the same figure. The comedy of it is that a lot the guys trading the Bund and Bobl did the same thing as I did in Euribor but because of the delay on Eurex, and the "price not reasonable" setting that stops you getting filled too far away from market, they thought they were short and paid up, only to find a second later that the original trade hadn't been accepted and they were now long and massively onside. You can imagine how I felt after, chatting to guys who had made £50k by trying to do the same as I. So the company understood my situation and things are the same as they were before the trade, only now I have a defecit that I will pay back over time. The next week I was affected by the whole thing and started to throw some size around pretty unsuccessfully but I soon settled down to normal. It's just a shame we've had some really terrible markets since. Still, I'm not going to stress about the money I lost because it was just one trade. One error of judgement. One thing that fascinates me is that I have never been as successful as a lot of the other guys and I have always been a trader who doesn't take chances or big losses (ironically), while the biggest earners here are the guys who don't seem to give a shit and have massive down days. It's just that their up days are even bigger. p.s. Guess what's out on Friday.....it's payback time :eek:
Many thanks for the explanations! Looking forward to further reports! What's so surprising about that? It's the oldest rule of finance; Higher return = higher volatility, higher risk and larger draw downs. Lower risk and drawdowns = lower overall returns. Applies for investment portfolios, applies for businesses, applies for anything in finance. You either have one of either, or a balance of both - Whatever it may be, the returns will be accordingly. You're a low-risk trader so you have lower returns. Well, who knows, all those friends of yours might blow up tomorrow while you might still be there in 30 years. It's all got its downsides - and upsides.
Yeah I hear you. If you sold the unemployment number there is no way in hell you could've gotten out when nonfarm hit. Good luck on Friday.
How have the UK trading crowd got on recently? Anyone switching firms? Anyone hear about the Braveheart EUR 1m rumour? Anyone going to Marbella for some sun?
Had quite a good year so far, did well on the payrolls earlier this month. No plans to switch at the moment - but if you are aware of any good deals going, let me know! Re Braveheart - is that 1m up or down? Is he still doing multiple 1000 lots in the Schatz? Is he the infamous Flipper? As for getting some sun, I'm off to Sicily at the end of the month.
Tricky end of Q1 / beginning of Q2 for me but back in the saddle now I think. Braveheart's legend knows no boundaries! Half the brokers I speak to at work have got some sort of story about him. I heard he was a million up that afternoon - who knows, good on him either way. A modern day trading Blackbeard. Don't think he's a / the flipper. Portugal in June with a few mates for me next. Can't wait. One point to keep this inline with the thread's main aim... Does anyone know the methodology that the option shops use to train their juniors? (Thinking of houses such as Mako, Liquid Capital, Star Mark Trading & Susquehanna.) Very curious to find out as I've never traded options. On options, the only strategy I've come across that seems complete is the one mentioned in John Piper's book - The Way To Trade. General concept as I remember: sell options against the trend a couple of weeks from expiry and hedge if necessary with the correct amount of futures for every 25 points against in the underlying cash market. (Good book, by the way.)
Alot of UK traders are trading with Velocity Futures using xTrader http://www.velocityfutures.com Andrew Velocity Futures 1-713-490-7658
Sorry, my British sense of humour can't help but highlight your first post to Elitetrader http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&postid=269168#post269168 To be fair, your commission rates are competitive.
Any UK'ers using/used GNI, with J Trader or X trader.. Steep Comish for small timers but competitive for larger Volume any recommendations, comments, alternatives? Kap