It has begun in earnest...

Hi y'all. Apologies for not getting back sooner but as you will see from this update, I have been somewhat busy.

Firstly, I wish and pray that everyone who reads this blog and believes in prayer that all their prayers will be answered this year in Jesus' name. Amen. Ok, so some people pray to a different god, fine. Yours will be answered too but let the true God win.

Anyway, I didn't mean to start on that note but out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.

I did go to that trading seminar in rural Ohio in June of last year. I did learn something of a great trading fraemwork to take home with me and to personalise.

After my trading training in the US where I meat some pretty cool and sharp guys, I did nothing but sit back for another 2 months or so before I started trading in earnest.

First, I had to get the right trading platform and decide what kind of trading environment I wanted and that would suit my personality. I discovered that it was so much better for me to trade US Treasury securities aka The Bond Market. This happens to be one of the most, if not , the most liquid market in the financial world.

It might be a little slower than the S&P futures (and the e-Min futures) contracts but I like it. You kind of lose your money more slowly.

My real-time data supplier is TradeStation who in my very short time with them have actually reduced the amoutn of money I pay for trading and have essentially given away the platform for free with the amount of trades I make in a month.

They also have really cool sales guys. Mine called me in the new year just to ask if everything was okay with the account which of course it was. As it happened though I did actually have a requirmenet to open up yet another futures trading account where I could do actually day trades instead of the other medium term trading that I would normally do. He dealt with the whole query in less than 5 minutes and sent theauthorization forms to me immediately.

Like I said, I have been trading the markets now since late august and have chalked up loads of trades. I am still learning about my trading personality and am beginning to bed down on what my trading rules are. You know, the ones that work for me rather than against me.

In this new year, I expect to have grown more consistent with the profit side of things, to never actually suffer another margin call and to takethe profits when they are there. Not longing after it after it has gone.

I have a good mind to actually start posting my daily logs on this site but I am not sure about the sense in doing that. It may help someone out there or it may not. In any case, it is quite carthatic for me to write and put some words down in writing.

Shalom!

Now what's occuring?

Almost a year to that last blog I find myself getting ready to go to the US to train under one of those I could never have thought that I would even meet in my lifetime.

It shows the importance of keeping the right kind of thoughts going in one's life. I thought it and lamented about it, next thing I know- well at least a year later - and I'm four weeks off to be trained in my new chosen career by one of Jack Schwager's Stock Market Wizards no less!

I will post more elaborately once I get back from that piece of work I promise. In the meantime I will also try to post my thoughts as I approach the run up to the actual trip at the end of June.

It has started - not much success as yet.....

Anyway, so I sign up for an account to begin spread-betting. I reckon I've got some stuff to learn just by concentrating on the execution of the trades. So here are a few lessons I've learnt listed below. They are in no particular order but just show a flavour of what I think I've done so far.

- As soon as I set a stop, the price appears to move in the direction of my stop ( invariably I get stopped out often )

- Conversely when I place a limit order the price almost always invariably moves against me. Now seeing I am not a guru type person person , I find it hard to believe that is coincidental behaviour by the trading platform I am using. I am not exactly crying over split milk but the owners of the platform may well be up to something erm...inappropriate shall we say.

- The spread is an important piece of leverage that the MM has over you. You have to be very correct in order to make a profit. Even if you were correct, the spread may take out all your profit.

- Setting the buy and sell at either side of the spread is fine for that but Open P & L is often calculated using the mid-price. The mid-price is probably the worst indicator of what the actual buy or sell price is. The effect fof this is that when you buy - you always buy for more and when you sell you always seem to sell for less.

- Emotionally, I can handle both winning and losing trades very well. If I was sure that the trading platform was being fair then I would definitely be able to trade on a much tighter basis. As it is there are prices that you cannot set because the trading platform oewner does not allow you to set prices too close to the currently quoted price. Seems all like a fix to me to put the odds in their favour and out of mine.

- The more I get into it , the more fun it appears to be. However, I am not bowed or cowered at the thought of the amount of work that lies before me.

- A new lesson about myself is learnt with every trade I make.

- I need to take a formal learning course to help me learn the basics ( nothing I can't learn from books I'm sure but I haven't got a month of sundays to waste ). With my learning style this is a way to accelerate the information I need to assimilate.

- Praise be to God there's more than one way to skin a cat - said tongue in cheek of course ! :-)

Lessons so far....

Interesting isn't it ? That as a financial markets trader you can post pretty good percentages based on trades where gains are made versus where a loss was realised and still come out a loser !

Well my education as a trader is continuing at a rapid pace. Today I re-learnt yesterday's lessons which was not to get emotionally involved with Brent Crude Oil (laugh).

After making a loss going long on the brent crude futures overnight ( for once my stop stopped me out making an even more terrible loss but I now wish I had set it higher so that I wouldn't have lost as much as I did).

For some peculiar reason in my psychology, I seem to not mind taking very small profits but will gladly allow my losses to grow while waiting for the tide to turn ( based on what analysis?).

Naturally, I have set aside a bit of money to try to gain some insights into why I trade the way I do without much reference to rigorous technical analysis other than very rudimentary TA.

Naturally I know this is dangerous trading without a system as such but I still have to learn about what makes me tick.

I have found it interesting reading the Market Wizard books - I doubt that any two of the interviewees are exactly the same. Or actually agree exactly on the techniques of making money.

Ed Seykota I like very much at the moment. For some reason I'm in tune with his philosophy of life. I also like his TT - Trading Tribe Community idea.

Trying to finish off reading George Soros' book of Financial Alchemy where he espouses his ideas on reflexivity in the markets. It is such a hard book to get around but I'll persevere because I know that somewhere in there is a nugget or two that will resonate with something in my psyche and will put me over to gain an advantage.

Looking for a City Trader Mentor

So, I'm putting my thoughts to the future as I read the first installment of Jack Schwager's Market Wizard books. I wonder if I could gain a headstart in my trading career by getting mentored by a guru in the City of London or one of the NY exchanges.

More than likely not I think. Am I afraid of rejection? Do I know anyone who isn't?
I guess there are other ways to gaining the knowledge that I need to acquire to become the most successful African Financial Market Trader of all time. Bar none. I thinks I've made my point.

There are other questions like:

How can I leverage my current area of expertise and excellence and apply it to the new endeavour that I'm getting into?

Can I trade profitably from a standing start ?

Should I take a short term view of the markets and day-trade or should I aim to develop systems where the trading periods are of a greater period ?

How much can I seriously hope to make on these markets ?


I have a very constricted time within which to decide to pursue fulltime. I'm 60% committed at this time.

Only time will actually tell if I will go through with it.

Watch this space.

Today na today...

..anyway. So I'm starting to get the hang of trading on finspreads.com. I've been trading for 3 days and guess what ? I still have money in the kitty ! But only just. It appears I have been behaving like a day-trader - only without any formal training whatsoever.

Out of 13 trades, I've made a profit in only 5. the other eight have been losses.

Anyway, you know the old trading maxim or rule ? Cut your losses, and run your wins ? Well, I either learnt backwards or my psychology just allows me to apply it in that way.

So far I've managed to cut my wins and run my losses. This is leaving me with about 80% of my capital I started trading with.
Still I have a position on Brent Crude Oil which, if the volatile conditions that have occured over the last week continue, should give me some of my money back.

However, now I'm starting to sound as if I'm getting emotionally involved with my position. Perhaps I am. But then again , I never did get to finish that book by Alexander Elder. Now, what was it again ?

Oh yes. Trading for a living.

I think I have yet a lot to learn before becoming the greatest financial market trader ever to come from Africa.