11th October

Hi John
I went over my weeks trading and what I have learned I’ll will put it into an email to you.

Many lessons were learned this week. Don’t leave home without a stop, quit while I am ahead and be happy with a good gain and don’t think it will get better. It usually doesn’t. I found the latter with a lovely 52 pip spike. Thinking it would go higher it didn’t, it came back down and I bagged 23 before I lost the lot. I think that trade hit me the hardest this week. I feel sick when I make a loss, euphoric when I make a win I also asked myself the question before I entered a trade ‘would I do this with real money?’ if the answer was no I walked away or if I did trade I’d use my risk account and tested the theory that I was wrong. You are right the markets don’t do what you want or think they will do. They have a mind of their own. Yesterday, Friday, I only made 10 pips and closed Worldspreads.

I continued to watch the charts but with Worldspreads closed I wasn’t tempted to carry on trading. Last night I went into VT to see what was happening. Iain and I both did this. Worldspreads was closed so I wasn’t tempted to trade on that. The euro gained nicely and I put in a trade and made 23 pips. I didn’t bother recording them because I was ‘demo’ trading now. I entered the trades at the right time and got out at the right time. Timing is crucial and Iain entered the same trades but 5 minutes later and lost BIG time. Another lesson learned – don’t take advice from anyone, watch the chart and go by that. Everyone has unique timing that goes not gel with yours. Then VT decided to freeze and that was the end of that exercise. VT does that a lot from Friday onwards even though it was still very much trading time in the USA.

Worldspreads

This took a bit of getting used to and now I’m in it I am happy – purely because of the low spreads and tax implications. The tutorial is brilliant (when you find the actual link and I wasn’t even able to find it in the Sitemap) however the Worldspreads website leaves a lot to be desired. Their trading platform is ok. The red link to enter or check your trades is too close to the websites actual drop down menu so if you don’t mouse over exactly over the Trading, Portfolio, History, Open bets etc links you end up on a page that is related to the website and off you go leaving the trading platform. I will leave some feedback with them. It also took over an hour to find the online tutorial and was never able to find it again after that. So I sent my login details to Leigh and Iain and let them do the course using my account. As a web designer I look out for user friendly sites but this one takes the cake.

BUT saying all that I am glad I opened an account with them and once I got around the finer details I was cruising away happily. I do need two screens with this platform. On the larger screen I have the VT trader platform and euro and cable 5 minute charts up although this week I traded only the euro because of its small spread. I watch the cable as well because the one seems to mirror the other with drops and rises. I find you also get into the mind of the currency pair you pick and ride it better than when you switch currency pairs hoping for good movement.

As Worldspreads is not as obvious with your profits and losses as the VT I found I could open two instances of my account. The one has the Open Bets section where I can see how my profits are doing and when to quit, the other is my portfolio screen where I have the euro buy / sell red/blue buttons ready for entering the trade. It’s not that clear on the photo but I fill in the stakes for all currencies so I can at a click pick one over the other. I prepare everything before I enter a trade so all I have to do is click buy or sell. Then I watch my profits on the VT screen and also the Open bets screen. The open bets screen is slightly delayed and I need to click refresh often to get the real rate. However I can also see what I’m doing on the red and blue screen. The images show you what I’m talking about.

What I referred to earlier about the blue navigation bar above the red trading platform navigation. When you go to Portfolio the Getting started drop down sometimes kicks in and that covers about 2 inches of my trading platform. The Knowledge centre is an even bigger pain in the butt as that obscures everything. They need to lower the trading platform by about an inch as the navigation bars are way too close.

VT Trader vs. Worldspreads

1 I prefer VT because it’s on the chart trading and I can enter my stops and limits much faster. I have also found a way to enter and exit trades fast on the VT like I do on Worldspreads. I find that I get so confused with the stops and having to type in a number and then remember whether to add or subtract for a buy or sell that I have had to enter the trade and then go back and put my stops in. if I do it all to start with I’ve missed the bus and its cost me valuable pips. In many instances especially when I am trading spikes. I have finished the trade before I can even enter my stop.
2 I prefer the smaller spread on Worldspreads
3 And I love the no taxes of Worldspreads which makes all of the above chicken feed really when you take the overall tax benefits into account.

This coming week I have to learn to enter my stops faster. I am also getting better with leaving after an hours trading and I think this next week will be better still. I am learning not to be greedy and take what I can get. Some times I do two trades to make 10 pips and when it takes a while to make those 10 that’s a sign that I’m not as quick on the uptake that day and need to stop while ahead. Other days I can bag 20 – 30 pips in one hour and that’s when the discipline really kicks in. It’s a good day for trading, I’m on the ball yet I have made 2 to 3 days quota in one day that makes up for any bad days I had or may have the next day and to get out. After that I trade my ‘demo’ risk account to get rid of the trading desire that makes me want to continue.

Trading spikes.

I spent a long time studying these and I found that early mornings are the best. Then between 1 and 3pm are also bringing up an opportunity or two as three markets are in session. I don’t trade a spike unless it goes up or down about 20 to 30 pips so that I have leeway either side to get in and get out. This way I reach my daily target with one trade. As you can see below, those are the spikes I traded. I went in at the top for a sell on the 5 minute chart and gave myself enough time to get in and get out.

I wait until there is a lull of a few seconds before entering and then I exit again at a lull or when it jumps a few pips up and down. Basically when it can’t decide whether to carry on going up or down that’s when I get in or out. If my pips are above 10 that’s also a happy sign to get out. Trading spikes in the afternoon is a baaaaaaad move. That’s when the Americans are taking the euro and pound for a joy ride and the spikes just mean it keeps on dropping.

In conclusion.

Longer term trading is not for me just yet. It doesn’t suit my nature. I like to bag what I have and get out while the goings good. With time and confidence I will possibly trade longer but the two long term trades I did over 24 hours were not worth the restless night and unease I felt all day. Even putting in big stops didn’t make me feel any better. I ended up worse off than if I traded the way I do.

I think the scalping course will suit me. Darren told me he trades the 1 minute but I won’t look at it until I’ve done the course. It’s a whole new ball game and when I stopped trading the 1 minute because I didn’t know what I was doing all of a sudden my trades turned into profits and my losses were drastically reduced. I also found out that lots of little trades build up. I ended up with 203 pips in 5 days.

Yes I’m hooked, energized and gaining confidence every day. As I have been trading £10 per trade I now need to start trading £1 and £3 per trade to get me used to the smaller results. Real life will start with £1 and £3 per trade. Even though I took out a £3000 account I will start by trading only on £1000.

And I think that covers about everything. I’m sure there may be more and if there is I will pop you another email. Have a great weekend. I’m spending mine walking reading and designing a new website for a client. Have a good one! Kind regards - Desiree