How I turned £3000 into £20,000 in 6 Weeks

Aston1st

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Title should read; "How I turned £3,000 into £20,000 in 6 Weeks"

I had been trading futures & spread betting using various strategies with mixed results. I.e scratching or losing money. As you well know there are as many reasons for losing in trading as there are traders.

Last October 2010, I put around £3,000.00 in a spread betting account and traded the DAX. It was day trading.

1. Where as before I would trade around 20 -30 rts a day I slowed down to between 1 - 10.

2. Started trading at £5.00 then £10.00 , the margin requirements back then were £40.00 for each £1.00 traded, I traded aggressively.

3. At just before and at the Zenith of my trading I was trading £750.00 a tick! Obviously problems getting fills from a bucket shop spread betting account meant that I had to endure 4 ticks spillage!

4. I was using the High and Low of yesterday for my support and resistance levels and pivot points along with point and figure.

5. Initally I was aiming for 10 ticks a day, but often this was too easy to get which meant I traded for some times 20 even 50 ticks.

6. The Zenith of my trading account was £118,000 at which point I should have stopped and took all my gains or at least take half.

7. Largest winning day was £35,000 which was on an uneventful day, no real news out so was not too excited about it.

8. Largest losing day was £62,500 Ouch!!!!1
General rule was if no news was coming out, or if the magic charts did not display anything a lotof the interday "big" moves were fake moves and unless they were outside day's I would be cautious in reacting to them.

On the day the DAX was trading aroudn 6750.00 and heading south to the previous day's low, at around 6699 since I was trading at £750.00 a tick I could not take the pain anymore and exited. I then reversed my position on the rationale that if it did take the previous day's low I would reverse again and job 30 ticks! Ala's the price never hit the previous day's low as it was a fake move and it returned to my original position at 6750! at the end of the day.

9. previous to this my target was the DAX to reach 7,000 ( it's that and some all day long nowaday's) which would have given me around £260,000. Syliva from CNBC gave me the idea of reaching for the "Stars" previous to her comments I was trading simply on my own targets and levels. The 250 ticks were 250 ticks too far! Also should have reduced my size.

10. Undeterred from that mega day loss I figured that with £25,000 left in the account I could easily double it in 10 days. Of course I had not figured on the Irish Question that day which is the second big dip on the chart was my worst as I throw my rules out the window. Initially I managed to gain ground only to throw it away.

11. Throughout the trading period I took numerous draw's on the account and spent the money thus my £25,000 profit was frozen at that level as I had no more funds in the Account.

I learnt a number of very valuable lessons during that trading session.

1. It is best to start with a decent size account. Then go for 10 ticks a day or if too easy 10 in the morning and 10 in the afternoon. If you can trade at £100.00 a tick that's over £200,000 a year!

2. Dont' look at the money direct but see the account in terms of numbers of units.
This is so the money doe'snt get in the way of trading how you see the market. Don't try to impose your will on the market, if you have an appointment or your wife gives birth don't try and trade around it or before your appointment trying to tell the market to hurry up and allow you to take your profit!!! :smart:

3. It's possible, to make real money in this game, as an independant or retail trader.

4. When trading, take money out regular, place some of it in :

a; Your reserve trading account that should try to equal your optimum trading account i.e if you start with £10,0000 your reserve should also be built up to £10,000 as you grow so should your reserve.

b; Pay yourself regularly, as paper profits are just that Paper Profits, having £100,000 in my trading account was a great feeling. Not taking the money off the table when I had it is a great regret!

Last but not least, take advice from Oliver Twist's Fagan:

"Only one thing in this world counts, and that's money in the Bank in Large amounts."

Now I have to gather some more capital to trade again. Prop shops won't touch me with a barge pole as VAR is too risky for them and trading period too short.
 

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Re: How I turn £3000 into £20,000 in 6 Weeks

Just don't let the scared money change you.
 
Maybe we should start a thread titled "war wounds" or something like that which is dedicated to stories like this.
 
You mentioned you traded aggressively, does that mean that your risk per trade was typically higher than 1-3%? - and if so, how much did you typically risk?
 
Maybe we should start a thread titled "war wounds" or something like that which is dedicated to stories like this.

Yes maybe you had. Because this is supposed to be a trader platform with traders sharing thier knowledge and experience, which is why I posted this. For me it was not a wound but an enlightenment. Why. Because sitting in a prop shop with a load of traders' talking about everything and saying nothing I found to be a load of bull ****.

Most of the traders are not earning much at all, around £50,000 - 100,000 if your lucky. When one considers the hours put in it doe'snt add up to much. Other than working for the gilt edged firms there are not many millionaire independent traders, trading for a living. Which in my experience is in stark contrast to other less salubrious sectors.

My experience last year, allowed me to see things as they really are. Especially in terms of earning potential and required effort as well as time frame. Esssentially during that period I traded and broke nearly every rule I had been told about traded, 1-3% risk capital included. It brought home to me just how much self study and application were required rather than reading text books or following the rules of the "House" to generate round turns and pay desk fees.
 
Just to add to this, i know a guy that ran £500 into £30k in 2 months spreadbetting only to take a 20 grand hit and get scared off. I keep telling him that even walking away with £10k is an amazing return but he is convinced trading is not for him as he doesnt have the discipline. Give me an undisciplined 1000% return a month anyday!

just out of interest Aston what was your typical risk/reward in ticks each trade?
 
Just to add to this, i know a guy that ran £500 into £30k in 2 months spreadbetting only to take a 20 grand hit and get scared off. I keep telling him that even walking away with £10k is an amazing return but he is convinced trading is not for him as he doesnt have the discipline. Give me an undisciplined 1000% return a month anyday!

He's right, you have to get incredibly lucky to build an account that fast and he knows it. He's just cheating variance and was smart enough to realise that. You could try trading that way but chances are you'll bust an account numerous times trying.
 
He's right, you have to get incredibly lucky to build an account that fast and he knows it. He's just cheating variance and was smart enough to realise that. You could try trading that way but chances are you'll bust an account numerous times trying.

Still, I would not give up that easily. If he went back to £500 every time he got to £5000 he would be reducing his risk. I think that I would give it a try. He must have been doing something right and needs to find out what it was.
 
This is really awesome to see. Losing can be pretty discouraging but its great that you kept at it. Thanks for the advice.
 
Last October 2010, I put around £3,000.00 in a spread betting account and traded the DAX. It was day trading.
Hi Aston - if I'm not being too nosy, which broker did you use? Did you get put on 'dealer confirm' or start getting slower fills and more requotes at any time?
 
Awesome story mate, the 60k in a day loss must of been heart breaking...

Glad to see you are going to carry on with it, good luck & you should keep us posted :)
 
Hi Aston - if I'm not being too nosy, which broker did you use? Did you get put on 'dealer confirm' or start getting slower fills and more requotes at any time?

This was a major problem. I was using CMC !!!! As I was increasing my size I could feel the hesitation on their side, at times as mentioned I was getting fills 3-4 ticks off side. I should have taken most of the money and placed it with a better broker. But the fact was the losses were due to my trading and risk adverse profile than bad fills.
 
Awesome story mate, the 60k in a day loss must of been heart breaking...

Glad to see you are going to carry on with it, good luck & you should keep us posted :)

I have gone over that £62,500 lost ( in an afternoon!) often, this came not long after I had made £35,000 in one day, the former being more memorable than the latter! That was a day I broke my own rules. Had I of obeyed my own rule:

"Accept the Risk" even if I had of still lost the money mentally I would have been in a better position to recover from the loss."
 
Still, I would not give up that easily. If he went back to £500 every time he got to £5000 he would be reducing his risk. I think that I would give it a try. He must have been doing something right and needs to find out what it was.

The total number of trades I carried out between 1st October and 30 November was 472 so it was not a wild punt on Non Farm Pay rolls.

Greed and impatience was my problem. The greed as I was trying to generate enough profits to buy a small house outright or big deposit by the time the DAX reached 7,000. My wife keep telling
" it will go to 7,000 but it's the journey it takes that will make it difficult" .....Women, often say silly things and it's always a fool that fails to listen!

My target was £260,000 then I was going place a large deposit on a house, place some in reserve and have a £50,000 trading account.

"Had I of" (massive proviso) had a target of say just £50,000 then reduced my trading size to say £200.00 a tick this would have allowed me to trade the long haul without too much risk, looking at taking 10 ticks a day, that would generate £40,000 per month!

I think at £500.00 to £750.00 a tick one's account has to be at least £150,000.

Unfortunately CMC, the brokers I used have increased their margins so it's harder to pyramid as fast as before.
 
My hero, if you can do it once - then chances are you can do it again with a bit of luck.

Cheers, that is my intention. However I believe to get a better shot at it one needs to be better capitalised. I am now working to build up my "Grub stake" to be minimum of £10,000 this should yield me around £500.00 per day.

As mentioned the trick is to earn enough per day to entice you to stop and say:

"£500.00 per day for 3 months is not bad, before upping it to £1,000. "
 
You mentioned you traded aggressively, does that mean that your risk per trade was typically higher than 1-3%? - and if so, how much did you typically risk?

The most significant lesson I learned was to follow one's own understanding of the markets and one's risk tolerance.

My risk per trade was significantly bigger than 1-3% this is because I was using my "magic charts" for stops,

1. The HLOC of the previous day - for significant daily levels

2. Point and Figure, 1 box 3 Reversal for support and resistance levels especially if the price was going mad.

In direct answer to your question, this would be an example:

If I had £10,000 in the account. I would want to have a 100 tick reserve maximum size with a margin of £70.00 per £1.00 this would be around £60.00 per tick. pearing it down to £50.00 a tick i would look to gain 10 ticks per trade.

1st, the Entry should be a high probability that 10 ticks could be achieved:
"This is the Trade what you see element" let's say a spike in upward volume causing a bearish hammer ( Candlesticks) my stop would be the lengh of the hammer, divided by 20% of my trading account, determines my size I would trade.
 
Just to add to this, i know a guy that ran £500 into £30k in 2 months spreadbetting only to take a 20 grand hit and get scared off. I keep telling him that even walking away with £10k is an amazing return but he is convinced trading is not for him as he doesnt have the discipline. Give me an undisciplined 1000% return a month anyday!

just out of interest Aston what was your typical risk/reward in ticks each trade?

The problem with your friend is all in his mind. Which is where the problem is with the majority of traders.

I so often could flip £200.00 into £800 - 1,000 in a day. Then once I reached £1,500 would hand it all back to the the market. Because some where in my brain I was telling myself that gaining more than £1,500 a day or two is not right or possible for me.

What gave me the break through was to look at :

200 - 1000 as one unit.

400 - 2000 as one unit

2000 - 10,000 as one unit

10,000 - 50,000 as one unit

scaling the size as the margin requirements are achieved.

To reduce risk half the unit's.

Not sure if I am making sense here but it works for me.
 
Title should read; "How I turned £3,000 into £20,000 in 6 Weeks"

I had been trading futures & spread betting using various strategies with mixed results. I.e scratching or losing money. As you well know there are as many reasons for losing in trading as there are traders.

Last October 2010, I put around £3,000.00 in a spread betting account and traded the DAX. It was day trading.

1. Where as before I would trade around 20 -30 rts a day I slowed down to between 1 - 10.

2. Started trading at £5.00 then £10.00 , the margin requirements back then were £40.00 for each £1.00 traded, I traded aggressively.

3. At just before and at the Zenith of my trading I was trading £750.00 a tick! Obviously problems getting fills from a bucket shop spread betting account meant that I had to endure 4 ticks spillage!

4. I was using the High and Low of yesterday for my support and resistance levels and pivot points along with point and figure.

5. Initally I was aiming for 10 ticks a day, but often this was too easy to get which meant I traded for some times 20 even 50 ticks.

6. The Zenith of my trading account was £118,000 at which point I should have stopped and took all my gains or at least take half.

7. Largest winning day was £35,000 which was on an uneventful day, no real news out so was not too excited about it.

8. Largest losing day was £62,500 Ouch!!!!1
General rule was if no news was coming out, or if the magic charts did not display anything a lotof the interday "big" moves were fake moves and unless they were outside day's I would be cautious in reacting to them.

On the day the DAX was trading aroudn 6750.00 and heading south to the previous day's low, at around 6699 since I was trading at £750.00 a tick I could not take the pain anymore and exited. I then reversed my position on the rationale that if it did take the previous day's low I would reverse again and job 30 ticks! Ala's the price never hit the previous day's low as it was a fake move and it returned to my original position at 6750! at the end of the day.

9. previous to this my target was the DAX to reach 7,000 ( it's that and some all day long nowaday's) which would have given me around £260,000. Syliva from CNBC gave me the idea of reaching for the "Stars" previous to her comments I was trading simply on my own targets and levels. The 250 ticks were 250 ticks too far! Also should have reduced my size.

10. Undeterred from that mega day loss I figured that with £25,000 left in the account I could easily double it in 10 days. Of course I had not figured on the Irish Question that day which is the second big dip on the chart was my worst as I throw my rules out the window. Initially I managed to gain ground only to throw it away.

11. Throughout the trading period I took numerous draw's on the account and spent the money thus my £25,000 profit was frozen at that level as I had no more funds in the Account.

I learnt a number of very valuable lessons during that trading session.

1. It is best to start with a decent size account. Then go for 10 ticks a day or if too easy 10 in the morning and 10 in the afternoon. If you can trade at £100.00 a tick that's over £200,000 a year!

2. Dont' look at the money direct but see the account in terms of numbers of units.
This is so the money doe'snt get in the way of trading how you see the market. Don't try to impose your will on the market, if you have an appointment or your wife gives birth don't try and trade around it or before your appointment trying to tell the market to hurry up and allow you to take your profit!!! :smart:

3. It's possible, to make real money in this game, as an independant or retail trader.

4. When trading, take money out regular, place some of it in :

a; Your reserve trading account that should try to equal your optimum trading account i.e if you start with £10,0000 your reserve should also be built up to £10,000 as you grow so should your reserve.

b; Pay yourself regularly, as paper profits are just that Paper Profits, having £100,000 in my trading account was a great feeling. Not taking the money off the table when I had it is a great regret!

Last but not least, take advice from Oliver Twist's Fagan:

"Only one thing in this world counts, and that's money in the Bank in Large amounts."

Now I have to gather some more capital to trade again. Prop shops won't touch me with a barge pole as VAR is too risky for them and trading period too short.


" A man can have all the money in the world - but if hes stuck in the desert, hell swap all those riches without hesitation for a glass of water " ... !!
 
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