Newbie Assistance/Advice

Firstly, hello all, please bear with me as I am useless with official terms at the moment and hopefully this will make sense. (Questions will be at the bottom)

About 2 weeks ago I thought about daytrading and started reading as much as possible thats available to me. obviously decided not to go on a course as everywhere with real people recommends DONT DO IT!! Started going forums etc for help and discovered trading strategies that seemed simple at the time, however, got quite lost after a day or so and then began again reading about oscillators, Moving Averages, daily, 4hr,1hr,5Minute and 1Minute Charts. I then opened a demo account last monday and began trading on 1m charts on FTSE 100 index with MA20, MA50 and MA100 also with oscillator. I done ok, trading up to 20 times in day (£10 per pointwith 20x stop loss, somtimes 1minute trades some approx 30mins) when approx 65 and 35 were breached on the oscillator also when each of the lines crossed. After the first two days, I made a pact that I will never trade until 9.30am and after 3.45pm-ish as these, at the moment are too unpredictable. I have also developed a habit which seems to help. Each time the market moves against I SB again for the same amount at the lower/higher price, thus when it does go the way my "indicators" said it would, it was easier to make a profit.

Until today it was fine, then after the market dropped at about 10ish and continued to go down a couple hit the stop and bombed out, but the 4 that I had remaining carried on and then at 1.30 it bombed again but quickly resumed going back to where I thought it was going and in the end made a profit. I didnt want this happening again, so when it topped out on the oscillator again later on, I went against, but continued to go up. once again, it came back to where I thought it was going to go and made a profit. However, one both occasions (including some last week) I pulled the plug, made a profit, but still went the way I was predicting. The difference I have made today, is that I am now looking at 4hr and 5min charts with oscillator and MA20 etc... and now with all three charts, I am comparing what all of them are saying and if the general gist is that are going to go a particular way I go with, but am generally waiting out the losses to come back into profit.

1. Does this make sense?
2. Am I doing anything right?
3. What else can I do or should I be doing?
4. Do others refuse to trade at certain times?

Just so you know, I have also added 1.30pm (10 mins either side) to non trading hours now and am using real time charts.

I have no doubts that any questions from you guys will spurn more questions from me, so once again, please bear with me.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts,

Cheers

Dean

Oooh thats the other thing I forget to ask..

5. Do others get the same impulse to stop a trade when it hits their price point? I really dont get phased by it going above or below providing I am in profit, I just wonder whether I should be holding out as a rule.

Cheers,

Dean

I then opened a demo account last monday and began trading on 1m charts on FTSE 100 index with MA20, MA50 and MA100 also with oscillator. I done ok, trading up to 20 times in day (£10 per pointwith 20x stop loss, somtimes 1minute trades some approx 30mins)

£200 risk a pop for a new trader--good luck, you`ll need it.

I still don`t understand what the attraction is for guys with no experience of markets to get involved when it is fairly well known that a huge majority will lose their money. Nothing personal as I don`t know your circumstances but betting on the nags is a lot easier.
If I have understood your question--don`t open a second trade to try and recover--cut your hopefully small loss and go again-chasing trades is a surefire way for a beginner to empty their account.

Thanks Tommac.

As I said, I am new to this, but I will NOT be risking £200 for each bet starting out. Not sure why I started with an amount like this, however, made a strict point of staying at that limit to test myself and get ready so that I can stick to an amount until I am ready to move up the stakes.

Also, apart from second, 3rd and 4th trading charting and lookings at the MA's with Oscillators the right thing I should be doing? and do others do the same get out while a trade is good irrespective of where it goes next?

Please do not worry about insulting me or TELLING ME that I am doing something wrong, I wrote for advice not matter what. The only thing I do ask is that you be gentle when it comes to terminology as I am actually rubbish. it took me about an hour to write the above with all the right things (charts etc) I am using.

Cheers,

Dean

Hi Dean,

Kudos on the strategy already, at such an early stage in your career! It took me about six months to realise that there was more to it than just watching to see if the 'charty thing moved up or down'

First up: "Until today it was fine, then after the market dropped at about 10ish and continued to go down a couple hit the stop and bombed out, but the 4 that I had remaining carried on and then at 1.30 it bombed again"


yep.... welcome to trading. It's a long long road from here on in my friend.

Secondly: "I then opened a demo account last monday and began trading on 1m charts on FTSE 100 index with MA20, MA50 and MA100 also with oscillator. I done ok, trading up to 20 times in day (£10 per pointwith 20x stop loss, somtimes 1minute trades some approx 30mins)"


As a 'newbie' I think you should perhaps try moving up a timeframe to at least the H1. This will enable you to get a better feel for the market and how it moves, plus it will also enable you take a bit longer over your trades and ensure you're not just gambling, at the minute you might end up scalping (making lots of very small trades quickly for little profit, but also little loss)

You mention that you have a stop loss of 20, you should in that case be looking to have a take profit of around 40 for a Risk Reward (RR) of 1:2. So one win will be around two losses (deducting spread of course).

In this game know when to call it quits, that's my biggest fault, get out while you're ahead.


*********** of course all advice given by me comes with an obligitory pinch of salt by the way.


Happy trading

Hi Bakedbean, (like the pseudonym BTW)
In trading, you'll find,.over the years certain things tend to repeat. Profitable systems/strategies are formulated using this knowledge.
The folk who develop their systems know through experience what works and what doesn't.
To teach someone, is difficult because of the blind faith needed by the recipient to follow through,..
You seem to have the right attitude though,..keep it up, and make sure you journalize everything.

Thanks for all the messages so far. I appreciate people are slightly reluctant to divulge their trading strategies, but I did want to know whether I was doing something right and also where else I can start extracting information (not necessarily strategies) from, including including articles, books TV anything that anyone may think be beneficial. I am not sure about anyone else, but have started viewing CNBC and Bloomberg in the mornings, in addition to reading reading various online news articles to start getting myself in the mindset. Is this the correct path?

As of yesterday also, I have started having a guesstimate as to what I think the FTSE will do prior to open given the state of the DOW and NASDAQ. Is this right to be assuming their markets affect ours that much??

One further question, I have found on a thread within T2W mentioning FXStreet to get the daily upcoming influencial reports. They have a brief on what they are, but as a complete novice I am at a loss as to how to interpret them. Obviously, from yesterdays US interest rate release demonstrated it encouraged buying and the markets went up between 0.3 and 0.4% within minutes, and obviously SB would have allowed me to profit generously on this. Similarly Browns statement last week also influenced the UK market and once again went up.Anyway, is there any way of looking for previous examples of how the market reacted to certain news Interest rates, housing prices etc or is it just an experience thing? Any help on this would be great.

Just so you know I have now stopped placing additional "trades" if the market moves against me and now interpret 4 charts with various info on at the same time next to each rather than individually. So thanks for the advice.

Finally, What is peoples opinions on Ransquawk? ADFVN. I have been looking for a news broadcast system that is quick than IG news feed can supply, are there any good services to start having a look at?

Thanks in advance,

Dean