Arbu does Free Proprietary Trader Training

I was thinking for a while of doing one of the paid trader training course but in the end decided to follow the recommendation to save a lot of money and teach myself . So here's a journal to track how it goes. I'm actually two months into it now and so will be copying a lot of what's in my existing trading journal which I've kept on my computer into here. I've been able to devote maybe half my time to this project.

29th November

I shorted ocado shares a couple of times over the summer and made about £80 each time. I use ocado myself and they just seem too generous in their discounts and I know they've never made a profit. So I shorted them again on a rise for which there seemed to be little explanation. There was some talk about Morrissons buying ocado, but that didn't seem possible. I was getting more confident so went for a £20 stake. Set my stop loss to a level which I just couldn't see it reaching.

Reading "The Futures Game" as recommended in the training course, and sorting out an extra monitor.

3rd December

ocado has gone up and hit my stop. It just seems to make no sense to me at all. Maybe too many other people have been shorting it, and they're all having to close their positions? £280 down.

"The Futures Game" is pretty dry. But I take the point that the futures markets do provide a service for hedging and so movements aren't just random - speculators are in effect providing a service to hedgers so should be rewarded for doing so. It's just very hard to be on top of it.

Spending quite a lot of time familiarising myself with different platforms.

6th December


Trading the FTSE on a demo platform using Bollinger Bands and MACD as suggested in this thread. Didn't work. It seems to be a lot harder to make it work in practice than when you look at a graph in retrospect.

14th December

Still using the demo platform. Using some of the technical trading ideas suggested by the broker. These seem to be based largely on support and resistance levels. Didn't work. Lost quite a lot of money.

31st December

Demo account has been closed because I've had it for a month now. Lost money on that nearly every day I used it.

6th January

Reading a couple of books I already owned - Anthony Bolton's Investing Against the Tide and the FT guide to Using the Financial Pages.

13th January

Reading New Market Wizards. Interesting, although it was written quite a while ago and I'm sure things have changed quite a bit since then.

18th January

I have a new demo platform and a live one. Awaited CPI figure at 9:30am. I thought it was going to be bad so went short the FTSE on the demo platform on good Bollinger and MACD signals. The trade worked and I closed out for a small profit but I should really have sold GBP instead for more movement.

20th January

I think oil is reaching the end of its upward run. It keeps hitting resistance at about $98.50 and there are questions about both Western and Eastern economies. Formed a plan to short it on good MACD and Bollinger signals. Did this on the demo and soon saw a big profit. Saw another opportunity to get in for more downside so went in on the live account. Downward trend slowed down. Decided to wait for good technical signals to get out, but they didn't come. It started climbing rapidly. Closed out for £83 loss.

24th January

I still think oil is going to go down. Tried a short trade based n the MACD and Bollinger bands but it didn't work. Lost about £20.

25th January

Awaiting the GDP announcement. Analysts expectations are +0.2 to +0.6%. I ask myself, "Could it be outside these figures?" I conclude that probably not, the analysts know what they're talking about, but I think it will be poor. My impression is that companies are keeping a much closer rein on their finances than before and they must be feeling the pinch a bit. So I short the FTSE. Again I should have done GBPUSD. But anyway I make about £40. Surprised at how long the FTSE took to go down. And analysts clearly don't know what they're talking about.

Reading Way of the Turtle.

31st January

Oil made new highs on Friday afternoon and still there today. So waited for good short term signal on MACD and Bollinger bands and bought, in accordance with rules in Way of the Turtle.

1st February

Oil at new highs again, so increased position as per Way of the Turtle.

Good luck with your journal and trading!

That's the reason you learn for yourself!!
Analysts are mainly salesman, many don't even trade.

Peter