The start of my life...

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Hi everyone,

I thought I would start a journal as of course, my experience trading is different from any other that I have ever read about, and I thought it may be of at least some interest to a few people here.

For a bit of background, im 21 and graduating from Durham University at the end of June. As with pretty much everyone else I have long considered a variety of career paths, influenced somewhat by the fact i'm the 6th generation in the family business. One thing I know for sure is that unlike a lot of graduates I really DONT want to live in London.



While I've been growing up my Dad has always kept me semi-interested in the markets, I remember him making me some sort of demo share portfolio on either iii or FT when I was about 10, and trying to get me to make some fake money.

Since then my own interests have grown, and for a long time I have enjoyed helping to advise him on his own investments (mainly swing trading within ISAs).

For myself, I have been demo and paper trading various things over various timescales, as well as teaching myself some technical analysis, for the last couple of years.



Around a year ago I decided to try and work out some sort of strategy for day-trading the FTSE, which suits my brain. So, I came up with a plan in conjunction with my past experience of swing-trading.

My girlfriend is also at Uni, doing a masters, and she doesnt finish until Ocotober. That gives me 3 months from 1 July (Graduation) to 1 October.

My plan consists of two things. First, to use my ISA allowance for 2011 to swing-trade FTSE 350 shares. Second, to day trade the FTSE 100 index via spread betting.

This level of investment is an acceptable level of risk considering my total capital etc etc etc.



So, 3 months of trading to decide whether I want to keep doing it. 3 months of trading to perhaps use as an aid in future job hunting.

All my money management systems have already been worked out, my basic strategies have been paper and demo traded, and my ISA swing-trading techniques have been used live successfully.

My plan from now is to refine my strategies, do my one exam i need to hopefully get a good degree, and prepare for that start date, July 1st.

I'll aim to keep this thread updated both as a record for myself, and hopefully just in case at least one person out there finds my experiences slightly interesting! I've gained a lot from T2W so hopefully I can give a little something back.
 
Good luck.

As an aside, if you have the funds, why not day trade U.S. stocks? There are generally many more opportunities.
 
Hi Amit, a few things really.

Time of day, after being a student for 3 years I want this to feel as much like a job as possible, i think that will help me be successful. If that means getting up for the FTSE open thats great. I'm also slightly limited by the fact im behind a horrible university firewall which doesnt seem too fond of much DMA, and on a Mac.

Second, I probably made a completely brainfart and thought "FTSE has the smallest spread lets trade that." Interesting to consider whether that is a sound business move or not depending on how many trades you would do on each and relative profit/loss.

Third, I guess some very weak sense of patriotism.
 
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Well you could trade the FTSE in the morning and trade the U.S. at around 2pm London time? Get the best of both worlds.

Also, I would suggest caution against your 3-month plan. 3 months isn't anywhere enough time to decide whether or not trading works. It takes much longer than that. Don't be put off if your first three months don't go as well as you planned. On the other hand, remain complacent if your first three months go well.
 
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This is very interesting to me, like you im a young trader and also like FTSE trading...

I'll be keeping an eye on this for sure mate, good luck (y)
 
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