dr.blix's 'trades of shame' journal

dr.blix

dr.blix

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ok, i'm going to keep a journal of my trades.

this is in an attempt to shame myself into not opening stupid positions, as i tend to do through lack of patience.

i'll probably not get past five posts before i get bored and give up on the concept, but hey...whaddya want, War and Peace? i'm not getting paid by the word here.
 
i'll start with the positions i have open...i trade in some equities through an on-line broker and i spread bet FX, which i'm utterly crap at.

i currently have two equities...African Eagle Resources (AFE) and Regency Mines (RGM). i've recently been trading Sterling Energy, Mwana Africa, Arian Silver (i sh#t you not) and a few other miners.

i just took a loss on Hayward Williams which i'm disappointed with, but at least i got stopped out and am not stuck with them as they're currently temporarily de-listed.

i bought AFE as it seemed to be respecting a nice stable up trend...i bought @ 4.8p and, as is usual with most small caps, had to overcome a shocking spread.

RGM is looking a bit dicey, not a very clever buy, though it was in a up trend, but looking more like a bearflag thats collapsed.

EDIT: i'll post some charts.
 
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btw, does anyone mind if i put commas before the word 'and'?

i've been told its bad grammar but i don't seem to be able to naturally avoid it.

also, if anyone can tell me how to change my 'country of origin' flag i'd really appreciate it...i want mine to show North Korea to tie in with my avatar...
 
I am ok with the commas in front of "and", and this is how you change your country:
 

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Top marks for honesty dr.blix.

With your focus on smallcap miners it looks like you're a committed stock-picker. I have thought for some time that there are just a few sectors where smallcaps sometimes explode in price - mineral prospectors / miners being one of the select group. Is this why you're in mining or is it some deeper analysis or maybe professional experience?
 
tomorton said:
Top marks for honesty dr.blix.

With your focus on smallcap miners it looks like you're a committed stock-picker. I have thought for some time that there are just a few sectors where smallcaps sometimes explode in price - mineral prospectors / miners being one of the select group. Is this why you're in mining or is it some deeper analysis or maybe professional experience?
Click to expand...

hey tom,

no, it's purely the phenomenal price shifts that can occur that got me interested in smallcap miners.

unfortunately it was a little too late in the day when i started focusing on them (beginning of sept)...most had already went into orbit with what i'm assuming was the round of buying set off by breaking out of the may/june/july sideways markets.

i've heard that minerals/commodities drive recoveries, so it seems a good place to be after a recession.

i've also noted barclays buying up a lot of the companies i've been looking at and was told recently that they had set up a department for the sole purpose of buying smallcap miners that have a possibility of being taken over by the bigger players.
 
dr.blix said:
cheers mr. bickle
Click to expand...

Hello, Hans. I have a similar journal: I write down all my trades, and I shame myself when I don't do what I should be doing (they should be all automated, without any discretionary trading). I lack patience, too, among many other things needed for profitable trading.
 
i'm incredibly close to ditching (RGM)...the difficulty in trading small caps is there is very little 'headroom' if you want to even remotely keep within some sort of R/R setup.

the spreads can be from 5 - 40 % of your position size...this regularly blasts through any R/R calculations (of which i still struggle to get past 1:1 - 1:2) on the spread alone as my account is a small one.

it sometimes makes it hard, or impossible, to have any room left for price movement before you're forced to either ditch or take a much wider stop and give the old 'well it could still be a long term investment' statement.
 
Do you trade the small ones online or can you call your broker?

If you can call them then you can ask them to try a limit with the broker.

say for example they ar 5-6p on the screen, the market maker may have a seller at 5.5 or 5.25 so you could ask the broker to see if the MM wants to sell any at 5.75. Obviously he'ds like to sell at 6 but if he's got to sell on millions of them then he'd b ehappy to take 1/4p just to get some done.
 
regarding this last 'holding shares' statement...i realise that it's not what you're supposed to do...but i can't help but notice that...on quite a few occasions i'd have made a lot of money from just doing that.

simply holding onto them.

i've been trading Yell Group for almost a year. it seems i have no problem @rsing about with them when they are making small moves, but avoid them like the plague when they are make large, key moves.

i held a lot of Yell when they were @ 30p...i ditched them through fear of them falling after a period of sideways movement, only for them to completely take off. i was so sickened by missing out on one of the best price moves in 12 months, that i moved onto something else while they climbed to 80p.

something a chap said on another thread seemed to make a lot of sense..."fear will keep you out of the good trades and greed will keep you in the bad ones".
 
foredog said:
Do you trade the small ones online or can you call your broker?

If you can call them then you can ask them to try a limit with the broker.

say for example they ar 5-6p on the screen, the market maker may have a seller at 5.5 or 5.25 so you could ask the broker to see if the MM wants to sell any at 5.75. Obviously he'ds like to sell at 6 but if he's got to sell on millions of them then he'd b ehappy to take 1/4p just to get some done.
Click to expand...

that's an interesting point foredog. yes i do have telephone dealing with my broker. i'd never thought of trying to haggle the spread.
 
Check Time and sales see if any trades printing inside the spread, or ask them if the market makers machines are offering stock any cheaper. If they are 5-6 and the MM is offering them at 5.9 on machine then they may sell some lower than that, worst is they could say no.
 
ok RGM have moved back into the exact position i bought them in. the spread is 10 % of my position size, so it's a bit fruity, but not the worst i've had to contend with.
 
small caps can be incredibly sensitive to leading index movements.

they can rocket in price if sentiment is up, but any signs of corrections and they're dumped quicker than a blind-date with bad teeth.
 
it's funny to note that often after enormous unexplained price moves, the company in question is forced to make an RNS announcement with some key news/data.

the price move was the company giving a heads up to it's preferred analysts in an attempt to gain favour in the form of favourable ratings, and the favoured bank/analysts giving a heads up to it's preferred clients/hedge fund managers in an attempt to keep them happy and gain more commission.
 
dr.blix said:
ok, i'm going to keep a journal of my trades.

this is in an attempt to shame myself into not opening stupid positions, as i tend to do through lack of patience.

i'll probably not get past five posts before i get bored and give up on the concept, but hey...whaddya want, War and Peace? i'm not getting paid by the word here.
Click to expand...

Haha...

Look forward to it my friend
 
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