Diary of a swing spread better

Profit from the DOW

Pocketed 44 quid profit from shorting the DOW. Sold at the top, bought back near the 250 period blue line. As I write this, the line has been broken.

A day of some small profits and one small loss but they all added up nicely.

Still short the FTSE and as it is the DOW's poodle, it will almost surely make me a few more quids.
 

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Costly mistake

How wrong I was to think that trading on the NYSE would close at 8:30 :eek: In fact it's not until 9PM GMT. Closed out my FTSE trades at a loss of 5 quids in a rush to end the week with no opening positions.

And I also just caught about half of the DOW's fall. Got out just before the price breaks the blue line.

A lesson a day.
 

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hungvir said:
Hi Split,

I hope I did not encourage you :( I was only right about the risk is small enough :(

Anyway, I am betting big on the FTSE closing below 5810 today. Will see how it goes.

Later,

Hung

Not at all. I was open before I read your post and it's no big deal.

Split
 
Splitlink said:
Not at all. I was open before I read your post and it's no big deal.

Split

It's great that you exited the trade with such a small loss. I trade the DOW and FTSE a lot of late and I can never dream of getting out at just 7 points against me. More like 70 points.

Have a good weekend!

Hung
 
Bewilderment

I've more than doubled my tiny capital in three weeks but it caused my bewilderment rather than invincibility.

I happened to day trade indices more often than shares swing trading and it also happens that I timed the market quite well.

Or may be I just have been lucky. The market seems to zig-zag and I incidentally got in and got out at the right time. Had it trended up or down, the strategy of calling temporary tops or bottoms could have ended in tragedy.

But what I discovered is indices move the 20 points plus distance several times a day. If I have the time to capture these moves, I can probably make about 20-40 points every day. With my maximum stake capped at 5 pounds at the moment, it can mean 100-200 pounds profit.

I'll study the DOW more in the next few weeks.
 
hungvir said:
It's great that you exited the trade with such a small loss. I trade the DOW and FTSE a lot of late and I can never dream of getting out at just 7 points against me. More like 70 points.

Have a good weekend!

Hung

The nature of the trade helped me to get out with only 7 points lost. It was a low risk, to start with. Knowing where your stop should be before entering is a comfort. However, looking at the chart of MKS this morning makes me wonder why I did it- it is in an uptrend! :eek: Averages do help one to decide what the trend is and I will use mine more often.

Take care with the Dow and Good Luck. I'm for a quieter life!

Split
 
Last edited:
I had been trading stocks for a while and my profits are ok but I was wondering, if I can make more money on Forex, e-mini, futures or option than the stocks. Can anyone please tell me which one of those can be volatile thus making more and loosing more in short period of time. THX. :)
 
rateesquad said:
I had been trading stocks for a while and my profits are ok but I was wondering, if I can make more money on Forex, e-mini, futures or option than the stocks. Can anyone please tell me which one of those can be volatile thus making more and loosing more in short period of time. THX. :)

Forex is obviously the most volatile you can find on earth I would think. An extension from what you're doing is better than venturing into a totally new market. I used to know someone who makes money from writting options on the shares he owns.

Good trading,

Hung
 
Splitlink said:
The nature of the trade helped me to get out with only 7 points lost. It was a low risk, to start with. Knowing where your stop should be before entering is a comfort. However, looking at the chart of MKS this morning makes me wonder why I did it- it is in an uptrend! :eek: Averages do help one to decide what the trend is and I will use mine more often.

Take care with the Dow and Good Luck. I'm for a quieter life!

Split

Thank you, Split! I'll start using smaller stakes with Finspreads to test my strategy in the next few weeks and only bet big when the odds are in my favour.

I think if you bet big on shares and I bet small on the DOW, our lives are still quiet enough :)

Later,

Hung
 
Disaster recipe

I think I have the recipe for disaster. Actually I used it last week. But it did not end up in disaster yet.

Firstly, I added to at least two losing short positions on the FTSE and the DOW. But as the DOW and the FTSE tend to give back most of the gains by the end of the trading day, I was alright.

Secondly, I did not put in stops immediately after positions were openned. This was mainly due to my strong view that the market could not move against me big time. And I was able to follow the trades.

In my defense, I did study the market before entering the trades and my guesses were 'highly educated'.

I am still a rule breaker and a bit of a gambler.

But as anything can happen in the market, adding to losing positions and not placing stop loss soon enough are perfect recipe for disaster.
 
hungvir said:
Thank you, Split! I'll start using smaller stakes with Finspreads to test my strategy in the next few weeks and only bet big when the odds are in my favour.

I think if you bet big on shares and I bet small on the DOW, our lives are still quiet enough :)

Later,

Hung

Dow is notoriously volatile. Are you going to trade intraday? I have been warned by other well meaning souls to be careful overnight, especially with the Dow.

Hey! I hope your kids enjoyed the evening out. It's good to spend the winnings, isn't it? Doesn't last long, though :cry: , but it is money well spent.

Split
 
Splitlink said:
Dow is notoriously volatile. Are you going to trade intraday? I have been warned by other well meaning souls to be careful overnight, especially with the Dow.

Split

Not if you compare it to Google :) I'll surely not hold any DOW positions overnight anymore. If both the DOW and the FTSE don't make their minds up, pocketing 20-40 points a day in my view is not that difficult. I have a feeling that they are on a bouncy castle at the moment.

It's funny that on the two trades that I followed strict swing trading rules, I lost. All the money I made so far was from rules breaking :)
 
This is a fantastic blog Hung, Keep it going as i've have made £23 with min outlay from following UR insight :p :p .

Regards
IM5
 
Thank you IM5 (not MI5 by any chance :) ). I do need encouragement!

I don't alway put money where my mouth is, so beware :LOL: What trade did you take if you don't mind me asking.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Best,

Hung
 
:p Hang on Hung. It's Sat night, should you not be out ?. Me i just finished work 1hr ago so i should be here looking whats going on. Mooching around other sites looking 4 small (big) gains next week.

Have a day off 2morrow.

Rest period, read Sunday papers.

IM5
 
iornmonkey5 said:
:p Hang on Hung. It's Sat night, should you not be out ?. Me i just finished work 1hr ago so i should be here looking whats going on. Mooching around other sites looking 4 small (big) gains next week.

Have a day off 2morrow.

Rest period, read Sunday papers.

IM5

My wife is hanging out with her friends so I stay home with the little ones :cry:

And I'll be working tomorrow. The only advantage of working Sunday is the office will be so tranquil and I have loads of newspaper to read.

Have a good night!

H
 
Hello Hung,
When the screen showed you as "Senior Member" i took it to mean that you could have been my grandad. This person should have kiddies to look after him in his old age.. Stay at home tonight and send them out to cover your shift.

IM5
 
iornmonkey5 said:
Hello Hung,
When the screen showed you as "Senior Member" i took it to mean that you could have been my grandad. This person should have kiddies to look after him in his old age.. Stay at home tonight and send them out to cover your shift.

IM5

I was a rookie like you three weeks ago but suddenly became 'senior member'. I think you become a member when you'll have posted more than 50 times and a senior one when you add another 50 to that.

I still have to take my kids to school every morning so it'll be a long wait for them to go out and bring money to fun my spread betting 'hobby'.

Good talking to you!
 
By the way, I attended the obscenly expensive trading seminar by Chris Manning and one more by Investors chronicle a few years back. If you watch this space, I'll summarise some of the main points from these two training events in case you and others are interested.

It will take a while to find them back though :)
 
By the way, I attended the obscenly expensive trading seminar by Chris Manning and one more by Investors chronicle a few years back. If you watch this space, I'll summarise some of the main points from these two training events in case you and others are interested.

Hung.

Thanks 4 that. I as i am sure many others will wait for your views with anticipation.
 
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