Redarts smartlive journal

[redart]

Equity is Into the £480's.
200 more pips to go to the £500 mark.

I actually called the overnight down move on cable but was already short audusd and assumed that if i was correct, then the audusd position would move down too as they've been moving together recently so thought id just leave my positions alone.

Woke up to find cable take a hit like id expected, my my position had barely moved!
Not to worry. Lesson learned hopefully.

Hopefully no big hits until i reach my target.

Im actually tempted to take all of the money out of I hit my target now.
I mentioned that im POOR and the £150 profit would be nice in my position and it would have come alot quicker than expected.

Not sure whether to take it out and come back to my journal and refund the account in a few months when i've hopefully got a job or just suck it up and carry on.

 

[redart]

Took a bit of a wack today.
Quite funny because im quite supersticious and earlier when i was writing about how im nearly at my target I thought ''im setting myself up for a fall here!!'' lol

AUDUSD hit my emergency stop on a short I was holding. It's already crashed 70 pips since i closed it which is very annoying. That's why i hate stops so much. They always always seem to get me out at the worst possible time.

Anyway, it's not a disaster. Im still ahead much more than i thought i would be and am fortunate that out of about 150 trades, this is the first one to hit my big stop

Lets see if i can get her to the £500's or whether things take a turn for the worse!

 

[leovirgo]

good job!

 

[redart]

Took a bit of a wack today.
Quite funny because im quite supersticious and earlier when i was writing about how im nearly at my target I thought ''im setting myself up for a fall here!!'' lol

AUDUSD hit my emergency stop on a short I was holding. It's already crashed 70 pips since i closed it which is very annoying. That's why i hate stops so much. They always always seem to get me out at the worst possible time.

Anyway, it's not a disaster. Im still ahead much more than i thought i would be and am fortunate that out of about 150 trades, this is the first one to hit my big stop

Initial target acchieved!

Was looking bad there for a while after that AUDUSD trade hitting my big stop setting me back quite a bit, but I've managed to get them losses back mainly on the DOW and more cable trading.

so, account is at £500 or so now from the £350.
For some of the journals here that £150 represesnts about 5 pips...its taken me about 1500!!! lol

I've probably been a little fortunate to only have my big stop hit once which meant I was able to grow the account with lots of small winners.

Not sure whether to carry on or take the money out. I'll see.
On the graph it looks like the account has been higher, but i now see that that's because it charts the balance rather than the equity which is silly to me. This is the first time my actual equity has been at £500.

 

[redart]

Ok, think im gonna try to get it to £550 or so which will be another 500pips
If i get there, ill use that £50 as a buffer to try out some new ideas where the trading will be stricter with more 'normal' stops and stuff.
Not sure ill bother keeping up the journal though. I think the amounts at stake are just too small to interest anyone.
Cheers for reading.
out.
red.

 

[wackypete2]

Ok, think im gonna try to get it to £550 or so which will be another 500pips
If i get there, ill use that £50 as a buffer to try out some new ideas where the trading will be stricter with more 'normal' stops and stuff.
Not sure ill bother keeping up the journal though. I think the amounts at stake are just too small to interest anyone.
Cheers for reading.
out.
red.

We're all here reading and commenting aren't we? Your small stake size isn't important. If you can learn to be consistently profitable with micro lots you can eventually build it up to standard lots. Whatever you decide good luck to you and continue popping into the live calls thread!

Peter

ADDED: I must admit this line did make me chuckle though:

For some of the journals here that £150 represesnts about 5 pips...its taken me about 1500!!! lol

 

[pki99]

Who are Smart Live Markets??

Hiya,

This has been interesting reading! I actually found this thread when trying to research Smart Live Markets. Heard about them elsewhere on Trade2Win and went to their website.

Sounds excellent - permanent 10p minimum trade size on FX and UK Stocks, industry minimum spreads for both, MT4, no min account size - and all in a spreadbet account rather than a FX / CFD account!

I've been looking for a company like this for years!

But they've got no adverts, no reviews, no press, no history (appear to be less than 1 year in the business) - all I can see is that they're FSA-registered and have other involvements e.g. Smart Live Casino (which isnt neccessarily reassuring)

Is anyone using them in anger with a few £thousands rather than a few £hundreds? Does anyone know more about them - or know a more established company offering a competing package?

I plan to test them out with a small account size and see how it goes. I'm a big fan of IG but the 50p min for FX is too much for my swing trading approach, and their spreads on UK stocks outside the FTSE100 is too wide.

Cheers all!

 

[sighthound]

Re: Who are Smart Live Markets??

Hiya,

This has been interesting reading! I actually found this thread when trying to research Smart Live Markets. Heard about them elsewhere on Trade2Win and went to their website.

Sounds excellent - permanent 10p minimum trade size on FX and UK Stocks, industry minimum spreads for both, MT4, no min account size - and all in a spreadbet account rather than a FX / CFD account!

I've been looking for a company like this for years!

But they've got no adverts, no reviews, no press, no history (appear to be less than 1 year in the business) - all I can see is that they're FSA-registered and have other involvements e.g. Smart Live Casino (which isnt neccessarily reassuring)

Is anyone using them in anger with a few £thousands rather than a few £hundreds? Does anyone know more about them - or know a more established company offering a competing package?

I plan to test them out with a small account size and see how it goes. I'm a big fan of IG but the 50p min for FX is too much for my swing trading approach, and their spreads on UK stocks outside the FTSE100 is too wide.

Cheers all!

After alot of searching around as well this might just be another sign of the industry moving forward.It looks like they may have done their homework espeacialy offering Spreadbetting on MT4 with a demo and 10p min stake if you go live.I have not found anyone else even close to this yet.Even at 50p-£1 min alot of people may not want bankroll that much with the margin calls but would be more at ease with a smaller risk.Anyway same as you pki99 only one way to find out,lets hope it does what it says on the tin

 

[Black Swan]

Re: Who are Smart Live Markets??

Hiya,

This has been interesting reading! I actually found this thread when trying to research Smart Live Markets. Heard about them elsewhere on Trade2Win and went to their website.

Sounds excellent - permanent 10p minimum trade size on FX and UK Stocks, industry minimum spreads for both, MT4, no min account size - and all in a spreadbet account rather than a FX / CFD account!

I've been looking for a company like this for years!

But they've got no adverts, no reviews, no press, no history (appear to be less than 1 year in the business) - all I can see is that they're FSA-registered and have other involvements e.g. Smart Live Casino (which isnt neccessarily reassuring)

Is anyone using them in anger with a few £thousands rather than a few £hundreds? Does anyone know more about them - or know a more established company offering a competing package?

I plan to test them out with a small account size and see how it goes. I'm a big fan of IG but the 50p min for FX is too much for my swing trading approach, and their spreads on UK stocks outside the FTSE100 is too wide.

Cheers all!

50p pp too much for swinging? TBH at that level folk can (and should) just gor for it, ( that's what it's there for), across as many pairs as possible. I agree with other sentiments re. SML, wish them well but it's a tough and quite well established market to break into. IMHO they'll get their proposition together and their infra-structure sound and look to sell onto a major bank...that's what I'd do anyhow, in fact I'd be doing it now.. if the SB firms are to get more competitive it has to come from 'giants' to really shake it up; huge US banks or Asian banks...

 

[pki99]

Re: Who are Smart Live Markets??

50p pp too much for swinging? TBH at that level folk can (and should) just gor for it, ( that's what it's there for), across as many pairs as possible. I agree with other sentiments re. SML, wish them well but it's a tough and quite well established market to break into. IMHO they'll get their proposition together and their infra-structure sound and look to sell onto a major bank...that's what I'd do anyhow, in fact I'd be doing it now.. if the SB firms are to get more competitive it has to come from 'giants' to really shake it up; huge US banks or Asian banks...

Hiya Black Swan,

How's it going? I saw your concerns re Smart Live Markets on the MT4 thread!

For us rookie traders swinging at 50pp can be too expensive. Using a 200 pip stop for e.g. requires a risk of £100 per trade - which means a £10k account if using 1% risk. And of course that still doesnt allow for scaling out. So for e.g. if you want to take half profit at 1:1 and half at 2:1, you need to trade at £1 a point and hence double your account size. I understand that's probably not a big deal to you but I know several new-ishtraders that hit this problem. The current solution is to trade with Forex micro accounts - but if you can spread bet all your trades, and all on the same platform with good charting and tight spreads across the board, its a very attractive proposition.

But I do agree with you.I dont know if they'll survive this business. Also their entry has been very low key and they have no real history or track record that i can find. I am not totally at ease with being a "beta-tester" for their platform and system - but no other SB firm offers the combination of desirable factors that they do. Believe me when I say I've looked and looked! (I'm not quite sure how they can afford to do this to be honest )

But I'll be opening an account with a few hundred pounds, and rely on the FSA protection to keep me solvent! And if IG or ETX decide to have an equivalent offering at some point then I'll be running back to them like a long lost lover!

 

[redart]

The real test will be when I attempt to withdraw my money i guess!
I've liked them so far. Tiny stakes and nice platform where i was able to have my ninjatrader indicators converted for me has been cool. Also been trying my hand at the odd stock trade too, although having to ignore lots of trades because the spreads are way too wide on most US stocks. Made good trades in KLAC today and on Friday.

 

[pki99]

The real test will be when I attempt to withdraw my money i guess!
I've liked them so far. Tiny stakes and nice platform where i was able to have my ninjatrader indicators converted for me has been cool. Also been trying my hand at the odd stock trade too, although having to ignore lots of trades because the spreads are way too wide on most US stocks. Made good trades in KLAC today and on Friday.

I've like stocks too alongside FX. Gives more trading opportunities for a swing trader. My only issue with them is the (overnight gaps) - something which FX is generally not subject to. I take it you prefer US stocks to UK stocks?

 

[redart]

I've like stocks too alongside FX. Gives more trading opportunities for a swing trader. My only issue with them is the (overnight gaps) - something which FX is generally not subject to. I take it you prefer US stocks to UK stocks?

Haven't looked at UK stocks in years, but from memory they just didn't generally move! I much prefer US stocks. They seem to respect my TA more.
I dont intend to hold any stock positions overnight so that doesn't bother me too much.
Im very limited to the stock trades i do because most of the decent stocks that move a fair bit (of which i have a list somewhere on my PC) have spreads of like 7c which just makes it too hard to daytrade in my opinion and Its not nice knowing that the 'real' market often has a 1-2c spread at the same moment in time.
KLAC generally has a 3c spread with smartlive along with 1 or 2 other nice movers, which i can live with, so i restrict myself to them stocks and play them if they setup ok.

Still, at this point, i've only made a handful of stock trades on this platform. Just experimenting alongside my little FX trades.

 

[Black Swan]

Re: Who are Smart Live Markets??

Hiya Black Swan,

For us rookie traders swinging at 50pp can be too expensive. Using a 200 pip stop for e.g. requires a risk of £100 per trade - which means a £10k account if using 1% risk.

Too much, in my experience my swing signals (at the extremes) is only circa 100 pips, but average at much, much less ,as does the average loss... 5K, 1% at 50pp should do it...

 

[advfntrader]

just found this when researching smartlive, look ideal for small stakes. hows the account going now ?

 

[redart]

just found this when researching smartlive, look ideal for small stakes. hows the account going now ?

On my last actual update, I had hit my target of £500 from the £350 I began with, trading at 10p per point.
I then decided that I wanted to get the account upto £550 to give me a little more buffer to have for when (if) I begin the 'next stage' of my experiment.

I am not trading at the moment and am working on how im gonna progress.
I plan to try lots of things out, one at a time.
Things like: '
'only concentrating on 1 instrument but using all of my setups and various timeframes'
'only concentrating on one timeframe and one instrument using various setups'
'only concentrating on one setup over various instruments'
'mechanical method with fixed stops and targets' etc etc.
Its making my head spin a little in fact, lol.

Reason is, at the moment, when im looking at intraday stuff, its just so 'manic'. Im looking at all types of setups i've developed over various timeframes, ancd concentrating on at least 4 instruments. I'm not sure that its the way to go and maybe makes it more difficult to analyse my methods strengths and weaknesses etc.

So not actually trading at the minute but hope to start again at some point and hit my next target of £550 using the same 'naughty'ish' method that I have been using thus far, at which point I will start trying out the above and have a 'Breakeven stop' on my account of £350

 

[advfntrader]

why not just continue the way you were until you have £1k. then double the stakes and keep going, so on until you have built up the account

 

[redart]

why not just continue the way you were until you have £1k. then double the stakes and keep going, so on until you have built up the account

I feel i'd be bound to hit my emergency stops a few times on route to the 1k if I kept going for too long - and blowing the account.

Its not a million miles away from 'spanish stops' or trading with no stops, really.
In my experience, this has been the only way possible for me to grow an account. In fact, it seems very likely, although at the same time, it is also a way to guarantee that you blow your account at some point in the future too! - Double edged sword, and impies that the best thing is to trade in a 'naughty' way and then take your money out and run and never look back! You'd be unlucky to blowm your account before making a few quid.

I guess im relying on a little bit of luck and hopefully some patient trading to give me a slight 'buffer'(hopefully about a £200 buffer) which I can use to begin to try out some of my theories.

Howver, that isn't where I want to be. I want to be trading with stops that dont hurt too much with the confidence that over time, I will come out ahead, which will give me teh confidence to take my hits without too much emotion and stressing.

If experience is anything to go by, when (if) I begin the 'next stage' of this thread, I will just slowly bleed money each week until i hit my 'stoploss' (which will be my starting account balance) lol.

Too busy to trade at the moment, but I will update the thread if I manage to start again at some point, and if I am able to hit my target of £550.
If I do that, I will continue the thread, starting with ONE of my many ideas/strategies, giving each one a month or so maybe. We'll see...

 

[redart]

Hopfully gonna start the process of losing some money soon
Getting away from the 'naughty' trading which has grown my account a little (as it always does until you hit the enevitable blowout trades) and start experimenting with various methods i've been working on.

In my experience, trading with 'propper' stops just bleeds my account everyday, but we'll see how it goes. I've built a small buffer, so worst case scenario, I go back to my starting balance.

I have decided which method im gonna start with.
It is the only one that i have done any sort of backtesting on so it makes sense.
I traded it using real data on a demo account through ninjatrader which apparently takes into account the bid/ask info meaning that all fills are realistic.

For the first sample, I traded it from 22nd September 2009 - 18th December 2009
It made 647 pips in that time.

I then went back to testing it again recently from 23rd June 2010 - present.
It has made 160 pips in them 20 trading days

I have all of this data on an excel spreadsheet that I have been updating as I traded it on demo every day in them timeframes.

Im not holding out much hope, but will update the thread when I begin trying it out live.

The results will be worse because I have obviously been using ninjatrader to test trading the actual ES contract which has a tiny spread. My spreadbet company's spread is a bit larger.

Also, maybe it's just coincidence that my method worked well in thoses timeframes.

Watch this space...

 

[redart]

Kind of forgotten about this thread.
The plan is still the same as above, but I've been way too busy demo trading US stocks which is awesome.
I wish that the PDT rule didn't exist!!!
Just demo trading like 300 share positions, about 8 trades per day, for about 3 weeks.
11 winning days of about +$250 per day, and 4 losing days of -$100 or so.

I'll come back to this thread at some point with my £500 smartlive account (from the £350 i started with) at some point though.