How do I choose my market??

[BoilerRoom]

I have been dabbling in spread betting (with IG Index), and this is something I am very comfortable with and will be continuing with it (for the forseeable future anyway), however I am having a bit of trouble deciding what to specialise in.

I put down an initial deposit of around £150, I am now down to £65 in capital, must have placed around 30 trades on various things like DJIA, FTSE, DAX, aswell as FX and individual stocks, I have lost around 20 of these trades.

I am very much a day-trader and tend to pick my trades purely on news (from reading the FT and Reuters news feeds), although I could do with more ideas to help me with my current predicament.

I am looking to do this for a living, have a little capital (not massive amounts hence the choice of spread betting) and would like to be 100% confident in all my trades before I execute them, I currently have 'butterflies' before each trade and can't help thinking I have got it wrong...

 

[Igat]

Wow this sounds familiar. Everything you are experiencing is just about familiar to every trader I would guess. I made what sounds like the same mistakes you made and had the same butterflies (I still have them but not to the same extent) I guess we wouldn't be human if we felt no emotion whilst trading.

Anyway my advice would be stop moving through lots of markets. Pick one and stick to it until you feel much more comfortable with its movement. I started with forex Euro/Dollar pair. I would also avoid trading just news. Markets will act more irrationally than your pockets can handle. News is of course important but you are too far down the food chain to benefit from most of it. I trade mostly technical with an eye on fundamentals. I would also suggest opening a demo account and trade that whilst you develop a trade strategy.

As regard thinking you have it wrong. Just accept you will be wrong no system is 100%. Ensure your risk/reward is in balance with your strategy and steady profits will flow.