My ACTUAL P&L record !

zow

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My ACTUAL P&L record !!!

Yes indeed! For possibly the first time ever on this site i am willing to reveal my recent p&l figures!

But first a few caveats:
I am doing this anonymously for obvious reasons as well as personal reasons I could outline further later if necessary. Part of it is that I have been a member of T2W for a year or so now under a different name, (I am sure the moderators could find this and I trust they will not reveal it) but would prefer to have a seperate identity so that I can continue to post messages in my 'normal' name without any predjudices arising from this post.
Take what is written here with great reverence or with a pinch of salt; be impressed, unimpressed, inspired, dismissive, sneer (privately), laugh, and/or all of the above, but please don't be rude on this site. I know people for what ever reason can get very tetchy when discussing p&l, even other people's p&l.
Everthing here are the plain facts but please don't ask for any written evidence, why should I? this is bad enough and I am not selling anything, not even a course.
One of the reasons I am doing this is because it might help to show (especially to those who so thirst to see other people's p&l) that it really is irrelevant to them in their trading.

So to the figures:
Starting in mid- Aug 2001 I had almost exactly £500k in my trading accounts (most of it with a on-line direct access futures broker). Soon after in the week of 9/11 I lost approx £78k. That did knock me back (psychologically as well as financially) and took me until late Jan 02 to get back to flat. But things went well for the rest of the year and by dec 02 I had almost doubled the original 500 (496 to be more precise).
However in early feb 03 there was a major (non-trading, non-financial markets related) upset in my life. I knew it at the time, i was consciously thinking 'you're not in the proper frame of mind to trade' and yet I did. It was Ed Seykota (look him up if you don't know who he is) who said 'everybody gets what they want from the markets' and at this point I did not care about the money (I know that will sound strange to some of you). I was just sitting passsively on a massive position. It took until August to sort myself out properly by which time i had lost just over £300k. But i do believe it has made me a better trader!
The past month has been pretty good and I am up £52k without taking any major overnight positions

But these raw figures do not really tell the whole story. More importantly, I think, is the quality of life which is the part I am most thankful for. I am my own boss, i work my own hours (sometimes v.long, sometimes v.short). I live in a v.nice central london apartment (no mortage) close to all the clubs, theatres, restaurants etc (eat out most days) . I drive a modest luxury brand car (paid in cash - changed every 2 years - yes, it's a waste of money-hardly need a car in central london anyway). In the past few years i have only really worked 9 maybe 10 months per year having travelled to Japan, Caribbean, Australia, New Zealand, USA, Singapore, France, Italy, Greece. And i have great friends and family.

So most importantly I have the luxury of Independence which i think is why we all ultimately get into this business. For some, with more modest(expensive) tastes, independence can be bought much more cheaply(expensively), for others independence might even come for free, and yet for others still the loss of structure and self-discipline required of independence is enough to scare them from even attempting it.

I will be happy to expand on anything I have written or try to answer most questions. But as I wrote near the beginning, ultimately none of this really matters to anyone else apart from just passing 'nosey' curiosity in which spirit i hope others will be more willing to post their p&l's which in turn will help to further demystify this business.
 
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Prophets

I made a million

But

I started with ten million.


:p
 
How on earth did you overcome the psycological problem of that 300K loss? I assume it did give you a problem.
 
zow

what dont you prop trade - let someone else take the pressure and just split the profits - and a double check on what you are doing is no bad thing
 
Sorry to dissappoint you all but I see no statement anywhere in sight.

This randomly states the emotions of a wild few trades , nowhere does it state if the man is a net winner or loser to date. This fact is cleverly hidden .

I would put this man in the gambler class rather than a serious trader because for the RISK ( yes that vital but unpopular word again ) he takes as compared to his capital , he must have no stop losses at all or canyon wide ones.

To wit , he is willing to stomach 300k losers with only 500k in his kitty - the risk management is of dogdung standard .

He can do what he likes, but I find it funny if he is trying to pass as a serious trader .

He obviously has a rich mommy and daddy, and too much time on his hands .
 
Chartman
Yes of course any big loss is a problem but at least i knew what outside factor was causing my mental block. I guess three things finally helped me:
i) resolving the outside problem eventually (well 90% of it)
ii) with enough time you can get used to any hindrance/disability. You deal with it as best as possible and live with it.
iii)went on holiday to the other side of the world for 3 weeks and didn't think about the markets or money for 1 second of those 3 weeks.
Simple really!

Stevet
in the past friends/family have offered me money to trade for them (10k, 25k even 50k) and i did try it for a while , but in relation to the size I am already doing it makes negligible difference and as a friend/family i feel overburdened to do well for them and 'see them safe'.
Recently there was some thread about a US forex broker who was looking for prop traders. i don't do forex but am sure i could adapt to it but again they were suggesting initial capital of $10k - again not worth my while.
Now to get some real money (£10m. £20m+) yes i am looking into it but obviously it's not easy. let me know if you know anyone!!
 
Tell you what mma, why don't you show us all what you mean - you could always post yours, and that would then be the standard by which everyone else should follow. A sort of benchmark, so to speak. :D
 
Zow

You've got the kind of life style that many us novices are aiming for, and I appreciate you starting this thread. A few questions if you dont mind...

When did you first start trading and how much did you start out with?

What markets do you trade and what size do you do?

I am just curious as to what can be achieved by an individual trading on their own account, apart from the financial gain of course (speaking as someone who trades just 2 FTSE contracts! :) ).
 
zow

normally if you are trading profitably - flashing lights go off in the brokers - and you get offered prop money
 
mma

Do you work for the inland revenue. :cool:

You seem to be inordinately interested in everyones trading records but reluctant to discuss your own. :mad:

Please don't ask me - as a novice I have plenty - all losers :devilish:
 
Mma
Yes I am a net winner, have been for the past 6 years of trading my own money. Previous to that i traded for several city institutions and made money for them too.
i could easily have omitted the fact that i lost 300k over those 6-odd months but put it in to illustrate that it's never always a bed of roses. i'm not happy or proud that i lost this money but as i wrote it didn't matter so much in the context of other stuff that was happening. By that stage I also had just under £1m in my trading account.
As for 'a few wild trades': on an average day i can do several hundred round turns (approx 3000/mth) with as few as possible being 'wild'. As i tried to convey, this big loss was exceptional and happened over several months. Most days' p&l is in the range of -£3k to +£10k.

And yes, I do do what I like! That is the greatest luxury I have. Not having to make any justifications to any boss/co-worker/client/customer/supplier/stranger/critic or parent. (Do you have to bring parents into it? that is bordering on rude. They are alive, well, and comfortable financially but have not supported me since pre-university days, and even now they would much prefer I worked for a steady salary for some faceless corporation)

You can be as dismissive as you like, i suppose everything i've written could be a tissue of lies, but please don't insult me personally and tell us what your figures are in the broadest or smallest details you care to post.
 
Zow,

How did you get the 500k in the first place? If I had 500k I could think of better ways to make money than risking it the way you seem to have done. I would choose property development. My ambition is to get to 500k and quit. It seems strange reading about someone starting with 500k and risking that much.

Edit:-

You answered the question before I could ask it. But if you had £1,000,000, why take risks? Perhaps it takes a risk taking personality to make the 1m in the first place.
 
MMA

zow said:
Mma
Yes I am a net winner, have been for the past 6 years of trading my own money. Previous to that i traded for several city institutions and made money for them too.
i could easily have omitted the fact that i lost 300k over those 6-odd months but put it in to illustrate that it's never always a bed of roses. i'm not happy or proud that i lost this money but as i wrote it didn't matter so much in the context of other stuff that was happening. By that stage I also had just under £1m in my trading account.
As for 'a few wild trades': on an average day i can do several hundred round turns (approx 3000/mth) with as few as possible being 'wild'. As i tried to convey, this big loss was exceptional and happened over several months. Most days' p&l is in the range of -£3k to +£10k.

And yes, I do do what I like! That is the greatest luxury I have. Not having to make any justifications to any boss/co-worker/client/customer/supplier/stranger/critic or parent. (Do you have to bring parents into it? that is bordering on rude. They are alive, well, and comfortable financially but have not supported me since pre-university days, and even now they would much prefer I worked for a steady salary for some faceless corporation)

You can be as dismissive as you like, i suppose everything i've written could be a tissue of lies, but please don't insult me personally and tell us what your figures are in the broadest or smallest details you care to post.

Come on MMA - you started the clamour for posting trading accounts.

Show us yours first. :cheesy:
 
Waytogo
Quote:
When did you first start trading and how much did you start out with?
What markets do you trade and what size do you do?

I started straight out of university, (1991) worked for several city institutions. But to be honest what I learnt there about trading is not very applicable to the way I (have to) trade now.
When I first started trading for myself I was way under capitalised (approx £30k). went back to work in city for couple years and started properly with £150k-odd (re-mortaged my flat)

Trade in no particular order FTSE, Dow, Bund, Dax. Scale in and out in clips of 5-lots up to average position size of 40-lots in any one market, up to 120-odd across all positions. Normally will hold a position from anywhere between 1 sec and 1 week.

As a general note i don't think Ftse is the best market to start on, can be a bit thin and flaky - have you checked out bund or euroSTOXX?
 
zow, why dont you want to reveal who you are, you havnt posted anything untoward?
 
Stevet
May be my fault for switching brokers so often. am happy with present one for time being (2mths and counting)

Boy
Lend u 100k? Could do but what security can u put up? and we'd be talking about 10-15% interest per MONTH!! :)
 
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