My First Trade

[betman]

Hi all..

I am new to spread betting and made my first trade a couple of days ago, with a not so good outcome...

I had been monitoring US light crude for a few weeks before i started my first trade..

I went long US light crude at around 9900 at only £1 / pt with a 200 pt stop loss..

After watching my profit shoot up to around £500 on the morning of the 11th and was convinced oil was to continue increasing, however in light of wednesdays data it has now plummitted and i have been stopped out..

I am gutted that i didn't take profit at around 11500..

As i am new to this i have a few questions.. Firstly what would others have done in my situation..
Secondly what are people view on crude proces now.. I am tempted to get back into the market to try and regain my losses but am unsure of what is going to happen to crude prices..

Thanks

 

[betman]

Re: My Forst Trade

Sorry for the title error.. That should be "My First Trade"

 

[Hoggums]

Re: My Forst Trade

Hi all..

I am new to spread betting and made my first trade a couple of days ago, with a not so good outcome...

I had been monitoring US light crude for a few weeks before i started my first trade..

I went long US light crude at around 9900 at only £1 / pt with a 200 pt stop loss..

After watching my profit shoot up to around £500 on the morning of the 11th and was convinced oil was to continue increasing, however in light of wednesdays data it has now plummitted and i have been stopped out..

I am gutted that i didn't take profit at around 11500..

As i am new to this i have a few questions.. Firstly what would others have done in my situation..
Secondly what are people view on crude proces now.. I am tempted to get back into the market to try and regain my losses but am unsure of what is going to happen to crude prices..

Thanks

Don't do any more trading until you have worked out and tested your strategy.

You are trading blind putting stoplosses in random places with no clue as to when you exit your trade.

If you trade to try and win back your money I guarantee you will lose even more of it.

Stop trading and start studying, planning and practising.

 

[shadowninja]

Re: My Forst Trade

The problem is that you didn't have an exit plan ie to decide when to take profits. I can't believe you saw 500 points and then took 200 points of loss - well, I can; it means you don't know how to manage a trade. The question is, therefore, "How do you manage a trade?" The answer is, "You will have to learn from experience as the way you manage it will vary according to how you trade and your reason for the entry."

 

[betman]

Re: My Forst Trade

Yea i guess you ar right.. I didnt have an exit strategy, although i did expect it to see highs greater that 10500..

What information / reading is there on when is best to enter and exit a trade and how to calculate where to put your stops ect....

To be honnest I entered the trade due to the collapse of crude and my speculation that it would return to its previous highs.

 

[anley]

Re: My Forst Trade

£1 a point on crude and £200 is far too much to risk, get 5-10 trades wrong which is very possible and you're looking at large losses.

Trade 10p a point for the next 3-6 months if you want any chance of success, otherwise it's odd-on your money will soon become the property of other traders.

 

[Ambrose Ackroyd]

Re: My Forst Trade

Trade 10p a point for the next 3-6 months if you want any chance of success, otherwise it's odd-on your money will soon become the property of other traders.

Agreed.

You can open an MT4 spread betting account with Smart Live Markets and start at 10 pence per point.

You can increase this in increments of 10 pence.

 

[Ambrose Ackroyd]

Re: My Forst Trade

If you are new to spread betting I would advise you not to attempt to trade crude.

It can be pretty volatile and spreads are wider than a more sedate FX pair for instance.

Try a nice FX pair which trends smoothly and has a narrow spread.

My favourite is AUDUSD but I also trade EURUSD and GBPUSD.

 

[betman]

Re: My Forst Trade

I will look into MT4 account.. 10p sounds good..

I know crude is very volatile, however that is what attracts me to it.. Maybe i should look into FX..

If i can trade 10p / pt is a large spread really a concern?

Thanks for the advice..

 

[betman]

Re: My Forst Trade

I will have a look into a MT4 account..

If i can trade at 10p/pt then the wide spread is not so much an issue is it??

Thanks for the advice..

 

[anley]

Re: My Forst Trade

The spread is only a concern if you short term trade alongside doing too many trades, then it's basically impossible to make money (overtime).

 

[JDTRADER]

Don't worry.......a lot of traders have made the same mistakes.

A Plan for you:

#Withdraw cash from your live account. YOUR NOT READY TO GO LIVE

#Open a Demo account, I recommend Smart Live Markets

#Have a splash around on the Demo platform, really get to know how it works. I think MT4 is great for trading. Forget EA robots

#Study - learn. I'll send you some links to get you started

#Trade Demo till you show a profit. I know its boring and you wanna get to WHERE DO I MAKE SOME CASH but if you don't put in the ground work you'll never make any cash.

#Read the forum, yes there are some trolls lol but search and you'll find some good content

On the trade in question to go 500 pips in profit and come out -200 shows you have no understanding of Money Management.
Trading you have a plan:
Entry
Stop Loss
When to move Stop Loss to break Even
Take Profit Target
Or to Trailing stop

On this 500 pip trade if you just added a Trailing Stop of 50 pips you would of had a nice trade but where was your research on the Entry ? The Entry is the most important part of a trade.

Good Luck and like most of us you'll dust yourself down and learn.

 

[betman]

Re: My Forst Trade

JTRADER.. some links would be great.. Thanks..

Also if i had set a 50pt trailing stop i would never have made 500pt due to the volatility in the market.. I would have got stop out way before..

Also people talk about trade with the trend ect.. How exactly do you know if the trend is to buy or to sell!! Saying trade witht the trend is easily said but to actually do it is the hard part.

 

[JDTRADER]

Re: My Forst Trade

JTRADER.. some links would be great.. Thanks..

Also if i had set a 50pt trailing stop i would never have made 500pt due to the volatility in the market.. I would have got stop out way before..

Also people talk about trade with the trend ect.. How exactly do you know if the trend is to buy or to sell!! Saying trade witht the trend is easily said but to actually do it is the hard part.

Trend is UP, DOWN or RANGE

I sent you a message with some links that will give you a free start on learning. You can pay to learn but I took the long free option to become self taught. I've been at it 3 years and I still class myself as a newbie lol

 

[China Diapers]

Re: My Forst Trade

Also if i had set a 50pt trailing stop i would never have made 500pt due to the volatility in the market.. I would have got stop out way before..
QUOTE]

You are never going to capture the entire move (well hardly ever), you only get an idea a trend has possibly ended once it's reversing.

The other option is to set a target, but then you may be limiting your potentional return.

I've also been at this 3 years and consider myself a newbie.

 

[kalott]

Re: My Forst Trade

You can use TA?

Swing low, trendlines

look at Autochartist, tradingcentral for clues (IG tools)

(not to trade blindly on signals but learn by watching)

 

[China Diapers]

Re: My Forst Trade

So you can consistantly get out at the top/bottom of a trend using basic TA?

 

[kalott]

Re: My Forst Trade

no, but it helps

 

[China Diapers]

well my point is, no matter what you use (myself and most people on T2W use some form of TA) I don't think you will find many people (if any) who consistantly pick tops and bottoms of trends.

If you are using a trendline presumably you are waiting for the trendline to be broken to indicate the trend is over right? By that time the high/low as already been made and the trend is reversing, hence the breaking of the trendline.

 

[China Diapers]

I am not saying you can't make money this way, I am just saying don't be too hard on yourself if you miss out on the last part of the trend because getting out at exactly the right time is close enough to impossible.

Please also don't listen to anything I say as I know nothing about trading.