Trading the stockmarket (NO Referrals)

mcast123 · 6 May 2009 at 10:42

dowie said:
be careful with this stuff - a lot of it is pseudo scientific mumbo jumbo because it is incredibly easy to learn to use and requires very little effort - though not surprisingly most people lose money.

There's plenty of people I know making annual seven figure sums purely on TA. The problem is most people don't know how to use it properly and lose.

dowie said:
Other way round tbh... if you're regularly trading then you should be paying less not more....

Anyway maybe this will help:

http://www.interactivebrokers.co.uk/

Exactly who I use, these guys are classified as "discount brokers" which is the trend. I'm not sure about the UK as I trade the US only (no stamp duty), but my average trade is $5. The user interface has a bit of a learning curve, but really handy when you get used to it.

These guys are good also, but I'm not sure if they cover the UK.

Hatter The Mad · 6 May 2009 at 10:56

mcast123 said:
There's plenty of people I know making annual seven figure sums purely on TA. The problem is most people don't know how to use it properly and lose.

Plenty, eh?

dowie · 6 May 2009 at 16:26

mcast123 said:
There's plenty of people I know making annual seven figure sums purely on TA. The problem is most people don't know how to use it properly and lose.

There is the other more pressing problem in that a lot of it has no basis or evidence to back up the techniques.

Either way it is a fuzzy area - plenty of traders swear by it and there are plenty of others who will mock the use of it. FWIW the place I used to work at was a mixture - a couple of the top traders wouldn't have a chart in sight on their screens - just a bunch of TT price ladders. Some other guys would have 2-3 screens devoted to CQG charts.
There are plenty of people working on the floors in Chicago who seem to do OK to the tune of 7-8 figures without relying on pretty charts and indicators.

Ironic Namesake · 8 May 2009 at 08:30

I'm looking to hold some shares for the long term -I already have some funds since about a year ago which have obviously fallen and a FTSE tracker in an ISA - would you recommend sticking to this and maybe adding more, or picking individual shares?

mcast123 · 8 May 2009 at 11:42

dowie said:
There is the other more pressing problem in that a lot of it has no basis or evidence to back up the techniques.

Either way it is a fuzzy area - plenty of traders swear by it and there are plenty of others who will mock the use of it. FWIW the place I used to work at was a mixture - a couple of the top traders wouldn't have a chart in sight on their screens - just a bunch of TT price ladders. Some other guys would have 2-3 screens devoted to CQG charts.
There are plenty of people working on the floors in Chicago who seem to do OK to the tune of 7-8 figures without relying on pretty charts and indicators.

I use a few trading live chat rooms, some users post their trades live, not difficult to work out who's making money and who's not. There's certainly more losing that's for sure and that's what I've beebn stating again and again in this thread. "Plenty" is probably an overstatement. I've verified at least 6 making close to or above 7 figures. They could be lieing but after a couple of years it looks as though they aren't.

I'm in the same camp as you, mixture of both, in fact things are so messed up right now, I trade purely on news and macro data. Pick any stock, doesn't matter how bad the fundamentals or how overbought it is, you can make money. When the music stops though....

mcast123 · 3 Aug 2009 at 13:32

mcast123 said:
Just to let you know, global stockmarkets are about to rise around 40-50% in the next 3 months, so any buy and hold investments should be fine. Be wary of when inflation caused by money printing kicks in, current theory is for new stockmarket lows next year.

N9ne said:
This has to be the most optimistic bull market prediction I've ever seen. If you're so sure, I think a few index CFDs may well do you good sir. It's total rubbish, however. You simply have no idea how far off the fundamentals you are there.

A quick update....

The FTSE is 22% up since post, it's taking longer than I thought. We're about half way to the top. As we get close to 5500 start taking your cash out and wait for the dip into next year. The euphoria will fade within the next few months and the reality of world economies not growing fast will kick in, trade accordingly.

Simon · 3 Aug 2009 at 13:37

My Barclays I bought at 220 are looking good today.

Just fustrated I kept selling too early and taking profit. I did have a load at 76p once

Nathan · 3 Aug 2009 at 13:48

You sure it was two years ago?
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17908040

Dr House · 3 Aug 2009 at 13:54

I have been doing a lot very aggressive short term and day trading for the last couple of months. I have managed to almost double my money since I started with this strategy, another 1 or 2% up and I will make back everything I have lost over the last year (at one point I was around 77% down).

Vanilla · 3 Aug 2009 at 13:59

Paras said:
I have been doing a lot very aggressive short term and day trading for the last couple of months. I have managed to almost double my money since I started with this strategy, another 1 or 2% up and I will make back everything I have lost over the last year (at one point I was around 77% down).

What's your strategy? Do you trade one particular stock or many? etc

Simon · 3 Aug 2009 at 14:13

I got into vodafone today.

My Portfolio is mainly banks though and is just under £10k now.

mcast123 · 3 Aug 2009 at 14:17

Nathan said:
You sure it was two years ago?
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17908040

Yup, if you read this post, I was losing money and faith in trading, for well over a year.

Vanilla said:
What's your strategy? Do you trade one particular stock or many? etc

I now trades mainly US futures, options and some ETFs. I keep away from stocks now as they're less predictable, require more captial and tend to have higher fees.

Simon said:
My Barclays I bought at 220 are looking good today.

Just fustrated I kept selling too early and taking profit. I did have a load at 76p once

It took me a long time to discipline myself and not do this. Human nature is to take profit early and let the losers run in the hope they will come back.

I now have very strcit rules which I never break. I would say the major part of being a good trader is getting rid of emotions. You only have to be right 51% of the time to make money, you just need to learn to ignore the 49% losers.

I still classify myself as an inexperienced newbie.

Dr House · 3 Aug 2009 at 14:33

Vanilla said:
What's your strategy? Do you trade one particular stock or many? etc

I am only really trading in XTA and RIO.

I did dip into GSK (when swine flu first started), YELL (still got a bit), I also had a little dabble in VED and KAZ however I feel more comfortable with XTA.

Generally I am trading based on technical analysis of charts and following advice form a couple of people (remo) on a private forum (“charts view” on www.iii.co.uk).

Don’t get me wrong, I am no investment genius I had lost an absolutely ridiculous amount of money and have only just managed to make it back with a lot of effort and sleepless nights. I am back to where I was before the crash in the mining stocks.

I am looking for another 5 to 10k GBP bump in my portfolio (tomorrow I hope lol) and I will take everything out and use it to pay for my new flat.

My personal opinion is that we will see 26 to 27 pounds in rio this week followed by retrenchment in he short term but huge gains over the next 2+ years. If you can get in at 21 ish pounds again I would just dump the money in there and forget about it for a couple of years.

chipperhead · 24 Aug 2009 at 09:53

How's everyone doing? With the stock markets recent run there must be some good gains being made, I have currently invested £22500 into LLOY, RBS and TW. It's currently worth £31800 so £9300 up

Dr House · 24 Aug 2009 at 10:03

Well, its been a good day today, another 5% up however it has been a bad 2 weeks with my portfolio dropping 10%.

I think we will have a strong week esp for the mining stocks. I am looking for another 11% bump on where I am today and I will get out of the market for good.

Simon · 24 Aug 2009 at 10:29

chipperhead said:
How's everyone doing? With the stock markets recent run there must be some good gains being made, I have currently invested £22500 into LLOY, RBS and TW. It's currently worth £31800 so £9300 up

Nice work, that's some decent capital.

Mine is plodding up gradually, I'm in it for long term now though and hoping to have a decent house deposit is 18months or so.

Are you using a stocks and Shares ISA?

chipperhead · 24 Aug 2009 at 10:47

Simon said:
Nice work, that's some decent capital.

Mine is plodding up gradually, I'm in it for long term now though and hoping to have a decent house deposit is 18months or so.

Are you using a stocks and Shares ISA?

No, I have an ISA already. I haven't really given it a thought about tax implications as originally I only invested a couple of grand but I just kept buying more shares. Like you though I'm in for the long term so I may just sell a bit every year.

Django x2 · 24 Aug 2009 at 11:25

I'd rather work 3 days a week and earn a packet than do endless research I think.

Jeffstar · 24 Aug 2009 at 11:29

chipperhead said:
How's everyone doing? With the stock markets recent run there must be some good gains being made, I have currently invested £22500 into LLOY, RBS and TW. It's currently worth £31800 so £9300 up

Well done!

I invested a similar amount in Barclays at 62p, have sold 50% of those to buy into other companies since with even better success.

Life changing year for me.

Jotun · 24 Aug 2009 at 11:37

How did you guys here get in to this? Any books/dvds etc you would recommend having a look at? I've been having a play on bullbearings.co.uk, 5 out of the 7 companies I've "bought" shares for are worth more than when I started, but that was just from a look at the graph and guesswork