Well the good ol' FTSE has fallen a bit more today, I'm glad to get November out of the way really.
Yesterdays trading looks like this:
Account 1:
Costain stopped out @199.49 losing me £10.50
Datatech stopped out @289.26 losing £13.30
Henderson Group stopped out @118.9 losing £3.20
I opened up new trades in:
TalkTalk @153.78
Melrose Plc @300.45
Brown (N) Group @290.32
Fenner Plc @302.76
Restaurant Group @277.39
Account 2:
Aviva stopped out @368 the same day I bought it @379.1!
Xchanging stopped out @110 costing me £10
Cobham dropped like a brick and stopped me out @194.80 costing £15.
All the above added to my stop out list.
I established 1 new position in MicroFocus @335.1, previously owned but bought at a discount as usual.
After Tonys comment yesterday I requested a withdrawal from Worldspreads to that amount, but have yet to hear anything back from them. We'll see how long it takes for a cash out to occur. Tradefair used to be very good in that respect and their cashouts were usually done same day.
the FTSEs not very happy at the moment, so good luck out there!
The advantage for Account 2 is that the further the FTSE falls the bigger the discount on previously held shares and new positions will be.
Tuesday 30 November 2010
Monday 29 November 2010
Bonus for Account 2!
Ok well I got an email this morning from Worldspreads regarding Account 2. It seems though I qualified for some cashback on a promotion they used to offer before they started the current 'zero spread' promotion. I qualified for any losses I accumulated over the first 8 weeks of having the account open to be paid back into my account - which they did this morning for the sum of £136.62. My best trade yet!
Question is, am I allowed to add this to the accounts tally or do I withdraw it from the account? Let me know your thoughts.
Looks like the FTSE got off to a great start this morning but then the bears stepped in and spoilt the party as now its given back all the early morning gains.
Good luck with your positions out there!
Question is, am I allowed to add this to the accounts tally or do I withdraw it from the account? Let me know your thoughts.
Looks like the FTSE got off to a great start this morning but then the bears stepped in and spoilt the party as now its given back all the early morning gains.
Good luck with your positions out there!
Sunday 28 November 2010
28/11/10 Account Roundups
Ok, before I kick off the accounts figures I'll get Fridays stops out of the way.
1 stop on Account 1(IG index), this was Northgate @214 for a £6.50 loss. Account 2 (Worldspreads) had a loss of £10 on EAGA sold @53.
I think I have decided to stay with IG index for account 1. I will just have to ignore the AIM share tips for now unless IG move their pricing back to £1 a point for them. I don't really want to be moving accounts as I think it would adversely affect the results and I don't want that to happen at this early stage. Thanks to Alan again for his second comment on the issue, your example is just slightly above the percentages I like to risk on the account but I will bear it in mind when the right conditions arise.
Anyway on with the accounts figures for this week:
Account 1: Pro tips strategy account
Overall account balance is £1182.82 with 44 open positions showing a current open loss of -£13.19. Thats around a -£35 change from last week. As usual most of these are positions are showing breakeven status *yawn*. Believe it or not around Thursday time last week there were 3 positions showing profits of more than £5 each but all 3 slipped back on Friday!
Account 2: Tony Loton's 'position trading' strategy account
Overall account balance is now at £863.63 with 30 open positions showing a current open profit of
£2.64. Thats around a -£21 change on last weeks figure. Biggest open profits at the moment are Cairn Energy, Tui Travel & Game Group.
Historical data shows that December is usually a good month for the FTSE, but with the Euro crisis and Korea on the brink of war I'm not sure what we'll see happen this year. I'm hoping for a good month though just so that Tony over at the trading trail can get his portfolio into a profit in his final month.
Trade well guys!
1 stop on Account 1(IG index), this was Northgate @214 for a £6.50 loss. Account 2 (Worldspreads) had a loss of £10 on EAGA sold @53.
I think I have decided to stay with IG index for account 1. I will just have to ignore the AIM share tips for now unless IG move their pricing back to £1 a point for them. I don't really want to be moving accounts as I think it would adversely affect the results and I don't want that to happen at this early stage. Thanks to Alan again for his second comment on the issue, your example is just slightly above the percentages I like to risk on the account but I will bear it in mind when the right conditions arise.
Anyway on with the accounts figures for this week:
Account 1: Pro tips strategy account
Overall account balance is £1182.82 with 44 open positions showing a current open loss of -£13.19. Thats around a -£35 change from last week. As usual most of these are positions are showing breakeven status *yawn*. Believe it or not around Thursday time last week there were 3 positions showing profits of more than £5 each but all 3 slipped back on Friday!
Account 2: Tony Loton's 'position trading' strategy account
Overall account balance is now at £863.63 with 30 open positions showing a current open profit of
£2.64. Thats around a -£21 change on last weeks figure. Biggest open profits at the moment are Cairn Energy, Tui Travel & Game Group.
Historical data shows that December is usually a good month for the FTSE, but with the Euro crisis and Korea on the brink of war I'm not sure what we'll see happen this year. I'm hoping for a good month though just so that Tony over at the trading trail can get his portfolio into a profit in his final month.
Trade well guys!
Friday 26 November 2010
Soldier on!
It looks like the FTSE is taking a right old battering this morning over the euro farce and North Koreas war-mongering. Every single share on my position trading stop out list is showing a drop in price. Which is great news for picking up bargains but not so great for existing open positions!
Thanks to Alan for his comment on the IG £5 per point situation. I am going to email some other firms today to find out if there is a viable alternative to IG when trading AIM shares. In the mean time I will soldier on...
Anyway I didn't think I was going to do any trading today but I have established 3 new positions this morning.
2 new trades in account 1: London Capital Group @102 and Elementis @117.09.
In account 2 I have re-established an old position in Resolution @224.7.
At an 11% difference from the old price that equates to a saving of £25 by having effective stop losses in place. The price is pretty much close to an old support level as well so I'm hoping it will rebound from it, as long as the FTSE pulls out of this slump! The position trading strategy doesn't rely on technical analysis anyway, its just a coincidence really. For more information on this strategy I suggest you pick up a copy of the book over on the right hand side there.
Had 2 stops on account 2 yesterday. 1 closed at a loss, Grainger Trust @91 and one closed for a profit, Thomas Cook @186.8 for an £11 profit. £2 profit overall, not going to make me rich but its money added to the balance.
Happy trading guys and have a good weekend.
Thanks to Alan for his comment on the IG £5 per point situation. I am going to email some other firms today to find out if there is a viable alternative to IG when trading AIM shares. In the mean time I will soldier on...
Anyway I didn't think I was going to do any trading today but I have established 3 new positions this morning.
2 new trades in account 1: London Capital Group @102 and Elementis @117.09.
In account 2 I have re-established an old position in Resolution @224.7.
At an 11% difference from the old price that equates to a saving of £25 by having effective stop losses in place. The price is pretty much close to an old support level as well so I'm hoping it will rebound from it, as long as the FTSE pulls out of this slump! The position trading strategy doesn't rely on technical analysis anyway, its just a coincidence really. For more information on this strategy I suggest you pick up a copy of the book over on the right hand side there.
Had 2 stops on account 2 yesterday. 1 closed at a loss, Grainger Trust @91 and one closed for a profit, Thomas Cook @186.8 for an £11 profit. £2 profit overall, not going to make me rich but its money added to the balance.
Happy trading guys and have a good weekend.
Thursday 25 November 2010
Plans go down the drain...
Ok well today I had quite a few trades planned as I'd received alot more tips than usual for the pro tips account. Thing is a lot of the share tips are low value AIM shares, which is actually pretty good for the account as it means I can keep my risk within levels I find acceptable. But.. I ran into a bit of a snag today on my IG Index account when I tried to establish positions - most of the AIM index shares now seem to be a minimum of £5 per point! Which means that I can no longer afford to trade these share tips on this account. I don't know when they changed this, as one position I wanted to open in 'President Petroleum' was one I already had once in this account for £1 per point. In fact if I look back quickly this position only closed a few days ago. Why IG have done this is beyond me, maybe they dont want small players' business anymore? Anyone else out there notice this?
It kinda sucks, as in order to run the strategy properly and fairly I need access to the AIM shares market. So if anyone out there can recommend an alternative to IG and they know for definite that I can establish positions of £1 per point then give me a shout. I hate the fact I may have to switch accounts as I was very happy with the IG interface and their range of markets is superb. From many reviews I have read on other spread betting platforms there are not that many good alternatives out there. *sigh*.
So now the bad news is out the way I may aswell list the couple of trades I did manage to setup on there today. I established new positions in UK Coal @41.85, CVS Group @105.51 and Dominion Petroleum @5.11. As I stated in yesterdays post I had already received 3 stop notifications from IG. Thankfully I didnt receive anymore and so far today no others have stopped out. All 3 trades were a loss as none stopped out for a profit, these were:
St James Place @240.50 for a £2.22 loss
Segro @279.72 for a £4.10 loss
Hampson Industries @26.43 for a £3.30 loss
No stops and no trades on account 2 today, not through lack of looking though. Just nothing at the moment that is ready for buying.
Trade well guys!
It kinda sucks, as in order to run the strategy properly and fairly I need access to the AIM shares market. So if anyone out there can recommend an alternative to IG and they know for definite that I can establish positions of £1 per point then give me a shout. I hate the fact I may have to switch accounts as I was very happy with the IG interface and their range of markets is superb. From many reviews I have read on other spread betting platforms there are not that many good alternatives out there. *sigh*.
So now the bad news is out the way I may aswell list the couple of trades I did manage to setup on there today. I established new positions in UK Coal @41.85, CVS Group @105.51 and Dominion Petroleum @5.11. As I stated in yesterdays post I had already received 3 stop notifications from IG. Thankfully I didnt receive anymore and so far today no others have stopped out. All 3 trades were a loss as none stopped out for a profit, these were:
St James Place @240.50 for a £2.22 loss
Segro @279.72 for a £4.10 loss
Hampson Industries @26.43 for a £3.30 loss
No stops and no trades on account 2 today, not through lack of looking though. Just nothing at the moment that is ready for buying.
Trade well guys!
Wednesday 24 November 2010
No buying, just selling!
No post yesterday as I was caught up building my new custom PC all evening after work. Bit of a geek I know but I love building new computers and seeing what performance I can grind out of them. *ahem*
Anyway, last couple of days have seen just stops and no new positions. I have my eye on a few but they are not quite buys yet. I noticed Micro Focus has started to fall back down a bit so it may end up a possibility again at some point.
Yesterday saw 2 stops in both accounts. Firstly in account 1 President Petroleum stopped out @65.83 giving me a £5 loss, and Sable Mining stopped out @25.45 dishing out a loss of £6.
Account 2 gave me a loss of £11.65 when both Cable & Wireless and Mitie group both hit their stop losses.
I've had 3 emails from IG index about stops in account 1, but I will report on those tomorrow. Hopefully a bit of buying action too, catch you then.
Anyway, last couple of days have seen just stops and no new positions. I have my eye on a few but they are not quite buys yet. I noticed Micro Focus has started to fall back down a bit so it may end up a possibility again at some point.
Yesterday saw 2 stops in both accounts. Firstly in account 1 President Petroleum stopped out @65.83 giving me a £5 loss, and Sable Mining stopped out @25.45 dishing out a loss of £6.
Account 2 gave me a loss of £11.65 when both Cable & Wireless and Mitie group both hit their stop losses.
I've had 3 emails from IG index about stops in account 1, but I will report on those tomorrow. Hopefully a bit of buying action too, catch you then.
Monday 22 November 2010
1 loss, 1 profit.
I'm not usually going to post on a Monday but seeing as I've finished my work for the day and its a short post I thought 'why not?'.
So both stops occured on account 1, one profit of £25.27 on Segro sold @265.83 (yey!) and one loss of £3.30 on JJB @5.4 (boo!)
I really think JJB are going down the plug hole unfortunately.
Trade well!
So both stops occured on account 1, one profit of £25.27 on Segro sold @265.83 (yey!) and one loss of £3.30 on JJB @5.4 (boo!)
I really think JJB are going down the plug hole unfortunately.
Trade well!
Sunday 21 November 2010
21/11/10 Account Roundups
Time for this weeks roundup of account figures:
Account 1: Pro tips strategy account
Overall account balance is £1216.62 with 44 open positions showing a current open loss of -£13.52. Thats around a -£32 change from last week. As usual most of these are positions are showing breakeven status.
Account 2: Tony Loton's 'position trading' strategy account
Overall account balance is now at £884.83 with 33 open positions showing a current open loss of
-£25.16. Thats around a +£22 change on last weeks figure. Biggest open profits at the moment are Thomas Cook and ITV. Still dissapointing that so many of them are slightly negative. Lets hope for another FTSE rise next week!
Happy Trading!
Account 1: Pro tips strategy account
Overall account balance is £1216.62 with 44 open positions showing a current open loss of -£13.52. Thats around a -£32 change from last week. As usual most of these are positions are showing breakeven status.
Account 2: Tony Loton's 'position trading' strategy account
Overall account balance is now at £884.83 with 33 open positions showing a current open loss of
-£25.16. Thats around a +£22 change on last weeks figure. Biggest open profits at the moment are Thomas Cook and ITV. Still dissapointing that so many of them are slightly negative. Lets hope for another FTSE rise next week!
Happy Trading!
Saturday 20 November 2010
I guess I got shafted twice!
OK well yesterday I kept my eye on Microfocus and of course it started moving upwards earlier than I predicted. But as you know the beauty of working from home is I can keep a closer eye on prices and jump in and trade whenever I want. Well half of that statement is true because Worldspreads decided not to let me log into my account all day so I missed the boat completey on Microfocus and just had to sit there and watch it rise even further. *sigh!*
I'd also put in an offer on a property I was looking at, and lets just say that due to the dodgy estate agent and the secret handshake club I missed out by such a small margin that it was obvious to a blind man I was stitched up. Another *sigh!*
Anyway enough of my personal woes, I didn't make any new trades yesterday (thanks Worldspreads) so all I have for you are stop outs, sorry!
In Account 1, Hardy stopped out @284.27 losing me a clean £10 and Novae Group stopped out @335.15 losing me £5.
Account 2 saw Wincanton that I recently purchased drop like a brick from a roof and it looks like I suffered slippage as I lost £18 @197.50.
I'll give a Sunday roundup of account figures as they stand, I doubt it will be pretty!
I'd also put in an offer on a property I was looking at, and lets just say that due to the dodgy estate agent and the secret handshake club I missed out by such a small margin that it was obvious to a blind man I was stitched up. Another *sigh!*
Anyway enough of my personal woes, I didn't make any new trades yesterday (thanks Worldspreads) so all I have for you are stop outs, sorry!
In Account 1, Hardy stopped out @284.27 losing me a clean £10 and Novae Group stopped out @335.15 losing me £5.
Account 2 saw Wincanton that I recently purchased drop like a brick from a roof and it looks like I suffered slippage as I lost £18 @197.50.
I'll give a Sunday roundup of account figures as they stand, I doubt it will be pretty!
Thursday 18 November 2010
BUY! BUY! BUY!
As you can probably guess I established a few more positions today. First lets get the boring stops from yesterday out of the way.
In account 1 MicroFocus stopped out @322.99 for a £4 loss.
In account 2 Punch Taverns stopped out @59.60 for a £15 loss and Mitchells & Butler stopped out @335.05 for a nice little profit of £38.75. Thats another example of the price spiking and then lowering quickly to take out my trailing stop too fast and its already ten points above that stop out price today. I really need to take a deeper look into my trailing stop strategy on these trades to see how I can avoid this from happening. Still, its nice to bank some monies for the account so the trailing stops are working to some extent, I just need to optimise them a little.
Onto todays trades then, firstly in account 1 I have established 6 new positions today based on share tips. These were:
Augean @26
Bellzone Mining @62.16
Blinkx @78.19 (this is a reopen of a closed position due to it being re-tipped in a different service)
Costain @218
Charles Stanley @275.69
Zincox @45
In account 2 I have re-established 3 positions at discounts from previous stops. These are:
McBride @169.3 - a 5% discount on the last stop out
Tribal @25.6 - a 23% discount on the last stop out
Trinity Mirror @74.9 - a 25% discount on the last stop out.
I also have a close eye on MicroFocus too. I know it just stopped out of the pro tips account but I already held it in my position trading account before and its currently at a 13% discount on its old stop out price. The fact it appeared as a share tip is an added bonus, but I feel it has a couple more % to drop first before I rebuy but we'll see.
Happy trading!
In account 1 MicroFocus stopped out @322.99 for a £4 loss.
In account 2 Punch Taverns stopped out @59.60 for a £15 loss and Mitchells & Butler stopped out @335.05 for a nice little profit of £38.75. Thats another example of the price spiking and then lowering quickly to take out my trailing stop too fast and its already ten points above that stop out price today. I really need to take a deeper look into my trailing stop strategy on these trades to see how I can avoid this from happening. Still, its nice to bank some monies for the account so the trailing stops are working to some extent, I just need to optimise them a little.
Onto todays trades then, firstly in account 1 I have established 6 new positions today based on share tips. These were:
Augean @26
Bellzone Mining @62.16
Blinkx @78.19 (this is a reopen of a closed position due to it being re-tipped in a different service)
Costain @218
Charles Stanley @275.69
Zincox @45
In account 2 I have re-established 3 positions at discounts from previous stops. These are:
McBride @169.3 - a 5% discount on the last stop out
Tribal @25.6 - a 23% discount on the last stop out
Trinity Mirror @74.9 - a 25% discount on the last stop out.
I also have a close eye on MicroFocus too. I know it just stopped out of the pro tips account but I already held it in my position trading account before and its currently at a 13% discount on its old stop out price. The fact it appeared as a share tip is an added bonus, but I feel it has a couple more % to drop first before I rebuy but we'll see.
Happy trading!
Wednesday 17 November 2010
A few more stops: I guess the FTSE dropped whilst I was away!
Thanks to Tony for his comment yesterday. I did try replying to it via my mobile phone from my hotel room last night but the software just wouldn't let me for some reason. Anyway I'm home now, and I'm afraid to say my mistakes were made in the Position trading account Tony, sorry!
As for the 'Pro Tips' strategy, I wont be running it like the position trading account otherwise it would just be a slight variation on Tonys strategy. I will run it like I run my normal shares account, with slightly wider trailing stops and decent money management. I wont be pyramiding into any of the positions and occasionally I may cash a position in if it is doing particularly well just like my shares account - not that I'm having that problem at the moment!
Anyway Mondays trades went down like this:
All trades occured in Account 2, these were a stop of Mouchel @91.70 which got me a profit of 3.30, a new position in Wincanton @215.5 and a new position in RM PLC @150.10.
No activity in Account 1.
Tuesdays action:
In Account 1 three stops triggered, one in Blinx Plc @76.56 at a £2 loss, one in Centamin Egypt Ltd @173.06 at a £3 loss and one in Norseman Gold @68.33 for a £4.20 loss. I'm not sure why the stops for Blinx and Centamin were so close to my opening levels, my only guess is that they rose and my trailing stop rose slightly higher then they dropped and took me out very near to the buy levels but not quite break even. Ah well, that frees some money up for new trades tomorrow (Thurs.)
In Account 2 I established 5 new positions, these were:
Barratt Developments @76.6
William Hill @161.20
Kewill @96.2
Cable & Wireless @49.2
Grainger Trust @100.70
One stop was triggered, unfortunately another loss for the account but not a massive one - Robert Wiseman Dairies sold @315.3 for a £6.20 loss. One more for the stop list, and I guess I'm glad I dont have a real large holding after their recent bad share price action. Poor stockholders!
Anyway as I've just got back I doubt I will open any new trades today as I have other stuff to catch up on. I know I have got an email from IG index (account 1) about a stop that must have triggered but I will report on that tomorrow with any other action from the WorldSpreads account. (account 2)
Good luck with your own trades!
As for the 'Pro Tips' strategy, I wont be running it like the position trading account otherwise it would just be a slight variation on Tonys strategy. I will run it like I run my normal shares account, with slightly wider trailing stops and decent money management. I wont be pyramiding into any of the positions and occasionally I may cash a position in if it is doing particularly well just like my shares account - not that I'm having that problem at the moment!
Anyway Mondays trades went down like this:
All trades occured in Account 2, these were a stop of Mouchel @91.70 which got me a profit of 3.30, a new position in Wincanton @215.5 and a new position in RM PLC @150.10.
No activity in Account 1.
Tuesdays action:
In Account 1 three stops triggered, one in Blinx Plc @76.56 at a £2 loss, one in Centamin Egypt Ltd @173.06 at a £3 loss and one in Norseman Gold @68.33 for a £4.20 loss. I'm not sure why the stops for Blinx and Centamin were so close to my opening levels, my only guess is that they rose and my trailing stop rose slightly higher then they dropped and took me out very near to the buy levels but not quite break even. Ah well, that frees some money up for new trades tomorrow (Thurs.)
In Account 2 I established 5 new positions, these were:
Barratt Developments @76.6
William Hill @161.20
Kewill @96.2
Cable & Wireless @49.2
Grainger Trust @100.70
One stop was triggered, unfortunately another loss for the account but not a massive one - Robert Wiseman Dairies sold @315.3 for a £6.20 loss. One more for the stop list, and I guess I'm glad I dont have a real large holding after their recent bad share price action. Poor stockholders!
Anyway as I've just got back I doubt I will open any new trades today as I have other stuff to catch up on. I know I have got an email from IG index (account 1) about a stop that must have triggered but I will report on that tomorrow with any other action from the WorldSpreads account. (account 2)
Good luck with your own trades!
Monday 15 November 2010
WARNING: Classic amateur mistakes ahead!
I was in a rush this morning as I was due out on an early site visit for a client, but there were a couple of trades I wanted to make before I set off. I was already running late getting the kids up and ready for school etc, the classic family morning chaotic scenario but I wanted to make sure I remembered to place my trades, so...
Classic amateur mistake Number 1: Trading when you should be doing something else. If you can't commit 100% of your concentration whilst placing your trades then don't trade at all! You might miss the boat on 1 particular trade but there will be another 100 ships sailing later that you can hitch a ride on!
Classic amateur mistake Number 2: Rushing to place trades means you miss important things like a huge spread! One share I traded had a bloody huge spread which meant I was already £7 down the moment the trade went through. I couldn't believe it but I should have taken note of the spread before I placed the trade but instead I was putting my shoes on with one hand and eating cornflakes/trading with the other! DOH!
So there you have it, learn from my mistakes and don't replicate them yourselves. I'll let you know what trades went down in Wednesdays post. Tomorrow I am away on business and trust me I won't be trading this time!
Good luck out there, and beware of those huge spreads on certain shares!
Classic amateur mistake Number 1: Trading when you should be doing something else. If you can't commit 100% of your concentration whilst placing your trades then don't trade at all! You might miss the boat on 1 particular trade but there will be another 100 ships sailing later that you can hitch a ride on!
Classic amateur mistake Number 2: Rushing to place trades means you miss important things like a huge spread! One share I traded had a bloody huge spread which meant I was already £7 down the moment the trade went through. I couldn't believe it but I should have taken note of the spread before I placed the trade but instead I was putting my shoes on with one hand and eating cornflakes/trading with the other! DOH!
So there you have it, learn from my mistakes and don't replicate them yourselves. I'll let you know what trades went down in Wednesdays post. Tomorrow I am away on business and trust me I won't be trading this time!
Good luck out there, and beware of those huge spreads on certain shares!
Sunday 14 November 2010
14/11/10 Account Roundups
Thanks to Tony Loton for his comment yesterday. One thing I need to fine tune more is my trailing stops. I'm not saying that Savills will definitely have made me more money if I had a wider stop in place because obviously the share could go down from here but theres always a chance it could go up and would have made me more. Looking at Savills graph, the price spiked alot on Wednesday shooting the price up to around 385 and obviously my trailing stop followed that price action.
The next 2 days it dropped back down to around the 365 mark which was still slighter higher than Tuesdays price but low enough to trigger my trailing stop. The next trading week will show me whether my trailing stop triggered at exactly the right time. I still need to work on setting my stop losses to maximise profit. I noticed over on spread betting beginners blog that he sets his stop loss based on an ATR (14) value of around 2x. That's something I may start to check against my usual stop distances of around 10-15% to see if there is a big difference between the 2 figures. Each share reacts differently within the market so maybe I need to take a closer look at each individual share rather than using a blanket stop figure for all.
Ok its time for this weekends roundup of account figures:
Account 1: Pro tips strategy account
Overall account balance is £1242.80 with 44 open positions showing a current loss of -£14.64 and even though some of them had gone into positive territory during the week it seems all of them have slipped back into breakeven trades during Fridays market.
Account 2: Tony Loton's 'position trading' strategy accountOverall account balance is now at £862.04 with 31 open positions showing a current profit of £32.95 and I have £599.13 yet to invest. The biggest open profits showing at the moment are Mitchells & Butler at £40 and Segro at £30, both slightly down on last weeks roundup.
Well thats it for this weekend, hopefully I will bag some bargains for Account 2 next week. Good luck with your trades!
The next 2 days it dropped back down to around the 365 mark which was still slighter higher than Tuesdays price but low enough to trigger my trailing stop. The next trading week will show me whether my trailing stop triggered at exactly the right time. I still need to work on setting my stop losses to maximise profit. I noticed over on spread betting beginners blog that he sets his stop loss based on an ATR (14) value of around 2x. That's something I may start to check against my usual stop distances of around 10-15% to see if there is a big difference between the 2 figures. Each share reacts differently within the market so maybe I need to take a closer look at each individual share rather than using a blanket stop figure for all.
Ok its time for this weekends roundup of account figures:
Account 1: Pro tips strategy account
Overall account balance is £1242.80 with 44 open positions showing a current loss of -£14.64 and even though some of them had gone into positive territory during the week it seems all of them have slipped back into breakeven trades during Fridays market.
Account 2: Tony Loton's 'position trading' strategy accountOverall account balance is now at £862.04 with 31 open positions showing a current profit of £32.95 and I have £599.13 yet to invest. The biggest open profits showing at the moment are Mitchells & Butler at £40 and Segro at £30, both slightly down on last weeks roundup.
Well thats it for this weekend, hopefully I will bag some bargains for Account 2 next week. Good luck with your trades!
Saturday 13 November 2010
Woohoo! Profit!
Ok so this morning I received my usual midnight email from Worldspreads for Account 2 and after the last few days I presumed it would be another loss. To my surprise it was actually a nice trailing stop that had closed at a profit. Savills closed at 363.05 giving me a profit on the trade of £65.05, just what this account needed at the moment.
I also opened a new very small test position in Cairn Energy @379.20. This is one that had stopped out previous in an old account and the share has gone thru some tough times recently due to disappointing results in their Greenland explorations. This means I'm opening this position at a whopping 17.5% discount on my last position, a very big saving. We'll see how it goes.
No action on account 1 at all yesterday.
Tune in tomorrow for account figures updates, and hopefully you guys did OK during last weeks trading.
I also opened a new very small test position in Cairn Energy @379.20. This is one that had stopped out previous in an old account and the share has gone thru some tough times recently due to disappointing results in their Greenland explorations. This means I'm opening this position at a whopping 17.5% discount on my last position, a very big saving. We'll see how it goes.
No action on account 1 at all yesterday.
Tune in tomorrow for account figures updates, and hopefully you guys did OK during last weeks trading.
Friday 12 November 2010
Coming down like a lead balloon
Account 2 suffered 2 more stop outs, Qinetiq group stopped out losing £12.30 and Trinity Mirror that I've had for a while stopped at a loss of £13.80. Not all doom and gloom as Aviva stopped out for a profit of £9.45. All 3 get added to my stop list.
I also made 2 more opening trades in the account, small positions in Xchanging @120 and 888 @40.3.
In account 1 I've had no stop outs and made 4 new opening trades based on share tips. These were
IQE @40.85, Photo-me @62.16, Chariot Oil & Gas @189.97 and Henderson Group @132.63. See if we can bag us a winner on one of them. 2 positions in this account have actually started showing a profit after the last 2 weeks of breakeven play. I'll update account figures on Sunday, if I suffered any stops on Account 2 during today I will report on those tomorrow.
I really think the market has found resistance at the moment, so long only strategies may start to suffer but we shall see.
I also made 2 more opening trades in the account, small positions in Xchanging @120 and 888 @40.3.
In account 1 I've had no stop outs and made 4 new opening trades based on share tips. These were
IQE @40.85, Photo-me @62.16, Chariot Oil & Gas @189.97 and Henderson Group @132.63. See if we can bag us a winner on one of them. 2 positions in this account have actually started showing a profit after the last 2 weeks of breakeven play. I'll update account figures on Sunday, if I suffered any stops on Account 2 during today I will report on those tomorrow.
I really think the market has found resistance at the moment, so long only strategies may start to suffer but we shall see.
Thursday 11 November 2010
IG notification emails do work!
Well as usual I was snowed under with work yesterday so unable to update on here. It was nearly midnight when I finished so thought I may aswell wait till I received the days statement from WorldSpreads and make 1 post this morning about both days trades.
Tues:
As promised I made some new trades on Account 2. These were:
Royal Bank of Scotland @44, Sports Direct @130.46, Cobham @209.8, MITIE Group @204.9, DART Group @81.95, French Connection @53.4 and Booker Group @55.8.
Hopefully one of those will shoot up in value at some point! Thankfully no stop orders were triggered on Tuesday in either account so it was just a day of buying.
Weds:
I got my first email notification from IG Index so it confirmed that they have set everything up as promised. Unfortunately I knew it was a stop because I had made no new opening trades in this account for nearly a week. Hill & Smith Holdings stopped out @271.80 for a loss of £16. Unlike Account 2 where I would add this to a stopped out list for repurchase at a lower price, I wont be doing that with stops from Account 1as the stop out list is specific to Tony Lotons position trading strategy. So I will use the freed up trading funds to buy a new pro tip later on today.
As for Account 2, I suffered another stop out with Interserve @189.40 losing me £18. This one I WILL add to my stop out list. A bit dissapointed with the recent spout of stop outs recently but I guess it proves the current volatility in the market. I have made some very nice quick profits trading in real shares over the last 3 months so I wish the same would happen here! Anyway, plenty of time to turn things around.
Happy trading guys!
Tues:
As promised I made some new trades on Account 2. These were:
Royal Bank of Scotland @44, Sports Direct @130.46, Cobham @209.8, MITIE Group @204.9, DART Group @81.95, French Connection @53.4 and Booker Group @55.8.
Hopefully one of those will shoot up in value at some point! Thankfully no stop orders were triggered on Tuesday in either account so it was just a day of buying.
Weds:
I got my first email notification from IG Index so it confirmed that they have set everything up as promised. Unfortunately I knew it was a stop because I had made no new opening trades in this account for nearly a week. Hill & Smith Holdings stopped out @271.80 for a loss of £16. Unlike Account 2 where I would add this to a stopped out list for repurchase at a lower price, I wont be doing that with stops from Account 1as the stop out list is specific to Tony Lotons position trading strategy. So I will use the freed up trading funds to buy a new pro tip later on today.
As for Account 2, I suffered another stop out with Interserve @189.40 losing me £18. This one I WILL add to my stop out list. A bit dissapointed with the recent spout of stop outs recently but I guess it proves the current volatility in the market. I have made some very nice quick profits trading in real shares over the last 3 months so I wish the same would happen here! Anyway, plenty of time to turn things around.
Happy trading guys!
Tuesday 9 November 2010
Not much action, but a profitable trade triggered!
I guess I should explain that this blog will generally run 24hrs behind my actual trades. This is partly down to my work schedule but also due to the fact that I get my daily statements from WorldSpreads around midnight every night, so its easier for me to report any trades I made earlier the following day. So until that changes, there wont be many posts made on a Monday.
So now I got that explanation out the way, yesterday was pretty uneventful, mainly due to the fact I was asked to go into a clients office for a meeting all day that ruined my plan of action trading-wise.
But the day wouldn't be complete without some stop outs! Actually one stopped out in Account 2 making a profit, I think the first proper reported one so far. Resolution had gotten up to around £22 profit as I reported on Sunday, but sadly it dropped down and hit my trailing stop but the silver lining is I made a £19.70 profit on the trade. Ker-ching! Maybe next time I will keep my mouth closed about the profitable open trades!
I think a few people may have been caught out by Tribal Groups latest share price and I didnt escape unscathed, a loss of £10.20 racked up for me and another one for my stopout list.
I did make a couple of trades today in Account 2, but I'll wait for my statement to come through later tonight and report fully on those tomorrow.
No action at all on Account 1, unless IG Index didnt set up my instant email notifications like they said they had. I didn't receive any emails about any trades but I'll double check on that tomorrow aswell.
Happy trading!
So now I got that explanation out the way, yesterday was pretty uneventful, mainly due to the fact I was asked to go into a clients office for a meeting all day that ruined my plan of action trading-wise.
But the day wouldn't be complete without some stop outs! Actually one stopped out in Account 2 making a profit, I think the first proper reported one so far. Resolution had gotten up to around £22 profit as I reported on Sunday, but sadly it dropped down and hit my trailing stop but the silver lining is I made a £19.70 profit on the trade. Ker-ching! Maybe next time I will keep my mouth closed about the profitable open trades!
I think a few people may have been caught out by Tribal Groups latest share price and I didnt escape unscathed, a loss of £10.20 racked up for me and another one for my stopout list.
I did make a couple of trades today in Account 2, but I'll wait for my statement to come through later tonight and report fully on those tomorrow.
No action at all on Account 1, unless IG Index didnt set up my instant email notifications like they said they had. I didn't receive any emails about any trades but I'll double check on that tomorrow aswell.
Happy trading!
Sunday 7 November 2010
Accounts roundup
Ok so here are the figures for both accounts after 9 weeks:
Account 1: Pro tips strategy account
Overall account balance is now at £1270.70 with 42 open positions showing a total of -£13.84 and £995 of funds invested. Not one of the 42 positions is currently showing a profit, they are all practically break even point even after the markets upward movement over the last couple of days.
Account 2: Tony Loton's 'position trading' strategy account
Overall account balance is now at £822.13 with 28 open positions showing a current profit of £165.65 and I have £687 yet to invest. The biggest earners are Mitchells & Butler at £50, Savills at £46, Segro at £36 and Resolution Limited at £22.
All those have now moved into guaranteed profits due to their trailing stops, but hopefully they will all continue to rise.
Catch you next week, where I will be opening up new positions in Account 2 as I have a lot more available funds than I realised!
Account 1: Pro tips strategy account
Overall account balance is now at £1270.70 with 42 open positions showing a total of -£13.84 and £995 of funds invested. Not one of the 42 positions is currently showing a profit, they are all practically break even point even after the markets upward movement over the last couple of days.
Account 2: Tony Loton's 'position trading' strategy account
Overall account balance is now at £822.13 with 28 open positions showing a current profit of £165.65 and I have £687 yet to invest. The biggest earners are Mitchells & Butler at £50, Savills at £46, Segro at £36 and Resolution Limited at £22.
All those have now moved into guaranteed profits due to their trailing stops, but hopefully they will all continue to rise.
Catch you next week, where I will be opening up new positions in Account 2 as I have a lot more available funds than I realised!
Saturday 6 November 2010
Market Rally means no stop outs for a change!
As most of you will know, the FTSE rallied pretty well on Thursday and Friday so thankfully I didn't get any more stop outs on Friday. I established 4 more new positions in account 2 (position trading strat.) rebuying some old ones I have previously owned but at a much lower price. These were EAGA @63.4, Partygaming @226.5, Redrow @112.3 and Tui Travel @204.9. The EAGA position was at a huge 35% discount since I last owned it, the spending cuts taking the toll on the shares price. Hopefully it can rebound from here.
I havent established any new positions in Account 1 (pro tips account) due to the fact that the account is nearly at full invested capacity (£989 invested of the original £1k) so gave this weeks tips a miss as they were too expensive.
IG Index got back to me by email regarding not being able to keep track of the pro tips account positions very easily. They have now set up email notifications on my account so that I will see every bit of activity on there and I can report the daily activity here without trying to decipher their overly complex daily statement. Big thumbs up to their customer service team who sorted it out very quickly and politely for me.
I'll give a proper roundup of the account figures on Sunday (fingers crossed this time!)
I'm also adding a links part to the blog, first space goes to spread betting beginner. I've followed his site for a few weeks now and really enjoyed it so check it out when you can, especially if you are new to the spread betting scene. He has recently expanded to a full blown website from a blog so check the rest of his site out too aswell as his blog.
Catch you Sunday!
I havent established any new positions in Account 1 (pro tips account) due to the fact that the account is nearly at full invested capacity (£989 invested of the original £1k) so gave this weeks tips a miss as they were too expensive.
IG Index got back to me by email regarding not being able to keep track of the pro tips account positions very easily. They have now set up email notifications on my account so that I will see every bit of activity on there and I can report the daily activity here without trying to decipher their overly complex daily statement. Big thumbs up to their customer service team who sorted it out very quickly and politely for me.
I'll give a proper roundup of the account figures on Sunday (fingers crossed this time!)
I'm also adding a links part to the blog, first space goes to spread betting beginner. I've followed his site for a few weeks now and really enjoyed it so check it out when you can, especially if you are new to the spread betting scene. He has recently expanded to a full blown website from a blog so check the rest of his site out too aswell as his blog.
Catch you Sunday!
Thursday 4 November 2010
Slippage and company cuts
I got caught out by the slippage in Tribals share price aswell as Cobhams 12% drop in price after it warned of further delays in US military orders. Both these will end up on my stop out list for repurchase at a later date.
I'm having difficulty keeping track of my activity in the first account (pro tips account) as the IG Index software is pretty complicated to use. It's a completely different ball park compared to Tradefairs which email you everytime there is any activity in your account. I'll give IG Index a buzz today and see if I can clear things up. My main concern is that it is difficult to keep track of closed out orders, as far as I can see there is nowhere to see which positions have recently closed out and the profit or loss when closing out. If anyone out there uses IG Index and wants to give me any hints then feel free to let me know!
I'm hopefully going to establish some new positions today at a discount price in the position trading strategy account so watch this space.
I'm having difficulty keeping track of my activity in the first account (pro tips account) as the IG Index software is pretty complicated to use. It's a completely different ball park compared to Tradefairs which email you everytime there is any activity in your account. I'll give IG Index a buzz today and see if I can clear things up. My main concern is that it is difficult to keep track of closed out orders, as far as I can see there is nowhere to see which positions have recently closed out and the profit or loss when closing out. If anyone out there uses IG Index and wants to give me any hints then feel free to let me know!
I'm hopefully going to establish some new positions today at a discount price in the position trading strategy account so watch this space.
Tuesday 2 November 2010
Paragon
Well I had 1 position stop out yesterday, that was Paragon @150.70 for a £15 loss. Another for my stop out list, hopefully repurchase it at a cheaper price sometime.
I was snowed under with my business over the weekend so never got chance to come on here and give my account figures for the week. Now that they have changed I dont have the figure from Friday evening after market close so you'll have to tune in this Sunday for account roundups, sorry!
I was snowed under with my business over the weekend so never got chance to come on here and give my account figures for the week. Now that they have changed I dont have the figure from Friday evening after market close so you'll have to tune in this Sunday for account roundups, sorry!
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