FTSE hates you

Just now, in the space of 20 minutes, I have lost 187 pounds.

For the first time I had implemented a strategy and it was working slow but, sure enough, money was flowing in (scalping).

Unfortunately, the rule of limiting your losses when you do make a mistake was ignored and I quickly lost all my profit …and then a nightmare began. The spread betting program froze. This had never happened to me before and it was a very, very big shock. Needless to say, after resetting my computer I had lost more then just my profit. 185 pounds gone like that. To my horror, upon trying to close the position the program had reset the bet so I didn’t close in time costing me an extra 3 pounds in commission.

Who is to blame? Me. Firstly for having a crappy computer, secondly for not having a automatic stop loss and thirdly for not having the discipline to follow the plan.

Lesson learned, tears wiped, we will try again tomorrow.

Face Kicking stuff

The day the market kicked me in the face

Yesterday was not a good day. It started with a nice inflow of cash; not lots and lots of money, only 21 pounds, but it was with a lot of conservative day trading and I was very, very happy.

Then it happened. I WANT THIS TO BE A WARNING to stay disciplined. I heard the voice (you know the voice) “you can bet more… this is easy…do it” I said “no”, of course, as any gentleman knows how to ignore temptation.

5 minutes later and I'm on £5 pounds per point and it was good. It felt amazing. I made £100 pounds in exactly 20 minutes.

Then I was punched in the face, the trade screen went from 5432/5434 (example) to N/A/N/A (O.o) in other words I couldn’t see what was about to happen.

So 3 minutes and £350 pounds later, I was feeling very hurt.

When we go short :) WE sing your demise :) when we go long we send you flowers

As an amateur trader, it is always good to make profit. However, you are still very subject to the emotions that test your common sense and judgement.

I find my emotions play with me and when I go short I try to send negative imaginary waves to the market images of exploding oil rigs and erupting volcanoes. Conversely, if I’m bullish I get pictures of people singing and holding hands and I feel like a hippie and sending flowers to all the banks.

How long will it take for me to become an emotionless money making machine?

Recently the FTSE has been doing well for me. It got me to thinking; what if? what if ?what if? What if I was taught this when I was younger, say 6 or 8 years old? I mean, how old do you really need to be to understand the concepts of an option or a future?

I think that instead sending your child to learn violin, they could learn to play the most beautiful instrument of all, the market.

Manga you must read

Here is a small list of some of the most awesome manga I have read:

Hellsing- OVA (Original Version Anime) is great
Deathnote- The anime and manga both rock
Cowboy bebop - The anime is better than the manga
Vinland Saga
Outlaw Star- The manga is better, but very difficult to find


Dragonball - this manga starts off continues very well but gets very dry after a while. I still loved it though.

Soul Eater

Black Lagoon- anime rocks

Gantz- manga

Elfin Lied- manga

Tri-gun

Hunter x Hunter - anime follows the manga exactly

Claymore

Eyeshield 21

Naruto- the manga is better, but the anime is better for fights

Bleach - kind of sucks but I read out of habit

Fullmetal Alchemist...is still going (updated 6th September: the manga has now finished)

Superior - I loved this fresh manga where the evil character is the main lead, but
not seen any updates for ages :(

Ares - another kickass korean manga.

Veritas

Liar game - I got into this then got out of this as I dislike one of the characters..

Basilisk is the name of the manga, but I have watched the anime

kiss x kiss

If you can think of anything to add to the list let me know, and click something (HINT HINT)