Author Topic: Mr Div's CFD diary :: How to loose R25K in a few easy steps  (Read 163817 times)

Mr_Dividend

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Re: Mr Div's CFD diary :: How to loose R25K in a few easy steps
« Reply #180 on: February 25, 2016, 11:11:09 am »
First thing I did was check google finance - just to make sure that peak was there!

I am sure GT247 has better things to do than rip me of a couple of bucks - I am no Soros  :D

I just think that's just the way the cookie crumbles some time - my order just goes into the "system" - and handles the way it's handled - not really blaming GT TBO. Yes, you can get guaranteed stops with IG Jimmy - costs a whopping 1% which is huge when you consider my buying and selling comms are 0.1% ether side.

I am just struggling to get my head around bought my shares (or sold as I had to buy) @ 6286 - surely that's just dumb?? Some massive order? But why not trickle it in and get a better price?

Mr_Dividend

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Re: Mr Div's CFD diary :: How to loose R25K in a few easy steps
« Reply #181 on: February 29, 2016, 09:28:59 am »
Week 9 R-5740.28 R4259.28 R186.10

Wow - in profit 2 weeks in a row.  :)

Might be getting a little better at this - just having problems resolving the spikes issue. I really dislike not having stops - just goes against what I feel is right. Will see how it goes. Would have been nailed again on Friday on a short on nampak had I had  a stop.

Shorted a bit at the end of Friday - so starting off reasonably well.

Mr_Dividend

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Re: Mr Div's CFD diary :: How to loose R25K in a few easy steps
« Reply #182 on: March 07, 2016, 06:39:45 am »
week 10 -R6186 R3813 R-446

So did not use stops - and did the expected, let a couple of trades run way to far above their "mental" stops. I was bearish the whole week against a very bullish (the most since 2009) market. Most notable loss was of R344 to a Nampak short - way above my limit of 2% - so R80.

The problem is, of course, is some times you need to let a share "blow of steam" and it will return to it's original trajectory - there has also been a few times where not rashly selling has saved me.

Spikes is the reason why I ditched stop losses. But I do like stops - esp trailing stops. So am now thinking I just need to find instruments that do not or seldom have spikes. highly traded/liquid instruments. I think also the time frame might have a lot to do with it - basically a "spike" on a 1hr is often just part of a weekly range on the wk/mth chart.

Wife starts the same course I did tomorrow. Hoping the bug bites - would be nice to have her to bounce off ideas - she is very cautious by nature and as a graphic designer might see interesting patterns. There is a good chance she will kick my ass at it.


Moneypenny

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Re: Mr Div's CFD diary :: How to loose R25K in a few easy steps
« Reply #183 on: March 07, 2016, 09:37:46 am »

Wife starts the same course I did tomorrow. Hoping the bug bites - would be nice to have her to bounce off ideas - she is very cautious by nature and as a graphic designer might see interesting patterns. There is a good chance she will kick my ass at it.



You go girl!   (I'm rooting for her, in case I'm too subtle.  >:D)

gcr

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Re: Mr Div's CFD diary :: How to loose R25K in a few easy steps
« Reply #184 on: March 07, 2016, 02:18:15 pm »
Maybe the first conversation after your wife finishes her course is to determine who the least emotional of the two you or her is.  ;D Then work a strategy around your stop losses as it seems that these are the hindrances to you making money. The spikes I am almost sure are as a result of traders selling "at best" rather than at a fixed price - this will invariably take out tight stop losses
Not everything that counts, can be counted, and, not everything that can be counted counts - Albert Einstein

Mr_Dividend

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Re: Mr Div's CFD diary :: How to loose R25K in a few easy steps
« Reply #185 on: March 07, 2016, 03:09:26 pm »
I would say me - unless, of course, I gave her my money to use/loose.  :D I think the spikes are a deliberate method for taking out small retailers in relatively illiquid stocks - it works

Mr_Dividend

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Re: Mr Div's CFD diary :: How to loose R25K in a few easy steps
« Reply #186 on: April 30, 2016, 07:16:38 am »
Just a quick update.

I ditched the CFD's - the spikes did kill me. Maybe I needed to be more generous with my stops! That said, I might find a space in my portfolio for a CFD account - but with longer time limits in mind - weeks to months vs hours to days and with very tight money management.

Anyway, to counter the the spikes I needed to move to a more liquid instruments - forex. Yes, I also gasped. I have always treated Forex the same way I would a roulette table. I felt slightly dirty, hence my posts drying up...

Did it work?

Err, no. But no more spikes...

So I closed my GT cfd account and opened a Future Trader account with them - has a slightly different way of dealing with Forex - but still crappy software/ charting software. Had that for a bit and the bleed  became a trickle. I also opened up a demo MT4 account overseas and could see how much easier it would be if I could use MT4. (MT 4 is a trading package - but you trade off the graph which is great if you are a day trader). Only problem is no one reputable operates the MT4 platform in SA.

But eventually opened one about a week and a half ago.

Now it's very early days, but things are looking a lot better.  I'll post again at the end of May - target would be to grow my account by 20 - 25% - do that for three months and I will add some more to the account. I am working on a micro account - I actually will become a more profitable with a 'normal' account as it has lower costs and I am a bit of  a scalper - yesterday I did 63 trades, pretty much all on one currency pair.

So walking towards the light at the end of the tunnel, but well aware that a train might just be approaching from behind...

Orca

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Re: Mr Div's CFD diary :: How to loose R25K in a few easy steps
« Reply #187 on: April 30, 2016, 06:10:15 pm »
Good luck Mr Div. Look at the small print about scalping before you start. I was with FXCM and scalped for 3 months and made quite a good profit but then they reversed all my trades saying that I took advantage of the system as my trade durations were too short.
I started here with nothing and still have most of it left.

Mr_Dividend

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Re: Mr Div's CFD diary :: How to loose R25K in a few easy steps
« Reply #188 on: April 30, 2016, 11:17:25 pm »
Good call - did check up on it - and under FAQ ( I am with xm.com)

Quote
Do you allow scalping?
Yes, we do.



Mr_Dividend

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Re: Mr Div's CFD diary :: How to loose R25K in a few easy steps
« Reply #189 on: May 27, 2016, 07:31:44 am »
May update $300 - $350

So had a bit of a shocker after the last post, had moved my micro account from $200 - $300 in a week or so, then lost $150 in a day! Ouch. To be honest, I was lucky to even escape with that - at one point it looked like I was going to be wiped out. Of course, had I waited 12 hours I would have doubled my money. I do seem to spend most of my time just hoping to get out even!

But carried on and slowly got myself back up - but often on way to much risk.I decided to start logging how much risk i would take at it's highest point through the day. Last week I had a pretty big one and ended up $185 up for the week - and was up $437. But gave a bit of that back on Monday, as I seem to do. So decided to change tack slightly.

I really want this to work and become my job - but won't allow myself to have the money to do it if I cannot trade in a controlled manner. I decided, if I can show 50 straight days of controlled trading (using SL's, stopping at a certain point, only use a set amount of margin) then I would up the ante - say 5 times to start with - anther 50 days and we will go for 10 times. At ten times, I start to make a living - looking at $500 per week on a $3000 - $5000 pot. Seems a hell of a lot, but in action seems quite doable - time will tell.

The the biggest thing for me at the moment is to sort out the money management side - I have more winning days than loosing (12 vs 7 for the month) - but some of the loosing days are way to big.
 
Need to pick up on the studying - seems to have fallen by the wayside a bit. Today I will be doing my trading from the sofa while watching the french open - as I have for the week. I do allow myself an hour break for lunch with my wife, and then another for a after lunch nap.It's not the worst way to get through a day.  :)

Hit target for the month, even if done by a very round about way - so am happy about that. Target for next month would be $420 - but weekly, I am going for $50 per week.

Patrick

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Re: Mr Div's CFD diary :: How to loose R25K in a few easy steps
« Reply #190 on: May 27, 2016, 12:26:58 pm »
In theory I would imagine that if you could get to $50 a week in a fairly proven way, then as you said, you could just apply more capital to get to $500 a week. What would stop you from increasing capital x 100 to get to $5000 a week then? Aside from needing a giant pair of course...

How many hours a week are you averaging now if you include all research etc?

Mr_Dividend

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Re: Mr Div's CFD diary :: How to loose R25K in a few easy steps
« Reply #191 on: May 27, 2016, 03:06:39 pm »
No research, just trading off the charts.  I spend quite a bit or time "around" a computer/phone - just keeping an eye out for opportunities for day trading. Eventually I guess I would progress to swing trading. I might be giving it a go next week - basically using larger stops/ smaller lot sizes and using the 4hr/D chart - then you really do not need to be a round a pc. 


Mr_Dividend

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Re: Mr Div's CFD diary :: How to loose R25K in a few easy steps
« Reply #192 on: June 30, 2016, 09:27:53 pm »
June $620 ( I did add $160) and not sure if I had included $ 120 that I had taken out - anyway, looking at my records I am pretty much flat for the month. Mainly because of ONE day - no, not BEXIT, the Thursday before. It was a brilliant day - pretty much just got stuck in gold - mainly bullish. My calls where spot on and by 6 o'clock or so i was up $150 or so - so percentage wise, a massive day - never had much at risk ether the whole day.

 I was trying to stay out of the market for the rest of the day, telling myself I had done so well - just try keep it. But then I noticed gold had pulled back a bit, ok - just a little wager, for a bit of fun. Pulled back a bit more, ok - another little bet. Slowly it pulled back, and I kept place these small bets. Then bang, a big pull back. Suddenly I am $100 down - do I pull out? Take the loss - but still leave the day on a respectable $50 up? The price is now a bit range bound - so i start closing out positions at a loss whenever there is a small bullish thrust. Had about 15 or so (only $2 each, but 500-1 leverage so about $15000) close around 5 and keep hoping the bull market picks up. bang, another massive fall - and now it just keeps falling.

Now down around $200 - and when it pause put on some stop losses - and begged for the price to rise. But only paused for a few minutes before running though my S/L's. Feel slightly sick. Down $250. Then I try win some of it back and lost another $50. Eish. felt pretty sh&tty. I seem to be on repeat.

I had started the account with $200 and then had taken $240 off the table as well as putting an extra $160 into the account.  So started the next day with $483 - that was two weeks ago - up to $620 and up $260 overall - should be way higher if I wasn't such an idiot at times  :wall:

 
have decide this is that this is the last bucks I am putting into this - so all up it has been R15000. I would be doing so much better if I could avoid the blowouts - but not 100% sure if I am programmed that way.  I really enjoy this though - can happily do this from 06H00 to 20H00 every day. Anyway, onwards and upwards - think I am getting slightly better - but still early days I guess.

 I do wonder how often (bad) days traders go through laptops - this laptop is on it's 9th life!

Orca

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Re: Mr Div's CFD diary :: How to loose R25K in a few easy steps
« Reply #193 on: July 01, 2016, 12:14:04 am »
I really hope you make Mr D. I did not and lost my R110k.
I started here with nothing and still have most of it left.

Mr_Dividend

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Re: Mr Div's CFD diary :: How to loose R25K in a few easy steps
« Reply #194 on: July 01, 2016, 07:52:03 am »
Ouch - that is a healthy chunk to say goodbye to. I would hate for this not to work - I would then have to get off the couch and actually go do something  :'(