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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 

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?

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.

Maybe the first conversation after your wife finishes her course is to determine who the least emotional of the two you or her is.  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

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...

Good call - did check up on it - and under FAQ ( I am with xm.com)

Do you allow scalping?
Yes, we do.

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?

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 

 
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!

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