Month: August 2010
Last post for a while -
August 18, 2010 by
Harry
If you are a regular reader of this blog you will know that I will not be about for the next few weeks now. I’m off on Holiday, (If you can call visiting the in-laws a Holiday). I’ll be back on the 4th September and will try and update on Sunday the 5th but more likely on Monday.
Anyway the FTSE seems as if it just can’t make it’s mind up what to do at the minute. I suspect it may test the 5400 barrier again sometime soon. Will it manage to get past it this time? Well who knows, I suspect it might but then again it might not.
Most of my poositions are still not upto much. Cobham dropped a few points today which puts me around 6pts in profit. Meggit gained yesterday and today hasn’t moved too much putting me around 15pts in profit. F&C hasn’t moved much today after yetsredays massive 23% gain. Does anyone know why F&C moved so much. I had a look around but couln’t find any news as to why it happened.
I have taken the descison to leave my positions open. I will have the odd opportunity to check them while I’m away so I decided it’s a good idea to keep them open. It may turn out to be the wrong descision if it is then it will be another lesson learnt the hard way. If I had no access what so ever then I would close out the more short term trades and leave the longer term ones open.
My premier foods position closed out yesterday for a 3.5pt loss. I may look to re-establish a new position of the price falls a little further. Otherwise I will leave it be.
Anyway that’s about all from me today. If I get time to update while I’m away I will but I make no promises.
Happy trading, I hope the markets are kind while I’m away.
Until next time
“May the markets be with you”
Spread Betting Beginner
Back for a while -
August 17, 2010 by
Harry
Sorry for no post yesterday, It always takes me a while to settle back in at home after being away, even after only two days. Imagine what it is going to be like after two weeks.
Well some of my trades are doing ok. I have new positions in Cobham sell at 223.35, stop at 234, Meggit buy at 261.5 stop at 255, and F&C asset management buy at 53.29 stop at 47.
Meggit is support buy. I think there is a support zone around 260 so I brought just above with a stop set just below.
Cobham and F&C asset management are both an experiment with the super trend indicator I’ve mentioned previously. I brought them both when the super trend indicator crossed the price and I have been trailing the stop according to the price highlighted by the indicator. I haven’t just purely used this indicator, I have taken a look at the chart and decided if the trade was worthwhile or not before I made it. It would seem that both have potentially been worth while so far. Cobham is showing a slight profit and F&C has rocketed today by around 23%. The position is currently around £10 in profit with an initial £6 risk. I would’ve previously rushed to trail my stop up to lock in profit and probably trailed it to tight and miss out on further gains. I am not doing it this time. Because It’s a super trend buy the indicator will give me the value that I should move my stop to. I have to wait until the end of trading to do this as I use proRealTime free EOD charts.
With Cobham my stop currently lies at around 10 pts away but originally it was around 20 points away.
I’m hoping by the end of today the indicator for F&C will move my stop to lock in profit. I’m not sure what will happen yet as the price could fall back. As always with the stock market time will reveal all.
I will not be placing any new trades now until I return from Holiday at the beginning of September. I apologise for the sporadic nature of the blog over the last few weeks but I’ve had a lot going on personally and haven’t always had the time to update. Hopefully when I return in September I will update more frequently.
Please bare with me and spread the word about the blog. I’m sure there are a lot of people out there in the same position as me and with time and hard work I’m sure we can become successful together.
Until next time
“May the markets be with you”
Spread Betting Beginner
Financial Spread Betting -
August 12, 2010 by
Harry
Today is going to be a short and sweet post I’m afraid. With the markets recovering slightly after yesterdays falls my positions aren’t really following suit. The last time I checked they we’re all pretty much doing nothing, so not much to report on that front.
It would seem that there are a lot of very nervous investors/traders out there at the moment all willing to jump ship when bad news comes out and who can blame them really. The US and UK economies are both in pretty bad shape and don’t really look like improving anytime soon.
I’ve been doing some reading in my spare time(at work) of some new websites and came across http://www.financial-spread-betting.com/ This is an excellent website with a wealth of information about spread betting and trading.
I have read the creators (Andy) about me page and it’s very interesting to hear someone elses story on the path to success. He, “Andy”, seems to have spent a lot of time learning technical analysis, studying books, attending courses and seminars. To be honest I can identify a lot with what he says. I myself have been trying to teach myself via books, but really lack the financial capability to attend pricy seminars and courses. I have no doubt some of them could be very beneficial but at the moment I cannot justify the cost.
From what I can gather Andy has now passed into the successful spread bettor category and has found some success with his own trading, something I have yet to achieve. Anyway take a look at the site. I’ve also added it to the list of useful sights (Top Left of the page) so you read the site when ever you feel like it.
That’s about it from me for today. There will be no update tomorrow or at the weekend as I’m away on a Stagg do, I think it may be helpful to blow off some steam of the last few weeks/months of trading.
Anyway I hope you all have a good weekend.
“May the markets be with you”
Spread Betting Beginner
Well with the markets dropping like a stone today it took my meggit position with it. I think it looks like it might be time to sell the remaining shares we have as well. Other than my Meggit position stopping out there is not much else to report today. I’m struggling for time at the moment and I think if I look for more trades I’m probably just lining myself up for a fall.
I have to say I’m not very encouraged by the news about the state or our economy and the economy in the US. I suspect with the FTSE failing to pass 5430 over the last few days and falling like a stone today we could see further falls over the coming days/weeks. How far or even if it will fall I don’t know and nobody does, but I will certainly be keeping my eye on things and try and wait for the right time to start buying or selling , just depends on what happens.
I’ve been looking more at the super trend indicator but I can’t really find that much information about its construction or potential use. If anyone has any information about it what so ever please let me know.
Anyway That’s all from me today.
Until next time
“May the markets be with you”
Spread Betting Beginner
Firstly let me apologise to regular readers of this blog. I have had no time since returning on Thursday to update with anything of any meaning. It was my birthday over the weekend and we had family visiting which is always a busy time. Things should start to quiet down now and I should be able to dedicate some time to trading over the next few days. That said I am away all weekend again so there will be no updates then and then I am off on holiday on 19th August for two weeks so I probably wont be updating over this period either. I return on the 4th September so you can expect a normal service to resume form then onwards.
With being busy I’ve not really had much time to do any trading. I have placed one new trade on Meggit. This is a stock that I have some familiarly with as I have some regular shares with them as my father works for them. He gets stock options and the last one we took out 5 years ago matured in June. For me this is the best way of buying shares as it’s risk free.
Normally you get quoted a discount price that you will potentially purchase the shares at in the future. The good thing is if the price is below your quoted price you don’t have to buy them. Hopefully the price is way above your quoted price and you make decent return with zero risk.
We did alright on the options that recently matured. We sold the majority of them as soon as we could and kept some for potentially more profit.
With having shares I keep my eye on the price of the stock and recently it has been trading in the range 280-320. I took the opportunity to buy at 283 with a stop at 273 below the support line. We’ll see how it pans out.
I have been looking more at proRealTime and I have spotted a new indicator that I have not seen before. It’s the SuperTrend Indicator. Has anyone had any experience with this indicator? Does anyone use this indicator for their own trading? If you do please get in touch. It seems very interesting, offering an indication of the potential trend and giving a dynamic position for a stop order.
Moving on to my other positions. I have open Luminar, premier foods and shanks. These are all momentum divergence buys. The shanks position is showing a small profit and has now been open for over 10 weeks. I should possibly close the trade as it’s gone no where in 10 weeks, so I should move on and look of other trades. I’m in two minds what to do here as the chart is starting to look promising. The price has seemed to struggle to pass 105 recently but with it hitting 110 and now sitting at around 106 could the 105 resistance be broken and now act as support? It looks like it could be ready to make a serious break from this old range and possibly move up with some momentum, after really doing nothing for the last few months. I think for now I will hold the position and see how it goes. How I said I go on holiday on the 19th so I will probably give it till then and take a view in what to do before I go away. Any thoughts and opinions on this are more than welcome.
Anyway that’s about all from me for today. I may have more time later to look for some new trades. If I do I’ll try and post with any interesting findings.
Until next time
“May the markets be with you”
Spread Betting Beginner
