I don’t usually like to trade during the Xmas/New Year time as the markets are quite light on volume. However, it was my first day back today into work and it was sooo quiet! I have got into the habit of logging into the trading platform after work to have a look at the market.

I made a trade, long USDCHF at 1.0556 and got out at 1.0594 for a 38 pip profit with a 50 pip stoploss. Not really a good trade overall as my pip count should be at least equal to my anticipated stoploss to have any chance of long term success at this. Anyway, I will probably be more careful and trade in the New Year!

Tags: currency trade, daytrading, foreign exchange trade, forex, forex spreadbet, Forex trading, scalp trade, scalping, spreadbet, trading blog, usdchf

My blog is all about making money and although the majority of the posts have been to do with trading the financial markets, I am also trying a lot of other things.

Once such avenue is through Clickbank the online seller of electronic products. The nice thing about Clickbank is that you do not need to have your own products, you can simply market other people’s products and take a cut on every sale that you make. Of course, you can have your own product too and sell through Clickbank or make it attractive for other people to sell it (and pay them a commission per sale).

There are many ways to make money via Clickbank and what I have been doing has been extremely simple. I am advertising through the Google Adwords program (these are the links which appear in the Google search engine) and putting the link to the Clickbank page of the product that I am selling.

This does mean that I have to pay money for advertising but the money that I make back is a lot higher. Currently, for every $10 I am putting into Google advertising, I am getting $30 back.. hence, $20 of profit.

Here is the picture of my cheque I received recently for $490.60!!

(click on picture for a larger one)

If you would like to set up your own Clickbank account, click here

If you would like to set up your Google Adwords account, click here

I’ll start to write a little series on how to sell through Clickbank and some of the little tricks that I have employed to get it to work for me!

Tags: adwords, clickbank, clickbank cheque, clickbank payment, make money, making money, selling ebook

The other half bought me the book by Geraint Anderson, “Cityboy – Beer and Loathing in the City“… this was actually meant to be a Xmas present but I really wanted to read it (she blabbed that my present had come through the post and I insisted on knowing what it was.. when I found out what it was, I begged her to let me read it right away… my persuasive charms worked and I just digested the book). Anyway, it was a fun read and an insight to how the City worked. The City being the City of London, the Financial capital of the world!! I know some New Yorkers will dispute this but London officially overtook New York a few years back (the Sarbanes Oxley stuff made it more complicated for firms to list on the New York stock exchange).. however, with what’s happening lately in the economy.. who knows, everyone knows the whole financial centre is a complete mess (particularly in London)

After reading the book, it did make me wonder if I would ever like to work in the City. You get paid handsomely and the salaries are completely disproportionate to the rest of the country but it is a dog-eat-dog world. There are a lot of egos in the City and people are only interested in their own success..  people are only interested in you if you can help them someway or another. Also, people work 70 – 80 hours a week… you really spend most of your waking life for your company. Even with all the money that you’re making, when are you ever going to find time to spend it?

Geraint’s account is viewed through the eyes of Steve Jones (his alter ego for the book) and tells of his story from when he started, wet behind the ears. It is a hilarious read and some of the stories may seem a bit unbelievable in the context of the Corporate world but I know some of these things do happen. I used to work for a recruitment company in Mayfair and recruitment guys have very similar characteristics to traders (I read somewhere that failed Traders become Estate Agents and Recruitment consultants!). Some of the things which I saw which were done to others were hilarious.. so long as they weren’t done to you!

Anyway, going back to the book.. Geraint’s story tells of how he started and progressed up the ranks starting off with a salary of £24,000 to £120,000 in 5 years. He talks about the personalities you’ll meet in the City and the conversations he had. He writes about the client entertaining and the hedonistic behaviour (drugs, alcohol and crazy spending)… it gives you an understanding of the characters and personalities in the City… about what happens behind those remarkable buildings where the the City workers make their millions. It is told in in a humourous manner and so is a great little read…

For those of you living in London, you probably know of the Londonpaper.. there was a Cityboy column which wrote about the shennigans of the City workers. Geraint had been writing the column anonymously. On the release of his book, his identity was revealed. Now there’s a Citygirl who has appeared in Londonpaper and giving her anonymous account..

Anyway, I try to keep my posts within a reading distance.. too long they just drag. If you would like to read Cityboy, you can get your copy from Amazon:

Tags: beer and loathing, book review, cityboy, cityboy book, geraint anderson, londonpaper, trading blog