I have been trading.. or should I say, trying to trade for a long time now. My first interest was over 10 years ago in the Dot Com boom and bust… when it was going up, you could just put money in an IPO and watch it shoot to the moon. I was one of those who watched this happen and when others were making money, I thought I would get in myself and see if I could do the same. I didn’t make much money but ever since, I have been intrigued and watched the markets ever since.

Fast forward to modern day.. I have been more serious about the markets over the past 4 to 5 years but still have yet to make consistent profits. There are periods when I do fantastically well… say, 3 months of brilliant profits but the true case of success if I can consistently win over a year… so far, it hasn’t been this way.

I have met many people interested in trading along the way and a handful which have been successful. I tell them my story and ask them where they think I am going wrong. There are some interesting comments which have come out of these conversations which I want to share with you.

Trading point 1 - You need to have a passion for trading

This I do have.. however, it actually needs to be a passion for trading and not a passion for making money.. obviously they go hand in hand but what they mean is that if trading was a non-profit endeavour (even if you’re hugely successful) would you still enjoy it? It’s the challenge of being able to predict the market, playing the odds, managing your money. To succeed you need to truly have a real desire and passion for trading itself.

Trading point 2 - Trading takes time

The average time it takes if you have dedicated yourself to trading is a minimum of 6 years. You need to experience first hand the feeling of losing, winning. This is the trading psychology bit. Us humans like to take our money out of trades if we are winning and keep them running if they are losing. In fact, this should be the opposite, we need to be able to keep our winning trades going and cut off the losing ones.

Trading point 3 - Dedicate yourself completely to trading

Now I hope this one isn’t true as I trade part time. I have a 9-to-5 job and I come home each day to look at the markets. There have been numerous times when the market has moved significantly prior to my trading session and I feel frustrated that I have missed it. As a result, I jump in wanting to take some of the profits. Other times, I may put on trades during my 9-to-5 job or have trades running overnight.. when I am in the office doing my normal job, I can’t watch the markets and I can then miss my exit points and end up with a loss or vastly diminished profits. I know there are truths to this and trading can be a very unforgiving endeavour if you are not 100%… however, I won’t feel ready to do this until I know that I can make it 100% as a trader… a bit of a catch 22 situation!

Anyway, those are some of things which have been mentioned to me..  not sure if it’s of any use to anyone but I thought I would just write it down!

Tags: day trading, daytrade, Forex trading, make me some money, stock market, successful trader, trading hints, trading psychology, trading success, trading tips

I can’t believe it, the DOW made over 900 points in todays trading session, a gain of over 11%!! WOW, this is the biggest ever one day gain I have ever seen! Sometimes I wish I had the capital to trade these markets.. this would have been a serious payday.

The past week, we had seen the biggest drop on the US and UK (and probably other markets but I only primarily follow the UK and US markets).

I hope this stabilises the markets and that we see further upside.. however, it is possible that this is just a reactionary bounce before further downside.. afterall, the markets have fallen extremely sharply of late and hence oversold.. people were expecting a correction at some stage and this is it… we’ll see…

Tags: 11% dow, 936 points, biggest day gain, biggest gain, dow, dow gains, dow jones, make me some money, makemesomemoney, money, stock market, us stock market

I have my day off today and I wanted to watch the markets and not be desperate to trade. A problem is that when I come home from work and find that the markets have moved a lot with a lot of profit left on the table, I feel that I missed a fantastic opportunity and feel that I need to do something to get some of the profits..  as a result, I fire off trades from my trading platform even though there is no real reason to.. this amounts to losses and then frustration.

However, today, I entered a great long at 11520 and rode it all the way to 11600. The market went higher to 11640 however before easing off. Now the markets are consolidating and could be setting up for another move upwards.. however, the MACD and stochastics are turning for the lower in the 5 min charts and I am thinking that this could be an opportunity for a short trade. However, picking potential tops and bottoms are very dangerous as you’re going against thegrain of the momentum.. the markets have really romped up today and one would expect some sort of significant pullback.. I am thinking that it maybe now but then again, you never know… let’s wait and see…

Tags: day trading, dow jones, futures trading, part time trader, picking bottom, picking tops, spreadbet, Spreadbetting, stock market, Trading