July (gross)

Had two huge losing trades but had an amazing run in the last week bringing my total higher than June which was my target. Hopefully in August I will break 2000 euros. I have a definite up trend throughout my first 3 months so I feel a little more confident now and hopefully can be trading bigger size next month.

Meh?

I should have blogged about my big loss on friday but just been really busy and busy thinking too. Friday was -1025 euros.. fun.. I puked the low, so it doesn't get more painful than that. I have considered quitting and not because things are going bad because they aren't just maybe realising the importance of a stable career. I worked hard to get to this point and thought I knew what I wanted but now not so sure what I want. I am trying to think ahead and think about those around me too, we shall see..

Going back to trading, to make my decision even harder I had my best trading day today! +688 euros

roller coaster day again

Well today I got to work for 7am having slept less than 4 hours.. I stayed an amazing 12 hours and on the open I was quickly up 108 euros, I was pretty aggressive and continued to do so and the same shit happened again, the TED goes up and I am stuck selling it and to make matters worse I am buying the bund/bobl/schatz fly which is plummeting... Around 10 or 11am I had basically maxed out my limits and my pnl was fluctuating between -200 and -700 really fast and it wasn't a pleasant experience! Everytime i que'd the schatz I had to take market... and it was really getting to me, at the end of the day I was queing the schatz  which had less than 50 on the bid, 8 of them were mine and I was waiting for about 30 seconds, it looked like it had to trade and if just something traded I would have finished up 140! a massive recovery... but the schatz went massively bid and I was forced to get back into the fly and 1 hour later I have sold more flys and now down 140 for the day. I felt so annoyed knowing just 3 ticks which is nothing on the fly would bring me down another 90 euros but luckily ben bernanke gave his speach at 7pm and I was able to get out and punted the bobl for 30 euros finishing up 90 euros, which is definately my best recovery yet!

Tuesdays are always good!

Today things went well, I took prices I should have and have improved my execution on the fly but still learning good legs to take. I sold the fly on the open, which opened high and watched the TED go from 20 to 23 before selling it, then I took the euribor off and put it back on and improved my position to short 24s. I bought 22.5s on a leg and then sold 23.5 buying it back at 22.5 and continued to make money on the fly. I also punted the schatz which worked out, hoorar!

An intense and draining day

Today I traded virtually non stop from 7am to 5pm, my first couple of trades were aggressive but made money but then the TED spread trended upwards once again but to make things worse I was selling the bund/bobl/schatz fly as well which was also trending upwards and I was struggling to keep my PnL above -600. I had a low point of just over 800 euros down but worked hard to jog my position and scalp the fly and finished the day down 205 euros which felt like a huge win, although all in all a bad day

Update!

I am currently half way through my 3rd month as a trader. I trade fixed income but more precisely I spread trade and scalp and typically look to make a tick or two ticks at most each trade. I come into an office every day by 7 am and trade the open with other kids my age, it is the dream job if you can earn a salary from it. Many people come and go and the success rate even after their 4 week assessment is low. They selected about 25 people to train and assess and took on 6 guys which is above the normal intake each month. Now there are only 4 of us and were only 50 trading days in...

I wasn't sure what to write on this blog but I think I have a better idea now. My story so far is I was selected as one of the 6 guys and then was selected to join one of the best teams on the floor where I get a lot more freedom and I sit next to experienced people who I can ask questions and learn from. The truth is, no one is really sure themselves on what to buy and what to sell and it's hard to teach someone else, you just have to put a lot of screen time in and I have done a few 14 hour days since being there. It eventually will cost me £2k a month for my desk plus it's costing about £70 a day to trade and I get about half of that £70 back at the end of the month. At the start of my 2nd month just before I was to receive about £800 back in rebates my account was down £2.2k and I felt like quitting. I was probably half way to being asked to leave, which is normal for the ones that make it but I still felt negative, luckily things have picked up and my account is virtually flat now. Also the guy I sit next to has bought half a stake in me from my original backer and has been teaching me what he knows and has faith in me, which is cool.

I am starting to make money trading outright also, I typically buy the euribor and sell the schatz or the other way around but together as I spread trade but once or twice a day I spot an opportunity and I lift or hit the schatz and que the otherside for a quick half a tick. After the CPI eurozone data yesterday the markets kicked off and I traded outright and then just went to the pub which is cool because if I can learn to trade outright it's going to help.

Recently the markets have been volatile and this week there was a bund and bobl stop, whereby they moved too many ticks in too little time and they close and go into netting. I was long bobl when it rocketed up and took my schatz off which didn't move anyway and ended up profiting a tick on it and taking 4 ticks on the bobl which was lucky to be on the right side of it.

Anyway things are going ok and I love the job and just wish I can build my account up and survive another month for now. Last friday everyone in the office stopped out pretty much and was down the pub by 11am, I lost 775 euros which isn't good... it's taken me a week to make it back and I am up 1000 euros (gross) this month, I haven't made much after costs but I just want to beat last months gross total of 1400, 10 trading days left, wish me luck!