On the open the schatz plummeted and I watched for 20 minutes before getting involved, the TED spread which had rallied a huge amount looked to be turning as the schatz was retracing and so I sold it, it almost immediately took off again and I was 5 ticks offside and I averaged my position by selling more. It continued to go against me and I dumped it about 2 ticks from my last sell. I fat fingered on my first trade too and was down 675 euros within 40 minutes of the open, which seemed disastrous. The spread continued 10 or so ticks more but I didn't get involved and I waited for the guy I report to, to get in the office to see If I could still trade or not. It seemed almost everyone was down huge amounts. I was told I joined at the best time possible because I am seeing the extreme side to trading and spreading, I just hope my account can take the hit.
I had a chat with him and he said I could trade but soon as I had a losing trade I was to stop. Luckily I put together 5 winning trades and finished around 5.30pm and finished -493 euros, not soo bad considering I was actually showing -800 euros at one point whilst still in a trade...
I felt a little de motivated after losing 500 euros in 1 trade but feel quite positive knowing I can take ticks out of the market, so I just need to work on averaging and knowing when to use it. I have been told I could average up to 3 or 4 times but I still have to know when to puke it and get out the trade. I learned from last time to not average so tightly but the move was just too big and if I continue to average you run the risk of busting your account! Hopefully I'll get the hang of averaging as it is useful.
Monday, 10 May 2010
Friday, 7 May 2010
Day 3
Today was another crazy day but really intense at one point for me, I was quickly told what had happened after I left, loads of big stocks had hit 1c and shot back up and the DJ had dropped 900 points and liquidity had dried up immensely and it was so hard to trade. I jumped in at about 7.30 by longing the TED and it ripped through me and I averaged my position for a better price and it continued to go against me... I managed to sell half of my trade for a profit and averaged in again and it still dropped and my profit and loss was printing -500 euros at one point... I made a mistake by buying the euribor but not selling the schatz when I tried to average for a third time and the euribor moved 3 ticks and I sold everything and legged out the schatz, such a messy trade but I was down 238 euros which was a whole lot better than 500!. Considering if you lose 5k or more you generally get asked to leave... but the markets were just mental.
From then I made a series of trades making between 25 to 63 euros and finished -75 euros, which was pretty cool considering. The first 2-3 days of trading went good overall and I learnt a lot and made some money. The graph is a bit weird cause its showing my balance twice between each trade so I actually did 22ish trades instead of 45.
From then I made a series of trades making between 25 to 63 euros and finished -75 euros, which was pretty cool considering. The first 2-3 days of trading went good overall and I learnt a lot and made some money. The graph is a bit weird cause its showing my balance twice between each trade so I actually did 22ish trades instead of 45.
Thursday, 6 May 2010
2nd Day
Today was insane by 11am I had hit my target again but made a very costly error by double clicking by accident and lost almost half of it but managed to pull it back to where it was. The markets were moving so fast and it was so hard to get out at the price I wanted. I was really happy during the day to just sit down and get in a trade then back out 4 minutes later and go to shops and chill out.
The bobl rocketed up, I don't trade it but many people around me do and the spread shot out by 100 ticks and the environment kicked off pretty badly... I feel sorry for some guy who was helping me, who was definitely on the wrong side of it. It was just brutal how it ripped out the range so fast... when your looking for 1 tick profit and it moves 100 ticks in 20 minutes, it's a scalpers nightmare, especially if you average into it.
The bobl rocketed up, I don't trade it but many people around me do and the spread shot out by 100 ticks and the environment kicked off pretty badly... I feel sorry for some guy who was helping me, who was definitely on the wrong side of it. It was just brutal how it ripped out the range so fast... when your looking for 1 tick profit and it moves 100 ticks in 20 minutes, it's a scalpers nightmare, especially if you average into it.
Wednesday, 5 May 2010
First day trading!
So yesterday I didn't even get a desk, I just socialized and watched some people trade. Some guy was up 1k by 11 am.. I saw he was trading pretty big volume until the next day when they sat me next to a guy who is trading like 4-5 times that amount. Everyone is really laid back, a lot of young guys mostly in their twenties all joking about or cursing at the screen ^^. The atmosphere is great and I am so glad almost everyone is wearing casual clothes and that I have been put on a team that gives you a lot of freedom.
So today, I was trading by 12.30 and by 2.45 I had hit my daily profit target, which was insane. I was out with a girl till gone midnight so felt pretty tired and after hitting my target I just laid back and went to the shops and chatted to various people. I left at 4pm and that was my day! No way I expect to just go in and be profitable so I will try and prepare my mind to expect to lose but it was great to have a good first day.
The trades themselves involved going long the June11 TED spread, in the morning the Euribor had shot up and the spread was at a high and I wanted to short it at about 11am but I hadn't been given the all clear to trade. Before I traded, the guy I report to asked me what my strategy was and I just said sell 10's and buy 8's and he said great. Then when it broke down to 8 and went to 7, I was trying to buy 6's and the guy came over and goes I see you didn't get the 8's, a good thing too etc. So by the time I got in I had chat with the guy next to me and he kind of helped me establish good entry levels. The 8's became too easy to get too fast and so I kinda of waited to see what would happen. So I went long 6's and sold 6.5's for 1/2 a tick profit i.e 25 euros and was a bit annoyed because 7's were really easy to sell and it soon went bid at 8. I waited for it to retrace as I didn't fancy getting involved around the 8.5 to 9 mark when the high was about 11 and the low 7.5. 1 hour later it had come down and I tried to buy 5's and soon as I got filled on the Euribor I hit enter and picked up 4.5's! and sold them for 5.5. I did 1 other trade profitably but nothing too interesting.
Anyway I will be in at 6.30am and can't wait to trade the open. Today was really crazy what with the rumours about Portugal's ratings and at one point it was so tense having my finger poised on the mouse button whilst everything bounces around super fast, so was very pleased to not get caught.
So today, I was trading by 12.30 and by 2.45 I had hit my daily profit target, which was insane. I was out with a girl till gone midnight so felt pretty tired and after hitting my target I just laid back and went to the shops and chatted to various people. I left at 4pm and that was my day! No way I expect to just go in and be profitable so I will try and prepare my mind to expect to lose but it was great to have a good first day.
The trades themselves involved going long the June11 TED spread, in the morning the Euribor had shot up and the spread was at a high and I wanted to short it at about 11am but I hadn't been given the all clear to trade. Before I traded, the guy I report to asked me what my strategy was and I just said sell 10's and buy 8's and he said great. Then when it broke down to 8 and went to 7, I was trying to buy 6's and the guy came over and goes I see you didn't get the 8's, a good thing too etc. So by the time I got in I had chat with the guy next to me and he kind of helped me establish good entry levels. The 8's became too easy to get too fast and so I kinda of waited to see what would happen. So I went long 6's and sold 6.5's for 1/2 a tick profit i.e 25 euros and was a bit annoyed because 7's were really easy to sell and it soon went bid at 8. I waited for it to retrace as I didn't fancy getting involved around the 8.5 to 9 mark when the high was about 11 and the low 7.5. 1 hour later it had come down and I tried to buy 5's and soon as I got filled on the Euribor I hit enter and picked up 4.5's! and sold them for 5.5. I did 1 other trade profitably but nothing too interesting.
Anyway I will be in at 6.30am and can't wait to trade the open. Today was really crazy what with the rumours about Portugal's ratings and at one point it was so tense having my finger poised on the mouse button whilst everything bounces around super fast, so was very pleased to not get caught.
Sunday, 2 May 2010
On to the floor
I made it to the floor!!! So happy and to top it all off I was recommended by the people who ran the 4 week course to a successful trader who now manages a team of traders and he decided to take me on. The idea is I should progress faster as I will be sat amongst experienced traders that I can learn from rather than be put with all the other new traders.
A really big turning point in my life, the last 4 weeks have been intense and tiring but probably the best 4 weeks of my life. I spent the last 3 days drinking with different groups of friends and was eventually sick last night, when I couldn't take any more but glad I spent time with everyone I know in London.
My plan for this blog is to blog each day now that I have the internet but I am little unsure. I don't know but hopefully I can provide something reasonably entertaining to follow.
Right now I start on tuesday and should be spreading on the TED spread (the euribor vs schatz) and may well be doing bund/bobl/schatz (10 year, 5 year and 2 year german bonds) we shall see!
A really big turning point in my life, the last 4 weeks have been intense and tiring but probably the best 4 weeks of my life. I spent the last 3 days drinking with different groups of friends and was eventually sick last night, when I couldn't take any more but glad I spent time with everyone I know in London.
My plan for this blog is to blog each day now that I have the internet but I am little unsure. I don't know but hopefully I can provide something reasonably entertaining to follow.
Right now I start on tuesday and should be spreading on the TED spread (the euribor vs schatz) and may well be doing bund/bobl/schatz (10 year, 5 year and 2 year german bonds) we shall see!
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