My journey as a full time trader.

My journey began about 12 years ago.. with a little book on trading, by james king,

"Stop living and start making a fortune"

It was a journey that would be long and cost me dearly.

Over the next few years i had followed most of the gurus out there, with their promises to make me rich quick in trading their system. I had over time tried most of the systems advertised by the popular publishers. Sadly to say that non performed as advertised. In the begining I attended two seminars. only to be handed a 100+ page manual, which was mostly an introduction on how the stock market worked and the various instruments used. Today the same info is freely available on the web. No more seminars.

Armed with a live feed and a charting package (system included) i was a trader ! It was roller coaster ride. I experienced the Fear and greed in my trading. I grossly underestimated the steep learning curve, which had taken up nearly two years of my time. The so called gurus/ system sellers don't tell you this. With their sales brochures, They make trading SOUND SO EASY and most of us fall for it, myself included ! It has taken me a long time to grow out of this bull.

I tried various combinations to come up with a system to make money in trading. It was time consuming and laborious. staying up late and working out different strategies and variable settings on the moving averages, and popular indicators to generate signals. I back tested moving average settings which showed vast profits, only to find that in real time it didn't materialise. Read countless books on trading, technical analysis. They didn't give me a system that i was looking for but they gave me the ingredients to make my own.

Systems, I had gone through a sackful over the years.. shiraz lakhi, betting on a fortune, index trade, FTS by peter hall, prophecy real time, ftse wealthbuilder, Louise woof, and many more.

Each of these systems was a stepping stone for me. It invoked new ideas to try out. In the end i guess i learnt something from them.

Every time you switch on your laptop there is an advert for a new system that's going to make you a fortune just before breakfast.

when most of these systems failed miserably, I came to a realisation that I will have to formulate my own system or a method, whatever it may be... i have to invent my own trading strategy. This was another mission, but eventually with dedication i found a way that i was comfortable with. It isn't the holy grail but works for me. I am sorry i cannot divulge the workings of the strategies used at this moment. Perhaps at a later stage. I will post the live trades as they happen, what i trade and when with clear guidelines as to when to enter and exit. I can honestly say that i don't use any indicators or fancy charts in my trading.

over time i found that various trading methods which i had formulated and was following live, were not performing brilliant in terms of returns on a monthly basis, but were consistent. They were averaging 50/ 60 / points, which is abysmal in trading terms. I figured that if i could run about 4 of these strategies from my collection, that would give me an average of 200 points monthly. The only problem was that most of them were throwing signals which were overlapping each other, which meant i would have to be as fast as the fastest gun slinger in the wild west !! not good.

After various testing runs i found a combination which I was happy with. Once i reach my monthly target of 200 points, i stop trading for the month. If I don't, I carry on.

WHAT I SPREAD TRADE.

First and foremost, I AM NOT AN EXPERT, and neither am i making out that trading is easy.

I am not out to prove that my strategy is the holy grail. l am out to show that collecting meager returns on a selected number of strategies, i am able to notch up a healthy return at the end of the month, and perhaps others can see the logic that if the home runs are not working out in the long run, it's time to go slow and steady. I combine "set and forget" strategies for the day. My maximum stop loss is 15 points.

All trades are daily, Start at 8.00am and closed out by 4.30 PM same day.

FTSE ROLLING DAILY

OCO order (one cancels the other) with 12 points stop loss and 10 points profit limit

A further trade depending on the opening action, 12 points stop loss and 10 points profit limit.

EURO/USD

OCO order with 15 pts stop loss and 15 pts profit limit.

A further trade depending on the opening price action. with 15 points stop loss and 15 points profit limit.

One evening strategy to be added. optional.

For the currency pairs extreme Caution should be used as economic data releases can knock you out. I use the calendar on www.forexfactory.com which gives you the time of the data releases for the day. I only use the red data releases as they have the most impact.