Stocks

[newguy]

I also placed some money in a Vanguard index fund, and that's up 10%+ but it feels like much more hard going. With this stock market, there's the concern of what I might wake up to! I pulled my money out at one point and sod's law a rally then occurred that meant that I missed out on decent gains! I feel more comfortable with investing in specific companies really as there's the opportunity to assess how they might traverse these high seas!

Summary: I have no idea what I'm doing but it hasn't (yet) ended in disaster!

 

[Murray]

Good call! My shares have also gone up... not sure whether to let them ride or not. They're within an AJBell Lifetime ISA that i'd put 8k total into (just before and after tax year). GVC is up 31%, William Hill 114%. With the government bonus factored in and invested at the same time my 8k is now 15k+. I consider myself fortunate to have got involved when I did!

Wow you've done amazing there, seems like it should be illegal making so much money tax free, god bless isa's

I've been learning about macro stuff lately, the tightening of commercial bank loans, lower imports to the US, less dollars held in foreign banks, low oil demand etc it all points to contraction and deflation in the short term and I'm worried about another stock market crash

For that reason I've taken some profit, removes a lot of the risk whilst still having a good sum left in to run

 

[newguy]

Wow you've done amazing there, seems like it should be illegal making so much money tax free, god bless isa's

I've been learning about macro stuff lately, the tightening of commercial bank loans, lower imports to the US, less dollars held in foreign banks, low oil demand etc it all points to contraction and deflation in the short term and I'm worried about another stock market crash

For that reason I've taken some profit, removes a lot of the risk whilst still having a good sum left in to run

Yes, I've been very fortunate so far, but envy those who got involved in early March! A crazy trajectory since (see attachment!).

I share your concerns. I'm not so worried with specific shares, but do feel like it might be the right time (this time!) to think twice about the vanguard investment. Of course people say "time in the market not timing the market" which is likely right long term, but I'm not sure that I intend to leave these funds invested long term (other than the lifetime isa) anyway, so it might not be the worst time remove some of the risk. Decisions, decisions!

 

[3gmedia]

I thought i'd give an update on my sons new career in trading with currency pairs.

He asked me a couple of years ago what sideline he could have to put a few pennies in his pocket? I suggested he should try currency trading as i had a little success with that hobby, wind forward 2 years and his hand was forced because of redundancy through the virus affecting the business he worked for.

My son has for the last 3 months been trading in currency pairs as his main job. He's making on average £350 a week, well I say a week, he does approx half hour of work a week and generates £350 !

He has a working capital of just over £9k and only ever uses between 2 to 3.5% percent to make his profit and then reinvest most of it, so pretty much increasing his working capital weekly.

Some may think £350 a week isn't much but he has very little outgoings at this stage of his life. I'm really pleased for him and his future looks bright.

It goes to show that anyone can trade in currency pairs from anywhere in the world and have a nice income depending on the working capital and lifestyle.

 

[newguy]

I thought i'd give an update on my sons new career in trading with currency pairs.

He asked me a couple of years ago what sideline he could have to put a few pennies in his pocket? I suggested he should try currency trading as i had a little success with that hobby, wind forward 2 years and his hand was forced because of redundancy through the virus affecting the business he worked for.

My son has for the last 3 months been trading in currency pairs as his main job. He's making on average £350 a week, well I say a week, he does approx half hour of work a week and generates £350 !

He has a working capital of just over £9k and only ever uses between 2 to 3.5% percent to make his profit and then reinvest most of it, so pretty much increasing his working capital weekly.

Some may think £350 a week isn't much but he has very little outgoings at this stage of his life. I'm really pleased for him and his future looks bright.

It goes to show that anyone can trade in currency pairs from anywhere in the world and have a nice income depending on the working capital and lifestyle.

Impressive stuff! Isn't it funny how a little suggestion like that or just asking for a bit of advice can lead someone down such a fruitful path. Be sure to let us know how things are going for him down the line

 

[Murray]

Some may think £350 a week isn't much but he has very little outgoings at this stage of his life. I'm really pleased for him and his future looks brigh.

To be consistently profitable is very impressive

If he continues to have sustained success he should think about selling a tutorial/course on his methods, I would buy if for the right price

I haven't touched currency pairs yet but when gold and silver had a strong 3 weeks July/August I did some leveraged buys

I took profits way too soon and didn't let them run enough but I guess making a little money is a better way to learn than losing it

I think when the dollar decides if it's going to make a move up or down I will try and play that. I've been watching the EUR/USD for a while and I think I feel most comfortable starting with that pair

What pairs did you like to trade in the past?

 

[3gmedia]

well I use traded in a few pairs, £$ Australian $, yen but lost when trading on obscure pairs. The problem was I didn't know how to read the charts, you have to know your stuff. My son used to follow trading gurus at a monthly cost but they weren't consistent so my son decided to learn the craft himself. At the begining he used to chase his losses but soon learnt he was wasting his money as emotion destroys profit.

Its funny if he used 20% instead of 2% as investment he'd be making average £3,500 a week but he is steadfast on his rules.

 

[dee]

Its funny if he used 20% instead of 2% as investment he'd be making average £3,500 a week but he is steadfast on his rules.

thats the bit that usually take years and lots of losses to learn.

 

[newguy]

well I use traded in a few pairs, £$ Australian $, yen but lost when trading on obscure pairs. The problem was I didn't know how to read the charts, you have to know your stuff. My son used to follow trading gurus at a monthly cost but they weren't consistent so my son decided to learn the craft himself. At the begining he used to chase his losses but soon learnt he was wasting his money as emotion destroys profit.

Its funny if he used 20% instead of 2% as investment he'd be making average £3,500 a week but he is steadfast on his rules.

Sounds like he's got his head screwed on and with 2% instead of 20% he can no doubt weather a good few storms, even if it is a longer road to riches .

 

[Murray]

Its funny if he used 20% instead of 2% as investment he'd be making average £3,500 a week but he is steadfast on his rules.

I guess stop losses are the problem making higher % trades

If you over egg it and get unlucky hitting a few stop losses in a row it could get bad quickly

 

[3gmedia]

I guess stop losses are the problem making higher % trades

If you over egg it and get unlucky hitting a few stop losses in a row it could get bad quickly

Yes, he sets his start/entry & stops/exit. He used to bottle it instead of waiting for his exit, he's learnt from that and just waits for his exit.

I went through with his trades for the period of 1st Jan 2019 to 1st Jan 2020 and he had made a net profit of 45%

Not bad compared to banks & savings

 

[3gmedia]

Ok, Ive just had my weekly update from my son.

So this week he decided to do two trades, he made £620 profit this week, he set up a 3rd for today but didnt place it as he decided he made his money for the week.

He said Wednesday & Thursday was a bit turbulent so didnt place any trades.

Keep you updated next week.

 

[newguy]

Ok, Ive just had my weekly update from my son.

So this week he decided to do two trades, he made £620 profit this week, he set up a 3rd for today but didnt place it as he decided he made his money for the week.

He said Wednesday & Thursday was a bit turbulent so didnt place any trades.

Keep you updated next week.

Happy for him and nice to read something positive. Long may his success continue .

 

[3gmedia]

Happy for him and nice to read something positive. Long may his success continue .

I'm going to try and update once a week, I'm also going to mirror his trades. If everything goes well I'll post his opening and closing targets for currency pairs.

 

[Grant]

I'm going to try and update once a week, I'm also going to mirror his trades. If everything goes well I'll post his opening and closing targets for currency pairs.

Mirror him here...gets others doing the same, he can make a bit on top https://www.etoro.com/en/popular-investor/. I don't trade currency, but my assumption would be they can't match FXCM and the likes on spreads...but if he does well and gets recurring income...who cares!

 

[Murray]

but my assumption would be they can't match FXCM and the likes on spreads.

Do you (or anyone else reading) have any recommendations for platforms with good spread and easy/simple interface

You mentioned fxcm are they good?

edit> I opened a demo account on fxcm

On etoro you have leverage

How do you trade with leverage?

 

[dee]

Etoro spreads are ridiculous.Just awful. FXCM are about as good as it gets I think , especially on the high volume pairs like GBP/USD , EUR/ USD. Like any platform though, if you trade during volatile times (NFP's for example) you can get spanked spreads at peaks.

 

[signature]

Do you (or anyone else reading) have any recommendations for platforms with good spread and easy/simple interface

Hey Murray, I use IC Market, they are ECN broker, their spreads (varies and can be high during high news events) are very good, no re-quotes and you can get high leverage as well.
They do have a platform but I use MT4, I tend not to use broker's propriety platform.
ICMaket MT4 platform also allow you to hedge if you want to but not allowed on their MT5. I think the reason why its not allowed on their MT5 is because they have company shares as CFD.

You have both MT4 and MT5, if you want to trade shares, you will need MT5 and it also have more instruments to trade than MT4 but if all you want to do is curreny pairs, then MT4 is good and the most popular for currency pairs.
Below is my affiliate link, if you want to check them out.
https://www.icmarkets.com/?camp=37067

If you have further questions about Forex, let me know.

 

[Grant]

Do you (or anyone else reading) have any recommendations for platforms with good spread and easy/simple interface

You mentioned fxcm are they good?

edit> I opened a demo account on fxcm

On etoro you have leverageView attachment 2998

How do you trade with leverage?

View attachment 2999

Not really looked at FX for years. When I did, FXCM was for me. It was just clean to use. I know that's a sample account, but I can see it says 33% margin used. I'd search "margin call FXCM", because you could get closed out. That's far too high, especially for 1 trade mate!!!

Your margin would be in the dropdown that's "1" which is currently "Amount (1K)". You're already leveraged at 1k.

Stating the obvious, but I'd stick to a free account, or unleveraged trades for a year min. And, I know there are plenty of people here with the thought processes to make money in markets, but emotion can get in the way...

Maybe get 3 free accounts, try out ideas, learn the platform etc. Then whatever you want to budget, try 5% of that budget in 2 accounts (and pretend there's a zero on the end). You'll be surprised what happens when you change from a free account to an account to a live one.

If you don't have 200 grand "spare", I wouldn't do this as a way to make money. The years I've traded (stocks), I range between 10-40%, but it can swing the wrong way VERY quickly.

 

[Grant]

I have a stocks list on a .xls (be interesting to analyse where they're at tbf, pretty sure I'd be good, even with the current economy), which includes columns that makes it quite obvious how I picked. I'd be well up on % last 10+ years, but if you've got 10k, and even IF you outperform the index, it's not really worth the hassle. Do it for a hobby or don't bother.