DayTrading: A style of trading that attempts to capture gains in one day. A day trader does not hold positions overnight. Day traders use technical analysis to look for stocks with short-term price momentum. These traders aren’t interested in the fundamental or intrinsic value of stocks but rather in their price trends and patterns.
Spead Betting: A practioner of spread betting (like me) never owns a stock. He or she tries to predict the rise and fall of the prices betting a certain amount per point. I might therefore go short on the S&P500 for £10 a point. If it falls 15 points I gain £150. If it rises 15 points I lose £150. The BIG advantage of this is that under UK law it is considered gaming and is therefore not subject to any tax.
Guide to Use: This is a trade log for tracking & improvement of my trading. See disclaimer below.
Post Guide
July & August 2007 – my motivations for getting into trading and my attempts to learns the basic high level concepts. If you read them please bear in mind they record the blind alleys I went down & mistakes I made as I made them.
September, October, November 2007 – No posts as realised I the blog was too unfocused as I hadn’t a properly defined strategy.
December 2007 onwards – A proper strategy has emerged and been paper traded for 3 months. These posts chronicle my first steps into live trading. They are probably the most relevant to anyone interested in the specifics & not the journey.
February 2009 onwards – I’m trading frequently and successfully with some very firm ideas on what works.
