Diary of an LSE stock trader

Mo06

Mo06

I am going to post weekly, and possibly daily updates here on my stocks trading activity.

I trade stocks on the London Stock Exchange (LSE), and have been doing so for a few years. in 2008 I took a sabatical from trading, but in mid 2012 I resumed trading stocks.

I have also traded index futures, but I found I was giving my profits back and eventually decided to restrict myself to stocks.

So far, I am showing a modest profit for 2012.

I will post profits and losses in basis points (BPS).
 
OK, I have been a little slow getting this journal going, so I am going to post stats from the last few weeks.

Summary Week Ended Friday 16th November 2012


10 stock trades:

4 BLT + 44.61 BPS
1 STAN + 6.31 BPS
5 XTA + 58.86 BPS

Stocks net + 109.78 BPS

Well short of my 500 BPS weekly target, but another positive week nevertheless.
No index trades. I am concentrating on stock trades.

Thoughts
Traded five days this week (four and a half as I was out Friday afternoon).


A weak market, as the worries about the ‘Fiscal Cliff’ continue.
We are getting near to the traditional Santa rally though.
 
Summary Week Ended Friday 23rd November 2012

4 stock trades:

2 BARC + 94.40 BPS
1 BLT + 7.75 BPS
1 STAN + 2.78 BPS

Stocks net + 104.93

No index trades.

Thoughts
Traded four days this week. A light volume week since Thursday was Thanksgiving in the US.

Stay disciplined.

Stay focussed.
 
Summary Week Ended Friday 30th November 2012


12 stock trades:

1 AAL + 9.11 BPS

7 BLT – 54.81 BPS

2 STAN + 5.63 BPS

2 XTA + 45.78 BPS


Stocks net + 5.71

No index trades.

Thoughts

A difficult week, I traded 4 days, poor trading on BLT resulted in giving back earlier gains, so the week ended up flat.

Better than a loss anyway.

Stay disciplined.

Stay focussed.
 
Summary Week Ended Friday 7th December 2012


5 stock trades:

2 BLT + 30.56 BPS

2 STAN + 17.20 BPS

1 XTA + 7.85 BPS

Stocks net + 55.60

No index trades.

Thoughts

A lacklustre week, I traded 4 days.

Markets in narrow ranges, and the hoped for pull back on a weak non - farm payrolls report didn’t happen.

Still, a small profit for the week.


Stay disciplined.

Stay focussed.
 
I should explain a couple of things:

I use BPS to measure trades as it makes comparing trades on stocks with very different prices much simpler, 100 BPS is a 1% move.

Some of my trading stocks are in the £20 range (BLT, AAL) while a couple are in the £2 range (BARC), so using BPS allows me to compare performance.

I risk the same £ amount on each trade.

I maintain a list of stocks which I trade, some of them I've traded hundreds of times, a couple of them more. The list is large cap stocks which are very liquid, and I keep a daily spreadsheet which is printed out after the close and I have in front of me when I trade.

As I mentioned on one of the weekly updates, my target is 500 BPS per week, that's net.

I'll post a screenshot of the daily sheet. It's updated at the close, then I have some macros to automate the whole update process, so I just click on a button and it's done.

I have another 'live' spreadsheet which links to live prices via MT4, so I can see stocks hitting new 3 days highs/low etc etc.

I trade simple support & resistance.

KISS as they say.
 
Hi, yes I used to trade CFDs with CMC, but I'm now spread betting, OK the spreads are wider but then I save on commissions.

I may change as I increase my trade size. The focus at the moment is getting back into the groove of daily profitable trading.
 
Summary Week Ended Friday 14th December 2012


7 stock trades:

3 AAL + 13.97 BPS

2 BG + 29.43 BPS

2 BLT + 31.46 BPS

Stocks net + 74.86 BPS

All long trades, all intraday.

No index trades.

Thoughts

A rather quiet week, I traded 4 days. Markets remained in narrow ranges. Tough trading conditions in general.

Still, a small profit for the week. Well off my 500 BPS weekly target, but we have to take whatever the markets offer.

Stay disciplined.

Stay focussed.
 
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