My Life Update – trading, blogging, money etc
I’ve been so busy with things that I’ve not had a real chance to reflect on the happenings around me. Anyway, circumstances have unfolded which have allowed me to take some time out and reflect and look back on what I have achieved (or not achieved) and done.
As you know, I started this blog just shy of a year now… boy has it flown. In fact, I’ve just gone to the first entry in my blog and it was the 17th July when I said hello to the world. Initially the blog was to write about the money making ideas on the internet and beyond but as time progressed, it became more and more of a trading journal/blog where I posted my entries/exits/wins/losses. I have been thinking of setting up another blog just to talk about the affiliate stuff I have been doing, just to keep it separate and easier to manage.
Anyway, the blog is doing well in that the site quickly got to a Google Pagerank of 3 when I started it. I then pushed more into marketing my blog and selling links and Google had then pushed my rank back to do. As I check it this morning, it has finally gone back up to Pagerank 3 which is great. I am getting more and more readers which is nice also and it’s even nicer when people post comments, it makes me feel that people are reading it!
As to the trading side, less luck unfortunately. Most people say that trading is legalised gambling but I believe that there is a way to make consistent profits in the market. Unfortunately, I haven’t quite found it yet but I have made tremendous progress with my trading in limiting my losses, understanding my risk and developing my trading psychology. I still have some work to do however before I can claim I am consistently profitable.
For those following my blog, I joined a trading academy in the hope that they would train me to become a successful trader and then back me with their funds. The structure is that you take home 50% of the profits that you make. However, I started off badly and over time, this got better and better.
I received a letter from them a month ago to say that by the end of April, if they didn’t see a proft on my account (I was sitting on $4000 losses), they would terminate my contract yet I would still be expected to pay off the hefty training fees. Well, I never was able to make the amount trading only part-time 3 evenings a week with 1 S&P emini contract at a time. My contract officially terminates on the 4th May and I am now in the process of initiating a grievance case against them due to what I believe to be some underhand tactics. I won’t elaborate too much as this stage as I would like to give them a chance to come back to me first before I ‘spill the beans’ as it were.
My next step however it to open up a new trading account with Interactive Brokers and trade on my own account. I have used these guys before and they provided a fantastic platform to access the world markets. I hope to continue to hone my skills to continue trading the S&P emini markets. I am sure I will lose initially but I feel that I am getting closer to achieving my goal. In the UK, there are spreadbetting platforms which allow you to trade where the wins are tax free… this is another avenue which I will be exploring.
I hope to go to seminars, training courses and continue to read as much as I can to develop myself as a trader and beyond. Please please please do drop me comments to my blog.. it’s nice to know people are interested and reading!
All the best!
Hi Alan. Been reading many of your posts the last 2 weeks. Enjoying the blog. I started Spreadbetting in April 2011 after buying a £200 course. I later discovered that everything the course taught me was readily available in books and that the techniques themselves were not the secret but in fact th toughest part was putting them into practice without my emotions and psychology get in the way. A year down the line and I’ve started to get my head around what sort of attitude and approach I need to take and have started making decent profits trading US stocks mainly.
Your post reminds me of my own situation in a lot of ways. All I’d say is keep at it. Keep your risk levels low whilst your learning and don’t give up.
Good luck for the future. Will be reading regularly going forward.