Booker - Buy (44.5p)

Been watching Booker for some time and in my dealings with them they have proven to be very professional and offer an excellent service to smaller companies such as local pubs, restaurants and bars. The are wholesalers of food and drink and are looking now to expand into India under the leadership of Charles Wilson (the mastermind working under Stuart Rose previously at M&S). What i like is Wilson's dedicated to the company and the fact that Booker year on year since Wilson joined have seen 20pc + growth - all of this throughout a major recession. This company is definetely worth a look in and I think will perform well into 2010.

Alliance Pharma Sell

Might be a little short sighted but I am happy to take 27% profit on this one, selling at 19.55p. I still think there is a great deal of upside for this company and will look to jump back in on any decent dips (Let's hope for some!)

Aer Lingus BUY

I like the airlines and the telcos so I was very interested when a friend mentioned Aer Lingus to me yesterday. I waited till the results came out and I can see that operating losses have rocketed (almost quadrupled), revenues and ticket prices down. Even with various cost cutting measures this company is in real trouble and on my quick and dirty report scanning tool comes up as a RED (i.e. heavily avoid this)

However, there are two very important factors not taken into consideration here.

1. A certain Mr O'Leary
The aggressive Ryanair CEO has been itching to get his grubby little mitts on these guys for quite some time now. With their debts out in the open there could be some aggressive bidding taking place which is sure to drive the share price up and if a takeover goes ahead could be very promising indeed as an investment at this point. AERL's ancilliary revenue has rapidly increased demonstrating the success of their move to the budget airline model of charging customers for seat selection, extra bags and online alcohol etc;

2. Total company restructuring is taking place. Aircraft leases and financing being renegotiaited with Airbus. Focus on stripping back on all the non-essentials to increase ancilliary revenue. A new CEO joins the company shortly and several routes have been cut.

Whatever happens a newer stronger company will emerge - the question is whether this is one headed by O'Leary or not?

In any case i am in for the ride to see where this one lands up. Definetely a risky play but i think a potentially profitable one.

Thanks for the tip Em!

Workspace BUY

I like Workspace and they have made me money in the past. The only reason I have taken a look at them again is I have seen a lot of chat on the bulletin boards etc and some positive news stories coming out with good results announced, increasing occupancies and a good management team in place.

Workspace rent out office space so have been clearly battered by the economy on two fronts:- one commercial real estate (they own all of their's) has plummeted, 2 - with folding companies etc there has been less demand.

However the picture is now changing. Arguably the property decline has bottomed out and is starting to sidewind. Also the recession has brought about a new breed of entrepreneurs looking to exploit the market and also on the hunt for cheap office space to give their businesses a presence. We look like we are due to officially exit the recession as well and property prices will inevitably start to increase as a result.

This is one stock for the ISA and one I intend to hold for some time to see a return. It's not a quick play!

Synchronica keeps signing deals

Synchronica is probably the most over talked stock on my blog but again today another big deal has been signed with a N. African operator. The momentum of these deals is shocking and I'm hoping that if the 3p barrier can be broken we are looking at this becoming good support. I'm looking for more details regarding the launch of their latest handset to see this stock even higher... just keep buying this! Please... . you won't regret it!

Standard Chartered

I know this company very well indeed and is the one that i have followed more than any other. I very much like the solid exec team that they have in place and their overly prudent nature. This is what has made STAN an out and out winner of the credit crunch.

They have never taken excessive risks, always focusing on long term relationships and gains to ensure that they deliver sustainable shareholder value. (I promise i did not extract that from annual report blurb). The fact that they also pre-dominantly focus on emerging markets is also a large bonus and allowed them to escape unscathed from the current crisis

So this is why the new share issue of £1 billion today has got me so excited. They have just reported fantastic results (H1, 5% increase in profits) and are now looking to expand during the ongoing crisis. This is a very bold and slightly more risky move in my view for such a conservative bank. However they have a proven track record and Peter Sands (CEO) is a young and very intelligent character with the ability and drive to take STAN to the next level... After the announcement, the share price has fallen over 8% to reflect the share dilution - a great entry point with my near term target testing the recent highs of £18.00.

One to watch!

Time to short the FTSE?

All the technicals on my charts are giving me sell signals at the moment. the FTSE has stormed for 11 days straight and broken out of the 4200-4500 range but is rapidly losing momentum.

Despite good results from the banks, further good news with land registry reporting house rises etc I can't help but be a little bearish and overly cautious.

My portfolio is often a good indicator as generally it moves in reverse to the FTSE and it really has started picking up too so a lot of data and a lot of mixed signals..... i will however be opening a short if the FTSE starts retracing to 4500 and tests this level but I will be keeping my stops very tight indeed and not moving them out if the trade starts going against me.

Views on this topic welcomed!

My post on 22nd May - ITL

If only I took my own advice. Since April Intec Telecom have rocketed 250%. I jumped in for a short £10 spreadbet play and took some good profits. Sadly I have missed out on some fantastic profits this time though with the stock still heading north nicely.

I am definetely having another look at these guys and looking for any dips though as they seem to be getting everything right, had a positive trading update again and its nothing but good news for these guys despite the recession!

Synchronica

This has become my diamond stock now. Probably the company I now know the best about out of the entire portfolio and one that I am the most smitten with.

Synchronica started life as DAT Group with a very ambitious target of taking on RIM's architecture but targetting the entry level customers in the marketplace. They tried and failed on numerous occassions - most likely because their focus was on integrating with Microsoft technologies (not cheap!). They have now adapted their strategy under their CEO and co-founder Carsten to focus on open standards and only on emerging markets (which also happen to be the biggest mobile phone market of which smart phones like that of the Blackberry only have a very small market share despite their apparent ubiquitous nature).

Synchronica provide the facilities to allow network operators to provide push email, mobile backup and other services over their gateway for which they charge a one off cost plus servicing and consulting fees. They have now taken this to a new level trying to capture all possible revenue generating areas by launching their own budget phone pre-configured to work with their gateway solution.

I had the chance to chat with Carsten and he confirmed the approach that I believe the company is taking in that email is just the most obvious initial product to provide over their mobile gateway, although the architecture is in place to support any sort of data dissemination and synchronisation so there are plenty of growth opportunities.

The biggest risk with Synchronica in my mind is the fact that they need to be first to market with this - which indeed they seem to be. There is nothing to stop another company coming in at a later point although the expectation is that there is a year window whilst other companies could develop and get a product / service up to the level of Synchronica's which buys them much needed time.

The final winning point for me is Carsten himself. He clearly has a lot of experience with mobile technology and some very good ideas to take the business forwards, answering my probing questions very diligently. He wants to be the market leader in a relatively untapped area (budget phones) or as he describes it "the company known for producing the 'poor man's Blackberry'". and the phone is certainly not poor - we had a look and play with it, the interface has the same look and feel and is actually slightly smaller than a blackberry. You'd never guess it was 1/5 of the price to manufacture!

I now have over 10% of my portfolio invested in Synchronica at a mid price of 2.86p and I could not be happier. This stock remains a strong buy with an end of year target in the region of 8-9p for me as the company starts to hit profitability. For full and further reports from myself please check out the free bulletin board on ADVFN (alithetrader)

BT and LloydsTSB

Been watching this stock rise, waiting for some bad news to get me a good entry but sadly this has been moving upwards from 89ishp to current 112p since it hit my watchlist. I actually still think there is a lot of short term upside here. BT have really started turning the business around, trimming staff, expanding their fibe optic rollout programme and focusing on their core business. It's a case of battening down the hatches for now and seeing the recession out. I'm going to wait for a down day to pounce but it will be soon I feel.

A stock I am now looking to short is LloydsTSB - the inevitable sell off by UKFI will cause some noise in the markets but I don't think overall this will massively impact the price, as the sales will be staggered and are still some way off given UKFI are sat on a loss over 10 billion at present (RBS + LloydsTSB combined figure). Lloyds were a very good, profitable bank - taking on HBOS was a big mistake and it's all starting to emerge. There is a plan in place to turn this around and long term I'd buy but i think there is a short term play on this, so looking for an entry.

Topping Up

Well how lucky was I? After selling off my Telit shares the other day, a trading statement is out that announces despite margins lowering due to lowersale prices, sales are up and trending upwards nicely. This is not great news and the share price fell 25% as a result with the expectation that they'll underperform for the year. Well this does not bother me seeing as I sold out and think at a 25% discount this is well worth getting back in on - a great company that will do well. So much so that I have bought another 1k of them. This is now my most profitable stock to date since I started recording so I have high hopes to pick up some more cash from this deal.

While in top up mode I managed to purchase some more SYNC at 2.75. I am due to meet the Synchronica CEO at an upcoming Proactive seminar and have plenty of questions for him and his plans for bringing the company to hopeful profitability for year end. So i have 2.5k exposure to them now at an average price of just under 3p a share...!

Account clear out

In preparation for moving across from Selftrade to Barclays Stockbrokers, I've had a clean out and sold all stocks that are in profit at the moment. This includes both my Volex and Telit trades for a small 200 quid profit for the pair. I am sure there is more distance in these, but tomorrow is another day and there are plenty of other stocks out there for me to get stuck into!

On that note, I have a couple of buys that i am looking to make in the new account and will update this page shortly with the details.

PURI Sell

Puricore is a great company that has fantastic prospects producing green, clean and safe sterlisation products that has done immensely well and made me some good cash since I bought in when it was around the 9p mark. i sold at 13p and then jumped in again at 14p (silly early sale there really).

It has been bouncing around for some time now and has been helped higher at 16p today by more swine flu concerns (they have recently announced that their products do work against Swine flu). I am keen to take this opportunity to exit the trade although when the price settles down again I'd be happy to jump back in - currently I think 16p is fair market value and can't see it moving much higher in the short term.

70 quid profit - better than nothing I suppose but a little disappointed!

In Limbo and one missed opportunity

Well the FTSE is still in limbo and it's been a bit boring on the trading front although I am back well into profit, recovered my £100 loss and made a further couple of hundred quid so am happy withthat.

Work has been mental of late so not spent as much time scanning my shares as I might have liked.

Still this afternoon i have managed to have a gander and well I found something rather shocking. Formjet - a firm I was looking at but consdiered too risky to invest in a couple of months back is up 45% on the day. Very, very frustrating! Then again you might remember on a previous post I tipped Sinclair Pharma at just under 30p - its done nothing but slide since so its all swings and roundabouts. I'm glad on that basis that I did not buy either of them to be honest!

Well the new one on my watch now is another tech company that Qonnectis is in a good high performing sector (Computing /IT Services) which has been battered of late but getting its act together with a new board. I'll see what happens with the macro-economic environment first before getting my feet wet!

Another buy that I jumped into was AXS. Very odd firm but again in a good sector that is performing well. I'll write more about it later but i'm already a good 15% up and due to see a CEO presentation in a couple of weeks where i will then hopefully learn a lot mroe around all of this. For now it was a purely technical trade with a quick look at promising fundamentals - i don't like to get bogged down in detail. I don't think it is necessary and well my approach has always worked well for me (well sometimes!)

Stung for a ton.

Hopped in too early on my FTSE spreadbet and got knocked out for £100. I was greedy and instead of going for the range I went long £4 / point at 4360. I'm back in again though @ 4320 and confident this one will be okay.... (target of 4480)

I think today it looks like the whole market got hit by Walmart downgrades causing a tumble on Wall St. Still, volumes are low and the 4300-4500 range has not been broken so hopefully all will be well again. HOPEFULLY!

I have a couple of stocks I'm going to be taking a look at tonight and will update the blog then. Other than that I'm just dabbling here and there but waiting for something to happen in the market now!

All a bit quiet

Well the FTSE is still range bound 4300-4500 so making some good profits playing on this trade on the spreadbets but this is making the trading side of things a little quiet from me!

Other than that all has been a little quiet - i was going to take advantage of a dip in SYNC to buy some more but looks like i don't have enough free cash in my ISA at the moment. Tempted to move some across to my dealing account or i could just buy it in my new Barclays Stockbrokers account ISA - they are trading at the bottom of the range (in line with the FTSE so not worrying me)... will let you know what I end up doing on all of this.

Uncertain times means I am generally clear of buying into anything new at the moment although i am taking advantage of any dips to pick up on stocks that I really like as and when they come along!

A day for the tech stocks - Sync (buy); Telit surges

Synchronica has dipped down a good 10% over the past few weeks, I made a play on this previously and netted a nice few £ out of it. Well it's at a nice entry price again so I am going to buy back in.

I think this company is brilliant. Their mission statement is to effectively get push email onto any phone in the world. They also offer mobile backup solutions for network operators. With the trend as I see it moving from high end, high spec phones (saturated 1st world markets) to massively growing 2nd and even 3rd world markets, the ability to cheaply communicate via mobile will become that more important. Sync have signed a number of deals recently and are due to hit profitability later this year - at this point this stock will fly but right now I am just looking for a positive trading statement to see this above the 4p mark. I'm in at 3.35p and happy with that!

Telit today has flown - no RNS or other so there must be some news coming this way or i have msised a trick. Either way I am happy as this stock has slowly slipped since I bought it so to be up 20% on the day is fantastic. This is still a great buy and hold if you ask me!

Another day, another stockbroker.... and maybe some profit in sight?

Got in on Debenhams at 86p for a spreadbet long... currently trading at 90.88pp so very happy indeed for jumping on that one after the rights issue news was disseminated. I was just using £5 a point to test the water and see how I felt on it so I might top up tomorrow if there is another dip as I think this could go some way!

Another rise today on my account which is good. Positive news is knocking about all over the place and a few of my trades are looking to break back into PROFIT. Yes, i know this is one day after posting a picture of doom and gloom! It really has been a rollercoaster..!

Carphone is the one to watch for tomorrow! I'm not expecting much movement personally because i think the absorption of Tiscali will be cumbersome and expensive and don't share the view that it will immediately start "adding value" to the business. I expect long term a great hold but I'll be watching from the sidelines!

On non-market matters, I have just got my Barclays Stockbrokers account setup as well after sending a very scathing message across to the guys at Selftrade. They seem to think that I am happily going to pay some of the highest trading fees out there plus an ongoing charge for my account per annun... well like the train drivers who want to go on strike this week (£40k per annun for a 36hr working week asking for a 5pc pay rise in the midsts of a recession... are you for real?!?), they can swivel on it! Barclays Stockbrokers - despite looking a little tired offers me free level 2 and my trades are going to be 30-50% cheaper depending on my volume and their staff are really helpful and polite. Well worth the pain of moving brokers if you ask me!

Debenhams

I've just added this onto my watchlist.  A lot of volume currently; good strong performance to date (most recent sales figures report 1.9% up on this time last year), massively reducing debt and outperforming peers.  

I don't generally like retail stocks but am a big fan of Philip Green and it is good to see that they are actually expanding and looking to create 1800 jobs over the next 2 years.  Impressive for any retailer at the moment! 

The risk here is the stock is cyclical so due to fall further.  I'll wait to see what happens with the macro economic environment and the market as a whole before entering this one, but I am watching closely. 

Currently trading at 92.25 - if this one cracks 100 there is little resistance before and then 116p where I would set my limit order. 

Looking to offload

My Selftrade account for the first time ever now has all my trades at a loss (most thankfully just the trading fees plus minor losses) - i am going to have to start being ruthless and cutting some out although I have held off.  Mainly because my daytrading has been very successful and in a couple of weeks I have got over 100% return on my £200 starting balance - account now up at just under £500 and climbing. 

Thanks to this I'm still on target, although my nice buffer is reducing daily. 

My Workspace Group long is nicely up 80 quid (I sold £10 / point but still have £30/point open).. results out soon so I'll keep this open and move the stop going forwards.

Volex has really pissed me off as the 200 quid paper profit has quickly turned to a blunder of £140 loss...  I'll be looking to cut this if it falls much more (very very annoying and a lesson learnt to look to cover as soon as you are in profit)

I spoke with a mate this afternoon about ITV which has been a very topical stock of late.  I won't touch it personally, but it does look cheap and there are some exciting things going on there. Be great if anyone can post around this if they have any interesting thoughts! 

My current holdings are: Asterand, Puricore, Volex, Vislink, Telecom Plus, Telit, Ultrasis, Connuaght.

Any comments or thoughts on my holdings would be appreciated! Especially where offloading is concerned. My current thoughts are that Puricore, Telit, Telecom Plus and Asterand are great stocks to hold longer term and not worry too much about a bit of volatility in the markets. Ultrasis is due a breakout so I'm happy with this.  Vislink and Volex are the ones that I am dithering on offloading.. 

A time for playing FTSE

Hey All.

Apologies for lack of update. I've been a bit jittery around the markets of late so I think like most have taken profits where I can and started playing some the nice trading ranges. The FTSE has been fantastic for this and has netted me some nice easy £££ with a bit of day trading (good old bollinger > EMA > bollinger safety net).

Other than that I closed my spreadbet long as I stupidly had a margin call (opening too many positions that moved against me). Still I netted £100 return on that one!

I still have my Workspace Grp long going on - will keep this open and see what happens!

Volex - i was up a nice £200 quid on this (20%) and did not sell expecting more to come. then i bottled it and tried to sell, stupidly buying in the process. Decided that actually that was not so bad after all only for results to come out today which i think are very good but the market did not like the expectation of the same performnace in 10 as in '09... so I'm now long 2.2k with a profit of 40 quid if i sell out.... what would you do? Cut and run? I've not done so yet but I am tempted to!

Other than that I don't have anything for the moment - most of the volume plays are too risky for me right now as i think quite a lot of shares are fairly / over priced. I'l be sure to update if I find anything though!

Two new buys

Carphone Warehouse - long £20 / point
Workspace Group - long £40 / point

Both seeing nice volume increases, coming up to results time. Will update further later on.

Ali

A nice new pharma I discovered - SPH (Sinclair Pharma)

What a great looking company I just came across by accident... its currently trading at 30.75p. . A great looking venture capital company specifically in the pharma space. They have just secured fresh funding of 10 million with expected revenues of 33.69 million (up 3.3 million on last year) despite this performance in a tough climate, the share price is half that of the high's from last June.

This is expected to be their second year of profitability and although volumes are currently low, I think that results out on 30th June will provide a nice upward movement.

I'm also happy to hold this one as it provides a nice safety being in a typically defensive sector that will still perform in bear markets.

I'll be looking to purchase at the 30p mark. Target 50p.

BAY is a lame duck; Intec Telecom looking good

I only just checked in on my spredbet account to find myself  a few quid up on the BA spreadbet.  I got my maths totally wrong so actually made 11 quid out of the 8pc fall in share price.  Ah well - its better than nothing I suppose! 

So while i was looking through the company diary on digital look I came across Intec Telecom - up 20% on the day trading at 63p, just below its 52wk high.  I thought it was announcing results next week so missed the ride as would have definetely bought them up (they actually announced them yesterday- doh!).  However I have decided to open a spreadbet on them for £10 a point as they really do look in fantastic shape and I seem to be having a lot of luck with the telecoms companies at the moment! 

Others that i will be looking into detail over the weekend are Blacks Leisure and Northern Foods.  Watch this space for my thoughts on them. 

Have a good weekend! 

British Airways to tumble & a medical technology tip

I still can't see anything positive coming out here so I am short BAY - £5 a point. only a small punt here as i am curious to see what happens and have not seen too many indicators that we are due for a fall but I can't see anything but this happening.

Other than that i had a punt based on a tip and a lot of grilling my mate on an interesting stock ULT. They basically sell software to the NHS for treating depression. Just moved into profitability and expanding internationally. Revenues up 82% for first half. I have concerns about dependencies solely on one client but i think there is scope for this to move and they have made some acquisitions too... let's see what happens here!

By the way Nick - if you are reading i just totally dropped you in it! :-0 I am sure that all will shortly become clear!

Bye Bye Medusa

I dumped Medusa Mining making a 2 quid profit after trading fees. I think I might come to regret this one but I don't know anything about mining companies and bought this based purely on the fact that commodities are a good long punt from here and this company looked undervalued.

I personally think that buying a small cap miner is like buying a lottery ticket and the whole point of this experience is to make money sensibly... not gamble it!

So you won't see anymore mining / oil producing etc stocks here from me

Colt Telecom flies, TEP a bit boring.

Colt Telecom - Been a bit of non mover for me but up 20% now since i bought this about a month or so ago...

This morning the have announced a multi-million pound contract for managed data centre services to a large financial institution! COLT will provide a purpose-built 1,000 square metre facility at its newest UK data centre, situated just outside the M25, which was opened in late 2007. The data centre is being built out in phases using the latest data centre technology to meet particular demand from the financial services sector for minimal latency connectivity to the City of London!
Great news..... I checked out the charts and am expecting a small retracement short term and I can't be arsed to hold this although i might pick up again around the 50 day MA mark of 110. Sold for a nice 165 quid profit.

The other bonus this morning is STAN paid out their dividend - so a nice 200 quid landed in my account...!

TEP - disappointment on results.. was expecting a more positive outlook for the year. 34% rise in pretax profit (49% revenue increase) is great news but their statement was cautious stating lower energy margins and interest rates hitting their profitability. I'm going to still hold out for 330p on this and take the healthy dividend of 17.5p / share

BA.... what's the story!

Honing my newfound L2 skills I thought i'd take another look at BAY this morning... why o why they are still moving upwards I can't figure out.....

Normally you would see the smart money coming in now setting a new level of support or resistance for after the results have emerged. I wanted to short these and looking at L2 they are still very much a buy! I'm going to keep watching but maybe these results will shock us all!

On the results front, TEP release first quarter results tomorrow - i am nicely into profit at the moment... about 200 quid up... I'm still targetting 330p for this trade so hopefully another few quid before i cover on this one!

Looking at some new trades in the pipeline, Northern Foods is looking very good and a couple of others on my watchlist... will update further tomorrow around this!

Cutting losses really does save you money

I had a bad feeling about Oxus (pre-dominantly because it was a rubbish trade without me backing this up with my selection criteria) and well that proved to be very true with results out today.

Net debt up, financing being sourced for developing their latest mine which has now been delayed until 2011... blah blah. A lot of positive spin on a lot of bad news litters the rest of the results... in short I saved myself another 200 odd quid loss by getting out while I was feeling concern. Defo made me more likely to go ahead and do this again in the future rather than hanging in there for a rally!

TyraTech (REGS) - another proactive investors stock. up 50% today on director's purchases and notification of first shipment of it's new SafeShield insecticide! I'm not even going to pretend I was looking at this one but I did have a quick scan when my invite to the session came through as well as when one of my mates dropped me a line saying how annoyed he was at missing the boat on this one! Better to miss a boat then hop aboard one that sinks! This could still be a buy though...

My trades for Monday

Spreadbet short on M&S... certain to announce dividend cut. I also expect a retracement to the 50 day MA which is under the 300p mark where I'll take my first cover depending on how L2 is looking.

Long ATD - I'm actually going to wait for a dip here as I expect there to be a lot of movement on Monday with a small sell off.. this will be a longer term hold for me so I am happy to buy my time and take a good entry again; There is nice support at the 25-26p mark (director buy) so i'd like to get as close to that as I can.

I'm still watching Inchcape - annoying it has moved up from 14p when I started following it to 19p today.... i still think this is a very risky play given the state of the economy (Inchcape is heavily involved in automobile manufacture and distribution and have been battered like crazy from their 52wk highs... just take a look at the charts!)

Exchanging Plc - one from the seminar but one that I am going to sit out on and watch (probably with dismay as I count the money I could have made...)

Another one I intend to watch with interest are BA again... they are due to release results this week and I don' think the picture is going to be all that rosey... a potential short but I will update my thoughts once i have looked into this one more as big willie is never one to underestimate and i have been impressed with the recent drive to hedge on expected oil increases as well as filling up 1st / business class seating!

The Naked Trader Wrap up

Wow - what an event...  Robbie was much like I expected, which was all good! He put himself out there answering any and all (including a few of my stupid ones like his prediction for the Apprentice winner!) The Level 2 section was the most insightful and it definetely helped me fill some gaps in my trading approach.

What I loved about him and I think is a breath of fresh air is that he was so open and honest.  From sharing his account details, open trades  + account balances to simply stating he did not know when asked a tricky question....  I know the temptation myself all too much to just bullsh*t my way ahead! 

Anyway - the day was great - I got smashed in the bar, met some great people (some of whom I believe are now reading this blog!) and will hopefully improve on the money making front too! Thanks to Dave for putting me up and keeping the drinking going to 4am and also to Robbie for allowing a slightly half cut ali to cross examine him and then ask for a photo! 

Anyone who has other pics, comments from the event, please feel free to post here! 

Good luck to all those that went on ATD as a result of the conversation I had with Robbie in the seminar (I'm chuffed that it was discussed  and even more so that Robbie bought into it....  ) - let's watch this one move nicely upwards now.  I'll be back in for the ride on Monday again! 

Anyway, my trades setup for tomorrow are some spreadbets (yes i am going to give it another go now) and take a longer term view - just because you spreadbet does not mean you need to suddenly turn from short term investor to daytrader! 

Separate post for these details to follow.. 

My first milestone... cutting a losing trade!

Well I've been bullish on commodities firms as of late given I'm expecting cash to come out of the markets into oil, gold etc. Based on this theory i have probably pulled out of my Oxus Gold trade at the worst possible time ever!
However it has been dithering on the low side for a while and I am thinking this is a trade that is going to be like a millstone around my neck in coming weeks and oen that I jumped into too fast without really looking at it! So chop, my love affair with it is over.. dropped it after making a 25% loss! It felt painful at first but now I feel good about it.

Even with this loss I am still only 150 UKP off my target for the end of next month (although I do have a lot of open positions out of the money that could get worse!)

I'll send an updated post tomorrow letting you know how i get on at Robbie's trading seminar - I'm very excited about the whole day at the moment!

Alpesh Patel & Level 2!

So i just got back from a seminar on "how to make money in all markets" by Alpesh Patel.  Now excuse me for saying this but I personally think the guy is a bit of an arrogant tosser.  I think his view on the market is inaccurate and he is always very vague about the strategies that he teaches in his presentations.

I am i have to say bitter and looking from a very tainted perspective as he is the man responsible for the monstrosity that is Montague Pitman.  The broker that "recommended" and charged me 75 quid including "recommendation fees" and settlement costs for two trades that ended up netting me a loss of over 1.8k / 90pc - my first lesson to never ever listen to brokers who are placing your trades - at least not without thorough research by yourself!!! 

So it's just a week till I attend Robbie Burn's seminar / training workshop which I am really looking forward to.  The guy is very approachable and has been kindly answering my pestering qustions without so much as a grumble from his direction about my laziness.  I'm particularly interested in learning more about L2 .... which reminds me that I signed up for a free one month trial with ADVFN today just to find my feet before going along to this workshop. It all moves too fast for me but i am starting to spot areas of support and resistance and getting more of a feel for how prices move and how you can target entries and exits much better!  I think this could be a massive and very profitable tool for my trading going forwards...

Without further adue, my current watchlist / trade updates:- Mouchel Group (current market price of 260p - great entry price, possible upside of 100% plus, bad news last year and some missed contracts have battered the share price but i think gains to be made..); short BAY - (Swine death in America and after good gains today there is some selling going on so looking to close this out around the 150p mark but will be quick to cover if this rises); long Connaught - i already bought this one off of good reviews, strong resilience and defensive nature of this company... this might be more of a one month hold at present but has good upside of 25% +)

BA - sold at 162p

£93 profit.... I'm happy to take that considering this was a risk punt and only a short term trade - i still took just under my 10pc target (too scared to play for 15pc on this one)

Now just watch it skyrocket.... :-)

Why Selftrade piss me off..

Everyday we seem to have higher volumes back on the FTSE and I want to jump in for an exciting day's trading to find that Selftrade have some technical fault or other - the latest supposedly down to "third party data provider".  It's frustrating as hell and means to play it safe I have not been using limit orders and selling out when actually there has been a lot of upside on some of these stocks that i have dropped! 

I'm now looking at Barclays Stockbrokers.  They offer 6 quid per trade if you trade over 50 times a quarter (half the requirement for selftrade).  They also offer free level 2 at this point as well or charge 16 quid a month if you only make 25 trades (i easily do this at present)... be interested to know thoughts on them from any readers! 

My long on BA is doing nicely and with the sudden rally this AM I am tempted to sell out at 160p for 85 quid profit, although it would be nice to just put a stop at this level and see what happens i just don't trust my broker account at the moment! 

Sadly my Oxus Gold and Medusa mining stocks have not moved as of yet - was hoping for some form of traction on these.  Oxus despite making a loss of 42 million last year is on the road to becoming profitable and good results out at the end of June should hopefully get this stock moving in the rup up as the wise money starts coming in...

I've been told by a mining analyst mate that he thinks both companies are dead dogs but i'm still sticking to my guns on this one although will watch both stocks extremely carefully going forwards! 

Why impatience costs me money!

Well I was telling you yesterday about how pleased i was with PURI and the good results. So being the cautious fella that I am and being a big believer of a bird in the hand being better than 2 in the bush, I decided to sell for a nice 70% profit in two weeks!!!

Only for the f*cking thing to head up another 4p today on the announcement that their products are effective against SWINE!!

What is the old adage again, cut your losses and let your profits run? i am definetely getting that one the wrong way round at the moment... I'm finding it very hard to hang in there and not sell. I'm also starting to realise that with the small caps even after making substantial gains it is sometimes worth finding a good area of cover and letting it ride out - worst case you have your profits minus the spread! sooooooo much easier said than done if you ask me though.

Anyway - the good news for me is that i have just done my end of month rec and my account is right where I would expect it to be - in fact I am 100 quid ahead of target.. for those of you that don't know i have put together a plan that is going to see my 10k into 500k in 10 years time - all this through safe investing / trading.... it is ambitious but i think achieveable so you can watch my progress here!

You dirty swine

Just as we thought the green shoots were starting to appear, the Swine flu hits UK shores... I was expecting this to be the news I was awaiting to put an end to the bear rally we have been experiencing over the past few weeks!

To be honest though, my view to date is that it has all been a little over-hyped. I felt so strongly about this that I took the opportunity to buy BAY after 8% falls on Monday, filling my order at 150p (I like BA and I think despite the hammering the airlines have taken of late, they are well positioned to weather the storm and are actively seeking out new partnerships, cost cutting measures and I think are still very much undervalued). I'm targetting 168p here so will see how that one pans out!

PURI did great today - finally closed this 4 week long trade to net a 780 quid profit....

I am heading off to anoher seminar next week with a few more interesting companies so will see how that progresses. As of yet both Oxus Gold and Medusa Mining have been fairly static so holding out for so good news of massive gold veins being uncovered..... hey i can hope!

The Naked Trader

Well I finally took the plunge and dropped TheNakedTrader (Robbie Burns) a couple of emails around his investing strategy which ended up in me forking out to attend one of his seminars on the 15th May. I have been following Robbie for some time and I like his no nonsense, relaxed and very open approach to what he does so money well spent in my mind!

There are far too many people out there today trying to over complicate things esserntially (as i believe) so that they can make money out of your ignorance - i think Robbie is one of the few people that adds a breath of fresh air to the whole industry and well i will update you after I have been on his course..

One thing I am hoping to learn a lot more around is the use of Level 2.... the amount of times I could have made more sensible exit / entry deicisons had i been able to have visiblity of the order book. ADVFN is what Robbie plugs but I am looking for a DMA / CFD Trading account which will hopefully give this to me for free (yeah i like a bargain)

Anyway - my buddy who is going for the value investor approach is leaps and bounds ahead of me on his portfolio at present, so I need an edge - whilst i am slowly and surely now making money consistently its not fast enough.... this is the danger zone area where greed can take control so i will be interested to see what more I can learn and how i can be more profitable but sensibly so...

I'll keep you posted, enjoy the weekend!

The budget and shiny things

I'm not a big fan of holding equities whilst macroeconomics are taking control so I decided to dump Workgroup Plc for a 100 quid profit and also STAN made me a nice 170 profit over night so ditched that one too (slightly below my target but still a wise move for now I feel)

I am about to head off to an investment seminar tonight though and am keen to build up some equity hedge stocks (silly considering I only hold for a one month timeframe but it is always good to think longer term if your DQS strategy screws up).

I've therefore now added to OCX with Medusa Mining MML (AIM: MML). This is the first AIM stock that i have gone in on but I have a good feeling as they focus on copper and gold and they have just started becoming profitable. plus last time i went to one of these Mayfair seminars the movement in all the stocks was about 10pc the following day - volumes are so low that you an probably dip in and out but that's not my intention here - just trying to get a good entry

Trades in profit

Well with the FTSE down sub 4000 again today i am pleased to say that all my trades placed to date have now come into profit (apart from TEP).  A great sign given that a few of my recent picks (mainly the pharma's - SDS, ATD etc) have been on the up irrespective of the FTSE direction.....!

I sold the remainder of my STAN shares at 1025p which was great timing given I bought back in today at 910p... looking for 1030p on this before bailing out again (currently up at 950p).

I have started looking and thinking more about this and 10% return is starting to mean I constantly need to be looking for my next trades and researching the companies in question...!  Often as well I am selling out of some trades too early.  I'm therefore going to force myself to look for 15% profits from here on in rather than bailing out so early like i have been to date.

I bought Oxus Gold (OXS) earlier this week too - a small cap mining company that is looking good, has some director buys near to its current price and is obviously intrinsically attached to gold prices which if you believe the press are expected to do as much as double in the next year as investors look for safe havens...  for me its a 15% return before i'll cover and see how much further this one can go! 

Clean out and some new (impatiently placed) trades

Well I am starting to clean up my portfolio and focus purely on my 10pc return strategy at the moment. So I curse and hate Montague Pitman stockbrokers... they are complete cowboys and a disgrace to the industry... but of course I learnt that the hard way.

4-5 years ago when my stock trading days began I became part of thepump and dump scams... I'm sure many of you have had the old phone calls about "the next hot stock" out there that "you absolutely must get involved in"

Well Mr Montague Pitman - i put 2k of my heard earned cash into 2 such stocks thinking it might be worth a punt. Of course I knew nothing at the time about the lack of liquidity, the massive spreads and the amount of cowboys involved in the AIM end of the market. Subsequently as always seems to be the case with these guys I got a shitload of tossers dumping their shares into the nice buying strength that MP provided!

Well I finally sold one such share today for a 750 quid loss.. mind it could have been much worse but I decided to dump these and move on with my life. Plus all the directors have been selling too (probably off the back of fears around a bit of a market sell of after the recent rally)

I also impatiently jumped in and bought Vislink at .279, canceling my order at a previously cheaper price... they have jumped 10pc today so pleased I had the nerve to do this.

I also have gone and done the same with Upstream but placed a buy order here as I refuse for my 1k investment to turn into 75 quid return!!!!

NEVER EVER EVER follow up on a tip without doing your own research and never as a newbie invest in penny stocks, unless you are shorting the f*ck out of them! You'll only screw yourself in the end!

Buys today: Vislink, TEP (303p - again higher than wanted but with strong performance, good charts, director 10 million purchase at 297p - it still looks good for me and remeber my strategy is only for a 10pc return after fees!)

Vislink Order Placed

Instrument description: Vislink Ordinary 2.5p
Transaction type: Buy
Quantity: 5,692
Limit Price: 26 p
Maximum Commission:
GBP 12.50

Looking for buy entries

Well with the nice little run coming to an end on the UK markets I'm now turning my attention to a few spreadbet shorts and will be looking for entry points for some long trades shortly.

Latest purchase was SBS (SBS) at 4.25p - currently up and looking strong. I'm not ashamed to say this was off of a tip (one of the golden rules of what NOT to do).  The point being that I did my research as well and see no point in doing the hard bit myself when there is so much free information out there!  This small cap biotech is about to turn a profit.  They are cash rich and in my view undervalued.  The spread is sadly .75 on my selftrade account so probably looking like I'll have to hold this for a bit (penny shares scare and excite me so I tend to exit early)

I've also just placed a buy order for Telecom Plus (TEP) at 266p.  Purely because I think they are a great company with good products you would really want. They employ a remote salesforce for which anyone can sign up and sell their products for a % cut of the upfront sale as well as the ongoing revenue generated from calls etc.  The service is cheap and the service second to none and this model really seems to be working for them.  Analyst views are all BUY and the CEO has made it clear he has a solid vision to make this company a GREAT one! I'd like to see 400p on this one but I'm not very discplined at the moment and moving the stop up and just tend to close out when 10% up.  I reckon 355p is realistic before I take my profits (there is a little bit of support there so a nice place to jump out if i'm not feeling brave)

Given for safety most of the stocks I pick tend to go up more than 1o% during the 2 week - 1 month timeframe that I set for my trades I often cut myself out of otherwise great profits. This is my new focus to ensure that I let my profits run more..  it is harder than you think! 

Sell Sell Sell

Well what ag reta week - I have managed to get out of all my horrible trades for small profits (I'd have happily taken a loss). These trades were dead and not going anywhere - or so i thought....


As always, every bloody time I sell up thinking I'm bored, the deal is stale and i want out; the stock bloody rockets!

So to summarise:

SDL - sell 310p (bought 297p)
Wellstream - sell 475p (4 quid profit.... don't recall entry price but still relived to get out with my shirt intact)... although its now trading at 503p... fuck!

I bought SBS at 4.65... no movement as of yet!

My play of the week though has to be ATD.... bought in there at 14.5p off the back of the investors seminar... fantastic results were announced on 30th with first full year profit of 15 million quid.... shares rocketed to 22p and are now trading around 21p. I'm holding these guys as I think there is more to come from them.. Hoping to target 30p for now and sell around that mark!

Barclays... gutted!

What can i say... i chickened out of joining BARC late in the rally this week thinking the sellers would be out in force taking profits after holding tight (some from the mid 30p purchase range)

Up another 17pc so far today... will anything stop these guys?

Gotta be a potential shorting opportunity coming up for the brave. Watch for the bear flag.

I'm looking to BII now - entry under 115p

Rubbish Blogger and ali the Liquidator

Sorry I have realised i am a terrible blogger and that there is little continuty to allow my progress to effectively be tracked. I'm looking at fixing this by having a table at the top with my current open trades and target prices so this is easier to track.

Just to update you all, my love affair with Wellstream is coming to an end and i think I am going to sell out of this one with a small profit (it has pained me sticking with this one patiently waiting) and it has rocketed 7% today to just under break even point..... I'll see what the rest of the day brings.

ICAP - sold this for a small 5pc return... again this stock has not moved fas enough for my liking so i ditched it.

I am very seriously looking at BII at the moment - it has fantastic fundamentals and is a nice pharma that is a very strong buy given its market cap is approximately aligned with its cash in bank (surely a no loss scenario here?!?). I want to buy in under 1.15p though - looking at pumping in 3k to this one - thats 25% of my total portfolio so deserves some detail adding... Thats coming later!

Ali

ATD Buy

Bought at 14.5p - 2k's worth of shares..... I went to a proactive investor forum and got stuck into these off the back of that evening. I'll post more later on this stock but i think that this looks like a great buy...

I'm gutted I dithered over Barclays - my buddy just made a nice return having bought in at 35p / share during the plunge a few weeks back.

It's gotta be time to short the FTSE for a bit as some bulls will take profits. Watching for a bear flag...

FTSE - our shocking situation

Well it has been a horrifically unsettling week in the markets. Even Warren Buffet has made the biggest loss in his entire investing history - if the most respected investor in the world is struggling then this really shows how the whole economy is now in turmoil as well..

However despite this and constant chat about "calling the bottom" of the market, I am confident that with the FTSE so badly battered and bruised that even if we are not at the bottom, buying into the FTSE right now is a fantastic move.  I thought I woould test my theory for a bit and go in small with a £2 / point spreadbet on the FTSE basket at 3670.  My target right now is the psychological 4000 barrier - which will net me a nice 700 UKP return.

I'm looking forward to the STAN results tomorrow as they have plummeted again today to about the 6 quid mark....  this is concerning for me but i am looking for positive news to break out and upwards again.  I still love this stock and think it is a fantastic buy so have also opened a spreadbet long at 580 - £10 a point on this one......  currently about 140UKP in profit.... will see how this one pans out and will be looking to put in a tight stop towards the end of the day to ensure I don't balls this one up again!

SDL Update

Look at my SDL chart... i made a bad trade here but I'm still confident it can come good and break out above resistance around the 300p level. Even if this bounces again I'm going to hold as this one is waiting to crack.

My general rule is on the 3rd test you look for the breakout - i think this constitutes that.

A better trade would have been buying after the breakout but you live and learn!

Wellstream - Buy

Reinvested profits from Lloyds in Wellstream (WSML)

Targetting just over 5 quid - got in at 457p. The standard 10pc play - i'll move my stop up around that point and go from there!

Sold LloydsTSB

Exited my 59p entry trade at 71p for a nice 20% profit - why oh why can't all my trades be like this... I'm thinking about going back into PFC again now - although watching and waiting...

Disaster Strikes

Well it looks like round X with all the uncertainty rearing it's ugly head once again!

My portfolio is not looking pretty (IAP and SDL are terrible). Yes, I'm holding and I have not stopped out, i have broken my rules and now that they are so much below where my stop was. The problem being once you have broken your rule it becomes harder and harder to let go as you are convinced it will pick up - this is the zone that i am in at the moment and not sure how to get out... it really is a lot harder than you think (I know i am full of excuses!!!)

Thankfully on STAN i let my bet run to 690p where i got stopped out. I piled in again at 660p and I am currently long at £15 / point here as this is far far too low for such a great firm. These guys will go places and are incredibly cheap in my view... still that is what I said about IAP so take everything I say with a pinch of salt!

Lloyds is back up bouncing around the 60p mark - nice uptrend so let's see what this week brings. In the meantime i need to look for some more stocks to trade!

Update on positions

ICAP - bought in at 289p - dropped since I bought and seems to have real issues getting up above resistance at the 230-235p mark.  I am holding this as expecting upcoming Q1 results to be good and like the company as a longer term prospect.

SDL - bought in at 298p hoping for a breakout above 300p which happened momentarily but the shares have now settled back around the 290p mark.  I'm still in this one though and will take profit at 330p 

STAN - opened a spreadbet long this AM at 713p (strong support around just under the 700p level with a lot of upside) - they might well drop below this for a bit at the moment but i think in the run up to their results there are going to be an increasing number of buyers.  STAN has popped up all over the place recently meaning that buyers in the market are very interested and with good results this stock could very easily sneak out above 1000p again (a line it has tested and failed to break for 2-3 months now)

LLOY - disapointment on this one, but I always said that banks are a tough one to call at the moment, not least pre-dominantly British ones.  They are walking a tightrope and I am banking on their not being a run against them or the govt stepping in - this is not a trade and is a gamble that could pay off very handsomely.  As soon as this one nears triple digits i'm out! 40-50pc return on this would be nice but right now it is so hard to call and frankly no one knows! 

Dialight - Tipped by Robbie Burns - i like the look of this share but want to monitor it more closely for a bit before I buy into a dip.  This will be one to look at on a hopeful closeout of my Lloyds (LLOY) play. 

Impatient Ali and the trigger finger

So i ripped my trading plan to shreds as betime I got to my desk this morning LLOY had already fallen 11pc - it looked like it was moving further downwards purely on technicals so I decided to still take a short at 57p, closed at 60p for a small loss.

During this period I decided that due to the bouncing around of the stock for so long that we were unlikely to see further falls and bought 1.1k through my share trading account with selftrade at 58p. I'm still confident the dust will settle and there is great upside potential here...

Eric Daniels - if you are reading this, stop giving my potential profits to those morons tellers who are always trying to cross sell me cr*p that I don't want!

Mixed views on Lloyds

Well what a day on Friday with Lloyds losing over 40% of their value by the close of the day. I think we have further falls to see and I will be watching this one very closely.

My play on this one is to spreadbet short to a target of 45p where there is some recent support. I'll cover at 55p where there is some support as well albeit not as strong.

I then intend to see how much further this goes. I'll look to buy into a bounce at this level (45p share purchase) but my stops will be tight and I will watch this one closely.

Quite frankly my feelings are that Lloyds are not going to be nationalised but there will be a lot of hype around this and a continued sell off tomorrow (this could spill into Tues and Weds - depending on how fast a positive statement can be released to provide some reassurance and bring out the bottom pickers). I do think you have to be careful though as I still feel at this level despite the losses of HBOS that Lloyds is a bargain and we could see some buyers coming in as early as tomorrow afternoon.

My target on the upside for these shares is £1 again - although i will definetely cover at around the 60 mark (Friday's close) and then trail my stop cautiously upwards...

Another one to watch are STAN - due to release results in the next couple of weeks. I think they might surprise and give the market a bit of a lift. I have a large long term holding with these and i think we could see them break ut above the £10 pyschological barrier.


Let's see what tomorrow brings..!

Stockfetcher

Stock fetcher is a great site that allows you to write your own filters using SQL like logic. Its great as it allows you to keep re-running this against it's stock database and to bring otu the items that you want.

http://www.stockfetcher.com/ui2/sffilter2.php

It only works for US stocks so be interested to know if anyone is aware of something similar for UK stocks. I found ADVFN a little restrictive - but that could be more to do with the fact that I am too tight to pay for the decent parts of it!

I've been on a trading hiatus with lots going on at work at the moment. Also gutted about Barclays / banking trade missed opportunity from the beginning of the week.

Both my SDL and IAAP trades are not looking great at the moment but still holding these. I am also looking at Wellstream currently - will add more details on this one shortly

f&&***ked off

So i spent a weekend in Amsterdam musing on my trades for the week when I knew that Barclays results were due to be out and we know that they were going to be good. I believe that the value had not been priced in so this would have been a nice 10pc gain for me and well i thought it would be nice to go long the banks for the day as they basked in BARC's glory...

well the reality was that I placed my limit orders (stupidly only 20bps ahead of the market close on Friday - yeah i was being greedy trying to lock in as much profit as possible and was not waiting for the manic buying). So the market makers screwed me on that one....

I now get into work later and miss all the nice rallies that all the banks have made this AM... so in a hunt to trade I am placing a few spreadbets just to see if i can pick up any further movement.

Im currently long on WellStream (518.0), Icap (222.0 - CLOSED at 232.0 - a potential nice range play here). Still looking for something to invest on from my selftrade account for the next couple of weeks but definetely upset about missing the boat this AM though...

Get over it ali - thats just the way it is sometimes..

LloydsTSB

is bothering me somewhat..... had i not been impatient I could have taken a 20pc rather than 10pc return. that's life. I'd rather take a small gain than risk a big loss. it also gives me confidence to buy on a dip again so will put it back on my watchlist.

I also came away from a simulated trading event last night where you had 1 hour to trade either WTI, Gold, Crude or the US indexes. Needless to say i made about 75 quid which I was pretty pleased with considering I was looking to grab as much free booze as I could. The winner actually made 800 quid in an hour. Which i think is very impressive given that you can't bet more than £10 / point (total) and your total position size is also £10 / point. The winner took an all expenses paid trip to Vegas - I'd personally have taken the cash but hey hum!

LloydsTSB - sold 99.80p

OK - so i did not hold out till 110p but I don't like Lloyds at the moment and i am happy to be rid of them and for a small profit as well. otherwise i fear getting my fingers burnt!

I am sure i will live to trade these another day but a 10pc return in just over 3 weeks is still fine for me! Although it was very nearly a 60pc loss!!! Not a smart move and I am incredibly lucky to get out of this one with my shirt still in tact

This now means that i have just over 1.2k spare to invest in my account. Will be scanning my watchlist later on...I have started looking at VOD now - some nice charts

SDL - buy @ 298p

No sooner had I taken profits on Petrofac i have my cash working for me again by investing in SDL. My target for this is 340-350p. This is a good s/w company, with good charts. Will update further on my thoughts on this shortly

PFC Closed & LloydsTSB ticking higher

Wow - just checked in and PFC sold... maybe I should have set more ambitious targets for this one. That's a nice easy £100 banked there and leaves me with some cash to re-invest now.

Lloyds is edging closer as well, sitting just above a quid at the moment so I need to get researching my next plays sharpish!

Petrofac, BA moving upwards

Wow - i really am pleased with this one. I am now only 9p off my target price of 340p. I'm looking for decent cover though so with the current price at 432.00 I think I will see if my target can be hit tomorrow and cover at 340p. This could go higher so I don't want to cut my profit too soon and I think I have missed the boat for BA quick gains now so no need to release cash to re-invest...

BA is STILL rising as well.. had i the cash I would have bought in at 120p and be happy taking profits anywhere around the 150p mark. My strategy is always a 10pc cover. I'll hold some stocks longer term if i think there is value. Hoping for a dip to buy into.

Resuming my hunt shortly for some nice breakout stocks so hope to update my watches and using ADVFN filters later on tonight!

Summary of the day

Petrofac looks to be a good buy moving up 2.5% after my order filled - coming off of a nice cup and handle pattern I'm confident of this moving steadily upwards. 

I am desperate to get out of LloydsTSB for now - i just want to take profits and 89p has annoyingly proved to be a stubborn resistance line for me..  praying for the banking gods to shine down on me tomorrow! 

BA - shooting up today... getting closer and closer to getting in on this one.  I am a fan of the £1 stocks just because i am lazy and it is easier to calculate risk / reward.  Holding for the dip - possibly swap my Lloyds holdings for this one.

Who knows what tomorrow brings.  My new resolution has to be to avoid trading Crude.  I get greedy, leave it open with no stops and end up losing.  I lost today after dicking around - an idiot trade. My next week's resolution is to stop trading like a tit - its going to cost me dearly otherwise!

If you want to add comments / ask questions, feel free to post here or drop me a line at ali.rees@gmail.com

EURGBP Cash - LONG

Entry: 0.9012 (nice solid support just above the psychological 0.9000 mark) with an initial target of probably 0.9030 where I will move my stop up. Distant target of 0.9080 should be possible although i think unlikely over night.

Only £1 a point as this is a purely technical trade - still would be nice to bank a cheeky £30+ while i am off having a swim.. (sorry for the crap chart quality!)

UPDATE: Made it to 0.9030, covered at 0.9028 and was immediately stopped out before the stock jumped 0.9039 and fell anyway - annoying but would have been more pissed if my 0.9080 prediction was hit. I'm not sure what I did wrong here, maybe too tight with the stop or i should not have stopped at all given I already had strong support at 0.9000 i should have let it bounce around for a while.... would appreciate views on this - this is a really common problem that i have!!

Airlines - something to watch

Took my first profit of £2.72 for the day..... ok you might think what is the point but I often do this just to validate my thoughts on movements. I don't have enough cash in my account to trade it but it is nice to know that I would have been right had i had the funds - and well it's all extra money at the end of the day really isn't it?

Ryanair of course yesterday shot up on the news that the last of their hedged oil contracts have now expired and hopefully should be returning to high proftability. I think they are a good long play although to reassure myself I want to see a good technical signal before I pile in.

The airline sector is a very interesting one at the moment and one that I am keeping my beady little eyes on.

Petrofac - filled 398p

I just got filled at 398p on my order for 247 shares. I'm happy with this price at the moment and as stated my profit target is simply a 10pc return which I think is achieveable in the next 2-3 weeks.

Thinking about it all i need to do is find 2 of these plays a week at the same level and that for me (I generally do not more than 1k per trade is 800 quid) Combine this with a bit of range playing and the beautiful effects of compounding and there is no reason why a year from now that could not provide a full time solid income for me to live off.

Having said that, do you really think it is ever that easy? That's assuming everything always goes to plan (it doesn't!)

The Profitable Lone Ranger

One of my strategies that I have been playing for quite some time is a range trade. It's a great play in these volatile times and means you can take advantage of your favourite shares playing the momentum within these ranges between solid support and resistance. One of my favourite shares for this has been trading between 680 and 900 repeating the pattern in as little as a day but never more than three weeks. I myself have taken advantage of this 6 times in the past 5 months. Although admittedly not the whole range - i tend to grow impatient and play about with my trades - (i'm really trying not to and to stick to a trade plan - IMPOSSIBLY simple sounding thing to do, but impossibly hard in reality!)

Imagine if I had just spreadbet £1 a point for the whole range both long and short (I could not do the reverse on two occassions due to the shorting ban being in place up to the beginning of January). Thats 10 trades x £220 = £2200 - 5% spread = £2090 profit.

That's for taking very little risk with stops 5% away from the support and resistance lines. Depite this however, my meddling cost me and I only made about £900 - a testament to sticking to your trading plan if there ever was one. Another rule for Ali - "stop bloody fiddling"

Luckily I'm also naturally hedged as I actually own a large amount of these shares as part of my longer term portfolio. This might well be a good place for you to start looking for your own range plays as well especially as you will be more intamate with the behaviour of the share.

ADVFN.com is great for flcking through shares a well and it is FREE. I am still trying to figure out how to translate the shares I want to dispay into the stock screeners on the site, but once I figure it out, I will share here.

Ramble over...

Petrofac LONG opened

I have just placed a limit buy order for Petrofac [PFC] at 395p, with a stop at 365p and a profit target of 440p. I know the risk/reward ratios are not the best, crude prices have been falling ad these are so interdependent of the price of oil it's untrue..... but to me, the chart looks good, there is a lot of upside and I put its performance in the market today down to a hangover Monday after such great rallies last week and some traders taking profits. Petrofac have just signed an enormous 2 billion contract, have good fundamentals and will have increased prices with the increasing price of crude (which will inevitably happen, although not in a stable manner)

Take a look at the chart, keep an eye on it's movement tomorrow and or the rest of the week and let me know yor thoughts / comments / questions. I have sworn blind to myself that I will cut this one if it ges Pete Tong.

Let's see if the order is filled!

Day One - done

I don't intend to update this site as frequently as I have done today but I guess I am excited at the public scrutiny of my trades and receiving feedback on this.

I'm still long on my crude position and I intend to hold this, trailing my stop as it moves upwards. I like trading crude although you have to be extremely careful as it is very volatile and reactionary to news. This is why for me it is great to make a few easy hundred points plus on if you time the entry right..

So I am currently up about £100 on my crude bet and have locked in £58 on my EURGBP trade. Not bad for a first day - although I have not been at work so able to focus a little more. Due to only currently having £1000 in my account and not willing to top up anymore at the moment I can't trade much more than this at any given time

Snow causes chaos in London

Volumes are rock bottom today with the snow causing massive disruption in the City.















Check out the A3 as taken by my mother who could walk along it - it was that deserted... quite incredible really but sadly causing a slower day on the markets. I'm currently awaiting the US open but do have a couple of open positions.

Long - EURGBP entry 0.8970 target 0.9000 £2 / point [TARGET HIT: £58 profit]
Long - USCRUDE 44.85, target 46.10 £4 / point [in profit just, trade still open]


My Watchlist

BA (watching)

I have been waiting to buy into BA.. they have had some pretty horrendous results and sadly are actually losing money currently from over-zealous hedging (i mean who really was expcecting $40 / barrel fuel costs a year ago? I feel I have missed the short on this one for now, although if it does go below a quid then it's a definite gren light to buy for me - my current limit order is set for just above the 52 week low a 107p where there is pretty solid support - my stop will be at 100p just in case this stock tanks (not all that unlikely at the moment with the bad weather, poor hdging on BAs part and well of course that small gobal downturn thingimabob!)

LloydsTSB (active - 89p long)
I currently have a shocking trade (share purchase) that i bought into a couple of weeks back - LloydsTSB 89p - it has thankfully since recovered from the mammoth drop the day later and I am looking to take profit at 110p (yes i was confident that the merger settling would cause a belated rally and i broke my rule and did not use a stop on this one!) This is my best and most recent example of a stupid, boredom ridden falling knife trade!!! It's too dangerous to buy into the banks with any real cash as currently we simply don't know what is lying around the corner. I hear those Barclays gamblers mocking me at the moment but I personally think that it is time for me to steer clear and focus on more solid companies.

ICAP (active - 289p long)

I am too afraid to cut losses on this having bought in at 289p thinking that was a bargain. I am a big fan of the brokers at the moment who have seen up to 3-4 fold increases in customer bases during the last 12 months as a result of unprecedented volatility in the market place and a lot of newbie traders joining the scene, causing a large spike in trading volume.....

ICAP are solid I'm determined I will cut losses if this one falls below 210p - i'm willing to risk 25pc on this as i do think this is a good longer term stock with a potential 300% + upside (Do i sound like am not cutting my losses here? definetely i think this is the answer...)

ATD (watching - currently at all time high)

This is a penny share that generally after following Timothy Sykes' trading for quite some time I am happy to only ever SHORT. However, this stock is something very special pointed out to me a few month's back and has been steadily climbing since (today at an all time high). I'm a shorter by nature on penny shares as I think they are very risky and more often than not taking the oposite view to every broker in thisrespect is the best thing to do. There are far too many pump and dumps out there currently.

Read up on it and take a look for yourself. I never feel comfortable buying at all time high's but this company seems solid and they have captured a niche market, providing human tissue for R&D to various companies, with biotech, genetics etc going this is a company that I can see growing and growing. But I don't think these are times to take the risk with such a small business so this remains a watch for me at the moment at least.

The challenge begins

I've finally cleared out my CMC markets account and started actively recording and properly managing the PnL of all the traders that place. Sounds like something any normal trader would do by the very nature of his/ her job, easily churning off portfolio holdings, NAV and total profit/loss to date. Not me! Like most I am sure I have always focused on emphasising the gains and not the losses, the good trades and not the bad etc. Consequently, I have lost over £1000 to date. That total was more like £3000 only back in September until finally the penny dropped and I started investing in a little bit more effort to my trading approach.

At that time my friends would hear me boast of £2000 in a day profits with an account size of approx £3000. This is obviously an incredible return but what i failed to mention is that the following day i would lose £2100 and then another £400 the next and so on.... I fell into the trap that Warren Buffett would refer to as being concerned about my "outer scorecard" - or frankly caring too much about saving face and walking round like I was some kind of master trader everytime I made a win (quickly forgetting the losses prior to it!)... i think most people would actually just call it arrogance to be frank!

I have finally reached the point where I understand the mindset and I can't tolerate the losses anymore. I see it written time and time again and its taken 2 years to drill it into me, "cut your losses quickly and let your profits run" . It is so much harder than you think!

A blanket strategy is the best way to do this I think. The simplest approach that I can recommend is that of Robbie Burns (I just read his book "the naked trader" which is fantastic by the way if you want a great starter book on trading to read). He simply sets his stops at 10% below his entry price and then moves his stops to break even, break even + 5% and so on....

Interestingly enough he does not concern himsekf with looking for resistance pockets at these points and yet seems to consistentky bank on his trades. I am going to look at this approach further... I'm lazy an what's the point in stressing out if you can make money the easy way?

Happy Trading!

My first post

Hi - finally I have made it into the world of blogging. I intend to use this site to chart my progress in my quest to eventually quit my full time job and trade the stock markets full time for a living.

I am 26 years old and have been trading for over 5 years and daily for the previous 2 years. I do this alongside my full time job as a project manager and wanted a place where I could chart my progress, frustrations and maybe even get some input from others. I also created this site for me, random readers, trading newbies and all of my family and friends whom I constantly bore to tears or totally confuse with my incoherent ramblings about my personal investments.

I hope that it proves to be something of interest to all!

My first content post will be coming shortly..

Ali