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Despite making profits from my betting activities, I am certainly no financial analysis guru. All of my trading is based upon the diligent use of money management and artificial intelligence software, and artificial neural networks in particular. Applying this technology to financial results data has allowed me to stay ahead of the bookies for several years now.
I’m not making a retire-to-the-Caribbean fortune from my betting and spread trading activities, mainly because I stick to modest stakes – it suits me this way. The spread-trader’s balance sheet is a mixture of steep growth, severe falls, and everything in between…and a substantial betting bank is crucial if you are to ride out any storms. Even though long term trends may have be positive, past results are an unreliable guide to what happens next!
Hey! A profit is a profit is a profit, and touch wood, it luckily continues for me year after year. Whoever first said “Little fish are sweet” must have been a betting man, and he knew what he was talking about.
Starting out – the Agony and the Ecstasy!
I first heard about spreadbetting a few years ago. Prior to that my main investments had just consisted of saving in a unit trust where someone else was doing all the work. At first I was foolishly optimistic, opened a spreadbetting account and took what were actually shots in the dark that happened to be lucky. Think it was the FTSE and I actually made 90 points or so over a couple of days. Of course I had not the faintest clue about technical analysis, money management, or anything else that a sane trader would take into account.
As you may imagine my beginner’s luck did not last beyond the first two days. I was aghast. The waste of money although not huge, shocked me to the point where I thought I never wanted to see a spreadbetting platform again.It was then I realised that I needed training and education or I would not be successful. Simple.
I really have enjoyed learning about the markets. Like a lot of people I find the whole thing pretty fascinating. However getting started again with real spreadbetting even after training has involved me in an emotional battle. I am constantly tempted to overmanage my trades in a fussy way. I get decidedly emotionally attached to them. Does anyone else have this problem I wonder?
Anyway I am working on my frame of my mind. Some days my equanimity is a wonder to behold, but there lurking in the background are my old fussy attitudes, innapropriate emotions of hope and fear. Yes I am beginning to get there. Just like my new copy of Steve Nison’s ‘Japanese Candlesticks Charting Techniques’ may take a while to get through and completely master, my struggles to be as calm and utterly detached as the famous vulcan Mr Spock in Star Treck could take even longer!
To quite an extent it seems to me that emotions really can get in the way when you are trading. (Excited is not what you want to be – not even when everything seems to be going well). Anyway I now look on trading quite differently from when I first started. It’s not about making big profits quickly but about mastering something that is perhaps part an art and part a science. It’s highly absorbing and I don’t mind if it takes a while.
I wonder if anyone who might read this can identify with the problems I have described? I am sure I am far from unique. I also wonder if anyone has discovered a method of keeping their emotions under control when trading? If so I’d be very grateful to hear of them…