Trading as a Business

This web site provides various links for new UK day traders interested in finding out how to get started in trading NASDAQ stocks, E-Mini futures and, most recently, basic FOREX. The menu on the left links to all the additional material mentioned at the ClickEvents day trading seminar in Guildford on 13 October 2001, the Trader's Seminars in Birmingham on 11 January 2003 and 5 July 2003 and seminar in Hatfield on January 17th 2004.

There are four presentations available. 'Trading as a Business' covers the steps to go through to set up as a NASDAQ day trader including writing a business/trading plan, finding a broker, choosing a trading strategy etc. It also introduces new traders to the one and only reason they are likely to fail in their new venture - that is their of psychological reaction to the pressures and stresses of trading. The second and third presentations entitled 'Trading Futures using Systems' and 'Trading Systems Update' introduces the world of globex e-mini future trading to new traders. As well as covering the basics such as terminology and trading practices this presentation focuses on the use of mechanical trading systems to overcome some of the psychological problems with trading futures (or any other instrument) manually. Futures trading lends itself to mechanical systems because of the volatility and liquidity available, particularly for e-minis, and the need for the system to track only one instrument. These presentations also introduces one of the lesser known secrets of successful futures trading, that of 'Money Management'. The final presentation covers a basic introduction to FOREX (or Foreign Exchange) trading. This $1.5 trillion per day market is only now opening up to the retail trader and this presentation gives an insight into where to start and some ideas for using trading systems in this market.

I am also developing a trading system that just trades the S&P e-mini futures contract. I hope to be able to post daily results again here soon. Futures trading is an alternative to stock trading and has recently become popular as traders do not need the day trading account size required by SEC to trade stocks. You are effectively trading the index. Often UK traders use spread betting for index trading but this suffers from wide spreads and bias introduced by the broker. With futures trading you are dealing directly with the market. All trades are carried out electronically on the Globex2 network meaning fills usually only take 1-2 seconds. Only S&P and NASDAQ e-mini contracts are currently available (on CME). A DOW mini contract does exist and is traded on CBOT exchange but this is a very new contract and liquidity is still low leading to large slippages on entry and exit, particularly after the first hour of trading.

Any comments or request for more information please email me here.