The glumest challenge on earth! - February

[shadowninja]

You must be taking Flok's money...

[Caan Berry]

Hi Chuck,
With your results being so impressive, can I ask whether there was a notable turning point in your career? For instance, were you at one point making £100 per week, and a change in style or stakes turned it into £500+?

Hi Iccred, sure ask all you like... there was quite a few 'false sumits' on the way to a bit more success although i think it was linked with my head as i was doing similar things but not executing them correctly and everyone knows its possible to be right and execute it making a loss but be wrong and execute it making a profit... the joys of trading ........ i wouldnt say there was a sudden massive jump in results it was gradule and it took time although i would say over a month or so looking at results the difference was because i went from making say 100 - 150 on the occasional day and far less on others to making it consistently... thats the key really i think. Obvioulsy on some days if the bomber turns up etc you may have the odd 500+ but i don't have too many of them days at the moment, hopefully the season changing will change that. The difference is i dont really have many less than 100 days now. Answer your question ?

You must be taking Flok's money...

I hope not

Right so monday off... had a little personal dilema today which meant i went out before the card started and didnt have a trade untill about 1450 .. .either way turned out ok considering markets seemed fairly smooth again, happy days!

[shadowninja]

Your continuous success would indicate you're not experiencing the problems Flok is!

[Caan Berry]

.....it didnt feel like that in the last couple days of last month/first couple this one!!

[lcredd]

Thanks Chuck. I hope I'm at a 'false summit.' My results are fairly consistent at the moment, and I'm averaging just one blowout a month . I'm at a point where I'm content with my usual results (obviously not the blowouts) but I would like to advance. Should I increase stakes? Change my strategy? Be more aggressive? I might up the stakes a fraction and be slightly more aggressive, but part of me doesn't want to rock the boat either. I have become comfortably numb
I guess it's down to how badly someone wants to succeed and what they consider "success" to be. I'm still satisfied to finish the day with +£25, but that's not gonna get me an Audi R8 any time soon.
Do you have a monthly/yearly target or do you just keep trying to improve your trading?

= = =
My week:

2013-02-19 00:00 2013-02-26 18:55 (7 days)
Football: £9.69 | Horse Racing: £424.23 Total P&L: £433.92

[Caan Berry]

The 'false summits' were for me definately my head mate, i was doing the right thing just struggling to continually do the right thing race in race out

I still have the odd blowout too its just normal, part of being human! Being aggressive without very good reason is just the fast way to the poor house imo. If you think you can cope with upping the stakes a little then go for it but its your call, its too easy to get carried away with it at times too... sounds like your onto a winner, it'll soon improve just keep doing what you know. You dont need massive stakes to make a good return.

£434 a week is £1736 a month if you keep it steady... that'll have you the best part of a newer car soon enough if it's disposable income patience.... it will come, but probably when your least expecting it, id say keep going up it a little if you can and just keep doing the right thing.

[lcredd]

The 'false summits' were for me definately my head mate, i was doing the right thing just struggling to continually do the right thing race in race out

My blowouts cost me £400 in January and £500+ in February, so just eliminating those would increase monthly profits by 50%. I better go get a book on Zen

---
actually more than 50% as I'm barely up in February.

[Caan Berry]

wed.... ok so had a few drama's of late, mainly of the female variety... the worst kind haha! ... anyway yesterday was pretty much end of the road as far thats concerned which meant i was stopping-starting trading alot missing races on the phone etc.... pretty miraculous really that i didnt have any big blowouts as this is usually the type of thing that happens!
Interesting, maybe its an extra part to the trading evolution i have mastered... not letting the outside influences effect your behaviour? that or i was lucky haha, anyway turned out like this.....

markets felt pretty smooth when i did get involved, glad i still bothered.... way im feeling not sure if i will today but likely another half-hearted attempt.

[lcredd]

Do you think your challenge helped you through February?

[Caan Berry]

Do you think your challenge helped you through February?

Hey Iccred/All,

So Feb is over! thank god for that!... not the fun starts with the run-un to cheltenham. In truth in the end it wasnt too bad at all, in answer to your question Iccred i think in the begining stages of Feb the challenge deffinately helped me focus a bit pulling myself out of one those 'dips' in performance/mood but its arguable the markets were pretty poor too. Beyond a couple weeks into it i don't think i needed to do it although since i said i would constantly update i've stuck with it...

Yesterday was another funny day for me with lots going on outside my trading so its not supprising the results wasnt massive but still in these situations more than anything its important to keep yourself on the straight and narrow
I noticed last night the markets unlike usual some very strange stuff was going on looking very manipulated, found it hard to cope with being lots of flase support and resistance points but still.
Here's as screen grab of yesterday and the month in total, obviously there was a couple of days i traded before i started the challenge on the 5th but they wern't exactly inspiring results either seeing the 'lul' i mentioned.

So i suppose it wasnt so bad at all in the end, looking forward to the good stuff now!!
Hope anyone reading enjoyed as i like to keep track of some the other challenges on here myself!
Keep it green!!

[shadowninja]

You use support and resistance, then?

[lcredd]

Very nice results!

[Caan Berry]

You use support and resistance, then?

Yeah sure, dosen't everyone?? i dont think it matters if your a scalper or a swinger or both, you need to identify support and resistance or effectively its like walking into a fight with a blindfold on, its an indicator... probably the biggest one, after all its only money that moves the market!! identifying it correctly is the tricky bit i suppose.

Very nice results!

Thanks, suppose it shows why its not too important to be looking short term over day to day profit

[KIRK_777]

Yeah! The best challenge ive ever seen. Thanks.
Do you have anything which would be smth of your personal preferance when trading? I mean what do you like to trade more: 1-st fav, 2-nd fav or you do not care?

[Caan Berry]

Hey Kirk, maybe you should look at keefters £5 challenge, pretty impressive although a different beast to what i do! ... yeah sure in general im on the top 4, i change runners a fair bit too. Depends where the opportunity is, i'll do them all maybe the 2nd slightly more than the rest? havent a clue why probably price range i feel i can get most through safest sorta 3.0 - 6.0 or there abouts, dont go above 12 very much.