The BBC reality TV series “Million Dollar Traders” has just shown here in Australia. If you have missed it, it is a 3 part series. The premise of the series is 8 every day people (vets, engineers, students, shop owners etc) are given some training and 1 million dollars to manage under the watchful eye of a professional trader and the investor. They are given Bloomy terminals in a London office. As the series progresses the intention is to eliminate the weaker traders until the best survive.

The series itself is yet another reality show out of the BBC sausage factory; in hedge fund terms a million dollars is small fry; and the trading methods used are nothing to write home about, but I must admit I enjoyed it immensely as all the psychology issues involved in trading came out. (more…)

In the last couple of weeks I have gone live with FAP Turbo. In my first couple of weeks things were going swimmingly well as I added 28.6% to my account in two weeks. A great result, or so I thought…..

Early this week things got nasty, real nasty. FAP Turbo took a dud trade on the 19th and wiped out 50% of my account (from the peak of the equity curve).

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I was just reading my daily P/L statement from my broker, looking back at another nights work, then for the first time my eyes drifted over the fine print. So often our eyes just glaze over the fine print and we just mindlessly click our way through agreements all the time. Such is the case with my daily P/L statement. I just read the bottom line and look at where I went right and wrong. But this time I read the fine print:

“Please report to us within 24 hours if this statement is incorrect. Otherwise this statements will be considered to be confirmed by you.“

My heart sunk, when I suddenly realized that I had only 24 hours to deal with all the usual broker shenanigans around misquotes and requotes. I started to wonder what else I had agreed to when I hastily signed up with my broker?

If you have spotted anything unsettling in the fine print I would be keen to hear about it.

Many beginners and part time traders dream of walking into their bosses office and saying “screw this job – I quit – I am off to trade for a living”. I should know, I have that moment on a regular basis. There is a statistic I read once, which is that 70% of workers dislike their job (the percentage who lie about liking their job wasn’t reported, but some days I wonder if it is 30%). So it is understandable that the dream of trading for a living is strong among many traders. (more…)