The Student Loan Ranger

Extended my position in DES after selling SEO for a big loss yesterday. The AGM wasn't very bullish so I decided to sell out. The market makers had moved in too which really annoys me. It has dropped another 7% today so glad I sold when I did. SEO will be one to watch later in the year, but for now there's way too much hype.

This is by far the worst trade I've made, and I'm glad I have learned enough now to avoid these plays in the future. There are many rules to be learned from these types of trade, and I'm glad I've learned them now rather than in a few years down the line when I'm playing with a lot more than a portion of my student loan.

I topped in DES after it dropped 4.5% yesterday. Their annual report came out today - their losses are much reduced, and they expect approval for their Falklands campaign in the near future. This is along term play that I plan to ride out until I get an absolute sell signal.

I've been having a quick scan of the markets in between monster study sessions, and for the midweek coverage I can mention a few of the stocks from this week.

For some reason, Yahoo charts are working off old data - so yet again no graphics.

British Airways is a buy on a clean break of 222

BP broke key resistance at 582 and hit 621 before settling today at 610. My initial medium target was 625.

ADM trading at 863 today, up from initial price of 814.5 and target of 850. Strong resistance at around 920. Should find support at 850.

NG is down to 695 and not looking too great.

BAE down a few ticks as it looks to steady at 465. Possible entry on a tick up off short support line from last weeks chart.

AAL continues to drop in line with predictions from April 20th.

VPC attempts consolidation but looking very average.

MGCR up a slight as it continues to defy my analysis lol.

Last weeks LSB scalp is beginning to look like a good medium/long play. Big rounded base and continual 2-3% daily gains. Watch out for a bear flag formation. I may well add this to my portfolio on strength. Price target of 23p.

Nothing else happening for me on the stocks front. I have been messing around with ProRealTime, programming some stock screeners. Mostly based on stochastics - with one "Ultra Screener", which has so far returned 1 result from every listed stock worldwide lol.

I have also started to find that UK stocks are highly unenjoyable to trade:

1. The available information on them is bad, and very expensive.
2. With the exception of BARX, there are no high-end, direct trading platforms with the kind of charts I need.
3. The manipulation in them is high.
4. The cost of trading them is high.
5. The chances of trading between 8-9am and getting a reasonable pre-move scalp are minimal.
6. The reliability of the brokers is low.
7. The volume is pathetic except for the top 5.
8. The intra-day movement is low except for extremely volatile stocks.
9. The intra-day movements more or less cease after the big boys at the brokers have made their money before the market really opens.
10. Brokers often cheat you out of money by claiming technical difficulties.
11. There is a high level of backroom dealing that the PI is not allowed to know about.
    
12. I want to start trading American stocks.
13. UK brokers are self serving
    

I conclude
I don't think it's possible to successfully, and consistently day trade in the UK unless you're spread betting on the FTSE or using CFDs. Or also unless you have over £20000, an excellent broker, and cash to burn on market data.

I think a lot of this is just the British mentality about other people being successful. Nobody really likes it, especially those who are in control of peoples' success.

The only real way to make money of the stock market, in the UK at least, seems to be via long term investments in the blue chips. Or by swing trading. I will swing.