The Student Loan Ranger

New wave trading. The period where I made the full transition from anything UK to everything US. New psychology, new rules, new abilities, new guns.

http://thestudentloanranger.blogspot.com/2009/01/2009-trading-and-daily-action.html announced my comeback into market watching and trading. Signed up for a new data source and charting package and began watching just a few stocks. I also draughted a very concise and clear set of trading rules that I intend to stick to. Also begin to post daily blotter on elite trader to gauge consistency.

http://thestudentloanranger.blogspot.com/2009/01/intra-day-action_16.html Began a series of successful scalps, still selling too quickly though.

http://thestudentloanranger.blogspot.com/2009/01/excel-programming.html continued to develop my trading spreadsheet and incorporated a r:r calculator for added automation. I also incorporated a fictitious logo to add more discipline to my game. Lost quite a bit on AA based on a typo at this stage, so now everything is double checked.

http://thestudentloanranger.blogspot.com/2009/01/intra-day-action_19.html Nearly a year after I bought it at around £4, RBS is trading for 10p. The biggest disaster in UK company history is what they called it. I was, and still am, delighted at this decline.

http://thestudentloanranger.blogspot.com/2009/01/week-ahead.html this post resembles an early crystal balling post. However I have little confidence in TA at the moment and didn’t trade any of it. The price levels are too choppy for me, and those 2 weeks seemed to be the third wave of fear after June-July and Sep-Oct.

http://thestudentloanranger.blogspot.com/2009/01/intra-day-action_25.html I begin to monitor Forex, starting with a nice trade in GBPUSD.

http://thestudentloanranger.blogspot.com/2009/01/intra-day-action_27.html detailed FX setups included in a post for the first time. Start to spend more time watching FX than stocks.

http://thestudentloanranger.blogspot.com/2009/01/intra-day-action_29.html sever all ties with UK and UK companies after cmc lockout debacle. Sign up for TOS and entire a new era in my trading career.

It's now March 12th 2009. My account with TOS is days from funding and I no longer operate through the UK. I spend most of my time watching futures, which is a far far cry from my beginnings in small cap UK industrials and speculative oil stocks.

I've learned a huge amount about trading in the last year, enough to fill a huge post, but that's for later. The most important rules in my opinion are as follows:

1. Have a trading plan and mission statement and follow it rigidly.
2. Calculate and accept risk before any trade based on your trading rules.
3. Excel at technical analysis.
4. Maintain and reflect upon an in depth trading journal and learn your mistakes.
5. Fear and greed are irrelevant in trading.
6. Get statistical information about your trading habits and develop new ideas from them.
7. Stay away from anyone or anything remotely linked to the United Kingdom financial and trading industry.