Perrin

Regarding one of the '21' lists that could be created that Mitsubishi mentioned might be interesting - “21 ways rich people have found to "legally" avoid paying their fair share of taxes” Mitsubishi spoke about it above but I'm not sure if everyone knows this - you may well do already but I found it interesting. One way that certain coffee companies (and other companies too) go about avoiding paying corporation tax in the UK. Probably in the US too, I imagine. Many people might know this already as it has been in the newspapers. It's really amazing and I was very impressed with the simplicity when I read about it. It's so simple, yet made me go 'wow'. Also of course it's despicable and shouldn't be allowed - or if it is allowed then everyone should all be able to do it. But of course, the 'average' person or 'average' small business either cannot do the legal ways of avoiding taxes and/or they don't know they even exist. How or why multinational companies were allowed and are still allowed to get away with this, while for most people tax evasion is an illegal act, is not the point of this post. I think that this is not tax evasion (which is illegal), it is tax avoidance (which is frowned upon but not necessarily illegal, depending on how it is conducted and who is doing it). I think that's right but this is such a complicated (not to mention boring) subject, that most people (myself included) do not have a clue. Anyway. What they did was: Manufacturers grow coffee somewhere. Generic Multinational Coffee Company HQ is set up in a tax haven, the Cayman Islands or wherever. It doesn't matter where, as long as the tax rate is low. Generic Multinational Coffee Company UK Branch is set up in the UK. Consumers live in the UK. Manufacturers of coffee sell coffee to Generic Multinational Coffee Company HQ for $1 per unit. Generic Multinational Coffee Company HQ sells coffee to Generic Multinational Coffee Company UK Branch for $10 per unit. Generic Multinational Coffee Company UK Branch sells coffee to Consumers for $9 per unit. Which means that - Generic Multinational Coffee Company HQ makes a profit of $9 per unit sold and pays Cayman Island tax rate on its profits. Generic Multinational Coffee Company UK Branch makes a loss of $1 per unit sold and pays no tax in the UK because they are making a loss. Corporation tax in the UK is something like 26% for over 1.5 million profit and 20% if under that, I think. Would you like to hazard a guess to the corporation tax in tax havens like the Cayman Islands? A quick google search seems to suggest there is none. (I think I've got all that right – apologies if it's not. I'm not an expert in this in any way at all. But then are any of us? The systems created are very complex and time consuming to look into. I cannot begin to imagine why that might be the case.) Back to the tax avoidance above - the companies that were doing it (they still are I assume?) save millions in taxes each year. And for those companies that are doing it, apparently it's legal. Or at least it was, the government might change the rules now that it's been exposed in newspapers a lot recently. Just imagine that you run a small 'average' coffee shop, selling little cakes that you bake yourself and making cups of coffee for your customers in your small 'average' town, population 20,000. You live the 'right' way, being honest, you don't steal, you don't take advantage of anyone. You work long hours. Rents are high - rent sucks a huge amount of productive value out of your business, so much so that sometimes you wonder why you even bother. But you persevere. You pay your taxes, you make a living - it's not much - but you get by. Then one day Generic Multinational Coffee Company UK Branch opens a shop in your town.

No offence meant to anyone here - but isn't that quite a normal way of going bust? Win, win, win, win, win, complacency, win, win... Then bankrupt, and no one could have seen it coming? Isn't that a standard way that we as traders can end our careers if we're not very careful? I think it should be a lesson to us all that even if a person is way out in front and looks like he's going to win it all, it doesn't necessarily end that way. Also on a different note, I was thinking that isn't one of the best ways to win a trading contest is to bet everything and be reckless - if a trader wins he can claim to be a superstar, if he loses then he could say it doesn't matter because it's just a game? Just throwing a few of my thoughts into the mix

This thread was started because in one incident 20 children and 6 adults were murdered in your society. Liberal gun laws might have played a role in that. Maybe not. It's your society, it's your problem to solve. You know when you're trading, and you make a mistake and lose a big load of money. Do you think to yourself "I will not alter my behaviour and I will not look into the reasons why I lost money. Instead I will just carry on doing the same thing." ? To me it's pretty logical. We're traders. If we are making mistakes and bad things happen, we look into why it happened and fix our mistakes so that the losses do not reoccur. What happens if adding more guns to the equation is like averaging down, and will make a bad situation worse?

We're traders. We're supposed to think long-term. I thought that we were supposed to think, anyway. In that situation anyone would like a gun. What would be preferable is for that situation never to occur in the first place. Wouldn't it? Would you prefer your wife to (a) have a gun and shoot a stranger in a life or death situation, or (b) her to never be in that situation? Are there any groups or societies of people in the world where a 280lb intruder doesn't try to assault you? Yes? For example in your family unit? Amongst your friends? Amongst almost everyone you meet? Do you need guns to defend against them? No? Why against certain people though? Is there anything that can be done to make society a fairer, nicer, better place so that these people don't end up becoming intruders and statistics? It's possible (I would hope not) that you guys are so far gone with your gun culture that you should think about arming every man, woman and child. In fact you could replace everyone's left arm with a bionic gun-arm. That might be the safer option. It is an interesting sociological experiement that you've got going on over there.

We're all traders, we're supposed to think these things through. Why does the 280lb intruder exist?

I wonder if everyone is aware that Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson, also known as Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Records, Virgin Airways, entrepreneur, intrepid explorer, and the 4th richest citizen of the United Kingdom (that's according to wikipedia – I'm not sure if it's true, but if it is it's a heck of an impressive statistic), has an estimated net worth of billions of dollars? Many people think that he is a self-made man. In the media he is portrayed as coming from an average background. If you go up to a random person on the street and ask them who he is and how he became rich, they'll tell you that he was just an average person – an entrepreneur – who founded Virgin Records. He is thought of as an average guy who made good. Of course, he has done extremely well and he is a living legend in the business world. However, he didn't quite start from 'average'. Now, I'm not saying anything negative here regarding him or his businesses – he is a British icon in many ways. And of course the guy is extremely smart, very hard-working and very driven to have got where he is today. He's dyslexic apparently. He's suffered various set backs and despite these (or even, perhaps these also helped in the long run – in learning from his mistakes) he has become who he is. Huge numbers of people look up to him and say, "Wow, if he can do it, I can do it too." However, the fact is that his father was a magistrate and barrister. His grandfather was the Right Honourable Sir George Arthur Harwin Branson, a High Court of Justice Judge and Privy Councillor. The schools that Richard Branson attended were ever so slightly (that's a big understatement) more prestigious (not to mention expensive) than the average U.K. comprehensive school that most of us average types went to. He started out publishing a student magazine when he was 16 then went on to do the other stuff. He failed in several ventures but these failures meant that he went on and tried, tried again. Of course, Sir Richard Branson has indeed achieved a lot more than most people ever will and he is immensely wealthy. However, if Richard Branson was born to an average family, the simple fact is that he would not have had the support and back-up that he got in his life. If an average person from an average family tries to set up a business and fails they could lose everything - house, spouse, self esteem, a lifetime's effort, all that is dear to them, etc. If a wealthy person with deep pockets fails then (assuming they don't bet everything) they can dust themselves off and say, “Oh well, lets give it another shot.” I'm not saying 'average' (whatever that is) people can't become wealthy, but it is a damn sight harder to do if you start out from a lower level. Imagine a sliding scale of starting positions prior to becoming rich, with 'Failure means catastrophe' on the one side, 'Failure without consequences' on the other. In my opinion the best place to start from is one of 'Failure without consequences' (or perhaps with only limited consequences – as maybe having 'Failure without consequences' would mean that a person wouldn't learn from their mistakes). (Side note: In writing and thinking about this, there is even more to the scale that I didn't originally consider – that of starting with the knowledge that 'Failure will be rewarded' – like the banks during the financial crisis. They have been bailed out – rewarded – for failure. Is this a good place to start from? Perhaps that starting point is too far up the sliding scale and in the long run it will result in something unexpected occurring.)

Just out of interest, do you guys register your cars in America? Do you have driving licences? Over in the UK cars are registered to a particular person. Guns (shotguns for example, that many farmers have) are registered to a particular person. We don't have handguns, they were banned. In a civilised society why would you need or want to carry a gun? Do you not licence guns? That article seemed to suggest you don't? I thought you already did. Don't you have serial numbers on guns that are traced back to the owners? If you accept that cars / drivers need to be licensed then surely a gun is a more dangerous item than a car? Oh and reading that article Tams posted frankly scared the hell out of me and I do not envy any of you living in the US. Do you guys go out in the morning and pick up your car keys, wallet, Glock pistol, spare ammo, casually as if it's the most normal thing in the world? This bit in Tams' article text that made me sit back and say "oh gawd, come on you cannot be serious." - "The bill aims to revisit a 1994 ban that expired in 2004. The prohibition did not eliminate assault weapons, but restricted their features, limiting magazine capacity to 10 rounds and regulating pistol grips, bayonet attachments and flash suppressors." What the heck do you guys need assault weapons for? With bayonets (!), flash suppressors, pistol grips (whatever they are)? Who on earth would want them? Do you really want your children carrying guns? Guns are for killing. That's their function - to give power to a person so that they can kill. Is your society seriously that messed up? To me, that is scary. How on earth do you guys get from where you are now to your ideal society (assuming your ideal society is one where people are nice to each other without guns). Is your ideal society one where everyone carries a gun? That couldn't be a nice place to live, surely.

I sometimes look at the last words of traders. Unfortunately, most are merely standard conversation, not at all what I would have thought last words would be. Try it next time you're reading an old thread. When you come across a member who you don't know, click his name and select "View public profile". See when he was last on Traders Laboratory. If it's over a year ago, the chances are he isn't coming back. Select Statistics - "Find all posts by (trader)" and then have at look. Most people seem to disappear after posting relatively normal unremarkable posts. I do wonder what happens to them. I like to think that they have discovered their own holy grail of life and are living happily ever after.

Wouldn't a society without any guns be a nicer society to live in?

I've finished reading Dark Pools, so I just wanted to say thanks to BlueHorseshoe for the recommendation. For me, it was useful in getting to know a bit more about the trading world that we inhabit. I'm still wondering (but I am less concerned now) about the impact and implications of algorithims and High Frequency Trading making buys & sells with no human participation. I realise that humans create these programs (at the moment). At the moment, humans doing swing trading don't need to worry about HFT so much. At the moment. Although perhaps they do make the markets more choppy? I'm not sure. But will it always be the case that swing traders don't need to worry? I don't know. Things change over time. I'm sure the pit traders considered themselves to be essential. But that changed. In other industries, before machines were commonplace, huge numbers of people were employed farming the land. Or making clothes. Now those people are not requried, certainly not in the quantity they once were. So can this happen to trading? I imagine most traders (myself included) will come to the conclusion that day trading or swing trading is still a way to make money. Perhaps scalping is not a way to make money for retail traders, unless using slightly longer timeframes - but would that be called day trading? Perhaps scalping is only viable (as a long-term career) if you own a computer program with your computers situated next to the exchange (the HFTs). I don't know. Some people might say that scalping was never a good way to make money, in the long run, even before HFT? I don't know enough about scalping to have a view strongly either way, but if this is the case then perhaps nothing has actually changed regarding the way us small retail traders can make money in this business. The way I read it, is that the algos and High Frequency Traders have taken the place of the pit traders. What I read reassured me that I will still be around for a while yet, buying & selling. However my grandparents and parents all had to adapt to the changing world in their jobs and lifestyle. So perhaps I will have to adapt in the future in order to make money in the stock market. Although I cannot see how I will have to adapt too much in the way that I personally trade, as long as the market continues to flow based on human nature & emotion.

I think an interesting question would be - how many people stuck to their new years resolutions that they made in January 2012? Regarding my resolutions for 2013 - I'm not aiming to do anything particularly different this year. The things that I will do (and these are not really new years resolutions, it's just ongoing work) are: Find myself a truly decent honest broker (yes, yes, I know), or at the very least one that gives me the best chance of success who doesn't take the opposite side of my trades. Still be around trading at the end of the year. Improve myself as a person. Improve the way I trade. Increase my understanding of the way that markets and the financial world in general work. Because a person could be forgiven for thinking that it's all just corruption and multiple giant ponzi schemes, and of course it can't really all be like that, can it (ahem).

I worked out my strategies (although I am still refining them) by reading numerous books like Tape Reading & Market Tactics and reading lots of stuff by some amazing people on TL. Oh and hours and hours of screen time looking at charts and watching the price move. That bit is as much, if not more important, than reading the books. Yes, Tape Reading & Market Tactics and The Art of Contrary Thinking have been helpful to me. I think it's useful to get the general idea of 'reading the tape'. I think some people look at just price going up & down on the time & sales window, some look at very short term charts, and some look at longer term charts. I think that what you learn can be applied to other time frames. Currently I swing trade and I don't trade intraday (although I have been considering it) but I do look at the intraday charts often, and I can see where price might get into difficulty and reverse, for example. The Art of Contrary Thinking is about thinking contrary to 'the herd'. If you want to do that it's probably best to throw out your television set first Or look at a news announcement, consider what the general consensus is about it, and consider the opposite viewpoint. It is a useful book. I should write a short answer to some questions! So, the short answer from me is yes I do like Humphrey B Neill, his writing is excellent and I have got all of his books

While I think about it, some of these 'free virus removal' or 'scan your computer for malware' sites are in fact dodgy sites themselves (not necessarily all of them, and not necessarily the ones you mention, but again everyone needs to do their own research), and while they say they'll be removing bad stuff from your computer, they actually install bad stuff. If you think about it, the perfect way for a 'bad guy' to install bad stuff on your computer is to tell you that they're helping you, then you think you're using a reputable company, but in fact you have installed a bad program which watches what you do and tells them what your bank account password is.

Some people suggest having a single computer for trading - and only trading (ok perhaps for banking too, but that's it) - and another computer for other things such as surfing the net, emailing, messaging, etc. That way your most important computer (your trading computer) is safer (it's not necessarily 100% safe, but it's probably as safe as you can get), and if your surfing-the-net computer gets infected, it's annoying, but it's not a catastrophic loss. I think it is important to keep your computer updated with the software update. It is probably also sensible to get a good virus checker (as to what 'good' is - this probably involves as much research and reviewing and work as finding a good broker!) - but at least virus checkers are not that expensive, and £30 now may save a lot of time & worry in the long run.

I was thinking about this and another reason that people maybe don't read Humphrey B Neill, and other amazing books of that time (and other times), is because those books are old. Tape Reading & Market Tactics was first published in 1931. I remember vividly when I was a teenager not buying or reading any books from a 2nd hand book shop that looked old. I just assumed they weren't as good as the modern ones. When I first started learning about trading from websites, I remember being very sceptical about reading books from the 'distant' past. "How could a book written in 1931 be better than anything written today?", I thought. After all today we're living in an age of technological advancement and computers, iphones, the internet, all that stuff. Old books and old thoughts just aren't relevant? And even if they were, those old people can't be as smart as people today? In some ways I think it's also down to people seeing their grandparents and always knowing them as old, never having seen them as they were when they were younger. You see them as old, and sometimes wise in a way, but they're outdated, what could they possibly offer a young dynamic person. Move over grandad, you're just old and boring! Then one day you realise your grandparents were amazing incredible people who you really ought to have spent more time with, getting to know them more, before they were no longer in your life.

I'm not sure, but it must be available on the net somewhere, I imagine. I bought mine from Amazon I like having a library of physical books. I have PDFs of books too, but I prefer actual books. Having a library (ok, it's a big bookcase, but it sounds much more impressive when I call it a library) also reminds me that I have read a lot of books. Sometimes I wonder to myself, "Am I any closer to being the best I can be at trading, actually do I even know anything at all?". Seeing where I came from (so to speak) and the books that I've read, and the work I've done (files full of notes, of working out, my written thoughts, etc), reminds me that I have done a lot of work (but it's still ongoing!) and it hints to me that I'm not quite the same person as I was when I started. The thing is, I'm not massively different, I don't really feel any different, I'm still me. I think the changes in thinking happen gradually. So for me, it's somehow reassuring to actually see some of the steps that I've taken. I do something similar with a bookmarked list of threads that I've read from Traders Laboratory. However, that may be off topic and, apart from the suggestion of Amazon, it's of no help in finding you a copy of The Art of Contrary Thinking, sorry

I imagine it's because it requires a little bit of thinking from the reader. Some people don't want to think, they just want to be told when to buy & sell, instead of doing the hard work for themselves. I imagine those people wouldn't get on very well with Humphrey B Neill's book. If you liked Tape Reading and Market Tactics, you'll like another book of his, The Art of Contrary Thinking.

I love sleeping. If you can't sleep because you're worried, you should do something to sort out the problem that you are worried about (whatever it may be, trading or life in general). Perhaps close your positions and take a break, or trade a smaller position size. If you can't think clearly about when to buy or sell, then you will make more mistakes and lose more. For me, it helps to be able to say, "Oh, price did that? That's interesting." - to be detached from the winning and losing (it's hard to be like that and I often get worked up or emotional when I'm in a trade, but I think that being 'detached' is the way that I want to trade).

Hi Siuya I just read through my post again and it was too long. Note to self - don't write posts at 2am. Although maybe it had to be that long as it was my thoughts splurging out onto the page. My reason for starting the thread was to see if anyone knew why the hedgehog spikes happened, there wasn't a definite answer so over the weekend I decided I would try to be Sherlock Holmes. I know I won't find out what actually happened, but if I see what happens following the spikes, perhaps it will give me some insight into what the spikes were about. Though I might well be reading too much into the spikes on the 7th. I should probably scale-back my thinking about it. I do have other stocks on the go, but the reason I singled this one out is because of the weird spikes. My interests in TESCO:- Interest 1 - the spikes on the 7th Dec. I am interested in them. I was thinking that it was an unusual thing to happen, so it might lead to an unusual result (e.g. a big jump up in price). It still might (This morning it's gapped up a penny, again.) Interest 2 - recent news action. It's not that I am that interested in the news itself, but more so that there was an 11 pence gap up recently on the 5th Dec and the price hasn't fallen back down to cover the gap (yet). I've been in positions before where I bought a stock, the stock gapped up (or ran up fast), I hadn't sold, then price came all the way back down again. My current thinking on that kind of situation is that if I have a good profit after a big movement up, I should take the profit. (But at what point, everyone asks! Ah that's the trick, isn't it!) I do wonder if there are circumstances where I should hold on despite a big move up. Like, for example, now (?) when there are retracements on lighter volume. I am thinking to myself, "is this a case to hold on? Or, because there was the big gap up, is it time to get out quick ?" INTEREST 3 - General analysis of volume & price over the past few days. Because of my Sherlock Holmes behaviour, I noticed that yesterday, on Monday morning (17th), the price went down and then bounced off support and ended up about where it started, on low volume (9.8 mil compared with the 3 month average of 22 mil). In the current situation this feels bullish to me.

Seeing as it's sunday night and I've got nothing better to do, I thought I'd come back to this thread and post a couple more charts, with my thinking on Tesco as it currently is. Please note that I am just making this stuff up as I go along and if I were you I would not trust me to read a newspaper correctly, let alone a chart. I just felt I ought to post again because I thought it was an unusual set of moves on the chart. And it's my thread and I haven't started many so, why not. Btw, I'm swing trading over days & weeks, (kind of like I imagine Austin Powers might do). Doing this is actually quite good (posting these charts I mean, not the swinging). Just posting a few charts makes me start to understand what people say about having a journal and recording thoughts. I can see how a journal could help focus the mind and improve how you work. Even (perhaps especially) if you're wrong. Maybe I'll start a journal on TL myself one day! Although to be quite honest I do suffer from the concern that you'll all learn my secretive secrets and you'll all trade like me, then my edge (for what it's worth - which ain't a lot at the moment) will get nullified and I'll never become a billionaire. And I want to be a billionaire so I can get a helicopter and fly around town throwing Ferrero Rocher chocolates down to the people below, just like some kind of modern day Santa Claus. Of course, I would buy the chocolates from Tesco. And speaking of which... The above 5 day Yahoo FInance chart shows the weird (looks weird to me) spikes up (on 7th Dec) followed by the price reverting to the previous level as if nothing had happened. So the way I think I have this in my head is either: (a) Someone wanted to hold more stock. Price was 337 then someone (big money, for want of a better term) bought stock at 342 (perhaps there were large sell limit orders sitting above the high of the previous day). (b) Someone wanted to hold less stock. Price was at 337 then someone knew there were buy orders above the high of the previous day, sold stock to them at 342 (perhaps there were large buy stop orders sitting above the high of the previous day). © It was just errors. I did some thinking during the week and I started thinking it was (b) - that some 'big money' thought price was going to fall dramatically (note that there was the gap up a few days earlier on the 5th, which to me often means that it's time to sell and price may drop back from where it came). So I did think that maybe someone wanted to sell their stock and they saw buy stop orders hovering above the high of the previous day. I thought (speculating now) perhaps they sold to those buy orders as they were big orders compared to the ones which may have been at the 337 level, so they could unload 10's of thousands of stock (for example) rather than just 1000's which they could have off-loaded at the 337 level. Friday 14th however was an up day. Seeing Friday's up day made me think that perhaps the strange hedgehog spikes had been accumulating stock instead, because of where price closed on Friday (around 342). On Friday price gapped up at the open to 340.5 then fell, hit support created in the previous few days, then bounced back to 342, where it has spent the weekend. So if the hedgehog spikes on the 7th were accumulation then price might carry on its merry way up (maybe it's already too late to buy though? In hindsight buying was sensible weeks ago, but perhaps not now? Who knows!?) I'll attach the historical data from Yahoo Finance's Tesco data showing the volume & price over the past few days. On the low days (10th and 13th december) - would these be called pullback days? - volume was lowest. Perhaps that means that less people wanted to sell, despite price going down. Volume is higher on rising price days. I'm still struggling with all this myself and it's hard to put things that I see into words, so forgive me if I'm wrong, after all I'm just making all this up as I'm going along. Ok, so what I'm going for is (a) it's accumulation (and/or less selling) and this coming week Tesco's going to go up more, and there'll be some news release about how Tesco has won a contract to supply a huge order of chocolates to a mystery customer. This will move price up higher (perhaps another gap up - although I think this would be unusual so I can't really imagine that happening (saying that, I did just imagine it, so, meh, whatever)). If there is a renewed push upwards it might not be long lasting though and I'm not sure I'd want to buy now, perhaps it's just going to be somewhere for big money to sell. Though these things are fluid aren't they, and can change day by day. Of course, if those spikes on the 7th were just errors then I think up is still the way that price may go, based on Friday, and the lower volume on the declines, and the fact price is kind of butting up against the highs around 342 of the past week or so. However I am also very wary that we just recently had a gap up which, as I said before, quite often makes me say 'thanks for that, cheers, I'm outa here'. Anyway, that's my Sunday night homework done, all that's left to do is review later in the week to see what grade I get. Hopefully price will go one way or the other rather than sideways, so that I can get an idea of what happened when it was doing the weird hedgehog spikes (if indeed it was doing anything). I have been writing this stuff for over 2 and a half hours. The adverts are mocking me: "Trading is simple! Make a squillion dollars trading in your lunch hour with no effort at all!! Learn how to make £40,000 trades with only £100! Without the hours of studying!" Well, indeed. It's 2.30am. I'm going to bed.

I have spent the entire evening (it's now gone 1am) reading TL and thinking and trying to figure out my next move. I currently trade UK stocks. It's ok, I suppose. I've learnt a lot in the past year of 'real' trading (and I reseached a lot in the years before that). However, the costs of trading UK stocks are massive. The commissions and sdrt (stamp duty reserve tax) really hits me. I always knew it would have a big impact on my trading of course - how could it not. But when I first started I assumed it's what everyone has to pay, and the only way to learn was to get in and do it, despite the charges & tax. The amount it costs to buy stocks unfortunately also restricts me from feeling that I can exit a position and re-enter with ease, because of the large cost whenever I take on a postion. And that's not a good feeling to have if you want to be able to take your stops. First 6 months weren't great (weren't bad though, looking back my discipline was very good), the most recent 6 months have been much better despite the costs. So. Here there I was, thinking to myself, "There must be other ways of doing this, without such restrictive costs? What on earth are these things called 'Futures' and 'Forex'? I'm not sure I can trade them, they're a bit alien to me. But I must force myself to check them out." So, onwards and upwards. I had an idea of trading forex. After all, forex is advertised everywhere, everyone loves forex. It's the most traded market in the world! Perhaps I could get in and out like a silent assassin and take money, everyone's a winner!.... So, of course I read about it. I have tried to read as much on TL as possible and to figure out a UK broker to use ideally based in the UK - not easy. Not least because I now find out that most forex brokers in fact are bucket shops. I had my head in my hands, exclaiming, WHAT!? I thought I was smart, there's no way you'd catch me using spread betting, as that's just bucket shops like the olden days of Jessie Livermore. No way. I'll go direct to the real market, I'll trade FX like the pros do.... Spot forex = spreadbetting = bucketshops Oh I'm sure they're all whiter than white... Honest as the day is long, no doubt (!) But my plan was to trade with my broker on my side, not against them (if they don't hedge my orders) where they make money if I lose. I thought that's what forex was. It makes me want to shout out to everyone 'hey do you actually know what the heck is going on with your broker??? are you even trading the markets? is anybody even trading?' Everything looks shiny and sophisticated, websites look great, even the jargon fits. Trade forex. Be a trader. I should have guessed when they offered 'spreadbetting' and 'cfds' along with 'forex' - something I thought was legitimate. I know as I am currently swing trading then it's less likely to affect me quite as much if my broker is the guy I'm trading against. But still. Ughh. Imagine, I also had thoughts of perhaps doing some trading during the day. That would be a right laugh doing that, being up against my own broker now wouldn't it. A right bloody laugh. What are they called brokers for? It's not supposed to be their job to make you go broke! Shouldn't some regulatory agency make anyone 'trading' be shown a big red lettered bold flashing lights disclaimer saying 'IN TRADING FX WITH US YOU WILL BE BETTING AGAINST US AND WE HAVE A VESTED INTEREST IN YOU LOSING. HAVE A NICE DAY.' I know, I know, caveat emptor and all that. That's what I'm doing. But what about all the other poor sods who just get taken advantage of. Not to mention what about me having to spend hours upon hours trying to figure out what's honest and what's dishonest. Why can't everyone just be nice. Sorry for rambling but it's gone 2am now and I feel like I live in the matrix. Not just with trading either. *sigh.*. How many people actually know that if they start trading forex it's only against their broker? Is it just that I didn't know because I was ignorant and hadn't looked into it, but everyone else already knew and they all will say "well duh of course its against the broker, its gambling, what do you expect". I think I expected it was against a large fairer market (whatever that is). Oh well. So. Now I'm looking at DMA futures or Foreign Exchange via Currenex platform (but I also read that under a certain value then that's against the broker too?) What traps and pitfalls and twists and turns await me with them I wonder? Oh, man. I know trading is just nonsense really. Of course it's strangely interesting with crowd behaviour, psychology, personal development, etc. But it's also just some stupid number going up and down based on what some idiot wants to pay for it. It's just a crappy game. But ffs, why couldn't it be something of a level playing field. There's so much smoke & mirrors and misinformation and gawd knows what. Ugh. Sorry for all that. I just felt like I needed to write something. It's theraputic. Cheers.

I wonder if it's just a data mistake or some kind of error. But it is on several charts. TheDude - I just checked bigcharts which is attached below, yes it seems the same from them. I tried looking at google too, seems to be on there as well. google chart

Hi Steve, I noticed the Fresh and Easy announcement was a few days ago, the day of the gap up (5th Dec). I don't take notice of news that much (perhaps I should), as I prefer to try to tape read (chart read, I mean). I must admit that I do take notice of news on certain occasions when something big happens (big jump up in price, possibly with big volume) that is accompanied by some big news (e.g. company has created a perpetual motion machine). In my view then that's about the time to exit. It all depends on the situation of course. I was wondering more about today, on the 7th. With the spikes up. Like at 9.45 and 10am. The price is at 336 then it hits 341. Then drops back to 336 again. What's the reason behind that? The mechanism, if you will. Is it something like there are no orders between 336 and 341, so those orders at 341 can be triggered? What would you read into those events? Normally there are no spikes like that on any charts. It's a bit like a hedgehog. And I am most certainly an amateur and this is my hobby but I do appreciate anyone giving some time to help, even if I do sound like an idiot sometimes. That's just my style.

Hi everyone, I was looking at charts today and I noticed something unusual on the UK chart of Tesco PLC (TSCO.L) today (Friday 7th December). I wonder if anyone can shed some light on what was happening here? These charts are from Yahoo Finance. There seem to be spikes up to just above the high of the previous day on numerous occasions today. I don't think it is a recording mistake. But of course it could be. Is it buy orders above the high of the previous day getting hit, for some reason? If so, how? Or is it something else? Any ideas? I'll attach the charts below (3 month, 5 day, 1 day) 3 month chart (just giving the bigger picture) 5 day chart showing the 'spikes' up on 7th December 1 day chart as a line chart showing it more in detail

Hi guys, I asked because there are things that I know that I don't know, that I probably should know. From experience, the end of day settlement doesn't seem to make a huge difference to the final price, and doesn't affect me much as I'm swing trading over numerous days not just over 1 night. I am curious about it though. Thanks for mentioning the Hang Seng – I checked it out – weird charts. A gap in the middle of the day. I guess it's a way of trying to keep a more ordered market. Allows them to have dinner too, without worry. You make a good point that my broker should be able to answer most of these (or any!) questions. I shall email them with some. I looked at the London Stock Exchange website last year and it was not very clear to me. I will sit down one afternoon again and have another look through it. Now that I know more than I used to, some more of it might make sense (hopefully). Regarding operators licence exams, IMC courses - I've never thought about them before. I never even knew they existed for that matter. Of course, when I think about it, every profession has rules, ways of working. Are the courses any good I wonder? Would I learn anything new or useful? I will do a bit of research on them too, thank you. I wouldn't need to take an exam but if I find some course material it might be useful, (then again, I'm not planning to have a career working for a trading company, so I think the only thing I need to understand is when to buy and when to sell. Simple!) Thanks for responding