NickElliott

I am reading Technical Analysis of the Financial Markets by John J Murphy and Come In to My Trading Room by Dr. Alexander Elder and am enjoying them both. I've been trading live for 2 weeks now and am enjoying the discipled approach to money management.

Hi everyone, I'm Nick and I joined the forums about a month ago to start doing some homework on starting to trade. I've looked at a variety of different instruments (spreadbetting, forex, equities) and have decided to spend my first year trading equities on the US markets. The main reasons are: 1. Brokerage fees seem to be much lower in the US than in the UK I seem to only be able to find UK brokers offering between £10-£15 per trade which makes me worry that I'll need to start trading relatively large sums of money to make that sunk cost a small % in terms of the trade's return. In the US I've found a broker who offers $1.50 per trade and then has a sliding scale which seems a much more accessible way to start out? 2. Time Difference So I'm not so confident that I know what I'm doing at the moment and can't really just rely on technical analysis just yet to pick my stocks. I'm also going to want to do my homework beforehand and look over some cheat sheets each morning before I start trading. I don't fancy getting up at 4.30am each morning to do this so I think the US markets opening at 2.30pm GMT makes me feel I can do the prep in the morning and still have plenty of time to analyse yesterday's movements. 3. Liquidity and Volume I keep hearing that liquidity and volume are important when using technical analysis to trade equities. I kind of understand why but I guess it will make more sense when I start out. Again, I've been told that with over 7000 stocks on the US markets being traded in huge volumes compared to the FTSE it's a no brainer. Would welcome this idea to be challenged though. I'm going to track how I get on here and it's really just going to be a year of critical analysis to see if technical analysis really is a genuine way to make consistent returns on the stock markets. If all goes well I will start looking into Forex (perhaps) and maybe the Asian markets when I'm confident in my strategy. I'll kick off in Jan 2011 but if anyone has any advice/ideas it would be much appreciated!

This is fantastic! I'm looking to do a similar thing next January as I start tracking my performance on the US Equity markets. I'm going to introduce it to the board when it's all set up but I read this in my e-mails this morning and just wanted to say thanks! Here's how I'm going to track my portfolio if you're interested

The video is PAINFUL to watch! Does anyone know how he lost the cash? Was he averaging down or something?

Thanks cuttshot, helpful stuff! I'm looking to trade stocks. No plans for futures, options or anything like that right now. Want to keep it as basic and straightforward as possible! How did people do last week? Anyone else trading the NYSE or NASDAQ?

Thanks guys very interesting stuff. The Alexa rankings page seems incredibly detailed - is it something you put together yourself Suri? I've made a bit of a start on looking for blogs and I like how this guy has done his Investor Trader | From mangy stray to financial fat cat - seems very open about what he's doing... anyone know the guy?

Hi guys, I'm Nick - a newb. What are people looking for from Blogs when you start trading? I've been doing some homework and I'm struggling to know who to trust!? There's loads of opinions out there but how do other people choose who to listen to? The cynic in me thinks...If someone had a winning strategy - why would they share it??

Hello everyone, My name is Nick and I'm starting out trading with a mix of fundamental/technical analysis. I'm based in the UK but I would like to start trading on the US stock markets. I've been told it's much cheaper for beginners because of the way the broker fees are structured. Does anyone have any opinions on this? I saw Brian was looking to trade FTSE 350 - are you paying a flat fee per trade? Thanks!

Hi everyone, I'm Nick and I'm a newb. I am starting out and would like to trade equities using a mix of technical/fundamental analysis. I've heard that the US markets are much cheaper that the UK markets for starters because of the structure of the brokerage fees? Am I right in the thinking the UK brokers charge a flat fee of around £10-£15 per trade? If so, compared to the 1c per share cost of American brokers I am leaning towards starting out over there while my volume is still low. I don't like the idea of having to jump 1.5-3%% just to recover the cost of the trade! How does this affect tax, currency conversions etc - can anyone help me out? What are the advantages of starting out in the UK? Thanks!