Stock market collapse in October

[SantaClaus]

Wow, there's some reckless behaviour on this thread.

To the uninitiated: you can lose a hell of a lot more than your deposit. If there is a news event, the market can gap up or down, slipping 100's of pips from your stoploss.

Not all markets are 24 hour. If you are holding a position overnight or the weekend, the markets can gap open too, meaning your stoploss wont be honoured.

Make sure you use a "guaranteed" stop or lose your shirt, and maybe even your house.

[KentPhilip]

Wow, there's some reckless behaviour on this thread.

To the uninitiated: you can lose a hell of a lot more than your deposit. If there is a news event, the market can gap up or down, slipping 100's of pips from your stoploss.

Not all markets are 24 hour. If you are holding a position overnight or the weekend, the markets can gap open too, meaning your stoploss wont be honoured.

Make sure you use a "guaranteed" stop or lose your shirt, and maybe even your house.

WHS

The ONLY sensible and rational way to look at this is to see it in its post-arbitrage result.
By which I mean if you put on a position of £10/point long on the FTSE 100 at 5100 then YOU ARE borrowing £51000 and investing in £51000 worth of weighted FTSE100 shares.
So if they go up by 1% (or £510) then you make £510, and if they go down by 1% then you lose this.
So get concepts of stop losses and stuff like that out of your heads - they are not relevant. YOU are the master of your trades, nobody else.

[AtW]

The ONLY sensible and rational way

is to stay away from speculative stock market.

Shares in your Plan B is the only ones you need to have.

HTH

[BrilloPad]

is to stay away from speculative stock market.

Shares in your Plan B is the only ones you need to have.

HTH

Is there another sort of stock market?

[SuperZ]

I don`t like stop losses, well trailing ones anyway. I`d only use one to protect from loosing too much when investing initially. If you`ve invested in something then you feel reasonably confident the market is going to go the way you expect. A problem i`ve had with using stop losses (trailings ones especially), is that you can get stopped out by sudden volatile behaviour, then once you`ve been stopped out of the market it goes the way you were expecting it to again. The less you`re willing to risk (the closer the stop loss), the more frequently this happens obviously. If you`ve made a good profit and you move the stop loss real close, that means you`ve lost confidence or happy with the profits so you might as well just sell at the current market price.

All IMO

[HairyArsedBloke]

Never, never, NEVER enter a position without a protective stop.

I'm/was a stock index/currency futures scalper working on high-frequency data (1 min bars) and rarely in a trade for more than ten mins. Yup, I am everything Atw hates.

The worst losses that I've ever had have all been trying to be a position trader, not having proper or cancelling, stops, being in a state of denial over losses, and doing idiot things like holding over the weekend, etc.

[KentPhilip]

Never, never, NEVER enter a position without a protective stop.

I'm/was a stock index/currency futures scalper working on high-frequency data (1 min bars) and rarely in a trade for more than ten mins. Yup, I am everything Atw hates.

The worst losses that I've ever had have all been trying to be a position trader, not having proper or cancelling, stops, being in a state of denial over losses, and doing idiot things like holding over the weekend, etc.

So does scalping work, as is is profitable?
I thought about trying it, but surely the big boys have much faster software and lower spreads, so you can't make money.
What platform do you use?

[HairyArsedBloke]

So does scalping work, as is is profitable?
I thought about trying it, but surely the big boys have much faster software and lower spreads, so you can't make money.
What platform do you use?

Got to be really careful what I say here. Also I've not been trading while I was getting medical treatment, but now that is finished and I am looking to get back to trading soon.

Yes scalping works and it is possible to make a profit. Fees make a greater hit into profits but because there are far more round turns, they can be negotiated down.

The faster software / lower spreads might be true for the likes of GS front running their stock trading, but for futures on globex - a limit order on the order book is the same wherever it came from.

Platforms - some standard, such as Interactive Brokers, Open E Cry, Ninja Trader. Also, some proprietary which I won't talk about.

Would I recommend it - NO! It's not for everyone and I am not sure it's for me anymore either, considering my age and health background.

[SantaClaus]

Never, never, NEVER enter a position without a protective stop.

I'm/was a stock index/currency futures scalper working on high-frequency data (1 min bars) and rarely in a trade for more than ten mins. Yup, I am everything Atw hates.

The worst losses that I've ever had have all been trying to be a position trader, not having proper or cancelling, stops, being in a state of denial over losses, and doing idiot things like holding over the weekend, etc.

100% agree.

Also I'll add to that:

• Only ever risk a maximum of 2% of your account at any one time.
• Aim for somewhere near 1:2 risk/reward, so for every £100 you risk, look to make £200.
• Decide on your stoploss and profit target before you take the trade, because once you are in the trade your mind will play tricks on you.
• Dont trade in front of a big news announcment, you will get whipsawed out of your trade, especially if scalping.
• Accept your losses as part of doing business. Dont get euphoric about wins.
• Plan your trade and trade your plan!

[SantaClaus]

So does scalping work, as is is profitable?
I thought about trying it, but surely the big boys have much faster software and lower spreads, so you can't make money.
What platform do you use?

Anyone thinking they can make money because they have the fastest platform is barking up the wrong tree. It's definitely not the way to make money.