Trading Made a killing shorting futures

Hey folks,

Not sure if any of you remember, but I started dabbling with forex a little while back. I burnt through a few small accounts but kept going back for more, and kept losing. But the broker I use also offers futures indexes. Long story short, I made about 50k in the last few days! All of which is being withdrawn and put back into the bank. Except maybe a few k, just so I can keep dabbling

 

Good on you, Luce. Great to hear. I remember when you started dabbling in forex. What amazing feeling it must been over the past few days. Did you sleep?

Scott

 

Saving the few k for a repeat next month?

 

Haha Scot, no, not much. Not even over the weekend - I was too nervous/amped/busy reading every online article about what was going on. By the time I closed all my positions Monday night I was pretty exhausted!

Nick, selfishly, I sure do hope we get a repeat soon! I have no idea what to look for, because a) I'm very new to trading and b) even if I had a few more years experience, I still wouldn't have any experience trading through an extended correction or bear market. I have no idea how these things play out, or how quickly. More reading for me!

 

out of curiousity, you made $50k. how much did you start with to profit $50k?

 

Well, it depends what you mean by 'start with'. Since the beginning of the year I had lost nearly 22k on forex. As of last Thursday I had about 6k left in my account. I turned the 6k into about 73k.

 

Good result on the rollercoaster

 

It's such a great story, Luce. Made even better because you're honest about your knowledge and experience. I bet it made your bloke sit up and take notice. He would be looking at you in a whole new light and telling everyone about his very clever wife.
I reckon the next step might be some seminars: 'I made $50K in a weekend trading shares. I'll show you how I did it.'
Scott

 

Congrats. So are you up or down overall since you started?
Be careful, most people who gamble get hooked after they have a big win. They go back for more and tell themselves they'll quit once they break even. Chasing losses can be expensive. I'm not saying you're gambling, just be careful.

 

That's a very good return last week. How you play it depends what you are doing, is this straight forex or futures?

I don't think anything major will happen until the next FOMC/rate announcement. My guess is that they will forecast an increase and then surprise with a hold on rates along with their statement about economic instability or something pushing the increase into the future.

 

Haha, Scott. Hubbie actually said the opposite - don't tell anyone or they'll think I do this sort of thing all the time, and that we're rich!

Skyfall, I'm up roughly 50k overall, as in, since I opened my trading account.

Nick, I started with just forex, but now I think I'll trade futures too. Or at least stock market futures, not commodities. Seems like forex sometimes reacts really irrationally to news and I can't get it right. I'm trying a new system now, starting today, using Bollinger Bands, but things are so weird right now I'm not sure if it's a good time to think anything will work 'systematically'. So I've placed just a few small tades.

But I will be keeping an eye on market indexes and (hopefully) be ready to jump in if/when things go pear shaped when the Fed raise rates. Some of the blogs/articles I've been reading say the reaction could be pretty extreme.

 

Sometimes it's best to avoid the news, unless you position yourself well beforehand to be in a safe zone when the news comes up.

Even though some news can be predictable, you can get different reactions based on market sentiment or large funds positioning.
There are instances of markets being priced in or active buying the rumour then selling the fact etc.. but in this case I think it's just not as clear in which direction they will go with the rates.