Zynga - CFDs - brag(?) thread?
- Thread starter Aaron Sice
- Start date
i am similar to you - i dont watch stocks all the day and put the occassional punt now and then with igmarkets.
last time i traded was a while back which was during the japanese tsunami on the price of gold and the forex of JPY/USD
so made some killings there.
my early days playing CFDs taught me it is very dangerous and i used to stay up all night looking at the NASDAQ and ASX200 indexes moving. it was crazy you could rack up 5K in 10 minutes and it could average out like 1K a day. i think the thing with CFDs is exercise control. as i got a bit burnt in my early days trading - where intellect or technical analysis plays no part and it is pure excitement and gambling.
were you sitting in the living room with me?
that sounds exactly like me.
i had to pull myself away and stop for a few years.
now i'm back, but with very measured rationale for trading.
good work with the forex - i can't keep up with the pace of that market. so liquid, it's like water rushing off victoria falls.
With you there...!
Just thought I would add that Friday night I shorted AAPL from $665 on open @ 40:1.
i'm expecting to get out at $601 but if the indicators say to stay in, I may sell half and continue the run.
i'm expecting to get out at $601 but if the indicators say to stay in, I may sell half and continue the run.
greed is an attribute i feel can turn you when playing CFDs. seen it happen to a few friends.. which subsequently made them lose heaps.
oh absolutely - my gosh you could lose your house betting $100 the wrong way with no stops.
i have a very low risk tolerance - hence why i wait.
i had a 0.5% stop out on this one, it was either going where i wanted it to go or i was out, was NOT going to sit and wait on a losing position.
so i set my entry at $665.00, opened @ $665.25 so i was filled.
my stop (remember i'm short) was 668.35 - it was either going to fall intraday or i was out, but it didn't get much above $666.
like i always say, hope is not a strategy.
as per the attached, i saw the red circle happening (convergence of the 20DMA and the 50DMA) took the punt and went to bed.
i've brought my stop down to $658 to cover my bum for the open tonight and we will see how that fares - a/h trading shows a drop of a further $1.47 so i dont think it will gap up - stocks this liquid at these price levels tend not to gap by more than a few dollars in a normal day (normal = no news).
Attachments
That's the only problem with greed at some stage fear comes into play..
i'm still in ZNGA too - it's gapped below my stop so i'm closing out tonight on open.
also i think i posted my FB entry into the ZNGA stock in the initial post - FB entry was May 21, ZNGA entry was Apr 18.
also i think i posted my FB entry into the ZNGA stock in the initial post - FB entry was May 21, ZNGA entry was Apr 18.
Congratulations Aaron - well done on shouting lunch! You should be proud of yourself...
BTW, I think the question of capital at risk is pertinent - not that I want you to state an amount. My question revolves around whether you would use this for more serious amounts of investment capital (like we do for property) or will it always just be a bit of play money on the side to keep the mind sharp, while the real money is made elsewhere?
You mentioned proportions of your trading account etc but approx how much do you really see this ever being of your total investment capital? If it works for a little, it should work for a lot, no?
BTW, I think the question of capital at risk is pertinent - not that I want you to state an amount. My question revolves around whether you would use this for more serious amounts of investment capital (like we do for property) or will it always just be a bit of play money on the side to keep the mind sharp, while the real money is made elsewhere?
You mentioned proportions of your trading account etc but approx how much do you really see this ever being of your total investment capital? If it works for a little, it should work for a lot, no?
i think there are many ways to make money. remember that AAPL is my 4th trade in 3 years and i can't see any more trades on the horizon.
How easy/hard is it to get access to US stock CFDs from Aus? It even seemed a bit awkward to get access to Aussie CFDs when I looked into it. Was I just looking at the 'wrong' provider?
Can I ask how you set your stop?
Is it hard number?
%?
or based on a particular market indicator (ie - 20DMA crosses above 50DMA)
etc?
Cheers
Blacky
you hit the nail on the head - using the right provider.
to operate out of the US there are a great many number of things that need to be filled out, including the infamous Internal Revenue Services' W8-BEN declaration form.
Without this, they will withhold their highest tax bracket from you, much like in Australia they will withhold the highest tax bracket without a TFN. Except in Australia, you can apply to have it retrospectively refunded; in the US....well, take a number and we'll see you in 12 years.
my US provider operates from my Macquarie Cash Account.
it's the intermediate provider that appears to smooth things over between the two, acting as an interface but in all honesty, i still dont understand the details of it.
i just open, click, point and shoot ... how it happens is someone else's business.
to operate out of the US there are a great many number of things that need to be filled out, including the infamous Internal Revenue Services' W8-BEN declaration form.
Without this, they will withhold their highest tax bracket from you, much like in Australia they will withhold the highest tax bracket without a TFN. Except in Australia, you can apply to have it retrospectively refunded; in the US....well, take a number and we'll see you in 12 years.
my US provider operates from my Macquarie Cash Account.
it's the intermediate provider that appears to smooth things over between the two, acting as an interface but in all honesty, i still dont understand the details of it.
i just open, click, point and shoot ... how it happens is someone else's business.
i set my stop at both a percentage and a market indicator.
so with my ZNGA trade, my stop was $10.10, which is one percent above entry.
why?
because if it broke UNDER $10, it was going to have to perform stellar to get above it - in which case, i didn't want to be holding on while short - especially at 1:20 leverage - for each one percent the trade goes against me, that's 20% of my margin.
some people say i set my stops too tight but i say, if it's going against you then your reading of it was wrong, even if it does come back to meet you then your timing was wrong so you still can't justify entering when you did.
...and to clarify this, if someone asks me "why did you get into this?" and i can't say with definitive and absolute sincerity that it was because "x blah blah y blah blah z" then it's not a repeatable trade - it was just luck - in which case, i'll put a teddy on black, thanks.
what platform do you trade on? I've traded a little on igmarkets. I didnt put a stop loss on a trade because i was checking it every 5 mins at work, got distracted, ended up in a work meeting, 1 hour later.....capital+all funds GAWWWNNNNN. Lucky it was sub $500. Might jump on tomorrow for a punt!
