Trading has changed over the years and is an evolutionary process. You start off one way and then you need to evolve, as you aren’t a good trader to start with. You need to learn the rules and plan and adapt to the markets.
I took my first trade in 1985 with a company when I was working in Brighton for a company called Brombard.
In fact, they sadly deceased a few years later. Nothing to do with me I hasten to add! Back then, they had an investment guy who took Bob Beckmans advice. Bob ran the ‘investors bulletin’ I think it was called, but I am going back a few years!
Anyway, this got me interested in Elliot Wave theory, I so I started plotting the waves in my spare time as I was working full time back then.
I bought 3 options between the years 1985/87. I think one of them made money and the other two dwindled away.
A few years later, I was with a friend of mine in Northumberland, and he mentioned that I should sell options. At the time, I didn’t know you could do this, as I was a complete novice then.
He said that if I sold options that I was getting in at the premium and if it went wrong, then you simply sold the other side. You can’t lose, I was thinking in my naivety.
When I quit this job in Brighton, because it was a pointless situation – I could see that they were going to go bust, and I didn’t want to hang around.
So, anyway I quit this really high paid job. I think I was on about 50k a year back then!
Incidentally, the pound is worth about a tenth of what it was back then, so probably the equivalent of 500k today! I can’t believe it is that much! Although I sold a manor house in Sussex for £360k in 1987, and it recently sold for £4 million!
At that point, I thought I’d start trading. We’d done a couple of property deals, and I wanted to move back to London.
It was a good idea selling the house back then, because a Hurricane knocked over all the trees, and it ended up taking the roof off the house I’d recently sold!
So I started writing options, 1987 was the year. We had the best signal I have ever seen on Elliot in 1987.
There were a very clear 5 waves down, a nice corrective rally which went on a bit longer than I expected (which was fine), then there was this bloody great big collapse. Don’t forget, I was trading £50 per point!
I’d bought put options at £50 per point. But irritatingly, the broker was on the phone, (and he was a very experienced broker) and said he wanted his commission!
He persuaded me to sell most of my puts, which were around 200 points. It was still a very good trade. But, it wasn’t as good as it would have been if I hadn’t have taken that action.
But, the Elliot signal was beautiful, my best trade on the basis of the wave pattern. I just wish I hadn’t have been such a novice, and handled the trade far better than I did in the final stages.
Later, I just evolved into spread betting & futures which is where I have been ever since.
So there it is, how I got started and where I am today. Hope you enjoy the rest of the site.