Time flies. August seems like a fast month for me. There were also a lot of changes going on with my investment capital, focus and brokers.
Let’s talk about brokers first. I have closed my MFGlobal account as the capital was no longer segregated from their operating account. I shift all the capital to POEMS. I also have another forex account with CityIndex which I eventually closed too as I was looking into an account to trade both stocks and forex. T3B recently got in Kinetic Securities from Australia to offer accounts to us. I must say they are offering what we wanted and these are the reasons why I like them:
- Segregated account (a must)
- Nice platform interface that tells you commission, margins, interests etc. Basically the cost of getting into the trade
- Many order types but I mainly use stop orders and if done (not many brokers have if done orders)
- Good range of stocks
- Easy to edit buy and sell orders
- Trade both stocks and forex (commodities too)
- Can assess stocks database without data charges (unlike MFGlobal which you need to pay for live data to even display stocks lists)
- Nice courteous staff
Of course there is a bad thing about Kinetic. They are based in Australia so I have to Telegrahic Transfer my money to Australia. And dear DBS does not allow me to TT SGD to Australia. So I have to suffer 2 exchange rates conversion. It costs me around S$300! The good news is that they will be setting up a Singapore Branch and a Trust bank account here. So it is better to wait for them to come.
As the POEMS CFD does not allow me to place stop orders out of market trading hours, I find it hard to trade. I tend to enter later (at higher price) and sell later (at lower price). Hence, I decided to use the capital to buy stocks with cash. Especially I just attended Dennis’s “Secrets to Making in Stocks“, I would want to allocate some capital to invest in stocks using fundamental analysis. I still have one live counter left with POEMS CFD which would eventually be closed out (not shown in table).
HL Asia is one good example that I could not get out in time because of not being able to place a stop order. It just dropped away from my desired exit price, which could have triggered if I have a stop order in place.
Looks like a bad month huh? Somehow I did not feel sad about the losses. I have gathered alot of confidence to make money over the long run, and this loss is temporary. It seems like I have detached myself from money and it makes my trading decisions easy to execute. So what gave me the confidence? I attended Teacher Keane’s mass gathering in end Jul where one thing struck me – backtesting. I have done some backtesting on the T3B system and I think I have found the problem with my trading. I was “three feet short of gold”. I know you don’t get what I mean, I shall post the summary of the gathering (I owe you 2 as there were 2 gatherings since I posted the first one) and the backtesting results. Stay tune!
There are no forex trades for Aug as I was patiently waiting for EUR/USD to show a buy signal.
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{ 18 comments… read them below or add one }
alvin, can share why is your time horrizen so short, and who are you trading with (which broker)? are these CFD contract?
alvin, can share why is your time horrizen so short, and who are you trading with (which broker)? are these CFD contract?
What do you mean by short? I follow the system which enter and exit on 1-day chart. (not intraday). <8% cut loss.
Yes they are CFD contract. For most of the contracts this month I am trading with POEMS which I was unable to use stop orders.
What do you mean by short? I follow the system which enter and exit on 1-day chart. (not intraday). <8% cut loss.
Yes they are CFD contract. For most of the contracts this month I am trading with POEMS which I was unable to use stop orders.
ok, thanks
what i wanted to tell you is this, the spread within the shares (bid & offer) is very wide. it will be worst if market is illiquid, depends on what share, they can be as much as 0.5 to 3%! add this to your commission, phillip charge 0.2%? the total cost is too high!
trading in such short term put you in a totally disadvantage, no edge at all. i hope you know what you are doing.
ok, thanks
what i wanted to tell you is this, the spread within the shares (bid & offer) is very wide. it will be worst if market is illiquid, depends on what share, they can be as much as 0.5 to 3%! add this to your commission, phillip charge 0.2%? the total cost is too high!
trading in such short term put you in a totally disadvantage, no edge at all. i hope you know what you are doing.
Thanks coconut for your concern.
I agree the cost is high. I have done the backtesting with the commission factored into the calculation, and it yields a positive return over the long run. So I am patiently trying to do things right step by step, and see the results over time.
Thanks coconut for your concern.
I agree the cost is high. I have done the backtesting with the commission factored into the calculation, and it yields a positive return over the long run. So I am patiently trying to do things right step by step, and see the results over time.
ok, i wish you luck.
but i must still remind you that it is the spread and the slipage (or skid which usually happen in stop lost order and volatile market conditions) that is the main cost and not the commission, be sure you factor in these cost, which usually much higher than the commission, when doing your testing.
ok, i wish you luck.
but i must still remind you that it is the spread and the slipage (or skid which usually happen in stop lost order and volatile market conditions) that is the main cost and not the commission, be sure you factor in these cost, which usually much higher than the commission, when doing your testing.
bro, kepland does not move so much in a space of one week. U wld be lucky if it gyrates 20 cents in a 30day period & u can take advantage of it in short term trading. i assume u got “caught” in the latest knee jerk reaction to the new property news. think if u held on 7 days more, prices went back to 3.9 sumthing right ?
bro, kepland does not move so much in a space of one week. U wld be lucky if it gyrates 20 cents in a 30day period & u can take advantage of it in short term trading. i assume u got “caught” in the latest knee jerk reaction to the new property news. think if u held on 7 days more, prices went back to 3.9 sumthing right ?
hi naz, you are right that it was due to the property measures that Kepland reacted to. Actually it does not matter to me as there is a need to follow the system, since it has positive expectancy over the long run. I found that giving my own judgement usually screw things up. So I would be better off following the system. In fact, I am in Kepland again.
hi naz, you are right that it was due to the property measures that Kepland reacted to. Actually it does not matter to me as there is a need to follow the system, since it has positive expectancy over the long run. I found that giving my own judgement usually screw things up. So I would be better off following the system. In fact, I am in Kepland again.
Hi Alvin, this here seems like a discussion on internet brokerage so here’s my sharing: I am using iOCBC (Singapore). The cost is $25++ SGD per trade. So for instance if the stock I was buying cost 50 cents (0.50) then the final value deducted from my account is 0.50 + the $25 SGD plus taxes, GST etc: therefore bringing it to 0.525.
Selling will incur the similar fees. So in order to average the base commission cost of $25 SGD or 0.025, I normally will buy several lots at one go.
Perhaps you can have an article compiling the various online brokerages / trading platforms that are available starting with your own like POEMS, Kinetic and MFGlobal which are all very new to me (and perhaps many other readers).
Hi Alvin, this here seems like a discussion on internet brokerage so here’s my sharing: I am using iOCBC (Singapore). The cost is $25++ SGD per trade. So for instance if the stock I was buying cost 50 cents (0.50) then the final value deducted from my account is 0.50 + the $25 SGD plus taxes, GST etc: therefore bringing it to 0.525.
Selling will incur the similar fees. So in order to average the base commission cost of $25 SGD or 0.025, I normally will buy several lots at one go.
Perhaps you can have an article compiling the various online brokerages / trading platforms that are available starting with your own like POEMS, Kinetic and MFGlobal which are all very new to me (and perhaps many other readers).
Why don’t you look into a US stock call Transocean? This is a blue chip stock trading below book value. Tremendous upside with little risk on the downside.
Google Finance Link: http://www.google.com/finance?q=NYSE%3ARIG
Why don’t you look into a US stock call Transocean? This is a blue chip stock trading below book value. Tremendous upside with little risk on the downside.
Google Finance Link: http://www.google.com/finance?q=NYSE%3ARIG
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