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Never traded over an election nevermind one like this! Said to myself don't do anything until there is a winner but of course didn't do that. Looks choppy for a while.

Right ok thanks for the input guys.

Ah I see I see now that the larger spread accounts for the no overnight fee.

Thanks for the comment. I've steered clear of futures so far basically because I felt there was plenty to learn about trading without introducing futures as well. From what I have quickly read in terms of the "process" of placing a trade it looks very similar to other spread bets it's just there is a defined expiry. The fees weren't obvious other than it said you dont pay the overnight fee but the spreads are a little bigger. As it's a DFB there shouldn't be tax paid either, what am missing?

Hi there, I notice that you can freely scale the app chart screen to be any size and the time frame and price axes scale accordingly but sometimes a fixed scaling would be useful. For example if I draw a gann fan at 45 degrees but then I adjust the chart scaling the price candles move independent of the fan position so it seems to render it useless. Or am I misinterpreting use of the drawings? Thanks for the help

Hi all, I assume many traders hold positions for days/weeks/months. That being the case overnight charges are tolerated and trades are still worth placing? It's just that DFB's seem like they were really designed for day trading but I imagine a lot have a longer timeframe view. Thanks for any input.

Thanks THT, love the insight into how people make trading decisions. Always makes me realise I have a lot to learn.

Thanks all, good to know. I also sometimes will set a r/r ratio and a larger position size initially. Then I will keep the same r/r but pull everything in to reduce the position size if the market isn't moving as far as I perhaps thought it would. I think this is technically ok to do although I feel it screws a little with the idea that your profit should be more than your risk if you deem the risk to be that set originally unless you treat every trade independently. I did this yesterday and took a profit but then the market kept moving my way so could have left orig pos size. Ah well best not to let greed or any other emotions interfere, there will be more opportunities.

Also assuming you're in profit by more than your risk what about setting the stop so its always a set % below the current price, e.g. you're only willing to lose 20% from where the price currently is. I guess that's equivalent to a trailing stop.

Thanks for that. This morning i closed a trade because it went below my entry after being higher for some time, i took to mean it would continue to fall and then it didn't so was the wrong decision, however i made up for that loss later today. Other times may not be but the point is i interfered and that was the wrong decision it turns out. I don't use ATR but i will read about it. The simple phrase let you profits run and cut your losers is very easy to say but very difficult to execute.

Hi all, Do you set your stops/limits on trades and then let them play out? My only real issue with this is that i don't know if my stops/limits are in sensible places in the first place so there is a tendency to monitor it. What about waiting for a series of signals from tech indicators to close instead, again you've got to be disciplined and do it when said signals arise. Thanks,

Yes for me at least i have no certainty in a trade, don't know how anyone does really. I don't really have a point i was just thinking about what tools do the platforms actually give you, indicators yes, stops, limits and bet size. There is so much variation in the markets that i thought that bet size may play a key role because its one of the only things you can vary.. I just don't understand with any risk/reward ratio how the win rates can be achieved frequently enough that any account increases without playing with bet size as a means to give you more attempts. I guess this is why trading is so difficult, a lot of websites go on about if you have a high risk reward ratio you only need a 20-30% win rate and at first you're like that's not so bad but then when you have a go actually its very tough to achieve consistently.

No not heard of it, will check it out thanks for the info. I guess i would take issue with the concept of "the more certain the trade". I find in trading nothing is certain so I can't put more money on one trade vs another.

Sorry game was the wrong choice of words..

So i guess the answer is no you don't adjust bet size to account for losers. Good to know thanks. Quite astonishing that anyone makes any money out of this game, hats off to you.

Yes i see the problem for sure, but one thing is true, it does allow you potentially many goes potentially far more than is statistically likely for you to lose. So would negate the requirement for a high win rate, however i see that if you do exhaust your number of attempts it becomes like having a very large risk for not much reward, but it is about the probability in the end.. Its if you can stomach it. Personally i struggled and if you think it could affect your health is it worth it, no. Surely most traders are stressed most of the time!?

Hi all, I was wondering how others view the bet size? in trades. I'm talking about the £/point figure. Assuming most go for high reward/risk ratio that means you don't need such a high win rate however e.g. a win rate of 33% may seem high to some for a 2:1 ratio. So assuming you can't achieve 33% you can't keep plugging away with the same bet size expecting to achieve profit. So do you make your calculations for the next trade considering that you need to make up for prior losses? E.g. if you've lost more than 3/10 trades. I find it hard to believe that people can achieve a consistent win rate that doesn't involve increasing the bet size to compensate for losses. Or do you always use one figure e.g. £5/point. Perhaps this is the rub, you can keep the bet size the same if you truly can achieve said win rate consistently. For those who can't, give up? Alternatively don't adjust bet size but adjust the position size, that's another option but keeping the ratio the same.

Thanks for that good to know

For me your stop is large, I use close to the minimum for the market. But I think same applies. I think basically I like tight stops because you can't lose too much but when you win hopefully you win big relative to that. I've been using a 4:1 reward/risk ratio for example. When I started out I thought the likelihood of pulling this off given how close the stop was to entry was unlikely but actually it does happen fairly often. The issue I have is that I average a win every 4 trades so essentially make nothing in the end but that's just my mean, I have a massive standard deviation that I need to get way down i.e. increase win rate if possible before this is useful. So for me I think I need better timing signals to enter and I enter too readily without really using indicators to help me. To be honest though what I've found which might be obvious to most is that if the market trends for a period of time it's much easier to make money. When it isn't it's very difficult, the problem is you often don't know when it's not trending to a large enough degree until you're in it and then you need to know to take some time and return later. Like sailing with a strong wind and then all of a sudden it's doldrums.

That sounds like a good mentality to have I'll remember that. Of course it also possible to look at other markets but I'm concentrating on one right now, perhaps results would be similar on others but would want to test first to have some stats.

Thanks, I'd like to use a wider stop to be honest but just can't make the numbers add up. Just not got the capital to play with.

Hi all, I used very tight stop losses which means for example like today the min stop requirement moved from the standard 4 to 12 points. This basically prevents me trading while this is in place. It's a frustration but is it a bad thing? Perhaps I should take the view that the market is too volatile and just wait it out. Some would think though that this is the right time to be trading.

Hi all, I've noticed some ads recently from IG promoting professional accounts. I see you need to meet 2 out of 3 requirements to pass the FCA requirements. Do you know what physical evidence you need to provide? They make it look very simple online, tick a few boxes but assume there is more to it. Thanks

Sounds harsh goldenring, I've never heard of such a big spread. How are you supposed to make any considerations for that.

You're probably right eastside, its bound to not be in our favour