100% per Day

Wow, quite a return when expressed percentage-wise. This is the profit from my first two trades. It could have been better had I actually paid more attention to pointers and exited a few minutes earlier. Or entered a few minutes earlier.
But, considering this is only my second CFD trade overall, the results are OK. :)

To explain why the returns can be expressed this high... CFD trades involve trading on margin and some market providers offer 1:100 margin ratio. So a proper strategy produces dramatic results. Of course, positive as well as negative. :D
It takes time to find suitable candidates to trade but that's whole another story. I need some time to analyze what happened today and enjoy the results.

My First Successful Trade

I'm back to trading. Trying to get a feel for shares and indexes as these are much slower and less volatile than forex. I'm researching some top shares and watching the indicators.
Today I placed one planned trade and one that was not planned but an opportunity showed up and I went in. These are minimal amounts I'm talking about but the feeling must be very similar to what other traders experience trading millions.
It is true that education is the key. The other thing is information. Limiting my scope to only the ASX 20 list and the index should give me enough items to trade with initially.
Changed my account to Standard so that I can place trailing stops. It is much fun getting into it. Looking forward to placing short positions. That will require some more time. I'm currently watching the indicators that show when to enter and exit the long position. At least I hope I got the vocabulary right. :)
Signed in to the Risk Management seminar on Wednesday. It is one of the things to embed deep into the mind.
I reckon I'm still far from normal trading but I'm happy with the way it goes at the moment. Now I'm starting to understand all the things people said earlier in all those seminars and presentations. :)

May 25th

YouTube - Caffe Tito - 25 Maj 2007

Just off the phone. The 25th of May - the Youth Day - is being celebrated and is alive and well back in ex-Yu. I was quite glad to hear that as it reminds me of some better times and the childhood. Those are the only good times I remember and trying to somehow get back or get to. That is what Australia reminds me of, in a way. But I've quite lost the feeling. I only remember what it looks like. Now, when I see parades here in Melbourne, it looks surreal.

Resources & Asia

Just reading different blogs today. Generally, they all agree that Asia is to grow in the next 10 years and Australia is to continue to ride the wave and export all these resources to booming industries of China and India.
World is changing. Some more dramatic cases show people moving close to China (Singapore) and learning Mandarin.

Docklands

I've really enjoyed cycling today. First, I got a nice wind/rain jacket at Kathmandu. Then I went towards Kensington. Wanted to see the area I analyzed in detail while we were looking for apartment last September. Passed through Parkland and then South, near the Observation Wheel into Docklands. Observation Wheel works are nearing completion. It will be amazing to go for a ride when it's finished.
The new Docklands has an appeal that dragged me to go through it. It looks just like a picture, someone's drawing. There is a small ice-skating ring under a tent. :) The whole area is wonderful. Too bad I did not bring a camera.
Though, I'm not sure I'd want to live there. It's too fancy and no green (park) areas around. I'm starting to miss the proximity to nature and mountains of Sarajevo. In 15 minutes of driving or riding I could be in the woods where people rarely go to. Ancient pines and fresh air, and silence.
I love these bicycle tracks. They are well designed so they don't intersect with roads and are a pleasure to ride on. Very nice experience today. It was sunny, 16 degrees, quite pleasant. Finally some relaxation.

Investment in Times of Uncertainty

Tonight Dr. Burton Malkiel held a seminar in Grand Hyatt about investing in certain times. It was organized by Vanguard Investments Australia. Dr. Malkiel presented standard arguments in support of index funds but also some additional ones I was not aware of before. This time I really paid attention to cost averaging and portfolio rebalance and it does make a lot of sense in addition to relying on index funds. All in all it was an interesting session. His new book is out - From Wall Street to Great Wall. It must be interesting, since he mentioned China a couple of times during the talk.
I assume it is interesting watching energy (oil) and minerals stocks over the coming years, not just months or weeks.

Cold Season

The cold season is coming to town. The last few sunny and warm are over. With temperature in 20s, it was beautiful to walk in the city for the past few days. I've been working night shifts so I spend days going around town, reminding myself of the first days in Melbourne when that was all I did.
Now the rain is here and the temperature dropped to 10 degrees during the days. The forecast for the next week is that the weather won't change much. :S
Hardly waiting for a holiday in the Summer. The issue here is that there is no central heating. So, it feels colder than back home, where one doesn't leave home unless has to.

Taxi Drivers

All my taxi drivers in Melbourne have been either studying or graduated Masters degree IT guys, complaining how hard it was to find work here. I was amazed to hear that but one thing is certain. They have too much education and no experience at all. This can be a pain since business (meaning real life, something people live from) is so much different to academic research.
Anyway, I don't think I've ever been driven by more educated taxi drivers... :)

Trading/Investing (Forex CFDs & Co.)

Yesterday I got my hands onto some ForEx CFD trading. The most volatile, largest volume market in the world. I was looking at some theory behind it, technical analysis, trends, analysis, etc. Still, I lost my initial deposit, which confirmed it was not much better than gambling. That totally turns me off. (Makes me wonder what am I doing in a company whose main purpose is that, but that's another issue)
Still, nice too see all those opportunities here in Australia. Being a part of developed world and all that crap. I'm attending some seminars these days. It's fun to see people who are so eager about getting rich, earning 500% return on their investments, etc. On the other hand, professional traders look pretty much like heroin addicts. Enough said.
On Monday, there is a workshop to be held by Dr. Burton Malkiel. At university I attended a class where we used one of his well known books (Random Walk down Wall Street). This is such an impressive happening for me. It will be held in Grand Hyatt.
Well, it certainly raises the image of Vanguard in my eyes. They are, so far, the best investment option. That was easy to guess in theory and I'm glad that it has been confirmed in practice. All the other financial institutions live off the trades by incurring various costs which often eat away anything one might earn.

This has been my recent interest as the colder days are coming. Also, I'm chasing the recruiters. Hopefully something will happen soon as I'm running out of things to do for now.
And I'm missing more frequent contacts with all the people I know, riding a motorcycle through valleys, do something important for the community, being closer to someone who loves me...
Nice to see that someone is actually reading this blog. :)

Driving License

I've passed the driving test and now have the full Australian driving license (manual, not automatic). One more thing taken care of. I'm getting out of things to do. Well, achieve is more likely word to use.
Now I expect the recruits to contact me, after I handed the additional documents along with my application with ADF. Need to get into shape for the physical exam.