I have been interested in the financial markets since I was a 15 year old school boy paper trading penny stocks. Back then, the guys that worked in the City seemed untouchable.I'd see them on TV in their trading jackets, shouting and screaming at each other, in what seemed like total chaos. It never really occurred to me to pursue a career in the financial markets - I guess I thought I didn't have the skills. Instead I embarked on a career in Engineering and followed the usual channel of getting a degree and making my way in the world of commerce.
I spent 1993-1994 working for an Engineering consultancy where I remember looking around the office one day and seeing no-one that I wanted to become. My Engineering career promptly ended and I began looking for other areas of interest.
I'd always had an interest in computers and it was an opportunity to work in the City of London as a PC support engineer that re-ignited my interest and passion for the financial markets. It was at this point I realised that working for someone else was not 'in my blood' and I started building websites and databases for friends and family. This interest quickly became a business, and in 1998 I created my first web development company called Aidaweb.
Fast forward a couple of years and a couple of businesses later and I found myself developing software for a self-directed independent trader. He was, at the time day trading the Dow Futures and was looking for someone to automate his strategies in Tradestation. I quickly picked up EasyLanaguage and began working on developing a number of his strategies.
My interest in the financial markets soon overtook my interests in software development and I became a student of the markets. I read everything 'trading related' that I could lay my hands on (check out my favourite books here)- from books on strategy development to trading psychology and from past masters to current day experts. It was an all consuming and wonderful journey and one I look back on with pleasure. I was never desperate to start trading, I just wanted to learn as much as possible in order to make a decision - "Could I trade for a living?"
In 2004 I began paper trading Oil and Gold - It was a fairly wild ride (I know, I know it was only paper trading) Oil was volatile, even back then and my dummy account was swinging around over £2,000 per day. I knew if this was real money then my emotions would have been all over the place! The lesson I learnt was a valuable one and really forms the centre of my current trading strategies - Manage your money.
In 2007 (after a period on the bench to look after my new born daughter), I finally started trading my account seriously. I had developed a system called 'Hybrid Triple Screen', a swing trading strategy. In the first 6 months of trading this strategy I was up nearly 20% and things were looking pretty good. That was until the credit crunch sent volatility's sky high and my system promptly broke.
I took the decision to cease trading whilst I re-assessed these crazy markets. Traditional 'trading' thinking now counted for nothing, solid long term investment vehicles were losing upto 90% of their value, basic commodities had doubled in value and there was talk of complete breakdown in the markets - Not a great place for a newbie trader to learn his trade!
I decided to take my trading down to a much more basic level. This is when the concept of the AtticFund came to me. Could I take £10,000 and, using a combination of the all the learnings, strategies, successes and mistakes I have made on my journey to date, trade this £10,000 into something much bigger. This blog acts as my trading journal. I record, not only my trading thoughts and actions, but all things city and trading related that interest, inspire and annoy me.
I hope you enjoy reading about the development of the AtticFund as much as I enjoy sharing this journey with you.
