So a bit more about my trading business. I've been interested in the financial markets for many years. A couple of years ago I got interested in the US markets. A friend pointed me in the direction of a couple of US websites that really sparked my interest. I spent many hours researching trading, from market selection and strategy development to money and risk management.
I began trading my own account in September of 2007. I followed my rules as closely as possible and was meticulous in the recording of my trading (being a software developer by day, I was able to develop some pretty cool databases that enabled me to record my trading in great detail).
In January of 2008 I created equation Interactive Trading to record my trading experiences. I wanted to create a website that was totally transparent and was an honest and real account of my journey as a trader. I decided to 'open' the doors to my trading room. I published details of my trading strategy, how I developed strategies, my trading plan and my daily and weekly analysis.
As we all know by now, the credit crunch really kicked around March/April of 2008. The strategy central to my trading plan hadn't been designed to manage these volatility levels and I decided to cease trading and wait for volatility to return to pre 2008 levels;
In 2008 the S&P 500 Index moved up or down by more than 5% in a day on 44 occasions – 22 of them in October. The index had only demonstrated this degree of volatility on 34 occasions in the previous 57 years.
The credit crunch was not great timing for my fledgling website. Suddenly I had very little to post! In fact, you'll see that my last posts were made around May of 2008. I was frustrated because I was keen to keep developing the business, but at the same time, my trading plan prevented me from trading my core strategy. I could have developed some "credit crunch friendly" strategies, but trading no longer felt like trading. It felt like gambling.
During the downtime, I've had a chance to reflect on exactly what I want equationIT to become and I'm currently in the middle of a re-design. The website will re-launch and will become much more personal. I have other money making interests (and some none money making interests!) that I will share on this website. Some current ideas I'm mulling over;
- Include details of my eBay activity - with enough focus this can be a valid revenue stream
- How to merge together all my 'online' interests (Facebook, Linkedin, Amazon reseller, ei42 reseller etc) to act together as a central marketing device
- Change all the text from 'us' to 'me'
- Make the website about 'my journey' from a suit to a successful 'trader'
