I didn't realize until this week that I have been screwing around (prevaricating) about this for nearly two years. I attended the Cash For Life in 2008 and never got it off the ground because I wanted to commit 100K to it and could not justify that.

Then I followed John Hunnybun's threads about trading (was it really last year all that started?) and most recently Bill Tregellas caught my interest again.

Well, I can't actually remember from where I received the invitation to a KtA seminar, but attended last week and committed hook line and sinker to the Trader University program. I'm not sure if I will report progress on it via the forum, or if I do how frequently, but I'm off to the big smoke in November, and have started my boring Define stage planning.

I've never taken quite so long getting from Assess stage (over two years)to Select stage, but all things considered, I've decided to give trading a go because "I still don't know what I want to do when I grow up"

The recent time I spent in Syria reminded me that 20 years ago we set up a small business that is now being run 95% by others, and that 10 years ago, I set up a slightly larger business in the UK that became a bit unmanageable between 2008 and 2010 and a bit overextended with UK property assets.

After a false start in Spain for geographical diversity to create a fourth income stream that has become a real drag on our otherwise well planned businesses, I have come to the conclusion that Spain should never have happened as a fourth business because we already had a property investment business in the UK (which this one has now become absorbed into with a consequent damper on an otherwise good performance).

So this (wait for it) should be the last business we get into now (says he - LOL) and the fourth income stream I have been waiting to develop for about the last ten years.

Objective - create up to 50% of our net income with less than 2% of our net assets. Worth a punt, even if it never comes to anything.

wish me luck.

Regards, Gerry

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All the best Gerry with you forex venture, i hope ytou come on occasionally and let us know how you are doing.

Regards, Jack

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Hi Gerry best of luck another place good to speak to traders is Trade2Win - Active Trading & Forex Community excellent trading forum, i would also recommend you read Trading for a Living Dr. Alexander Elder and Market Wizard Jack D. Schwager.

Anand,

Thanks - it's appreciated. One of the problems I had, and why it took me so long to Select a method and a teacher/trainer was that once you start researching you are literally swamped with not only the information from the original guy you asked, but hundreds of linked websites offering tips, tricks, PhDs in analysis of the rocket science variety that got the banks into so much trouble.

The comparison I like to make is that I don't want to learn how to embed SMD chips just to watch a television. I just want to use the remote control. So with grateful thanks, I intend to steer clear of the millions of pages of information and cut to the chase.

The driving ambition (and generally I'm pretty good at this because I can stand boredom) is:
Appraise (done)
Select (done)
Define - this is a load of boring documentation that results in a hard and fast plan that defines capital commitment, time commitment, expected outcome (profit per month)
Execute - the training and the next three months (modify plan on early results)
Operate - the following twelve months (actuals versus plan)
Lifecycle management (analyze - cease, lower exposure, increase exposure, maintain exposure)

I don't need more than one strategy to find out if this works for me or not.

I found out tonight that the colleague of mine who has been trading for over a year did exactly the same course. So that's a gain for me - I get to find out how he did, then make sure I at least beat his performance - that's friendly competition.

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Oh do keep us posted if you can Gerry, that would be really interesting.

Don't feel bad, I have been in Appraise about lease options for about 2 years and am still in Select for where overseas is the best place to invest currently

Hi Jack and Li,

I am sure I will find this thread and report back at the next big milestone - the course in London on 6/7Nov2010.

Li,
It's good to hear somebody else using the "stage gate decision" terminology. I borrowed it from bp but I guess most large companies have their own descriptions of a logical sequence of process with go / nogo decision paths along the way. About overseas property, I think the most important thing is only to consider countries in which you feel you have roots, or family, or a stong attraction to (like I did towards Spain until the government stung me for 35K Euros tax I didn't think I was liable to pay). Remote control is difficult in the UK 200 miles from your home, let alone a different country, language, law and culture. Whereever it is, always make sure it's affordable to the local population, both for renting and for buying.

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Hi Gerry,

Hands up, I borrowed CVP from BP too It seems to work better in my property business than standard Prince2, which is kind of strange.

I was looking at buying in Spain last year, I love the area around Marbella/Banus and there were some very good bargains which at the prices did not need an awful amount of rental coverage. Unfortunately with the tightening of credit over there, nothing was going through, much to my frustration. Similar situation in Portugal, lots of things getting downvalued and banks tightening lending.

My latest area of appraisal is finding out if there are any countries left where you can legally do NMD but which satisfy my requirements on economic stability, capital growth, healthy rental demand etc etc. Not found one so far!

I suddenly realized last week that I only had 17 days to go until I attended the course so I got my skates on. Now with 10 days to go, I dusted off the disorganized collection of appraise and select stage papers, got a folder organized and revisited the "plan document" which has now become so familiar to me, I don't ever start a new project without one. Seven days later, and with 10 days to go, the folder is up to date, I've booked the travel and accommodation, opened the dedicated bank account and the broker's trading account, subscribed to and downloaded the analytical software package, and attended three recorded weekly market update webinars (only six more to go). I've started reading the mass of detailed pre-reading, contacted a couple of buddies who are 18 months down the road from me (one of whom has lost 90% of his capital), and I am rearing to go.

It's completely bu**ered up my smooth plan for other things but, hey, there's nothing like a complete change of direction to get your mind refocused on interesting things, is there?

Like I said to the seminar presenter in August when he asked "why did you come along tonight", I replied "I still don't know what I want to do when I grow up"

Bye for now, will report back later.

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Good luck Gerry!

All the very best indeed, be nice to read your high's low's, ofcourse with very few if any low's

Go forth and multiply !

Ade

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Update.

The course was exhilirating, and after getting home on the train, I thought I would achieve my goal to place an order before the next day (which is recommended. So I did place an order (at nearly 4am) and did not look at the result until close of market. At 10pm next day, I saw the order did not trigger, so no win, no lose. I felt confident to continue with the plan.

There's a lot to learn, and a lot to document (trading plan, daily analysis sheet, target versus actual, etc, etc) but I feel psychologically better than I have done since March 2007 (London Excel property show), so that's a great start.

I have a Skype group meeting arranged for tomorrow night with a small group I met at the course, so we can encourage each other to stick to the plan. The course organizers told us that 80% of attendees actually never place an order, having spent 2 1/2 grand on the course. I don't intend to be one of those 80%.

regards, Gerry

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Update.
The plan continues. One of our group has set up a Live share space where we can load our "deals". I placed another order on Wednesday night which also did not trigger or "actuate". So two trade orders attempted, no wins and no losses.

Pretty boring stuff eh? I would at least have expected to advise that either we had lost fifty quid or gained 150 quid, but I've managed to contain that initial over-enthusiasm,and look forward to the second week of learning within a very controlled environment.

The group meeting was good too. Five out of six attended, and the sixth was travelling on overseas business, but got the notes of the call.

Weekends are supposed to be spent building the trading plan for the coming week. I will use this weekend to consolidate some of the scruffy notes so that I don't forget the real basics and don't end up placing a sell order instead of a buy order. LOL. We really are at the newbie end of this stuff. It's a real gas thinking you are an idiot, then having five other peers tell you they feel the same. Just like the BTL business, really.

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Good luck Gerry - I dabbled at this for a couple of month and lost more than I care to remember. It is not an easy game.

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Hi Glenn,

I dabbed at property for a few years before I met you lot, but I now consider property to be a serious part of our business. Having had that fortunate experience of gaining the right knowledge, albeit over a space of 15 years, I decided not to dabble at market trading, so took the £2,500 course before laying out any capital on the trades.

I also opened an options account 20 years ago in London, and didn't have a clue what I was doing. Now I do it the right way around - appraisal, selection, definition, execution, operation. I am in execution right now which will take 1 to 3 years with many stage gates before I commit more than 2% of our wealth to this. Many of those stage gates' milestones are GO /NO GO, dictated by results so far. I wish I had taken the same approach to our property investment between 2006 and 2008, but what's done is done and cannot be undone (as somebody said).

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Hi Guys,
An update.

An estimated 90 hours of learning after the course 6/7November, the real account is down 4% end of December, having been down 6% end of November.

Hoping to move from unconscious incompetence to conscious incompetence quickly in the new year.

A realistic trading plan is now within sight, as I continue to slog through two more recommended books on the subject of trading, and now intending to maintain the FTSE350 trading besides moving to Forex trading around February 2011.

Happy New Year.

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