Trading update: making (and banking) money

15 Nov 2010, Posted by Cape Town Girl in CTG, cape town, lifestyle, money money money, 14 Comments

Guys my dalliance with stock and share trading is going well. I am in the money!

So after our Naspers trade did pretty well, Oli suggested we start trading commodities, which are things like food, grain and metals. His reasoning was that the US dollar was taking a huge beating, and thus a commodity like copper was cheaper. Why? Because copper prices track the dollar prices (the US is the 2nd largest copper producing country in the world) so I’d get more for my money. Simple. And thus weak dollar means copper is cheaper for other countries to import, which means copper is at a 2-year high.

Copper was looking good for a few reasons – it was trading at a price similar to 2008 , even though some countries like china came out and said they were scaling down there imports of copper. Plus copper is a base metal that is widely used and in high demand (so it’s not gonna suddenly tank). So we decided to risk a R1 900 margin by selling SHORT Copper (we were anticipating that the price of copper would move down, as the dollar strengthened - is just logical really) – - (PS margin is YOUR money that you outlay) and we got some GREAT returns on that – R1 500 to be roughly exact. Nice following the R600 bucks I made off the Naspers trade.

We then had a look at the week’s trades – Naspers, Aus Dollars & Copper – and we find ourselves sitting on a profit of about R2 400,00. Nice for my first week. But stop: at this point I must make the decision to close the trade and bank the money, or to let the trade go on into the weekend. Now a very NB thing I have learnt is to stick to your strategy when it comes to trading and to not get greedy when you’re doing well. Things had gone according to plan, so Oli and I made the call to close the trade and bank the money.

Next week, it’s a fresh start. Exciting! I’m really loving this. It’s like chess meets poker on crack. To get trading yourself, or just find out how to, a good way to start would be by doing a self-evaluation so you know how much you do and don’t know. Click here to check it out.

UPDATE: Oli from GlobalTrader247 and I chatted this morning and the markets aren’t looking great. So we’ve made the mature call to just hold back and wait until it looks like we’d make a profit on some sharetrading. We were thinking gold, but it could go either way at this point, so we’re going to sit tight. A very important part of share trading! Let’s quote some Wyclef-doing-Kenny-Rogers this fine Monday afternoon, whaddya say:

You’ve got to know when to hold ‘em
Know when to fold ‘em
Know when to walk away
Know when to run
You never count your money
When you’re sittin’ at the table
There’ll be time enough for countin’
When the dealin’s done