The Diary of a CFD Trader

Catherine Davey is an Australian financial journalist who wrote a book about CFDs and then became a full-time CFD trader for 3 months.

The book describes a journey that saw her change from novice to a much more unemotional trader, as well as moving a losing position into a very profitable one. On a technical level, she learned the importance of market liquidity and chart predictability (she is determinedly a technical analyst), of having a plan for entering and exiting trades, of back-testing and of minimising losses. Along the way she found support from a trading coach/mentor and (less expectedly) from a NLP counsellor/hypnotherapist. Her daily trading routines are described as well as the many hours when ?I don?t generally do much ? just watch prices?.

She has a nice writing style, with descriptions of price movements lightened by ?what I learned? and ?do?s and don?ts? sections at the end of each week, and of course reports on those counselling sessions. Whilst she includes some chart patterns and related tips, she does not describe or promote a mechanical or technical trading system. As befits one of her conclusions – that ?trading is all about learning lessons as you go along? ? she has many tips based on her experience, some understandably random (ones that struck me were: trade sector or market indices as less volatile; keep abreast of the general market (and other markets) to ensure you?re trading with the trend; add to profitable positions; use trailing stop losses and stops to exit trades; don?t listen to other traders; when the unexpected happens, stick to the trend but wait for it to be clearly indicated).

Anyone giving up that day job in order to trade won?t find a trading system laid out for them, but will get useful insights into their new life.