Trading notes from Andrew Collins

by
Andrew2018
 The last two months of the year proved to be very challenging for the market and with red flags over most of my trade signals I decided to let the market settle. It was too easy to lose money during the last weeks of the year which is rare compared to the usual year end trends. I have completed a small trade in Compass this week and after the shakeout of recent months there are a number of stocks within trading range. The one caveat is that most are about to report and I prefer not to trade stocks within a couple of weeks of their numbers to avoid the risk of being stuck in a position when they report. That said there are still one or two that are close to good entry points and I may well try another trade shortly. I will also be taking a close look at Vodafone’s numbers on Friday as the shares look quite interesting now and if they meet expectations this one will be on my list for possible trades. The market has a slightly better feel to it despite all of the ongoing worries and I will post again soon.
 TRADING BIO: I have been a professional money manager in London for over 25 years and trading my own funds simultaneously. Unlike many popular traders, I have a very different approach to my trading and focus almost solely on risk management and fund longevity. Another difference is that I don’t trade indices, forex, commodities or glamour stocks. My focus is on cyclical UK FTSE 100 blue chips where the leverage of CFDs and spreadbets allows you to take advantage of the more predictable and staid price action. Trade volumes are low so as to minimise costs paid away to the market, often a significant drain on performance for a trading portfolio. At any one time I may be studying around a dozen such equities but unlikely to be holding more than one position I don’t profess to get it right every time as markets and information changes which can cause movements that you simply cannot predict. What I try to do is manage my risk with small enough position sizes which also provides the potential to diversify when conditions are right to do so. I keep strict stop losses to avoid damaging my account when positions go wrong. It is much better to get stopped out and revisit the position than continue holding and hoping! I like the concept of true copy trading as it allows Followers to see the true activity of a trader’s account and make honest and accurate decisions. By taking a lower risk approach and trading in modest sizes my intent is for any Follower to be able to use their ‘multiplier’ to gear up my trade sizes if they personally wish to scale up the trades in search of higher returns.
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