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SK61
11-02-2008, 09:48 AM
Hello everybody,

I am new to the CFDs and associated short term and intraday trading and before I join 90% of people loosing money in this game, I'd really appreciate if people with some experience could answer some of my questions:

1. Is anybody on this forum actually made any profit long term (say, over 3+ years)?

2. If any long term profit has been made, would it be much more than 10-12% averaged annual?

3.My understanding is that capital gains tax is not payable on long-term shareholding? If this is correct, then averaged annual profit from short-term/intraday trading should be way over 10-12% one could get following, say S&P - just to cover the capital gain taxes and broker fees (even though I believe a trader can claim back some of brokerage expenses as business expenses). And if after paying all the taxes (and claiming all the expenses) the returns are the same or less than following some index funds long-term (or some other "buy-and-hold" shares) - than is it worth getting all the heart palpitations and potential for big losses?

I'd really like to hear from people who've been doing this for a while - and not as an addictive game, but as a consistent way to make money. I am playing at the moment on ASX CFD simulator, and I could consistently make thousands and tens of thousands a day if I put my mind to it - but ONLY because the simulation does not take into account brokerage fees and slippages and non-filled orders. There is a guy playing this ASX CFD game, who has trillions in his account (he's 1st in the ranking table), and I started following his strategy the way I see it and yes, I could do this too - but, as I've said, only in the game where one could buy/sell literally billions of shares without any real market impact, the orders are filled always and almost immediately, and brokers don't charge you!

Thank you,
Sasha

AMR
11-02-2008, 09:55 AM
Buy the book "Active investing" by Alan Hull. It has an excellent system which beats Buy and Hold and only requires a couple of hours a week.

From my backtesting, it is not profitable to trade momentum-style (holding things for a few days to weeks) in a strongly uptrending market such as the one we had for the first half of last year compared with longer term trading.

stephens.pc
11-02-2008, 04:29 PM
Hi SK61 - take a look at www.elitetrader.com - Particularly the AHG thread. A mate of mine just found this over the weekend and I haven't had a chance to have a good look at it but it appears to be a trading strategy with contributions from heaps of different posters/traders

Tok3n
11-02-2008, 06:04 PM
Whats the AHG thread?

cheers

SK61
11-02-2008, 07:28 PM
AMR, stephens - thank you for the pointers. I wonder though if I will hear from anyone re "consistent averaged annual return" question of mine. Anyone? Making any money consistently with active trading over a few years? Enough to beat index funds after all taxes are taken into account?
Thank you,
Sasha