Slow Trader

Tag: Ferrari Fund

  • How we are doing, June 2015

    Here are our funds as we stand. As you can see, Ferrari, which shows share trading, is up. However, Slow Trader, which shows FX (foreign exchange) trading is down.

    Snip20150603_4

    I am not concerned about Slow Trader’s position as the FX market is a difficult beast with great volatility. We are simply learning how to tame it.

    That’s not meant to be flippant. I regularly trade the FX now with over a thousand pounds a day gain. The secret is learning how not to give it all back in small chunks. That is, improving the win loss ratio.

    Our strategies are maturing and I’m confident we’ll see the FX benefits very soon.

    With regard to Ferrari, I am delighted with its progress. We were well over £16K a few days ago. The recent down trend in the market hit us but that, in turn, provides buying opportunities.

    Snip20150603_6

    Going forward, I have spoken to most of you and I get the feeling that there is no great excitement about an income fund at this stage.

    Therefore, although I will still treat the fund as income, I propose that we grow the higher investors to £9,000 each and review the situation.

    One reason to keep the fund lighter, and remember it is a leveraged fund, is my own confidence in trading a larger (leveraged) fund. You may not consider the size of the fund to be large. But because the fund is leveraged (and with the associated risks that imposes on me) – and if you compare what we are doing with a traditional fund – we are talking short term trading with the equivalent of over £100,000.

    Having said that, I feel that as we grow in experience, I am happy to expand the trading fund.

    Going forward, I will now report on the fund as early as possible at the beginning of each month.

    Regards

    B

    P.S. For those who wish to trade for themselves in shares, my next blog will explain my real time share buy information via whatsApp.

  • How are the funds doing?

    As I’ve said, our trading approach has changed a lot. Your funds are now income rather than growth. But we still have two funds:

    1. SlowTrader – trades the FX (foreign exchange pairings) gold, silver, WTI (light crude oil) and S&P index. This fund takes short term trades both long and short using daily, 4-hour and 1-hour charts.

    2. Ferrari – trades Nick’s top shares in FT 350 and S&P 500. This fund also takes short term trades but is primarily long using daily charts only.

    Your monies have been split equally between each fund. If you have an overriding preference on a certain fund just let me know.

    Here’s a snap shot of the funds:

    Screen Shot 2015-04-21 at 07.49.51

    The running P&L still has a share in both funds from my old system. The share is down and expires mid May. I’m hoping between now and then this share will come back up.

    Remember this is a snap shot only. The running P&L could be in the green this afternoon.

    Even – for both funds – is £15,000. Anything over this amount, at this time each month, you will get half your percentage profit. Those that have the maximum of £6,000 in their fund will receive the profit as tax free income. Those with a fund that is less than £6,000 will have their profit reinvested until their fund is at £6,000.

    Here’s how it stands:

    Screen Shot 2015-04-21 at 08.32.55

     

    What I can now do in my short term trading has taken hard work, (dedication to the point of obsession really!) money and time. Anyone that tries to sell you a trading system and tells you its easy don’t believe them!

    Anyone can withdraw their funds at any time. But please don’t miss on the good time, you’ve come this far.

    Talk soon – B

     

  • Hedge Funds Update

    We remain down:

    Sorry, that is how it is. How much down I’m going to keep to myself for a while. I know we’ll be even by the next report, 23rd February. After that, based on patterns, I say that we’ll be up 40% by 23rd April. And after that, until the annual report of Slow Trader Hedge we’ll gain a further 10%. (Ferrari Hedge started later and will fare slightly better).

    We will therefore have a total gain in Slow Trader Hedge of only 50%. Somewhat short of my double prediction.

    What went wrong? Encouragement from you possibly did it, and I have to say good natured encouragement at that. The problem was me. My inexperience of dealing with other peoples money. I tried too hard.

    I could have tried to edge some back over the early New Year but decided against it. When you take a hit, at least in the trading sense, its sometimes best to take a ‘review’ time out.

    Slow Trader and Ferrari Hedge, and my own funds, have been completely out of the market for a few weeks.

    We have only just trickled back in. Building slowly over the next few weeks as buy patterns present themselves and as my indicators suggest.

    I often knock the managed funds, because they fail most of the time. I still have no support for managed funds but I do now appreciate what they have to do. Unlike me, they have additional pressure from share holders, bosses etc; they cannot simply take time out to regroup.

    I continually read that 94% of people that do what I do fail to make the grade. In the case of managed funds, fail to beat the index – in my case, fail to stay profitable, or worse.

    I need to learn from this experience and do my thing – not the thing that is encouraged of me. If that makes sense!

    As a Slow Trader or Ferrari Hedge investor you have no downside this first investment year. Original invested amounts can be returned whenever wanted, and with no detriment to remaining investors.

    But over the next few months…. I think its going to be positively exciting.

  • How to get the most from my retirement pot

    First of all, because of the holidays, the next fund report (Slow Trader and Ferrari Funds) will be about 23rd January 2015. With Slow Trader, we took a hit in the last report and we had 2 or 3 trades that were still to come off. These took us a good 10% lower than my last report. However, on the plus side we currently have several trades that are running and these are in profit. Let us see.

    I’ve made simple but significant changes to our trading technique. In terms of timeline, I’ve come out more – now taking a broader view. To that end we will use the ‘futures style’ purchasing rather than the relatively expensive Daily Fund Bet. This will help to reduce our fund operational costs.

    I’ve back tested weeks worth of trades to find the best timelines for our indicators. There is never a sure bet, if it were that easy…

    However, I am confident that we have something that suits the current market. These things need regular review as what worked a while back might not necessarily work as well today.

    I’ve titled this article – how to get the most from my retirement pot – because that is what I’ve been looking at recently. Primarily to find the best pension scheme for my small company and employees. The one I have chosen is http://bandce.co.uk/ the peoples pension.

    Other than it being internet based, so no middle man, the pension is clear and easy to use and provides some great funds to choose from. More importantly, it only charges 0.5% with no other costs. The low charge over a 20 years or more is significant.

    One of the problems with mutual or managed funds (including banks) is the high management cost of their funds. This is a secret the big funds have kept for decades. For every percentage charged in management you can deduct at least 20% from your final lump sum. If you’re keeping a fund for 40 plus years the percentage is higher than this. Therefore, a managed fund that is costing you say 2.5% will reduce your final award by some 50%. If your fund was due to pay out £100,000 then you would only get £50,000 – maybe as little as £35,000. You’re giving the fund managers potentially £65,000 – and for what!

    How is this possible? Its all to do with that magical reason: compound interest. Probably the most powerful tool you can financially teach your kids, grand kids etc. If you want more proof of this read Tony Robbins recent book Money: Master the Game. Its a mammoth read but well worth it. Obviously the book uses American terminology, but the UK is similar with different names.

    If not managed or mutual funds then how do I invest my money? Simple, self-managed index or tracker funds. This is something that will track a bunch of companies – say the FTSE 100 or S&P 500 – and will cost you very little to do so. In compound terms you keep that £65,000 rather than, as in the example above, give it to a bank or fund manager. Also, don’t let your broker suggest that a managed fund will get you more return over time for your money – your broker is not your friend. Over the last 20 years the stock or share market has gone up almost 10%. The average for managed funds has been about 2.5%. What a difference. Indeed, some 98% of managed funds do not beat the market – or, in other words, do not beat your self-invested index or tracker fund.

    Diversification in funds is important. In our hedge funds, for example, I look carefully at sectors in turn. Careful not to overload in any one sector. An index fund, by its nature, invests through all sectors. How you distribute your money is individual depending on age, retirement goals, health. However, with 15 years to go before retirement be very cautious of being overly exposed to the share market. The reason is that, historically, the share market has taken belly churning drops twice in any 12 year period. The suggestion, therefore, of 15 years gives you a buffer. If you cashed in your fund in late 2008 you would have got nearly 50% less than a few months prior. Not good.

    They don’t get a great press, but fixed annuities are a great way to go. Do not, however, go with the first suggestion from your pension fund if they provide an annuity. Shop around and get the lowest cost. Is a low cost annuity safe? After 2008 throughout the USA hundreds of banks went bust but not one insurance company (an annuity provider) went under.

    I would split my retirement money as:

    • Annuity
    • Go-get-em or growth fund
    • Fun fund

    I would consider 60% of my funds with an annuity. Again, depending on personal funds and circumstance. That is your safe fund. Your income to live on and hopefully help pay the bills. Most of the remainder I would put in a growth fund or a ‘go-get-em’ fund. But of this I would put as much as 50% in gilts or bonds (with a mix of treasury and corporate and the bigger mix being long-term gilts or treasury bonds). Of the remainder of the go-get-em amount, I would put 30% in a cheap to run tracker or index fund: of the small remainder I would split between commodities and gold. My final, now small, chunk of my overall amount would be my fun fund. You might consider the hedge you have with me as your fun fund. The beauty of a hedge is that this fund loves it if the market goes up or down. Both are good. What it does not like is a flat market.

    There you go, I hope that has generated some thought.

    I recommend this 30 minute animation ‘How the Economic Machine Works’ – well worth 30 minutes of anyones time. http://www.economicprinciples.org/

    Also, if you need to check out your state pension statement go to https://www.gov.uk/state-pension-statement

    Have a wonderful Christmas and see you back here in the New Year.

    B

     

     

  • Ferrari Fund, 17th November 2015.

    Ferrari started 17th November 2014.

    This fund, similar to Slow Trader, will be run as a hedge and will concentrate on FTSE 350 and S&P 500 equities.

    Ferrari will also buy and sell commodities via ETFS.

    As with Slow Trader, this fund is closed to new investors until its anniversary.

    Screenshot 2014-11-25 12.59.16