In the beginning !!!!

I am starting this blog because I started trading shares just over a year ago and made some dreadful mistakes. Now I am making fewer mistakes but the Stock Exchange is still a mysterious place for amateurs.

I live in France and was cheesed off that my money in the UK was earning zip in the bank. After 6 months I had accumulated £2 in interest. I had traded shares when I was in college 30 years ago and thoiught I would re-start now that I was retired. However, living in France, I found it very difficult to be able to buy and sell shares in the UK. Most companies are happy to open a trading account if you are a UK resident. If you aren't then tough.

To try and improve my bank balance I decided to start trading Contracts For Difference(CFD's).I opened an account with GFT in the UK and deposited £5000. I started trading and made £1000 on the first day, I was chuffed to conkers. So chuffed that 3 days later I deposited another £5000, all my spare cash. After a week I was up to £12000 and feeling pretty pleased with myself. I wasn't using stops because I found that they were getting triggered all the time. I didn't have a clear idea of why I was picking certain shares or currencies but I found it quite exciting!! To cut a long story short, after 3 months I had lost the lot. That was the end of that.

My wife was very accepting as it was my money but she thought it was just gambling. To get the buzz I continued to trade using dummy practice accounts from the myriad who kept bombarding my inbox. The platforms were very mixed, some very bad and some dreadful but I found Fortuneo the best and I was able to learn about using and understanding charts with them and it didn't cost me a penny.

You start with €100000 as it gives you a big cushion and you can be very cavalier as it isn't real money. Sometimes I would be €30000 up and sometimes €45000 down. Gradually I started trading with small amounts as I would if I had any real money. This was more interesting as I had to be more careful. After a while they cancelled my practice account as I had been using it for 6 months but hadn't opened a real account. Fair enough but I had learned a small amount about trading.

 Then I had a spare £1000 that I wanted to trade but this time it was going to be shares not CFDs. I opened an account with my bank, HSBC, and made my first share purchase for over 30 years. I bought 1000 GKN shares at 105.1p each.  This time I was going to do it differently!! This time I was going to make some money!!