Friday, October 29, 2010
Escaping The Rat Race
My story
I quit the rat race in 2001 and have never looked back. I love my lifestyle. No
moody bosses or targets. Just me! Of course there are no office politics – but
I can live without them!
I can now sit in my office at home overlooking the Thames with my feet up
putting on a trade here and there and relaxing. My wealth continues to build
in the markets over time.
Lucky for me I realised working for someone else – unless you absolutely love
what you do – is a mug’s game. You’re just there to pay the mortgage every
month.
So while I worked for BSkyB I also worked for myself. I had a shiny Reuters
machine on my desk (after the cleaner had been) and I learned everything
about the markets through practice.
I quickly realised I could make a lot more money trading than in my full time
job and so I could easily quit my job in 2001 to trade more or less full time.
I decided to find ways of making money outside the full time job.
The delectable Buffy
So while at full time work I started to develop other income streams which,
bizarrely, included a “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” information line which
made me £250,000 over 4 years!
That involved me reading out the latest “Buffy” news on my phone at home
– and eager viewers would call the line and I made money out of each call.
Sadly the series ended in 2000, and so with it the line.
I started it for a bit of a laugh…but on its first day the guy who owned the
phone company called me and said: “Bugger me, it’s just taken £400!”
Happiness is…residual income
And I sold mobile phones and cut price phone calls and energy for a company
called Telecom Plus. And still do now actually from time to time via my
website. I got – and still get – a cut of every phone call made or energy used
by customers – it’s called residual income and it pays all my bills even now.
So I still earn from customers I sold to in 1999! For more info on Telecom
Plus and how to earn new income, press the “Escape” button on my website.
If you fancy making some money yourself after you read the piece about
residual income, just email me and I’ll fill you in on how to do it.
Armed, therefore, with a huge pile of cash, I quit my job and decided to trade
full time.
Waiter, there’s a fish in my fish pie
However, I did want a bit of a fallback in case I wasn’t such a great trader. So
I bought a café near a tube station in Fulham. That proved a lot of fun and I
made quite a bit of money (my wife and I changed it so it made £1,000 a day
instead of £300) and it got very successful.
So successful that it actually became a pain in the neck. More customers, that
led to more staff, that led to more problems. Classic growing pains.
Sometimes staff didn’t turn up and I found myself making coffees at 7am! It
involved all kinds of problems: Firing staff; talking to customers complaining
there was fish in their fish pie; and dealing with all the mess a café brings.
The worst time I remember was when all the staff were sick and I was on my
own behind the counter trying to deal with a large queue of people.
So I shouted out to the café: “I need help! Anyone want a short-term job?£10
an hour.” And one of the customers came to my rescue and started serving.
There was a lovely community spirit and I met a lot of great people.
But with my son arriving on the scene it became too much effort to run it and
enough was enough.
I had originally intended it to be the start of a chain and I nearly bought a
second café but decided in the end I didn’t want to be a retail mogul. Too
much effort – I’d rather have less money and enjoy relaxing.
So I sold the café for roughly double what I paid for it. Interestingly running
the café helped my trading because a café business is quite complex and
learning the accounts helped me evaluate stock market businesses in a much
easier way.
A lazy life
So now I just trade and run my website www.nakedtrader.co.uk.
I also hold 5-6 seminars a year where I show readers my techniques using live
markets on a large screen. I really enjoy them and it gets me out of the house
too. It’s also good fun to meet readers and have a drink with them. If you
want to come to one, see the info on the seminars at the end of the book.
Maybe we’ll have a drink together sometime!
The markets have certainly made me very happy. There are plenty of other
people like me around who have managed to quit their office jobs and trade.
And they, like me, are nothing special. All it takes is some discipline,
determination, and I’m afraid some trading capital. I can help you sort out
the discipline and determination, you have to come up with some capital.
I hope Naked Trader 2 will put you on the first rung of the escape ladder.
Trading stock markets really is much simpler than you might imagine once
you see past the jargon. And I promise you won’t find any of that here. I hope
you will find everything easy to understand.
What sort of trader am I?
I suppose I am more of a medium-term investor/frequent trader than a day
trader. I expect you imagine a trader to be someone sitting at a desk all day
feverishly buying and selling shares all day long.
Well, that’s not me at all. I don’t want to be like that. I want to be,
oohhh…drinking tea and eating toast. Having a snooze. Going to the gym.
Watching the racing. Sitting in the garden with a good book (or a bad one –
I always fall asleep, whatever the book is like). And I enjoy playing with my
son. And OK, basically I’m probably a bit lazy (is it time for a nap yet?)
What I hope you’ll learn is that you don’t need to spend 40 hours a week in
front of a screen watching every move the market makes. And you can still
have a full-time job and make money from the markets, as long as you have
access to the internet.
It is possible to trade or invest if you have a full-time job as long as you can
get some peace and quiet on the internet at work at some point during the
day.
In fact that is the best way to start trading. Begin by making some extra
money while you’re working and learn the tricks of the trade.
Instead of spending all day emailing your friends (sorry, I mean working
hard) spend a bit of time at work learning how to trade.
Keep this book handy
I suggest you keep me handy even when you think you’ve sussed out how to
make money. Because even if you’ve read the book once or twice, you may
need me again if you fall into bad ways – and believe me you will be tempted.
And I will always be here for you to skim through…
Anyway, I really hope you enjoy the book. You don’t need to read it all in
one hit. Read it in bits and let it sink in. Take it on holiday and read it on
the beach. Keep it handy when you’re going through a bad trading
patch. Don’t take it on a date though. There just isn’t room for
the three of us in the relationship
You don’t need to spend 40 hours a week in front of a screen watching every move the market makes.
Dear diary…
6am
What the hell is 6am? I know people in the Sunday Times’ Day
In The Life column always wake up at 6am, go running for five
miles, have power breakfasts, make executive decisions and are
dressed and at their desks by 7am. But this day in the life is an
honest one. I will be asleep. And if you try and wake me up I will
kill you. It is really quite simple.
7am
Get woken by my ancient cat who I’ve had more than 22 years –
at this rate she will be the oldest cat in the UK. She scratches at
the door to inform me food and a wee are required. Either my
gorgeous toddler Christopher or the equally gorgeous Mrs Naked
Trader wakes up and I reluctantly shift out of bed too and we go
our separate ways. Christopher catches up with the latest
Teletubbies, Bob The Builder or Thomas The Tank Engine. Mrs NT
catches up with whatever the Daily Mail is sounding off about
today. I retire to my office with a copy of The Sun, The Times,
any investment magazines out that day and, most importantly,
tea and toast and plenty of it.
I lift the blinds up on my office windows and I always smile. It’s
because I think I have the most spectacular view in the whole of
London. I live right by the Thames just off the towpath. And
because I’m right opposite a wetlands centre I see the river, trees
and the sky! No buildings are allowed to be built on the opposite
bank. The view (which the Government will no doubt tax shortly)
is so great it always reminds me how lucky I am and how glad I
got into buying shares so I could afford to buy the apartment
without a big mortgage.
At this hour of the morning the rat racers are all busy running
round the river before getting to their offices. They look like boss
types. Ruthless – all of them. They must be sadists to run at 7am.
And I’ll never have to report to one of them because I’m free
thanks to the stock market and residual income.
Actually this hour is one of the most important parts of the day
because between 7am and 8am every morning companies report
their results and release announcements. There’s news of broker
upgrades, oil drilling news and all sorts. So I put my feet up and
have a good look through the news wires.
On this particular day, it looks good. One company I own, Corin,
has had approval in the USA for its hip product and the shares
should open higher! I decide to buy some more as the market
opens. Another holding, Hunting, produces an excellent report.
7.56am
Switch from Noddy on Channel 5 to Bob The Builder on C Beebies.
That’s me sorted, my toddler’s probably watching GMTV. Time to
make another round of tea and toast before…
8am
The stock market opens at 8am and my monitors of various shares
suddenly spring into life. Always interesting to see how your
shares are starting the day. I am interested in how Corin and
Hunting are doing. I am quite keen to buy some more Corin
shares and they open 10p up from the off. I can see they are about
to go higher when suddenly a small hand appears from nowhere
and grabs my computer mouse. Christopher has run off with the
mouse and now I have to give chase which he more than
encourages. What’s worse is he especially enjoys chucking mouse
(mice?) into the toilet. I grab him just before he hurls it into the
pan and dash back to the screen.
Arrrggg!
Corin has gone up another 2p! I quickly put in an online order
for £5k worth and lucky for me I get them before they move up
again. That adds to the £20k I already have and very happy to
have at lower prices!
Mrs NT meanwhile disappears off to give Christopher a bath. But
do you know what? I enjoy Christopher so much that I don’t care
about the missed 2p! It’s only money and being able to spend lots
of time with him because I quit the rat race is priceless. He goes to
a brilliant nursery (it better be at those prices!) three days a week
so I do get some days without interruption!
The first half an hour of the market is important and I whizz
through all my positions to check nothing is tanking for any
reason. But everything’s fine – it’s an up day and I’m making
money.
I see Hunting opened a little lower despite the good results, but
this is changing and it’s now starting to move up fast. I decide to
buy using a spread bet – which basically means I buy the shares
through a bookie. I call them up and they give me a quote which
I accept. 30 seconds later I am the proud owner of a £20 spread
bet. This means every time Hunting goes up a penny I make £20
but every time it goes down a point I lose. I can take my profits or
losses anytime in the days or weeks ahead.
8.30am
Everything looks good. I’m not looking to buy or sell anything for
now and so, with Christopher bathed, I can relax and play with
him. My style of trading is based on not having to be at the screen
all day like a day trader and on many days I can chill out. There
is the occasional nasty day when things are moving fast and I
have to knuckle down, but generally speaking I’m free to do what
I want for most of the day, except for a few key times (generally
the opening and near the close of the markets). Time to play with
Thomas The Tank Engine. I wonder what my son is up to?
9am
Time for a look at the email inbox. I get quite a few emails,
sometimes more than 100 a day and I answer them all, unless
they are abusive or the person is obviously mad. I sigh a bit at the
first one, see below – this was as I received it, the spelling is
definitely not mine!! (Methinks this is the “Text” generation):
hi rob, im 18 in uni majoring in religios studies, been in
college 2 years now abd bn messing around the whole time.
I wanna get going now, start working and making money,
i got ur book, cant really b arsedd 2 read it just wanna
hear wat u reckon i shud study whether financial studie or
watever to break in like u.
It would be easy to be rude but I reply:
Hi Simon – I like the honesty, you're the first one who
couldn't be arsed to read the book. The trouble is, if you
can't be arsed to read mine – which is reasonably easy to
read – I'm struggling to think what to tell you.
Because, without wishing to be an old fart (which from your
point of view I obviously am), you're going to have to be
arsed to do something or other. But if you are really
interested in getting involved in finance and you're a bit
lazy, suggest you should contact some of the spread betting
firms, offer to make coffee for them and learn what they do.
Or any other finance firm. If you can't be bothered to read
anything you just won't get anywhere, except maybe selling
the Big Issue at some point…
Point made nicely?
But maybe he couldn’t be arsed to read my email or maybe he
didn’t understand it without the texting code. But there is a
point here. To get anywhere – including share trading – you have
to do some work and make some effort. Because the people that
don’t, lose all their money! People wonder why they lose money on
the markets. Often it’s simply a lack of discipline.
The hardest mails to answer are those with the subject line: “Just
a quick question”. Of course that means it’s an extremely long
and complicated one! So if the email is very long or complex it
goes into pending and I answer at the weekend. Otherwise I try
to answer as fast as I can and keep the inbox clear. Last week
when I had flu and left it for 4 days I had 453 mails to answer.
Last year I got an email from a trader inviting Elizabeth and I
to his house in Switzerland. He promised to show us the country
and give us a good time. I accepted! “He might be a nutter
though,” said Elizabeth quite rightly. “Well if he is we’ll just bed
down at a hotel and show ourselves around,” I said. Anyway we
went and had a fabulous time with him and his wife. We are now
firm friends and we meet up somewhere around the world at least
once a year!
9.45am
Elizabeth and Christopher head off for “Monkey Music” where
loads of crazed toddlers jump around to music. Christopher loves
it and rushes out of the door yelling “monkey music!” When
they’re gone I make more tea and toast. It’s important to keep
fuelled you know. If the market has a very bad day I tend to refer
to it as a “tea and toast” day. That’s because I stay cool about it
and actually tend not to trade while everyone else is panicking
and selling stuff. I rather just keep an eye open for the odd
bargain instead. As a medium term investor I prefer to ride out
down days.
I also try and find all the batteries Christopher has removed from
the TV remote controls – he usually hides them about the place. I
might put a bit of music on too – my music taste is terrible,
commercial dance music like “Put your hands up for Detroit”.
10am
About a year ago at this time I’d have headed off to my café. But
having sold it I don’t really miss it now. Whenever I went in, there
used to be yellow post-it notes on my desk with various problems
such as “Fridge broken” or “No bacon left”. I do miss the
cappuchinos [I think Robbie really sold the café because he
couldn’t spell cappuccino, Ed] though, but not some of the
customers. Some were known by nicknames:
“Here comes Weak Tea!”
“Large Shepherd’s Pie is in the queue….”
Think Sir Alan Sugar is mean? I managed to fire 14 people over
four years of owning it. Including someone with a black belt in
karate – that was pretty brave.
An email comes in from someone who came to one of my
seminars. He said:
The seminar was super and it got even better because I
ended up going out on the town with the waitress from the
hotel restaurant. I gave her my number at breakfast just
before the seminar. Then at the weekend we went out and
had a great time again.
When I babble on she laughs and nods her head, but
doesn't talk much. I was wondering if she understood
anything. On Saturday we went for a walk as we both had
hangovers. She was buying me straight vodkas on fri night
– I think this is a Czech thing. She is very pretty but I can't
really understand what she is saying. Still you can't have it
all!
I’ve been eyeing up a recent new company on the market called
Wellstream. It’s in the oil services sector, which is doing very well
at the moment. I’ve been waiting for the best time to buy and my
price feed suggests that the price is about to move up, so I buy at
370p. Got it just in time before it goes up to 380p! I buy 15k worth.
Looks a good long-term hold and I’m hoping for 50%; I’ll target
taking profits between 580p and 600p. I ponder over whether to
take some substantial profits (around £7k) in Domestic and
General. It’s gone up a lot because another company, Homeserve,
has declared it’s interested in buying it.
Have a chat with a friend, Ingrid. She’s an astrologer and tells
me today is a good day for making money! Now why can’t she
predict the lottery numbers? She reckons Scorpios like me are
going to have a good year.
11am
Time for a bit of exercise so I don my shorts and it’s off for a slow
run around the Thames, up over Hammersmith Bridge, down
past the wetlands centre, back over Putney Bridge. It’s lovely, like
running in the country but living in London – best of both worlds!
While it might look like I’m carrying an iPod it’s actually a
really crap £2.99 radio but it works well enough and I usually
have Kiss FM on for music or Radio 5 for chat and news. I did buy
an iPod, it’s just that I had a look at the instructions, got
overwhelmed, and put it in a drawer. Does that make me a
boring old fart scared of new technology, or just lazy?
11.45am
Quick shower and back to the markets. All is well. Wellstream is
now up 9p and Hunting up 20p! The rest of the portfolio is doing
fine. I launch into some research on a share that’s been going
down – Abacus – and notice it has a lot of debt and plenty of
negatives have been creeping into its statements. So I decide to
short it – that is, I place a bet on it to go down, for £50 a point.
Every point it goes down I make £50 – but every point it goes up I
lose £50! I use my spread betting account to sell at 140p. I hope to
take profits at 100p which I think it will fall to.
Time to polish off my website update. Most of it I wrote last night
but I now write my market report: filling in my readers that I
bought Corin and Hunting and Wellstream and commenting
that the rest of the market is quiet but a little up today and many
of my shares are going well. Plus I add the letters from readers
and make a few comments about the news.
12pm
Wednesdays I watch Prime Ministers Questions. Mostly because
Gordon Brown is so crap at speaking it’s great entertainment. He
usually has two “jokes”, but always delivers them really badly.
Otherwise, time to reply to emails. I have a whole bunch. Some
people are interested in coming to one of my seminars so I send
them details. Someone wants me to run his portfolio and pay me;
he also wants to pay me for “One to one” sessions. I politely
decline – get a lot of requests like this but I enjoy my lifestyle and
that sounds like hard work! Also I don’t mind losing my own
money but I would never want to deal with other people’s money.
Or give advice as to what to buy, in other words become a tipster.
A commercial company wants to advertise its “systems and
software” on my website. Again I politely decline. I don’t believe
in “systems” and refuse to take ads from those flogging them.
12.30pm
Time for lunch and I know what I want! I call Mrs NT and agree
to meet her and Christopher at a local café. Nice going to
someone else’s café and not mine. Someone else dealing with the
queues of customers demanding things. Worst thing I ever did
was give a chicken panini to a vegetarian. She ate it and then
complained. She admitted to enjoying it and became a regular
customer (ordering chicken paninis almost every time!) We had
a cranky Ukrainian chef who hated cooking breakfasts,
especially at lunchtime. If anyone got an order it was a question
of shouting out the order in the kitchen and running fast before
the chef had a chance to shout at the orderer in true Gordon
Ramsay style.
We have a cooked breakfast and in an attempt to pretend to be
healthy also order fruit and granola. Christopher is a big meat
eater and munches his way through three sausages. The British
Safety Council office is nearby so we can overhear lots of talk of
“risk assessments”. Sounds riveting.
1.30pm
Back home, update my website and check my positions. The
market sometimes changes in the afternoon depending on what
the Dow Jones does in the US. But the futures indicate the dow will
open up. I check through the shortlist of shares that I am
interested in buying. I prefer to buy if I see some movement up or
some volume coming in. I notice some volume and interest
coming into one of my favourite money-makers, Marchpole, and
buy a few shares which Level 2 shows me are about to move higher.
I also see a company called Paragon has tried to get above the
600p level quite a few times and has failed. I decide to short it
(i.e. betting on it to go down rather than up). Corin, my buy from
this morning, just keeps going up and I’m up by 5% already,
which is fantastic. Hunting also goes well and the short Abacus is
down 2 points, so making money from that one going down.
1.45pm
A nice sunny day so go for a sleep and a laze in the garden. Told
you I was honest – this is definitely not A Day In The Life c/o the
Sunday Times!
2.15pm
Have a look at my higher risk shortlist of shares. I buy some high
risk shares for my pension which I run myself in a SIPP (Selfinvested
personal pension). I’ve already trebled my money in a
company called Redhall, and nearly trebled in another risky one
– Renesola. I don’t put much in given the risks, but it’s fun
playing with a few high risk ones which I wouldn’t normally for
my main portfolio. My self select pension fund has done very well
– up to £165,000 from an initial £40,000 in 2002.
2.30pm
The Dow Jones opens – and where it goes UK shares tend to follow.
The dow opens higher and climbs, which means I’ll have a
peaceful afternoon with no scares. Wellstream is up another 10p
and Hunting is beginning to soar. I check through the main
portfolio but everything’s going well. The worst time is when a
share goes down quite a bit and I have to decide whether to get
rid of it or not. But not today.
3pm
A telephone call from a call centre – you can always tell by the
delay. I stop the sales pitch fast. “Give me your home phone
number and I’ll call you tonight to discuss it,” I offered. Always
gets rid of them quickly! It’s a lovely day so I play some games
with toddler Christopher on the terrace which has fake grass – no
mowing! We play a bit of football and he tries to rugby tackle the
poor cat, who despite her age always manages a decent swerving
escape. Mrs NT then takes him to the park.
3.30pm
Walk to the local shop to get the evening paper and some
chocolate and down a Twirl with my tea. Answer a few emails.
Someone says they started with an advisory broker who charged
him loads of money and put him in loads of shares that have
tanked. That’s a pretty common message I get. Someone else
writes in with a rant about how crap the Government is. And
someone else writes in recommending a book. It’s fun to get
emails about all sorts of things.
4pm
Time for a last look at the portfolio as the market shuts in half an
hour. I look again at Domestic and General. I bought quite a few
shares at 1085. The shares have hit 1400 today on a probable bid
from Homeserve.
Think hard.
What if the bid doesn’t happen? I have a profit of nearly £4,000
and the shares are up more than 300p since I bought. If the bid
doesn’t happen I’ll lose a lot of profit but the bid could be higher
than the current price. Fear of losing profits versus greed of
wanting to make more. I make a decision! Sell half! So I put in a
sell order, I’m offered 1402p and click the button. A good
decision. I hope. I’ve banked some profits but I’m still in the game
if the price goes higher.
4.30pm
That’s it! The market’s shut – hurrah! No major damage done and
a pretty decent increase to total portfolio value – around £2,000.
Hunting and Corin finished the day well as did Wellstream. And
an excellent end to the day for one of my long-term holds,
Marchpole, with plenty of buying coming in. I have a look at some
lists of shares that have gone up today and see if I can spot one
that might be worth buying. I come across a company called
Dmatek, which specializes in tagging technology. I realize I’d
read about it the other day because one of their tags was used on
US socialite Paris Hilton when she was released from jail to finish
her sentence at home. Put it on a short shortlist – looks like a
growing technology. Have a zap through some of the music
channels like MTV and The Box to see what’s new in the music
world. Then get ready to…
5.30pm
…head off on the tube for an investor meeting. Three different
company bosses pitch their companies to wealthy investors hoping
we will buy their shares. I guess it’s a bit like “Dragons Den”.
Afterwards at wine and canapés I meet a few fellow investors and
we all agree two of them weren’t much cop but we liked one where
the boss let slip that next week’s results would be “well received”. I
might buy some tomorrow if my research gives it the green light.
There was also a drunk mining analyst there who gave me some
thoughts on a company he liked.
7.30pm
Get home and it’s time for dinner and putting the young one to
bed. After a bath he usually runs round the place going crazy,
which is great as it wears him out. He doesn’t much like being put
in pyjamas so I divert him by pretending to get the “answers”
wrong on the Bob The Builder phone. Silly Daddy! It’s really great
to be able to be such a big part of his life instead of being a Dad
who works long hours.
8.30pm
Nothing on TV so time for a cuddle with the Mrs! The next 5...I
mean 30 minutes are censored…I watch The Apprentice if it’s on
or Dragons’ Den. I also like Curb Your Enthusiasm, Extras and
Have I Got News For You. And The Sopranos for drama. But there’s
so much old crap on these days that I find I’m watching less and
less.
9pm
The Dow Jones has closed up at a record high. That’s good news
and bad news. Good news in that shares will rise tomorrow, bad
news in that record highs sometimes mean a slump is on the way.
I make a mental note to be cautious about what I buy. I research
the share that came up at the meeting and it goes on the shortlist
as a potential buy. I also spend a little time doing research on
companies flagged up from this morning’s news stories and check
to see what’s being launched on the market in the next few days.
Another email pings in. A while back on my website I mentioned
I was fed up with the horrid breakfast and cold toast provided by
the hotel I use to do my seminars, and that I found the answer:
to take a £7.99 toaster with me and some bread, butter and
marmalade. Hot toast not cold! The reader wrote:
18 of us have just been away for 3 nights at a well known
hotel chain. I took your tip and took my Russell Hobbs 4
slice toaster. What a difference it made! Hot toast with Roses
Orange Marmalade, crumbs all over the bed, fantastic. 2nd
morning though, everyone was knocking on our door to do
them toast. People running in and out of rooms with plates
of toast, I have had to come home for a rest! You may well
have started a trend. I think I might need to buy an
industrial 8 slicer!
9.30pm
I have a seminar coming up in a week or so and I do some
preparation work. I never intended running seminars and have
only been doing them recently. I don’t do that many, maybe 5 a
year, but people seem to really enjoy them and they are very
rewarding personally. The feedback is always good and I’m glad
to be able to help. The day is always hugely enjoyable, so many
nice people come and we have great fun chatting over lunch and
in the bar afterwards. I read through replies to questionnaires I
have sent delegates and they really help me plan the day – I try
and give people what they want. There is a lot of interest in Level
2 at the moment, which the professionals use to judge good entry
and exit points. I explain Level 2 in depth and try and make
what is complex simple. I try to plan the day so everyone gets what
they want – but a lot of the day depends on what’s happening in
the markets. We’ve even started friendships with people who’ve
attended the seminars. They include a very nice couple who live
near us who also have a young child and we now go on
playdates!
The seminars came about by accident as a suggestion from a
reader. I was really nervous doing the first one but now I love the
days and stay at the hotel the night before and after. I need
recovery time afterwards – you just try and talk non-stop for ten
hours and you’ll see what I mean! If there’s no work to do I might
curl up on the terrace with a book if it’s warm.
10pm
Write bits and pieces for tomorrow’s website update, mainly about
what I did today. No idea why anyone would be interested but
they appear to be. Right in the middle of summer at this time of
day there are some amazing sunsets to watch over the river.
10.30pm
Usually watch something on TV to wind down. I bought Mrs NT
every single episode of Sex and the City, which I enjoy watching
too, so it’ll be that or something like Peep Show on DVD or anything
that isn’t a BBC/ITV sitcom. Or maybe Big Brother if it’s on. I’ve
had a bet or two on that show since it started and won over £6,000!
It’s quite easy – the winner is always the dim but nice one.
11pm
An email update from the bloke who got off with the waitress
during my seminar! He says:
I met the waitress for a date. I got the lot. Non-stop talking
from her. I think she was explaining everything about
herself, only I didn't understand anything (apart from "do
you want some vodka later"!) so I just reverted to doing
what she did – just nodding my head and smiling
(realising she had understood nothing from me)
Damn, I thought. It was nice, now this is a problem! Anyway
I’m meeting her again in London in 2 weeks so we’ll see how
it goes…
Could this be the first wedding resulting from a seminar? I’d be
happy to be best man! Looks like it’ll be interesting to see how it
all develops. That’s the fun of running the website – it’s become
like a community and I never quite know what’s going to pop
into the mailbox next.
Three companies I have shares in report in the morning so at
7am I shall be glued to the news wires. In the meantime it’s time
to feed the cat before she demands to be fed in the middle of the
night, close the blinds, switch off the computer. I go to sleep the
minute my head hits the…zzz
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Welcome To The Crazy World Of Shares
Ever wondered whether you could make money by buying and selling shares?
And maybe eventually quitting that damn job to do it? Being able to tell the
boss to stuff it?
I think you can – whatever your age, job, status or character defects!
I did it. And honestly I am not a planet-brain, not great at maths and pretty
lazy! So if I did it you can too!
This book is going to be your best friend if you want to learn how to make
money from shares. I’ll reveal to you common sense stock market knowledge
that’s taken me years to learn. You can learn from the things I’ve got right –
and learn even more from the things I’ve got wrong. And things other people
have got right and wrong too.
Oh, and don’t worry – I speak plain English, not the financial gobbledegook
others hide behind.
I hope you’ll gain from my experiences without having to trawl through a lot
of boring old financial twaddle found in so many books about the market.
No need for wet towels
If you’re standing in a bookshop flicking through finance books and
wondering which one to get – what the hell are you waiting for? Buy this one!
Have you no sense? This book is a bargain!
Just look at the others around you! Full of meaningless gobbledegook.
Bollinger Bands, moving average divergences, graphic equalisers (or is that
just my hi-fi system?)
Have a thumb through some of the other books. See what I mean? There is
so much... STUFF in them! And you know what happens to people who
believe all of it – their heads get so full of STUFF they lose money and soon
quit the markets. In other words…they get stuffed.
I believe simplicity is the key to making money. Keep the head clear of stuff
and concentrate on the important things. That’s what I will teach you.
You’ll be glad to know if you buy this book I promise you’ll understand every
word of it. You won’t read a couple of pages, sigh, and go: “I’ll read it
tomorrow”, then put it on a dusty shelf never to be seen again (unless you
move or sell it on eBay).
Put simply: this book will teach you everything you need to know about how
to make money from shares without giving you a headache. I’ve got a low
concentration threshold myself. If I can write it, you can read it!
Umm…what the hell was I writing about again? Oh yes –
I hope this book teaches you simply how you can make money in the markets
even if you have never bought a share before. And even if you have bought
one or quite a few, but can’t seem to make the money you want to.
And it doesn’t matter whether you’re 22 or 72, I can teach you how to make
money without you needing to put a wet towel around your head. (But if
that’s what you’re into, OK, I’m a liberal guy.)
So welcome alongto…Naked Trader 2
Why a second edition?
I'm a tad surprised to be writing this. After all when I'd finished the original
Naked Trader book I pronounced: “Writing a book is far too much like hard
work and I’m buggered if I’m going to be doing that again!”
And I really did think that – so why a second book?
Pure vanity and ego is all I can think of. It’s not the money, not at £1.67 a
copy (or 50p if you’ve bought this at the bookstore). Think you’ll get rich
writing financial books – think again!
You see at parties I can boast:
“What do I do? Oh well, darling, I’ve written two books...”
The Naked Trader
I can also boast at the playground to the other parents as well as boasting
anywhere else I get the chance. (Holding a party? Invite me and see how good
I am at it.)
Seriously though, thankfully the original Naked Trader book became a bestseller,
but it was starting to get a little out of date. Also, since I wrote it things
have changed and I’ve learned many new things. So this book contains lots of
new strategies and ideas.
So if you bought the first book and enjoyed it I hope you will like this one as
much. There are tons of new things for those who read the original.
And if you didn’t buy the first book, it has all the info you need in it to get
started in trading.
Jargon-free, common sense advice
If you’ve never traded a share before it doesn’t matter, as I’ll guide you every
step of the way. And if you have traded for a while and have made losses, I
am confident I can put you on the road to long-term stock market success by
getting rid of your bad habits.
If you have traded shares for a while but you’re struggling to make money, I
hope you’ll find some of my strategies useful.
You won’t find any inexplicable stock market jargon in this book – I write in
plain English. You will not have to start scratching your head and think
“what is he on about?” or “what the hell is a head and shoulders formation?”
I’m going to explain how to buy and sell shares the easy way, and guide you
to the winners. I’ll be taking you through every step and explaining all the
silly jargon.
The fact is stock market investment is easier than you think.
Brokers and tipsters love to spout the jargon because it makes them look
clever, and to persuade you to part with your hard-earned money as a result
of their ‘advice’. But I’ll guide you through all that nonsense so that youcan
make your own decisions and do your own research.
1 – Introduction / Welcome To The Crazy World Of Shares
This is not a get rich quick book (sorry!)
One thing I certainly can’t do is promise that £10,000 you have spare is going
to become £100,000 overnight as a result of reading this book. You know
those ads:
‘Make £400 a day from the markets…’
‘Become a stock market millionaire with our software…’
Come on, you know in your heart that when it sounds too good to be true –
it is!
This book is about building your wealth slowly and surely – with realistic
targets and time frames. Using discipline, good stock picking techniques and
avoiding the mistakes new investors nearly always make, I believe I can make
you richer. But you just aren’t going to become a millionaire overnight.
Trading shares is an exciting roller coaster ride with plenty of thrills and
spills. I really hope that excitement comes over in Naked Trader 2.
If you have never bought or sold a share before, I hope I’ll arm you with the
information you’ll need to start trading. This includes everything from how
to buy a share to getting real-time prices. Then I’ll tell you everything I’ve
learned over ten active years of trading. You’ll learn what makes shares move
and what to watch for before pressing that buy button. I can also reveal how
to make money by backing shares to go down. And I hope to provide you
with tons of useful info you just won’t find anywhere else.
Whether you have a small amount to trade, or you’ve inherited a hundred
thousand, I hope after reading Naked Trader 2 you will be well armed to
enter the fray.
So, get a cup of tea, put your feet up and welcome to the crazy world of
shares. Oh, and don’t forget the toast.
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