Trading Experience

Indices, Equities, FX, & Commodities (and later, Cryptocurrencies)

Introduction

Why I entered the world of Day Trading

I began experimenting with day trading in June 2016, driven by a desire to build long-term savings and take control of my own investments. While I initially considered managed funds, I wasn't comfortable paying someone else to “gamble” with my money — I preferred to make the decisions myself. CFD trading and spread betting gave me that autonomy.

With years of financial knowledge under my belt (from working in banking and finance) and inspired by documentaries featuring successful self-taught traders — including stay-at-home day traders — I felt confident I could achieve similar results with discipline and focus.

That said, I made the classic beginner's mistake: diving in with a live account instead of using a demo platform to practice first. The result was immediate — and painful — losses. But despite those early setbacks, I've also experienced impressive wins, with some trades yielding double-digit percentage returns in short timeframes.

Compared to the typical 0.5% annual interest from a UK savings account, it's been incredibly rewarding to see what's possible with well-timed trades — sometimes within minutes or hours.

This year, my goal is to improve my risk management, particularly by using stop-losses more effectively to protect against sudden reversals and limit potential losses.

Note: This was originally written in 2019, and reflects the annual savings rate in the UK at the time.

Update: Since this was originally written, I have learned (first-hand) that using stop-losses aren't necessarily a good thing. Quite a contrarian view, but I know how the market works - retail traders will often find themselves getting 'stopped-out' through market manipulation.

My trading strategy

After studying price patterns of various instruments and using various technical indicators I found the right strategy that worked for me.

It's premise is simple. My aim was to trade for the shortest time possible (almost always intra-day) that would generate me at least 10% return. This means identfiying the most optimum entry and exit points. Sounds obvious and straightforward, but if it was easy to execute, many people would be wealthy from retail day trading.

The technical indicators I use are the MACD, RSI, Stochastic, and Stochastic RSI, EMA, Fibonacci Ratios and Bollinger Bands. My trades would be based off a 5-minute chart but will zoom out to 15-min, hourly and 4-hour charts to assess longer term trends.

Here are some key examples of short trades yielding over 10% return, which you can examine in more detail in my trade history in the next section below:

Selling FTSE — 1 minute trade — 10.21% profit.
Selling Nikkei — 9 minute trade — 23.54% profit.
Buying S&P500 — 2 minute trade — 24.41% profit.

Brokers I used at the time

I primarily used eToro for CFD trading (I did not use their 'copy trade' feature). Once I felt I had outgrown the features offered by the platform., I moved over to IG for their CFD and spread-betting accounts, and for their better charting capabilities.

Trade History

My most profitable trades

in the 12 months between Feb 2018 — Feb 2019

Pay particular attention to the trade durations and the profits attained.
I have omitted my actual investment and leverage amounts used for each trade.
Note: Mobile users, this is a responsive table - you can scroll the table to the right

Buy / Sell	Instrument	Instrument Category	Trade Duration	Profit (%)	Profit if £ 10,000was invested	Open Price	Close Price	Open Time	Close Time
Buy / Sell Buy	Instrument Nikkei 225	Instrument Category Index	Trade Duration 3 hrs 2 mins	Profit 14.06 %	Profit if £10,000 was invested £ 1,406	Open Price 21,343	Close Price 21,373	Open Time 19-Feb-2019 21:00	Close Time 20-Feb-2019 00:02
Buy / Sell Buy	Instrument Nikkei 225	Instrument Category Index	Trade Duration 1 hr 41 mins	Profit 24.10 %	Profit if £10,000 was invested £ 2,410	Open Price 21,282	Close Price 21,350	Open Time 19-Feb-2019 15:06	Close Time 19-Feb-2019 16:47
Buy / Sell Buy	Instrument Nikkei 225	Instrument Category Index	Trade Duration 15 mins	Profit 23.66 %	Profit if £10,000 was invested £ 2,366	Open Price 21,134	Close Price 21,184	Open Time 14-Feb-2019 00:27	Close Time 14-Feb-2019 00:42
Buy / Sell Buy	Instrument Nikkei 225	Instrument Category Index	Trade Duration 4 hrs 17 mins	Profit 14.49 %	Profit if £10,000 was invested £ 1,449	Open Price 20,670	Close Price 20,700	Open Time 30-Jan-2019 09:40	Close Time 30-Jan-2019 13:57
Buy / Sell Buy	Instrument Nikkei 225	Instrument Category Index	Trade Duration 55 mins	Profit 16.73 %	Profit if £10,000 was invested £ 1,673	Open Price 20,620.5	Close Price 20,655	Open Time 30-Jan-2019 08:24	Close Time 30-Jan-2019 09:19
Buy / Sell Buy	Instrument Nikkei 225	Instrument Category Index	Trade Duration 6 hrs 18 mins	Profit 26.51 %	Profit if £10,000 was invested £ 2,651	Open Price 20,560.5	Close Price 20,615	Open Time 30-Jan-2019 01:30	Close Time 30-Jan-2019 07:48
Buy / Sell Buy	Instrument Nikkei 225	Instrument Category Index	Trade Duration 12 hrs 4 mins	Profit 46.45 %	Profit if £10,000 was invested £ 4,645	Open Price 20,640.5	Close Price 20,736.28	Open Time 24-Jan-2019 12:05	Close Time 25-Jan-2019 00:09
Buy / Sell Buy	Instrument Nikkei 225	Instrument Category Index	Trade Duration 1 hr 45 mins	Profit 16.29 %	Profit if £10,000 was invested £ 1,629	Open Price 20,551	Close Price 20,584.5	Open Time 23-Jan-2019 09:13	Close Time 23-Jan-2019 10:58
Buy / Sell Buy	Instrument Nikkei 225	Instrument Category Index	Trade Duration 10 mins	Profit 12.31 %	Profit if £10,000 was invested £ 1,231	Open Price 20,318.5	Close Price 20,343.5	Open Time 09-Jan-2019 14:48	Close Time 09-Jan-2019 14:58
Buy / Sell Buy	Instrument Nikkei 225	Instrument Category Index	Trade Duration 4 hrs 4 mins	Profit 29.58 %	Profit if £10,000 was invested £ 2,958	Open Price 20,293	Close Price 20,353	Open Time 08-Jan-2019 09:39	Close Time 08-Jan-2019 13:43
Buy / Sell Sell	Instrument Nikkei 225	Instrument Category Index	Trade Duration 1 hr 7 mins	Profit 37.37 %	Profit if £10,000 was invested £ 3,737	Open Price 20,068.5	Close Price 19,993.5	Open Time 07-Jan-2019 08:35	Close Time 07-Jan-2019 09:42
Buy / Sell Sell	Instrument Nikkei 225	Instrument Category Index	Trade Duration 7 hrs 19 mins	Profit 29.65 %	Profit if £10,000 was invested £ 2,965	Open Price 20,128.5	Close Price 20,069	Open Time 07-Jan-2019 01:03	Close Time 07-Jan-2019 08:22
Buy / Sell Sell	Instrument GBPUSD	Instrument Category Currency	Trade Duration 14 hrs 18 mins	Profit 9.59 %	Profit if £10,000 was invested £ 959	Open Price 1.2525	Close Price 1.2513	Open Time 11-Dec-2018 17:10	Close Time 12-Dec-2018 07:28
Buy / Sell Buy	Instrument FTSE 100	Instrument Category Index	Trade Duration 45 mins	Profit 24.11 %	Profit if £10,000 was invested £ 2,411	Open Price 6.961.83	Close Price 6,978.63	Open Time 20-Nov-2018 10:51	Close Time 20-Nov-2018 11:36
Buy / Sell Sell	Instrument FTSE 100	Instrument Category Index	Trade Duration 1 min	Profit 10.21 %	Profit if £10,000 was invested £ 1,021	Open Price 6,986.48	Close Price 6,979.35	Open Time 20-Nov-2018 08:33	Close Time 20-Nov-2018 08:34
Buy / Sell Sell	Instrument NIkkei 225	Instrument Category Index	Trade Duration 49 mins	Profit 15.95 %	Profit if £10,000 was invested £ 1,595	Open Price 22,898	Close Price 22,861.5	Open Time 17-Oct-2018 01:57	Close Time 17-Oct-2018 02:46
Buy / Sell Sell	Instrument NIkkei 225	Instrument Category Index	Trade Duration 9 mins	Profit 23.54 %	Profit if £10,000 was invested £ 2,354	Open Price 22,528.5	Close Price 22,475.5	Open Time 12-Oct-2018 15:07	Close Time 12-Oct-2018 15:16
Buy / Sell Buy	Instrument NIkkei 225	Instrument Category Index	Trade Duration 2 hrs 48 mins	Profit 20.14 %	Profit if £10,000 was invested £ 2,014	Open Price 22,588.5	Close Price 22,634	Open Time 12-Oct-2018 09:33	Close Time 12-Oct-2018 12:21
Buy / Sell Sell	Instrument NIkkei 225	Instrument Category Index	Trade Duration 59 mins	Profit 19.43 %	Profit if £10,000 was invested £ 1,943	Open Price 22,652	Close Price 22,608	Open Time 12-Oct-2018 08:31	Close Time 12-Oct-2018 09:30
Buy / Sell Buy	Instrument NIkkei 225	Instrument Category Index	Trade Duration 2 hrs 0 mins	Profit 18.57 %	Profit if £10,000 was invested £ 1,857	Open Price 23,959	Close Price 24,003.5	Open Time 04-Oct-2018 10:23	Close Time 04-Oct-2018 12:23
Buy / Sell Sell	Instrument NIkkei 225	Instrument Category Index	Trade Duration 10 mins	Profit 16.68 %	Profit if £10,000 was invested £ 1,668	Open Price 23,989	Close Price 23,949	Open Time 04-Oct-2018 08:11	Close Time 04-Oct-2018 08:21
Buy / Sell Buy	Instrument Oil	Instrument Category Commodity	Trade Duration 3 hrs 10 mins	Profit 12.00 %	Profit if £10,000 was invested £ 1,200	Open Price 75.01	Close Price 75.10	Open Time 02-Oct-2018 20:10	Close Time 02-Oct-2018 23:20
Buy / Sell Sell	Instrument Oil	Instrument Category Commodity	Trade Duration 6 hrs 5 mins	Profit 45.04 %	Profit if £10,000 was invested £ 4,504	Open Price 73.27	Close Price 72.94	Open Time 01-Oct-2018 08:07	Close Time 01-Oct-2018 14:12
Buy / Sell Buy	Instrument NIkkei 225	Instrument Category Index	Trade Duration 55 mins	Profit 21.77 %	Profit if £10,000 was invested £ 2,177	Open Price 24,084	Close Price 24,136.5	Open Time 28-Sep-2018 14:35	Close Time 28-Sep-2018 15:40
Buy / Sell Buy	Instrument Apple	Instrument Category Equity	Trade Duration 9 days 22 hrs 29 mins	Profit 23.79 %	Profit if £10,000 was invested £ 2,379	Open Price 220.19	Close Price 225.43	Open Time 17-Sep-2018 16:32	Close Time 27-Sep-2018 15:01
Buy / Sell Buy	Instrument Oil	Instrument Category Commodity	Trade Duration 6 mins	Profit 28.14 %	Profit if £10,000 was invested £ 2,814	Open Price 71.07	Close Price 71.27	Open Time 20-Sep-2018 02:06	Close Time 20-Sep-2018 02:12
Buy / Sell Buy	Instrument Apple	Instrument Category Equity	Trade Duration 1 day 20 hrs 21 mins	Profit 11.44 %	Profit if £10,000 was invested £ 1,144	Open Price 223.84	Close Price 226.40	Open Time 12-Sep-2018 18:26	Close Time 14-Sep-2018 14:47
Buy / Sell Buy	Instrument FTSE 100	Instrument Category Index	Trade Duration 3 hrs 23 mins	Profit 13.97 %	Profit if £10,000 was invested £ 1,397	Open Price 7,543.85	Close Price 7,554.40	Open Time 16-Aug-2018 09:54	Close Time 16-Aug-2018 13:17
Buy / Sell Buy	Instrument Nasdaq	Instrument Category Index	Trade Duration 24 mins	Profit 22.43 %	Profit if £10,000 was invested £ 2,243	Open Price 7,344.48	Close Price 7,360.95	Open Time 15-Aug-2018 20:23	Close Time 15-Aug-2018 20:47
Buy / Sell Buy	Instrument FTSE 100	Instrument Category Index	Trade Duration 25 mins	Profit 16.06 %	Profit if £10,000 was invested £ 1,606	Open Price 7,655.25	Close Price 7,667.55	Open Time 12-Jul-2018 17:43	Close Time 12-Jul-2018 18:08
Buy / Sell Buy	Instrument FTSE 100	Instrument Category Index	Trade Duration 1 hr 32 mins	Profit 15.87 %	Profit if £10,000 was invested £ 1,587	Open Price 7,651.13	Close Price 7,663.28	Open Time 12-Jul-2018 16:04	Close Time 12-Jul-2018 17:36
Buy / Sell Buy	Instrument Oil	Instrument Category Commodity	Trade Duration 2 hrs 7 mins	Profit 26.85 %	Profit if £10,000 was invested £ 2,685	Open Price 67.05	Close Price 67.23	Open Time 01-Jun-2018 08:00	Close Time 01-Jun-2018 10:07
Buy / Sell Buy	Instrument Oil	Instrument Category Commodity	Trade Duration 30 mins	Profit 14.94 %	Profit if £10,000 was invested £ 1,494	Open Price 66.93	Close Price 67.03	Open Time 01-Jun-2018 07:29	Close Time 01-Jun-2018 07:59
Buy / Sell Buy	Instrument Nikkei 225	Instrument Category Index	Trade Duration 4 hrs 34 mins	Profit 29.33 %	Profit if £10,000 was invested £ 2,933	Open Price 22,136	Close Price 22,201	Open Time 31-May-2018 02:57	Close Time 31-May-2018 07:31
Buy / Sell Buy	Instrument Oil	Instrument Category Commodity	Trade Duration 49 mins	Profit 49.44 %	Profit if £10,000 was invested £ 4,944	Open Price 66.75	Close Price 67.08	Open Time 30-May-2018 11:42	Close Time 30-May-2018 12:31
Buy / Sell Buy	Instrument Nvidia	Instrument Category Equity	Trade Duration 17 hrs 34 mins	Profit 11.30 %	Profit if £10,000 was invested £ 1,130	Open Price 225.83	Close Price 258.72	Open Time 09-May-2018 20:57	Close Time 10-May-2018 14:31
Buy / Sell Sell	Instrument FTSE 100	Instrument Category Index	Trade Duration 19 mins	Profit 22.56 %	Profit if £10,000 was invested £ 2,256	Open Price 7,659.38	Close Price 7,642.13	Open Time 10-May-2018 10:23	Close Time 10-May-2018 10:42
Buy / Sell Buy	Instrument Gold	Instrument Category Commodity	Trade Duration 7 hrs 41 mins	Profit 8.53 %	Profit if £10,000 was invested £ 853	Open Price 1,312.81	Close Price 1,315.05	Open Time 07-May-2018 08:34	Close Time 07-May-2018 16:15
Buy / Sell Buy	Instrument Oil	Instrument Category Commodity	Trade Duration 39 mins	Profit 49.77 %	Profit if £10,000 was invested £ 4,277	Open Price 70,15	Close Price 70,45	Open Time 07-May-2018 03:35	Close Time 07-May-2018 04:14
Buy / Sell Buy	Instrument Nikkei 225	Instrument Category Index	Trade Duration 1 hr 18 mins	Profit 46.98 %	Profit if £10,000 was invested £ 4,698	Open Price 22,345.5	Close Price 22,450.5	Open Time 04-May-2018 15:14	Close Time 04-May-2018 16:32
Buy / Sell Buy	Instrument EURUSD	Instrument Category Currency	Trade Duration 5 hrs 32 mins	Profit 22.58 %	Profit if £10,000 was invested £ 2,258	Open Price 1.1959	Close Price 1.1986	Open Time 03-May-2018 01:17	Close Time 03-May-2018 06:49
Buy / Sell Buy	Instrument Apple	Instrument Category Equity	Trade Duration 19 hrs 27 mins	Profit 18.28 %	Profit if £10,000 was invested £ 1,828	Open Price 168.19	Close Price 174.34	Open Time 01-May-2018 19:03	Close Time 01-May-2018 14:30
Buy / Sell Sell	Instrument Gold	Instrument Category Commodity	Trade Duration 6 hrs 21 mins	Profit 21.90 %	Profit if £10,000 was invested £ 2,190	Open Price 1,324.33	Close Price 1,318.53	Open Time 30-Apr-2018 01:17	Close Time 30-Apr-2018 07:38
Buy / Sell Buy	Instrument Gold	Instrument Category Commodity	Trade Duration 7 hrs 18 mins	Profit 24.80 %	Profit if £10,000 was invested £ 2,480	Open Price 1,320.56	Close Price 1,353.91	Open Time 19-Apr-2018 01:14	Close Time 19-Apr-2018 08:32
Buy / Sell Buy	Instrument Gold	Instrument Category Commodity	Trade Duration 9 hrs 9 mins	Profit 27.18 %	Profit if £10,000 was invested £ 2,718	Open Price 1,350.25	Close Price 1,353.92	Open Time 18-Apr-2018 23:23	Close Time 19-Apr-2018 08:32
Buy / Sell Buy	Instrument Gold	Instrument Category Commodity	Trade Duration 9 hrs 24 mins	Profit 31.19 %	Profit if £10,000 was invested £ 3,119	Open Price 1,349.63	Close Price 1,3153.84	Open Time 18-Apr-2018 23:07	Close Time 19-Apr-2018 08:31
Buy / Sell Sell	Instrument Gold	Instrument Category Commodity	Trade Duration 8 hrs 54 mins	Profit 22.50 %	Profit if £10,000 was invested £ 2,250	Open Price 1,350.80	Close Price 1,353.84	Open Time 18-Apr-2018 23:37	Close Time 19-Apr-2018 08:31
Buy / Sell Buy	Instrument FTSE 100	Instrument Category Index	Trade Duration 53 mins	Profit 19.61 %	Profit if £10,000 was invested £ 1,961	Open Price 7,238.03	Close Price 7,252.22	Open Time 12-Apr-2018 07:09	Close Time 12-Apr-2018 08:02
Buy / Sell Sell	Instrument FTSE 100	Instrument Category Index	Trade Duration 10 hrs 33 mins	Profit 49.83 %	Profit if £10,000 was invested £ 4,983	Open Price 7,209.84	Close Price 7,173.89	Open Time 05-Apr-2018 20:46	Close Time 05-Apr-2018 07:19
Buy / Sell Buy	Instrument Nikkei 225	Instrument Category Index	Trade Duration 43 mins	Profit 25.36 %	Profit if £10,000 was invested £ 2,536	Open Price 21,656.5	Close Price 21,711.5	Open Time 05-Apr-2018 07:22	Close Time 05-Apr-2018 08:05
Buy / Sell Buy	Instrument FTSE 100	Instrument Category Index	Trade Duration 51 mins	Profit 27.09 %	Profit if £10,000 was invested £ 2,709	Open Price 7,008.86	Close Price 7,027.86	Open Time 03-Apr-2018 10:31	Close Time 03-Apr-2018 11:22
Buy / Sell Buy	Instrument Nikkei 225	Instrument Category Index	Trade Duration 1 hr 37 mins	Profit 42.44 %	Profit if £10,000 was invested £ 4,244	Open Price 21,075	Close Price 21,164.5	Open Time 03-Apr-2018 00:30	Close Time 03-Apr-2018 02:07
Buy / Sell Buy	Instrument Nikkei 225	Instrument Category Index	Trade Duration 12 mins	Profit 20.97 %	Profit if £10,000 was invested £ 2,097	Open Price 21,469.5	Close Price 21,514.5	Open Time 02-Apr-2018 01:03	Close Time 02-Apr-2018 01:15
Buy / Sell Sell	Instrument Nikkei 225	Instrument Category Index	Trade Duration 45 mins	Profit 24.70 %	Profit if £10,000 was invested £ 2,470	Open Price 21,524.5	Close Price 21,464.5	Open Time 22-Mar-2018 01:31	Close Time 22-Mar-2018 02:16
Buy / Sell Buy	Instrument Twitter	Instrument Category Equity	Trade Duration 22 hrs 30 mins	Profit 31.47 %	Profit if £10,000 was invested £ 3,147	Open Price 31.78	Close Price 32.78	Open Time 20-Mar-2018 15:40	Close Time 21-Mar-2018 14:10
Buy / Sell Buy	Instrument NIkkei 225	Instrument Category Index	Trade Duration 13 hrs 52 mins	Profit 41.32 %	Profit if £10,000 was invested £ 4,132	Open Price 21,778	Close Price 21,868	Open Time 13-Mar-2018 18:32	Close Time 14-Mar-2018 08:24
Buy / Sell Buy	Instrument Nikkei 225	Instrument Category Index	Trade Duration 7 mins	Profit 27.70 %	Profit if £10,000 was invested £ 2,770	Open Price 21,639	Close Price 21,699	Open Time 09-Mar-2018 13:23	Close Time 09-Mar-2018 13:30
Buy / Sell Sell	Instrument Nikkei 225	Instrument Category Index	Trade Duration 1 hr 9 mins	Profit 73.21 %	Profit if £10,000 was invested £ 7,321	Open Price 21,823	Close Price 21,663	Open Time 09-Mar-2018 00:58	Close Time 09-Mar-2018 02:07
Buy / Sell Buy	Instrument Nikkei 225	Instrument Category Index	Trade Duration 45 mins	Profit 30.32 %	Profit if £10,000 was invested £ 3,032	Open Price 21,237	Close Price 21,301.5	Open Time 07-Mar-2018 11:15	Close Time 07-Mar-2018 12:00
Buy / Sell Buy	Instrument Nikkei 225	Instrument Category Index	Trade Duration 1 hr 49 mins	Profit 61.83 %	Profit if £10,000 was invested £ 6,183	Open Price 21,260	Close Price 21,391.5	Open Time 07-Mar-2018 00:30	Close Time 07-Mar-2018 02:19
Buy / Sell Buy	Instrument FTSE 100	Instrument Category Index	Trade Duration 4 hrs 33 mins	Profit 35.93 %	Profit if £10,000 was invested £ 3,593	Open Price 7,253.05	Close Price 7,279.25	Open Time 28-Feb-2018 08:40	Close Time 28-Feb-2018 13:13
Buy / Sell Buy	Instrument Dow Jones 30	Instrument Category Index	Trade Duration 1 hr 23 mins	Profit 51.22 %	Profit if £10,000 was invested £ 5,122	Open Price 24,420.45	Close Price 24,545.50	Open Time 14-Feb-2018 13:44	Close Time 14-Feb-2018 15:07
Buy / Sell Buy	Instrument S&P 500	Instrument Category Index	Trade Duration 2 mins	Profit 24.41 %	Profit if £10,000 was invested £ 2,441	Open Price 2,643.53	Close Price 2,649.98	Open Time 12-Feb-2018 14:30	Close Time 12-Feb-2018 14:34

Observations

from my own trading experience

Better Returns with Indices

Investing in Indices (e.g. FTSE, Nikkei, DAX, Dow Jones, S&P, Nasdaq) generally generate faster and higher returns compared with other instruments such as equities (stocks), foreign exchange (currencies) and commodities (with the exception of Oil).

The Nikkei Index is King

As you may have noticed, the Nikkei is my favourite instrument to trade. From my own experience, it generates pretty good returns in a short time.

The "What If" Scenario

If I had a spare £10,000 available — and the confidence and risk tolerance to invest that amount per trade — I would have made £22,938 in profit during just 6 trading days in January 2019, while still retaining the original £10,000 capital.

In May 2018, that same approach would have yielded £25,177 in profit over 5 trading days.

And in March 2018, it would have resulted in £29,055 in profit from 6 trading days.

Don't React to the Financial News

Don't blindly base a trade on something you've read or heard in the news.

By the time news is printed and published or broadcast, it's already out of date and the price direction would have already changed or the news item would have had no or minimal effect on the price of the instrument.

Spotting Patterns is Key

Day-trading involves learning to spot trends and patterns in the pricing charts.

All of my trades rely on the technical analysis of these charts and once you're able to spot these patterns you'll be able to determine the optimal entry-points and exit-points of most profitable trades.

Learn Using a Virtual Account

Don't blow all your money away like I did by going straight in using a real trading account.

Practice with a virtual account first.

More Information

Designing financial charting tools

with real trading experience

Discover how my experience as an active trader and user of technical analysis shaped the design of financial charting interfaces at Refinitiv (and later, London Stock Exchange Group).

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