Mate that course is just what I needed. Used with my other Gann knowledge I can see some excellent trading coming. I always knew that if I tried to trade the S. P. I. ONLY full time I'd probably end up going broke. My past trading can confirm that.

Now I'm happy to just sit back and wait for the plums and only trade them. In the mean time I can look at trading some stocks, even if it will be on a small scale for a while. I could kick myself for not buying your course earlier. At least now I can see I'll survive as a trader.

Your course has filled a big gap that existed in my knowledge before. I knew stocks would be easier to trade than futures but just didn't know how to trade them.

Thanks very much Neil.

I was at a friend's place on Sunday, he trades stocks full time. Mate I thought I had done some stupid things in my trading. This bloke takes first prize. I can remember you saying to never average against. That's one sin I've never committed. The worst thing I've done is move my stop away from the market and it cost me about $5,000, (4 contracts) a cheap and valuable lesson. (I didn't think it was cheap at the time) I learnt that lesson early on, so I haven't done that again.

This guy has bought a weak stock (WMT, Western Metals). He got some at 16 cents, some more lower and bought some more around 3 cents. I told him he was bloody stupid, but he said "oh well I may as well hold them now because the fundamentals look great". Makes you think doesn't it. He currently has 90 grand in the market and 40 of that is tied up in two stocks he has averaged against on. All his other stocks are trading well below the 34-week moving average and trending down.

He won't spend money on education so why should I tell him anything. He prefers to talk to his internet buddies on the forums.

The things we do to justify a mistake!! Stops fix most problems fast; at least you
are out of the market and can put some time between the last trade and the next.

Once again thank you very much.

John

Hi Neil,

Here's a story of two guys I know very well who got into letting their broker
trade options on their behalf. One was a client of a trader education firm, and
the other one had no market knowledge whatsoever.

I was asked about 12 months ago to come along to an options seminar put on
by my friend's broker from Sydney at a cost of $500. Initially I said yes and two
days prior to the seminar taking place I pulled out as I felt I had enough to deal
with as it was, without complicating things further with options. The broker
was really peeved to say the least.

Shortly after the seminar both these guys put their money with the broker to trade
options for them. I told my mate I didn't want anything to do with it as I had no
control and had no idea of what the broker was doing. I told my mate he was
bloody mad.

They were both well in the money. My mate who had traded futures, had put 7k
with this broker and left all the trading to the broker as he didn't know how to trade options at all. He was sitting on an account balance of 33K two weeks ago. They
were doing strangles, butterflies and straddles or something like that. Today he
found out his account has been completely obliterated and then some. They took
all his money from another account for margin and they wanted more.

The other guy had over 120K with the same broker and it looks as though he too has
lost the lot and then some. I asked him today if he knew how much he'd lost and he
said he had no idea what I was talking about and no idea if he'd lost any at all. How bloody stupid can you get.

I told my mate two years ago to spend more money on education and learn to do it himself instead of letting the broker trade for him. His response was that it was too expensive to go any further with the education at this stage and that I was bloody
mad for spending so much money.

Maybe he'll listen to me now.

Hi Neil it is good to hear from you.

· An update to the losses. My friend who put $7,000.00 in with the broker and ran it up to $33,000.00 has lost about $45,000.00 and still counting. He is blaming the broker for his losses and now he's flat broke. To make matters worse he still has some call options with the same firm. The broker has been sacked and someone else has taken control of his accounts. Looks to me like further collateral damage to come. A very
depressing situation at his place. He's had to go back to work full time and isn't happy about it at all.

The other guy lost his profit and only a small amount of his capital. He's a bit more realistic. As he said, he knew that he could lose and he wouldn't have gone into the options if a loss were going to wipe him out. In a nutshell he traded with money he could afford to lose. In the email I said he lost all his capital too. Well it turns out he lost about $80,000.00 profit and some of his capital. He admitted he knew nothing about trading options but the broker was making him money so that was alright. It was an expensive lesson and a great example of what not to do.

It was a great experience for me seeing this all unfold and materialise right from the beginning until the end. Also seeing two 'traders' (I use the term traders very loosely) from both ends of the spectrum - one betting all his capital and the other who could afford a loss. Saying that I am glad they lost their money wouldn't be right, I just wish they'd used their noggins a bit.

I feel that all the money I've spent on trading education, and it has been many tens of thousands of dollars has been money well spent. It's taken me three years of trading futures to learn what not to do and how to trade within my parameters and not someone else's. I've had plenty of losses for sure, but they are my losses and my mistakes and I really do feel that I've learnt a great deal from them.