February 8th

February 8th 

Results:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/59373564@N08/5429847880/lightbox/

Today was a good day for most of the European Exchanges, most will be recovering to previous 2007-2008 highs before the world recession hit. However any breaking news can hit the markets hard so every day is different, still talks of double dip recession in the UK looming.

Germany’s DAX 30 index (DX:DAX 7,323, +39.62, +0.54%) gained 0.5% to 7,323.24, and France’s CAC 40 index (FR:PX1 4,108, +17.47, +0.43%) rose 0.4% to 4,108.27, with both ending at new 2011 highs.

In Frankfurt, shares of BMW AG (DE:BMW 61.49, +2.72, +4.63%) rallied 4.7% after the company said its global car sales surged 28% in January from the same period a year ago.

The FTSE 100 index(UK:UKX 6,080, +28.62, +0.47%) gained 0.7% to 6,091.33.
Shares of engineering and satellite group Inmarsat PLC(UK:ISAT 711.00, +23.00, +3.34%) rose 3.6% after
Bank of America Merrill Lynch upgraded the firm to buy from neutral.

The currency € is rallying against the $ after suffering last Friday due to good news from USA that the Unemployment Rate was reduced to 9% down from 9.4% the previous month. Although this hurt the €'s exchange rate compared to $, Europe is quickly recovering with talks of increasing the bailout fund and the European Central Bank increasing its interest rate which at the moment remains on 1%.

I am looking to go long on Euro (buy) until Thursday when the next major news will be released, the position will be closed and will be looking to re-enter depending on the movement and the market reaction.
Crude Oil has been slowly declining from its high on Friday at $103.32 a barrel, so I took a small opportunity within 13 minutes during price fluctuations.

Gold has rose 150% in 2 years to $1362 an ounce. If you feel your economy is going to collapse, and your currency is going to be worthless, or not worth as much, you turn to precious metals such as silver/gold which retain their value. Gold has been rising since the protests in Egypt began, also the same as Crude Oil. Whether this is a direct correlation due to 1 country? I am not sure... Egypt’s proven oil reserves stand at 4.4 billion barrels, which is nothing compared to its neighbours Libya/Saudi Arabia/Algeria.

News to look out for tomorrow:
7:00am German Trade Balance
9:30am UK Trade Balance
3:30pm USA Crude Oil Inventories


Goodnight for now :)

Welcome!

Hello and welcome to my blog at BlueChipDealer!

My Name is Nick Mackintosh I am 22 years old from London, UK. I'm a trader on the stock and foreign exchange markets, focusing mainly on the currency pairs GBP/USD, EUR/USD, and USD/CHF as they provide the most liquidity and volume.

For the Stock Exchanges, focusing mainly on the big European players FTSE100, DAX30, ESX50, SP500, NAS100, CAC40, SMI20.

Commodities focused on will be Silver, Gold and Brent Crude Oil.

My Background:

I have a college City&Guild degree in Office Administration / Data Entry, and been to numerous office jobs throughout my short working life. During college I got involved in poker through late night TV-shows when I was doing coursework/revision. Eventually I started to make more money from poker as I did while being in work, so I decided to work part-time while becoming a professional poker player. The name Blue Chip Dealer is both a poker / trader connotation given to me by my best friend. All was going well until early-mid 2010 USA started to crack down on their on-line gambling laws and forced most of the major poker companies such as Poker Stars and Full Tilt Poker to refuse USA players, which took away a big percentage of the player pool and (easy money) effectively reducing my monthly income without increasing my stakes.

I have always been interested in world news and business from a young age, so I decided to move over to trading for the time being, deposit an initial bankroll and see if I can build it up to what my poker account was which was in the thousands, and trade based on fixed risk % to minimize exposure and damage to my total capital.

I have been trading since October 2010, I am a frequent poster on http://www.trade2win.com/ regarded as 1 of the best forums for information/guidance to do with becoming a trader.

http://www.investopedia.com/ and http://www.babypips.com/school/ is also a great source for information.

My Goal:

To retire by the time I am 30, with £300,000-£400,000 in the bank for 5-6% interest and enjoy life. Meaning I should be earning £42,857 per annum without even including living/luxury expenses. An easier goal would be retire at 40 so a £21,428 per annum would be easily achievable in most full-time working jobs. I am just too stubborn and don't want to wait that long!

As a trader a good goal is to make 1-2% total growth in a day, so 5-10% a week. Which as you can see, is already much better than any bank will be able to provide. The obvious downside is banks offer fixed interest rates, where as a trader you have to work for it and risk losing it all if you are not careful.

My Blog:

This will be used to give updates of all the trades I have made, as well as explaining my thought process in regards to my decision making. Also to be able to look back on this for reference and see progression whenever doubting my trades.

To provide information for others also wanting to become a trader, and also friends/relatives which will be reading this. If there are any queries then please leave me a message!

Thank you all for reading,

N Mackintosh