Child Trust Funds

I have a 3 1/2 year old and as such we have a Child Trust Fund. I've invested it with F&C - http://www.fandc.com/new/UK/ - into an Asia Pacific Fund.

I'm interested in switching it to a FTSE traker (or at least put my new babys money on it when she's born). I went to the F&C website clicked on Child Trust Fund then clicked on FTSE All Share Traker an I get;

The resource cannot be found. Description: HTTP 404. The resource you are looking for (or one of its dependencies) could have been removed, had its name changed, or is temporarily unavailable. Please review the following URL and make sure that it is spelled correctly. Requested Url: /FN_Canvas2/editor/editor/Default.aspx

I'm still interested, but I might have to resort to phone calls.

Lately an Asia Pacific fund like the rest of the world indices has been going down the toilet, so by the time my second child has been born it could be a good time to invest. Unless something significant happens I'll be going for the FTSE tracker - assuming F&C let me.

City Index Demo

I registered a week or so ago with City Index - http://www.cityindex.co.uk/ - to have a go on a demo account trading CFDs.

After I registered I started the demo and waited. Then waited. The price screens constantly said "Loading..." - but I couldn't wait for ever so I bailed. My broadband was ok because I did other things while waiting for City Index to sort itself out.

A few days later I had a follow up email asking how I liked it? I don't want to come over all Seth Godin but couldn't they tell I hadn't placed a single trade?

I'm not having much luck with finding an online trading platform I like. Let me know if you have any suggestions or good or bad experiences.

Trading the Width of the Oak

I'm currently renovating a house in Greenwich. As such we're putting down some nice oak flooring and there's a very wide choice. In fact the width of choice seems to vary from about 5cm to about 20cm, and boy do you pay for it. Today I was at a flooring shop and found out that once you're past about 14cm the curve goes ballistic. The difference between 14cm and 15cm width oak over 40 square metres comes to about £280. I traded this away and decided that 14cm is more my kind of oak portfolio.
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Is this a day trading issue? You bet, I traded cash for oak and I saved £400.

Interest Rates and Fixed and Base Rate Tracker Mortgages

In the UK interest rates fell to 1% today - ie the lowest it's ever been. I've got two mortgages at the moment - a base rate tracker for the house I bought in Jan 2009 which we're renovating, and a fixed rate for the apartment we're living in at the moment.

In Sep 2008 my two year fixed rate expired and having lived through 17% interest rates in the early 1990's I decided to enter a new fixed rate of 6%. This of course was the wrong decision and since then rates have steadily fallen. In fact they fell to such a level that it was worth bailing from the 6% into a lower rate and paying the penalty which came to about £8k.

Over the next two years I think I'll only lose about £500, but the main benefit is that my monthly payments have gone down by about 20%, which is great news when you have two mortgages.

In Jan 2009 I more wisely entered into a base-rate tracker for my new smaller mortgage which is for an uninhabitable house which I (or rather the builders) are renovating.

More property investment stories later ...

Market Wizards - An Excellent Book

I first read this book when I was working for Merrill Lynch in Sydney delivering a new Repo trading system for the Fixed Income desk. I don't know why I bought it, but it's excellent. It is basically a bunch of interviews with some of the worlds top trades including Richard Dennis, Paul Tudor Jones, Ed Seykota, Marty Schwartz, Tom Baldwin.

It might sound boring but it's not - Market Wizards.

Fundamental or Technical Analysis? How about Economics and Politics ...

I used to think that fundamental analysis was kind of redundant - it doesn't really matter exactly how a particular company is doing if that whole sector is down (like the Banking sector now in Feb 2009 - Barclay's down from £8 to £1 in the past two years).

I used to think that technical analysis was the way head. Now I've realised that fundamentals only really count REALLY long term - and even then there's no guarantee (Lehman's, Merrill Lynch).

I think one of the best long term ways to trade is on indices and index options - eg NASDAQ and FTSE.

As such, all you really need to know about is when to bail and when to get back in. And that my friend is economics (with a side order of politics - more on that later).

Here's a useful book - Naked Economics (Amazon)

GBP/KRW Buying Korean Won

I travel to Seoul in South Korea about every year or so. As such I need Korean Won (approx £1 = KRW2000) for taxis, books, restaurants etc.

I've found the best way to buy hard cash is to watch the currency DAILY then buy when it's peaking. I ran a spreadsheet and it works out best (taking into account the NatWest preferential rates) to take out currency about three times a year. I bundle the cash into my flight bag and it's never been a problem.

Anyway, I recently tried to transfer my FX online but I haven't succeeded yet. I called Barclay's (BARX FX / Stockbrokers) but they don't support GBP/KRW. I've actually called a few companies of the last year and actually no one lets me trade this currency pair online. I'd love to be able to trade GBP/KRW options.

It's also my aim this year to set up FX trading in general - albeit for the boring currency pairs.

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Footnote: Seoul is a fantastic city - very under visited by most westerners. Korean culture and food is close to Japanese, but it is a very distinct culture - see "Old Boy", "Bittersweet Life" and other such movies for a taste of the culture (although these two movies are quite extreme). Main problem - the language is very hard to pick up.

SIPP, ETFs and iShares

I've got about 20% of my SIPP invested in the FTSE 250 which I thought was a good idea, and still do just about. I bought just after it dipped below 6000 and today it's back to about 6000 again. Despite all the severe economic news recently the 250's been above 6000 for most of the time since it first dipped below the line last November.

I'm looking at other ETFs (ishares) to see what else might be worth a punt for long term for the SIPP.

iShares - The World's No.1 provider of Exchange Traded Funds

First Book Recommendation - Introduction to Repo Markets by Moorad Choudhry

To give away a little bit of my background, this is an excellent short book on Repo (Repurchase Trades) by Moorad Choudhry.

The key lead in the book is "The repo market is a vital element of the global capital and money markets."

It's has simple and easy to understand examples and an insight into the bond markets in general.

Introduction to Repo Markets (Griffin Guides) (Paperback)

Welcome

This is the first entry in The Trading Day blog - it's all about what I buy and sell from equities to indices and Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) etc.

At some point I'll be breaking into derivatives and I'll try to include as much detail as I can including all profits and losses I make.

I'll also include lists of books, magazines and articles I find useful.