Nor is trading a direct competition, such as 100 equally qualified people applying for one job opening. Trading is a job you create yourself. You can start at any time and no one can stop you. There is a wide-open door and there are limitless opportunities.
You don’t need innate talent and you don’t need to impress any judges! The same information is available to everyone and we all have the same 24 hours in each day. You just have to learn how to use the available information and your available time to your best advantage. That’s where I want to help. I want to save you some of that time by sharing my experiences with you and helping you avoid some of the worst pitfalls.
It’s all about money management. These days, you don’t need to know any complicated formulas to manage your money well – modern trading software makes it easier than ever. You still have to make the move, you still have to put the trade on – physically – but you can get software that will tell you exactly what to do and when to do it. You just need the discipline to stick to the plan!
Plan to change
If you are happy and totally satisfied with where you are in life, if things are just the way you want them and ticking along nicely, if you have all the money you need and are confident you have everything in place for a secure future, that’s fantastic. If not, join the club that most people are in!
If you are not 100% happy, only you can change it. You can’t expect other people to do the work for you, or for certain factors to change, magically, overnight. The only way to change or achieve anything in life is to make a plan. Then you need to go about putting that plan into action with drive and a positive attitude. Maybe your plan doesn’t work at first. Well, then you adjust it. If you adjust it several times and it still doesn’t work, perhaps you need a new plan. You don’t abandon the process at the first hurdle.
If you bought a car and it got a flat tyre, you wouldn’t dump the car, you’d change the tyre. If it started leaking oil, you’d fix that too. If you found you’d been pouring money into your car for some time and it still wasn’t working properly, you might have to abandon it and get a new car, but you would explore all the possibilities to get it running well first. Your plan should be like your car.
People don’t usually arrive at their goals following one straight line. We are not computer programs, we are human beings; we get to our destinations through a complex, ever-changing web of processes. Failing is one of those important stages. Maybe you have people in your life who will judge you if you fail, but if you look a little harder you will find many people out there who will respect you for all the efforts you make, for trying again when you don’t succeed the first time.
About the book
The book is divided into four parts.
Part One follows the early years of my life and covers my football career. It describes how, having been born into an ordinary family in the south of England, I was spotted at a young age by a local football scout; how I went on to play for my country at youth level and then, in my senior career, played for some of England’s oldest clubs, including spending a number of years in the Premier League. This part of the book concludes by describing how my career came to an end a few years after I suffered a serious injury, which prompted me to turn to trading and develop it into my new full-time career.
Part Two delivers a basic introduction to trading the markets and specifically goes into detail about spread betting, the trading vehicle I use. I give some details on how I operate as a trader, the main strategy I use and what I feel are the essential tools of the trade – both in terms of physical tools and psychological approach.
Part Three covers in detail some of the most poignant experiences I’ve had as a trader. These are some of my best trading stories. These stories provide even more insight into my decision-making process, and show how I deal with some of the daily ups and downs of being a professional trader.
Part Four shows some of the parallels between trading and football. By drawing on my knowledge and experience from the world of football, I describe how and why certain pitfalls present themselves in trading and the best way to deal with them.
It was always my aim to provide something that had entertainment as well as educational value while I was writing this book. So, read and learn, but I hope you enjoy parts of the story too!
Chapter One: Hampshire Heaven
Early days in Elephant and Castle
MY FIRST MEMORY of playing football is a somewhat painful one. I was five and my brother Paul was nine. Paul and his friends met up every Saturday to play football on a big concrete area near where we lived. It was probably a series of disused tennis courts that had doubled as netball courts – the kind of nasty, hard surface that could really mess up a kid’s face. I would go along with my dad, who acted as their referee and coach, and watch from the sidelines.
One Saturday I begged dad to let me play and he said I could. I was so excited; I knew I had a lot to prove to these big lads and if I played well, they’d let me play again. Everything was riding on my first appearance. I had been playing one-touch football with Paul and our cousin Chris in our six-foot long front yard and I was confident I could control the ball.
I got put on just before half time and hovered around in centre midfield, waiting for my big moment. Finally it came. Craig Andrews passed me the ball. I caught it easily with my left foot, turned and started dribbling down the left wing. Two seconds later I felt intense pain and heard a big crack. The next thing I knew, I was lying on the ground with dad looking down at me.
I’d knocked myself out. I’d been so busy watching the ball and trying to keep control of it, I hadn’t seen some small goal posts down the wings (presumably erected for a 5-a-side game that would be played on the width of the main pitch). I’d run straight into one of these hard, metal posts and given myself an almighty crack on the head. That was my excuse for not doing well at academic subjects at school sorted; I lost half my brain cells when I was five!
At the time, we were living over a pub in Elephant and Castle where dad was working as a publican. For a place named after a pub, Elephant and Castle lived up to its name as a boozy, petty crime-ridden London borough on the south side of the river, just east of Waterloo. In the early 1970s, the area was still recovering from the extensive bombing it suffered during the Second World War, which had left many people having to double and triple up with their extended families in large Victorian town houses and prefabs.
The general overcrowding and lack of space in London had led the government to spearhead several relocation projects. Keen to get us out of the rundown place we were living in, and give us a bigger and better home, my parents applied for one in Basingstoke.
Move to Basingstoke
Basingstoke is an old Hampshire market town about 50 miles southwest of London. Hampshire County Council had done a deal with London to take some of their overspill and had undertaken a huge new building project. There were housing developments springing up all over the countryside that surrounded Basingstoke. The deal was if you could get a local job, the council would automatically rehouse you.
Looking back to the time just before we moved, Paul was beginning to get into a bit of trouble with our older cousins and local lads. As I looked up to my older brother so much, I have no doubt I would have soon followed in his footsteps. To give Paul and me a better start in life by moving us out of London, my parents had to sacrifice their own social lives, and the proximity to their support network of family and friends. It must have been tough for them, especially at the start, but they may have saved their sons from a life of petty crime and pretty poor prospects.
When dad managed to get a job as a security guard in a large company based in Basingstoke, we were guaranteed a new home in the local area, but the houses and school weren’t quite ready.