http://www.ft.com/yourmoney/advice/tradersdiaryhttp://www.ft.com/rss/yourmoney/advice/tradersdiaryFT.com - Your Money, Traders Diaryen© Copyright The Financial Times Ltd 2008. "FT" and "Financial Times" are trademarks of the Financial Times. See http://www.ft.com/servicestools/help/terms#legal1 for the terms and conditions of reuse.support@ft.comFri, 18 Jul 2008 17:34 BSTThu, 24 Jul 2008 20:48:31 BSTNewspapers15http://news.ft.com/cms/d1f3ce1a-6bbe-11da-bb53-0000779e2340.gifhttp://www.ft.com/yourmoney/advice/tradersdiary(PICS-1.1 "http://www.classify.org/safesurf/" L gen true for "http://www.ft.com/" r (SS~~000 1))http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/72a73f06-54e5-11dd-ae9c-000077b07658.htmlhttp://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/72a73f06-54e5-11dd-ae9c-000077b07658.htmlDid you ever notice out-of-the-ordinary spurts in trading volume just before a surprise market-moving corporate announcement? Sad to say, it happens frequently. Encryption software company Ncipher is a recent example.Fri, 18 Jul 2008 17:34 BSThttp://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/a09269a6-4f6b-11dd-b050-000077b07658.htmlhttp://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/a09269a6-4f6b-11dd-b050-000077b07658.htmlThe recent news flow is chilling. Like other investors, I worry about what lies ahead. But my historical database provides some useful bear market perspectives. Bear markets are far more frequent than many investors would guess.Fri, 11 Jul 2008 18:18 BSThttp://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/60d3c1c4-49e5-11dd-891a-000077b07658.htmlhttp://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/60d3c1c4-49e5-11dd-891a-000077b07658.htmlLast Tuesday's painful market decline was the final nail in the coffin. Cumulative losses since this decline began in June 2007 passed the 20 per cent mark. The bear market of 2007-8 is now officially in the record book.Fri, 4 Jul 2008 19:00 BSThttp://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/1fa163ec-4467-11dd-b151-0000779fd2ac.htmlhttp://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/1fa163ec-4467-11dd-b151-0000779fd2ac.htmlI often get investment ideas from wading through boring corporate announcements. But the front page of the FT did the trick for me last week. Barclays Bank is part of a beleaguered sector that has been slammed by torrents of bad news in the past year. Fri, 27 Jun 2008 17:38 BSThttp://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f9409d00-3ef1-11dd-8fd9-0000779fd2ac.htmlhttp://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f9409d00-3ef1-11dd-8fd9-0000779fd2ac.htmlNo one knows when the current downturn will finally bottom out. But if history is any guide, the eventual low point will be at least 25 per cent below the June 2007 peak. Still, I believe money will be made in the next few months by betting to the upsideFri, 20 Jun 2008 19:32 BSThttp://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/b67592ac-396d-11dd-90d7-0000779fd2ac.htmlhttp://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/b67592ac-396d-11dd-90d7-0000779fd2ac.htmlI constantly search for tools to improve my short-term trading performance. But old tricks of the trade sometimes turn out to be most useful of all. One old shoe worth its weight in gold is my rigorous record-keeping system.Fri, 13 Jun 2008 18:30 BSThttp://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/2374264c-33ed-11dd-869b-0000779fd2ac.htmlhttp://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/2374264c-33ed-11dd-869b-0000779fd2ac.htmlMy short-term trading programme favours smaller companies for one important reason: the competition is less intense. Bigger companies from the FTSE 100 and 250 are monitored full-time by many research analysts, some of whom are much smarter than I am. Even worse, institutional clients often take action on new research well before I get wind of it. Fri, 6 Jun 2008 18:32 BSThttp://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/3c39047a-2e77-11dd-ab55-000077b07658.htmlhttp://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/3c39047a-2e77-11dd-ab55-000077b07658.htmlSome investors hope the 2007-8 bear market is over. But I do not share their view. Several historical trends warn that the bear market continues to run. Still, there are some trading opportunities on the FTSE 100, and in a company reporting results this weekFri, 30 May 2008 19:51 BSThttp://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/5b4978e4-28ec-11dd-96ce-000077b07658.htmlhttp://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/5b4978e4-28ec-11dd-96ce-000077b07658.htmlFresh corporate news often helps me to turn a profit. But the secret behind these profits is in the way I use the latest announcement. My big profits often come from thinking outside the box.Fri, 23 May 2008 18:23 BSThttp://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/8f9d998a-236b-11dd-b214-000077b07658.htmlhttp://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/8f9d998a-236b-11dd-b214-000077b07658.htmlMany investors believe short-term traders are intuitive gamblers who instantly react to changing market conditions. Actually, there are a range of different short-term trading styles. To succeed, you must know where your strengths lie, and devise strategies that play to themFri, 16 May 2008 18:21 BSThttp://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/1ad3e956-1dee-11dd-983a-000077b07658.htmlhttp://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/1ad3e956-1dee-11dd-983a-000077b07658.htmlMay has a horrid reputation among UK investors. History teaches us that shares rise in May just over half of the time.  Compared with more profitable months, such as January and April, May is weak. But its long-term record for traders is not so grim.Fri, 9 May 2008 18:50 BSThttp://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/017ea43c-12e5-11dd-8d91-0000779fd2ac.htmlhttp://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/017ea43c-12e5-11dd-8d91-0000779fd2ac.htmlI enjoyed a massive stroke of good luck about two weeks ago. But I now face considerable uncertainty about how to optimise my good fortune. My trade was an absolute disaster. Prices fell sharply and I closed it out at a loss but the price trend suddenly reversed. Fri, 25 Apr 2008 18:40 BSThttp://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/3252b952-0d38-11dd-b90a-0000779fd2ac.htmlhttp://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/3252b952-0d38-11dd-b90a-0000779fd2ac.htmlFans of technical analysis can be quite passionate in their support of their tools. So apologies in advance if my comments ruin anyone's weekend. In my view, some of the tools so treasured by technical analysts, or chartists, fail to work as billed. They do not consistently deliver profits to practitioners. Fri, 18 Apr 2008 14:31 BSThttp://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/8172b990-07b3-11dd-a922-0000779fd2ac.htmlhttp://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/8172b990-07b3-11dd-a922-0000779fd2ac.htmlBear markets differ from each other in terms of size, shape and speed of decline. But some fluctuations within an individual bear market are remarkably similar. Fri, 11 Apr 2008 17:01 BSThttp://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/1930f9f8-1872-11dd-8c92-0000779fd2ac.htmlhttp://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/1930f9f8-1872-11dd-8c92-0000779fd2ac.htmlAll the terminology used in our Trader articlesWed, 9 Apr 2008 18:07 BST