Another spread betting day has been and gone. It’s been a fairly quiet one for me really. I had one position stop out and I took the opportunity to move a few stops while the markets were open. My Hays position stopped out for a loss of £8.6. Funnily enough it was the only spread bet I had open with IG index that didn’t have a guaranteed stop attached to it and guess what, it suffered slippage. It should’ve exited at 118 instead it exited at 117.8. Only 0.2pts but still slippage.

I was wondering if anyone had any experience of spread betting with SpreadCo? I know they offer 0.8pt spreads on some indices and FOREX but does this mean they will compensate for this by loading the spread on equities? I’m thinking of trying them out so maybe I’ll open a Spread betting Demo Account with them and see what they are like. If anyone has any feedback on them please leave me a comment or better still why not write a SpreadCo review on my spread betting reviews page. I’d be interested to hear others thoughts about them as a company.

Until next time,
“May the markets be with you!”
Harry,
The Spread Betting Beginner

I’ve made another new spread bet today. In keeping with the title of this blog post it is indeed a sell or short trade. I’ve sold Spirent at 138.86 with a stop at 161.86. I’m short £0.4 per point which keeps me under my 1% risk. As I expected Regus stopped out and was subject to slippage to the tune of 0.825pts. Although I’m only spread betting small stakes 0.825pts it quite a lot and if you total all the slippage I’ve suffered I’m sure it probably amounts to the same cost or more than adding guaranteed stops to every trade. The only slight issue with guaranteed stops is the minimum stop distance, which can be problematic if you require a tight stop.

Thanks to Spread Betting trader for his comment on yesterdays post. Although the tsunami in Japan is tragic the thing I find interesting is the timing of all these world events. If what Pring writes about in his technical analysis explained is to be believed then a primary bull or bear trend will last anything from nine months up to two years. With the current bull trend starting 9th March 2009 we are just over the two years. Could Libya & the Tsunami be the catalyst to the start of a bear market? As always I have no idea but it’s an interesting theory and I know I’ll be watching with interest to see how it pans out.

As I’ve been saying for the a while I’m becoming more and more bearish. That’s really why I have placed short trades over the last few days. I’m trying to get some balance between my long and short spread bets. It will more than likely pan out that it’s just a correction and the uptrend will carry on but I want to have some balance so I’m reasonably well placed for either scenario.

That’s really all from me for this week. I hope everyone has a great weekend and I’ll see you back here on Monday.

Until next time,
“May the markets be with you!”
Harry,
The Spread Betting Beginner

IGIndex may have listened to Spread betting trader. As of 2nd of April they are introducing Daily Funded bets to replace the current Daily Cash Bets. So what is a Daily Funded bet. Well It’s basically a bet with a really long expiry period April 2016 to be precise. From what I can tell the rolling charges will be the same but the one main benefit is it will show your true profit and loss rather than the profit/Loss for the day. It looks like IGIndex have granted spread betting trader his wish.

The expiry date on each spread bet is actually the reason why the profits you make are not subject to capital gains tax and you pay no stamp duty on the trades because you don’t actually own anything. I would guess that 5 years is probably the longest expiry date you can have before you fall under the capital gains tax umbrella.

I’m sure those of you who have accounts with IGIndex will have the same e-mail so I wont post any more details about the change here. For those that don’t and an IGIndex account if you want to find out more I’m sure they will have it somewhere on the www.igindex.co.uk website.

Todays spread betting action.

I made one new trade today. It was actually a short trade. The first short for a while and if the markets continue to fall as they did today it could be the first of many. I sold Barclays at 296.65 with a stop at 335. I’m short £0.3 per point which is slightly over my 1% risk but only just so I’ll let it slide. It’s a super trend cross trade with the stock having just bounced down from resistance. There is a support level around the 255 mark which could prove troublesome so I’ll have to keep my eye on the trade if it approaches that mark.

My Regus position is still just about open. It has crossed the super trend line and is now indicating a down trend. My position is still open because my stop value is actually a rounded down super trend value for buys and rounded up value for sells. Maybe I’ll look to exit the position in the morning if I get chance. I only hope I don’t suffer slippage again as the close price is only 0.6pts from my stop price. I guess we’ll find out in the morning.

Interestingly I just checked the FTSE 100 chart and it too has crossed the super trend line. The super trend for the FTSE is now showing a down trend. Is this a sign of things to come?

Until next time,
“May the markets be with you!”
Harry,
The Spread Betting Beginner

I said I’d blog about spread betting every trading day from now on so I am. Unfortunately today I have spent most of the day on the road through work so I haven’t placed any new trades. To be honest I haven’t even had chance to check what the markets have done so there is really nothing to report on the spread betting front.

Thanks to spread betting trader and edswifa for their comments yesterday. Going back to the margin call with IG Index it was because I only really added a test amount to the account. I added £50 which allowed me to open 3 positions, but because some of them had started to move into a loss it took me just under the required margin to keep them open. I think it’s because one of them has a non guaranteed stop associated with it and the margin for this was much higher than the margin for the ones with guaranteed stops, which is what you would expect.

Todays Spread betting action.

As I said earlier I’ve had no time to place an new bets today. I’ve just checked my open positions and there are no stops to move either. Most of my positions are treading water at the moment much like the whole market. The only question is after this period of consolidation will the markets shoot for the starts or sink to the floor? I’m leaning more towards the later as I have been for a while, but it’s really anyones guess. As Tony Loton rightly put it a while ago “The only thing we can be certain of is the markets will fluctuate.” I’m not sure that’s the exact quote but it’s close enough.

On a side note I noticed Golden Bull has started his trading diary over on the spread betting forum. It would seem he is off to a good start making £112 profit for only £50 risk. I have to say though todays potential £79 profit for a £121 risk seems a little unbalanced for my liking. But hey all’s fair in Love and spread betting. What do I know about it, all I’ve done so far is lost money. All the best to golden bull I will be watching on with a keen interest as I’m sure everyone else will too.

Until next time,
“May the markets be with you!”
Harry,
The Spread Betting Beginner

I had an e-mail last night from IG Index. It was a margin call telling me to put more funds in my account or they would close some or all of my positions. I was only over by a couple of £s but it was enough for them to ask me to deposit more funds. So I added more funds. Something I had planned to do anyway. All I need to do now is withdraw some funds from CMC markets to replace what I’ve taken out of my bank account.

You may have noticed over on the spread betting forum we have a new trading diary. Golden Bull is logging his trades on the Dow Jones Index. He’s actually logging them before he makes them so could potentially make the same trades. At this point I would like to bring to everyones attention my Disclaimer and Risk warning. I would also like to point out that what is posted on the forum is not advice from me. Although I have some control over the forums content If others want to log their trades before they make them that is their prerogative. It is no way advice or recommendation from me and should not be referred to as such.

So now I’ve cleared that up, it will be interesting to see if Golden Bull can turn £1,000 into £30,000. It’s by no means an easy task as all fellow spread betters know.

My Spread betting action

Well I’m afraid it’s no new trades from me. Just keeping my eye on my open positions and adjusting any stops as necessary. On the subject of moving stops I’m going to have to move them in the day time now. Since moving to IG Index I’ve started using guaranteed stops on most of my trades. This means that they can only be moved during trading hours. This is a bit of a pain as I usually like to adjust my stops and look for new trades all at the same time at the end of the day. This means I need to start doing this during the day which may not always be possible due to work. One other thing is the minimum stop distance on guaranteed stops. Last night I could’ve moved one of my stops to the desired super trend value but obviously I couldn’t because it was outside trading hours. I looked to move my stop this morning and because the price had fallen I could no longer move my stop because of the minimum stop distance IG Index require. This could be a bit of a problem for my super trend strategy and the only solution I can think of is not to use guaranteed stops. Has anyone else had similar a similar issue? What do you do?

One last thing. Thanks to all those who took the time to comment on my Keeping your eye on the “Spread betting” ball post. I appreciate it as always.

Until next time,
“May the markets be with you!”
Harry,
The Spread Betting Beginner