Spread betting is a funny old game. Especially if, like me, you are really a part time spread better. I was checking all my open positions the other day and I noticed that Ladbrokes had fallen below the super trend level and was now actually a potential sell. Since my Ladbrokes position was open in my Tradefair account I don’t check it everyday unless I need to move my stops. Well I must have not checked it for a few days and the bet had actually exited on the 24th February.

Although my stop took care of exiting the position it really highlighted something that I have suspected over the last few weeks. I have taken my eye of my spread betting ball. It has become apparent that I have been slacking. So what have I decide to do about it. Well, firstly I’ve decide to try and make more time and blog every trading day (Mon – Fri). This means that other areas of the site might take a back seat for a while. So if I’m struggling for time why blog every day?

The reason I started spread betting beginner was to keep track of my trades and make me a more disciplined trader. Clearly I have been lacking with the discipline part. I’ve been focused on trying to improve the site and helping the misses with reports for work that I’ve let my spread betting slip. Well time to change. If I post a blog entry everyday I can keep an eye on my trades and check for new opportunities at the same time. The blog posts may not always be that informative and interesting so for that I apologise in advance. I need to do it though. If I don’t start doing it now and keep it going how am I ever going to achieve my goal of Spread betting for a living!

So that’s it. Starting today I’ll be posting everyday again. Hopefully this will make you happy, If anyone actually reads my blog posts that is. I think a few people read them but I can’t be sure. If you’re wondering what time I’ll be posting I’m afraid it could potentially be any time. I will aim to get the post done just after I finish work. This could be anytime from 17:30 onwards. There may be times when I get time earlier in the day so I may post then if I get chance.

Back to the Spread Betting Blog

So onto todays spread betting action. I placed one new trade today. I brought Hays at 130.12 with a stop at 116. I’m long £0.70 per point. Not mega bucks I know, and I share BigAls sentiments about “fiddle-faddling about with £2-3 per point”. The only thing I can say there is that from my own experience it’s best for me to stick to my risk management strategy. It’s probably the only reason I’m still trading today. Hopefully my strategy starts to show some good results and I can add more funds which will increase my £/point stake inline with my strategy. BigAl I know you weren’t having a pop but I wanted to use your quote as a means of making a point any spread betting beginners out there.

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

After my rant about spread betting with CMC yesterday I’ve decided to move more funds to IG index and give them more of a go. I can see why IG Index are the market leaders when it comes to spread betting. They have the widest range of instruments out of all the spread betting companies, not necessarily the tightest spreads but certainly competitive and they offer plenty of extra features like advanced charts etc.

I actually have my bookers position open with IG. I also have another position which I opened with them the other day. The position is in BSkyB. It was a buy based on a strategy that Vince Stanzione suggests in his Making Money Form Financial Spread Trading package. I can’t reveal the strategy itself by I can say it’s a very simple strategy based on simple parameters with clearly defined entry and exit points. In case you were wondering I’m still working on my review of his trading system. I’m not sure when It will be added to the site but I will get it added eventually. As always when I do you will be the first to know.

Coming back to IG Index, I noticed Spread betting trader is no longer blogging. I can empathise with everything you say and your blog posts will be missed. Spread betting trader mentioned that he has come to hate the IG Index (PureDeal) platform as it doesn’t show a running profit/loss total. It only displays the P/L for the day. I completely understand his point on this and I see no reason that they could not show this somewhere. For me it’s not that much of an issue as I log all my trades, regardless of which spread betting firm I use, in an excel spread sheet. It’s pretty basic but It works for me. I actually keep meaning to add it to the site as a free download but I never seem to get round to it. Don’t worry it’s on my list of things to do and I’m sure I’ll get them all done eventually. Maybe one day when I’m spread betting for a living I’ll have all the time in the world to finish these things off. At the minute it seems like a far off dream. I’m sure I’ll get there some day.

Oh and don’t forget spread betting trader you can add a review of IG Index on my spread betting reviews page. You never know if you add a review mentioning your thoughts they might just take note and add it to their platform.

Oh and I forgot to say there have been no new trades today. With the markets unsure what they are doing, so am I. I’m really waiting for the right opportunity to come along, which is what I have been doing anyway. It’s just at the moment none seem to be coming along that fit with my strategy. Oh well I’m sure one will come along soon.

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

Two spread betting posts in two days. I must have time to spare, I wish I did. The truth is I had a stop out today and I decided to make time to post/moan about it.

My position in RBS stopped out today. I made a whopping £0.18. Although I made money on this trade I think it still works out at a loss because of the overnight financing charges. I think CMC must round up to the nearest 1p on overnight financing. Not really fair as I’m sure the interest on my £1 per point spread bet would not equate to over £3 a year. Lets take a quick look at the maths of the over night financing charges spread betting companies charge.

So for this case. Looking at the limited figures I have it would appear CMC don’t charge more for the spread bet being left open over the weekend. So lets take the case of RBS. I went long £1 per point at 43.5p. Going long £1 per point is equivalent to buying 100 shares which would cost me £43.50. The margin requirement for RBS is 8% so I’m required to put up 8% of £43.50 which is £3.48. Therefore they are putting up the remaining £40.02. They charge me £0.01 per day. So that’s 0.02% per day. Since they don’t charge for the weekends we times 0.02*5 = 0.1% per trading week. 52 weeks in a year so 0.1*52 = 5.2% APR. Not mega money but still seems a little high considering the base rate is 0.5%. Does this mean when the base rate is 5% again I’ll be charged 9.7%?

I think my calculations here are correct, please correct me if there wrong. Don’t get me wrong I’m not complaining. Spread betting companies offer me a way of trading the financial markets that I didn’t even know was possible a few years ago. It’s a great way to speculate with limited trading funds, as I do. The thing is if my calculations are correct and interest rates do start to rise the 9.7% overnight financing charge will be a little excessive, in my opinion.

I’ve always regarded the rolling charges as negligible but looking at this I’m not so sure they are. I think it’s certainly highlighted something that I need to look into a bit deeper. It’s my fault really, It could very well be the case that I agreed to these charges when I opened the account. Still It’s something that needs further investigation.

To top it all off my RBS position suffered slippage before it stopped out. My stop value was set at 44 and it didn’t get filled until 43.61. Yet another case of slippage at CMC Markets. I think it may be time to change spread betting firms. To be honest I can’t even be bothered to phone them up and complain. I think I might just vote with my feet on this one and move my spread betting home.

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

I know it’s been quite a while since I last posted anything. My life just seems to get busier and busier these days. Still maybe one day I’ll be spread betting for a living then I can spend more time on the site and improving my knowledge.

I was looking back through an old 2009 diary the other day and I seen some notes from my first trades as a spread better. I opened my first live spread betting account with paddy power on 12th February 2009. I funded the account with £50 and shortly after added another £50. The interesting thing is some of my first trades were in the FTSE. “What?” I hear you cry. “You spread bet the FTSE with only £100 in your account. Nutter!” Looking back now it certainly was a crazy time for me. I think the only reason I didn’t lose it all in one go was because I used stop losses right from the very beginning. This would seem to be something that is engrained into me. I think I’m very cautious when it comes to risk, which I guess is a strange statement for a spread better to make.

I soon realised that if I continued to “gamble” then I was going to get no where and I would be out of the game before I’d given myself a fair got at it. So I brought a book. The financial spread betting handbook by Malcolm Pryor. I don’t recall how I discovered the book, I think I must have just been Googling around or stumbled across it on Amazon. I was fascinated by this book, and still am. I personally think it’s one of the best resources for a spread betting beginner. It contains so much useful information and gets you started with some excellent strategies.

So why am I recapping my spread betting history? Well I seen a post over on spread betting central from a newbie to the spread betting world. He is basically on the path I was two years ago. When you start to read and study the art of spread betting it can get very complicated, very quickly and unnecessarily so (In my opinion). If Gary is reading this then I would emphasise the KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) philosophy. Don’t get bogged down with to many indicators and think that one holds all the answers and is the key to the ‘Holy Grail’. I think the ‘Holy Grail’ is a state of mind. You first need to conquer yourself and learn how you operate in order to succeed at spread betting. Accept that losses are a fact of life and are unavoidable. Accept that you will be tempted to over trade. Learn to wait for the right opportunities to come along, never trade for trading sake. These are just some of the lessons that need to be learnt on the path to successful spread betting.

You may think I am rambling on about the same old things here but for the spread betting beginners out there such as Gary these are important lessons and the earlier you learn them the better. The overall goal of this spread betting blog is to help others avoid the same mistakes I have made.

Recent Spread Betting activity

So onto the good stuff. My latest trades. Well unfortunately there have been no new trades for me. I’ve been adjusting stops but even that has stopped with the recent dip in the market. To be honest at the moment I just haven’t had the time. My problem is I keep taking on more and more things and I just seem to be getting less and less done. Still when I’m spread betting for a living I’ll have much more time to dedicate to spread betting. It’s funny financial spread betting has really become a passion for me. I enjoy everything about it. Hopefully one day I’ll make a career out of it.

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