Another turbulent week for the FTSE 100 index and by the look of the chart(see below) I suspect it may be more of the same for the week ahead. The 20 day EMA has now successfully crossed the 50 day EMA and they are both making there way down towards the 200 day EMA. Price has also crossed the 200 day EMA quite significantly last Tuesday before finding some support at 5535. This is well below the level I suggested last week of 5600 but as always there is no exact science when you’re trying to predict markets. That’s why I prefer to try and look at what is happening and trade accordingly.

I would think this week will see the FTSE testing out support levels again with the lowest low of last week being a key level to watch this week. If this level is broken I suspect the downwards move will continue. Testing of this level could occur this week as markets generally fall much quicker than they rise. Usually some world event will happen that triggers the fall so we’ll wait and see if anything major happens this week.

Chart Copyright of SpreadCo ©2012

With the absence of any clear trend in the FTSE 100 any thing goes(short or long). However I will be taking a cautious view on any new trades that I make this week. I’ll be keeping a close eye on them and if they fail to react as expected within a reasonable timeframe then I will cut them quickly and without emotion. More FTSE analysis next week.

Capital Spreads Vs SpreadCo, which one is better? There’s only one way to find out, Fight! (No I’m not Harry Hill from TV’s Burp, I just thought it was a good quote). I’m raising the question because as you may or may not know I trade with both of them. Today I tried an interesting experiment that really came about by chance more than anything else. I was checking through some charts looking for potential trades and I spotted a couple. (more on those later). So I made the trades and realised that my position size for one of them was half what it should be. So I decided to place the exact same trade with Capital Spreads and SpreadCo. I don’t know if it will really prove much as I think both of these spread betting companies offer different things which is why I trade with both. What will be interesting to see is if one exits and the other doesn’t or if one suffers slippage and the other doesn’t. I’m not saying that either of these scenarios will happen but it will be interesting to see if it does.

Moving on. Thanks to Mark and Vince Stanzione for their comments on the last post about withdrawing funds from spread betting companies. It would seem that most of the time people don’t have issues but the people that do kick up a stink about them. It’s always the way though, people do not take the time to review good service but if it’s bad service they make the time. I keep telling my misses the same thing. She works for a big hotel chain and she’s always telling me about the bad reviews they have an wonders why there aren’t that many good reviews.

Getting back to Vince Stanzione I’ve been going back through his DVD’s again just recently as a refresher course and one thing that he talks about in there really stood out to me. He was talking about people these days always feel the need to be connected e.g. checking e-mails or checking their stock prices basically because they are bored. It reminded me or me when I first started spread betting back in 2009. I would check on my trades frequently throughout the day and sometimes watch them as they ticked up and down. I realise now how sad and unnecessary that was. There is no need to check every 5 minutes. Once a day is plenty. Plus it’s not what I want from spread betting. I don’t want to sit there looking at a screen all day long, I do that already. I want to free up my time to do other things. I’m only half way through the DVDs as I’m watching them in stages to try and digest what he says and really take it in.

As I mentioned earlier I have made a few new trades today. They are both trend following trades and hopefully the trends will resume shortly. I know I said my outlook of the entire market was bearish in my weekly FTSE analysis and maybe these new trades will come back to bite me but if I don’t try I’ll never know. The new trades are in Dixons buy at 17.45 stop at 13 £5 per point and Debenhams buy at 78.9 stop at 73 £4 per point. The Debenhams spread bet is the one that I split across the Capital Spreads and SpreadCo accounts. Both of these stocks have been trending upward recently and have just pulled back. My stops are a little wide and I may exit before the stops get hit if they fail to resume the trend. I guess well see how they pan out.

For those that check my list of recent trades I have not been updating it recently. The reason for this is I have moved all my trades into my online position logging utility and have yet to implement making my trades publicly viewable. If you would like to take a look at this position logging utility you are more than welcome to register and start keeping track of your own positions. This utility is in a beta release though as I am still working on it when I get the time. It’s essentially everything I think I would like to be able to do to help me keep track of my positions and review my performance. You can expect much more functionality as I get more time to work on it. Just so you know the login page is in the navigation bar on the left of this page. You can also get to the registration page from there too.

Right that’s all from me for today folks.

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

Todays topic is all about getting your money back from a spread betting company. As it stands I have not had to do this as I’ve never withdrawn any funds but my father has tried to do it recently and he’s having a bit of a headache with it. His point of view is that the spread betting companies are quick enough to take your money from you but really seem to drag their feet when it comes to asking for it back.

I am appealing to anyone that has an experience with withdrawing funds from a spread betting company to get in touch. I have started a new topic over on the forum and I would love to hear your experience good or bad. Even if you are attempting to get your money back from a company please do post a reply as you never know I might be able to help you out. There is nothing worse than getting a bad review on the most popular spread betting blog available. (I’m talking about spread betting beginner of course.)

So I’ll ask again if you have any experience good or bad, or if you are in the process of withdrawing funds get in touch. I’m sure that it’s the few firms that are dragging there feet with paying back money that are giving the rest of them a bad name and I would like to name an shame those firms to help people avoid being messed about.

Moving on to some of my spread betting action. With the FTSE 100 taking a tumble today (over 100 points) It took with it one of my positions. RBS stopped out banking me a £4 profit, Who hoo! Who says you can’t get rich from spread betting. Last week my Lloyds position also stopped out on another day when the FTSE 100 took a tumble. This time my profit was £9.9. Almost a whole ten pounds, I’m hitting the big time now. This leaves me with just two open positions, one in Regus and another in Enterprise inns. I still like the look of the Enterprise inns chart, even with all this market turmoil recently the stock price is holding strong. Hopefully this is more justification for my pyramid.

With the markets dropping sharply there could be some bargains to be had but I will be treading cautiously as my FTSE 100 analysis this week points to weak technical data in the chart which is either a temporary dip or the start of something bigger. Which it is though is yet to be seen.

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

Well as I promised I will be starting my weekly FTSE analysis again. It’s something that I should’ve been doing all the time I’ve been trading but it seems to have fallen by the wayside over recent months. Anyway I cannot change the past but I can learn from my mistakes to help shape my future. So here it is my FTSE 100 analysis for the past week. This will be a regular feature to my blog and it will go on at some point over the weekend every weekend. Except when I’m away.

FTSE 100 Analysis. Weekending 6 April 2012

Well I have to day I’m glad I started to do my FTSE weekly analysis again as looking at the chart below some interesting events are unfolding. With it being easter weekend the FTSE markets closed at the end of Thursday 5th April and it would seem we are in the middle of breaking through recent lows, making new lows along the way. This should be great news for the bears. However it’s not a bear market just yet, it could be a temporary dip.

If we look at the 20,50,200 Exponential moving average combination (blue, green & red lines on the chart) we can see that the 20 is clearly pointing down, the 50 is about to join the 20 in pointing down and the 200 day EMA is running out of steam. There have been no crossing of any of the moving averages yet but if the 20 crosses the 50 and then onto the 200 it could be the beginning of a retracement or a bear market. Since history can sometimes repeat itself if we look back to July/Aug last year we can see what happened when the 20 crossed the 50 and the 200 before. Price dropped significantly retracing well over 1000 points. Of course this doesn’t mean the same will happen again for sure but anything is possible.

Looking at the chart more recently price has touched the 6000 mark and has been retracing ever since. It could well be the case that the price is just a temporary dip after rising to 6000. The most recent low of 5700 is a support level with the congested price range that developed back in January providing the support. If this barrier is broken significantly then the next levels to look out for are 5600 and 5400, as always though where the FTSE goes no body knows.

Chart Copyright of SpreadCo ©2012

My FTSE outlook for the week ahead.

This week my outlook for the FTSE is bearish. There was a lot of volume when the FTSE fell dramatically on Wednesday and an increase in volume usually means the move will continue, even if for a small amount of time. Therefore when I look for trades this week I will be looking for opportunities to go short, whilst maintaining any open positions that I have.

That’s all for this week.

I know I keep harping on about how I never have time for things and that’s the reasons my blogging has take a back seat but and I’ve actually started to miss it. Therefore I’m going to try and make some time to write during the week but that means I need something to write about. I have made a few spread bets recently so I can write about them today, plus I’m thinking about bringing back my weekly analysis of the FTSE. My goal of starting to blog about my trading was, and still is, to eventually be able to trade full time. However after starting spread betting beginner it became more about the website and developing it and my trading has started to fall by the wayside. So I need to get back to it. I think doing a weekly analysis of the FTSE is useful for my own trading and it is good content for the site so I figured why not. My goal is to try and do this at some point over the weekend but I can’t say for sure when that will be. It should be there by Sunday night at the latest so keep an eye out for that.

I have only made one new trade over the last few weeks. I decided to pyramid my position in Enterprise Inns. My original position was at a reasonable level of profit and I liked the look of the chart. My original trade was made at the end of November when price started to move upwards. Price then dropped to a new low in January before starting on a nice new up trend. The price then consolidated for a little while from the end of February until the middle of March and then it seemed to start back on the upward trend. When it had passed the most recent high and started a small re-trace I decided it was time to pyramid my position. So I bought in again at 56.82 with my stop set at 47. If my stop was to get hit then I would only have a £2 profit overall but that’s not the plan. With a bit of luck the price will continue to rise but we’ll wait and see what happens there.

Chart Copyright of SpreadCo ©212

Two of my positions have closed out since I last updated. My short in Halfords hit my stop loss at the end of March realising a £15 loss and when the whole market dropped yesterday it took with it my long position in Lloyds realising a £9.90 profit. So I’m still roughly a million pounds shy of becoming a millionaire but one day I’ll get there (keep dreaming Harry!)

Anyway that’s all for now. I’ll be posting my weekly analysis starting this weekend so keep checking back here for it. See you then.

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