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
Hi Harry,
you gambling it up on IG, a margin call in your first few days on there I bet they love you 😉 Only joking, yes its a pain not being able to move stops out of hours I am not sure why they dont allow it and I forgot to mention that point in my review I posted. As you have found it becomes hard to follow a set strategy if you cant log into their software during market hours. Maybe you’ll need to start trading American instruments like your new member goldenbull, that way you can always be sure you’ll have access to your stops.
If I cant set a stop closer due to guaranteed stop then I usually set an alert at my preferred level to send me an SMS.
Then I quickly log in when I receive the text and close the position out. Its not ideal but I can close before it hits the set stop with the application. A bit like mini slippage if you like.
BTW if you have an iPhone then you can use their app to trail stop loss during work hours and no-one can see what your up to 😉
cheers
Andrew