Category: Spread betting firms

I opened a new spread betting account with Spread Co the other day. I’ve yet to fund it and start trading but I’m thinking I’ll move the funds from my old CMC Markets Market Maker account to the new Spread Co account. I met them at the Traders Expo last Friday and got chatting with them. Their Saturn trading platform is developed by them which includes the charts they have on offer. Since I’m more of a technical guy rather than a fundamentalist I may try and push them to develop their charting package. I don’t know what they offer at the moment as I’ve yet to look at it in any great detail but when I do I’ll be noting down the things that I think are missing and that I would like to see more of. If any of you out there use Spread Co and have suggestions for changes or improvements send them to me and I’ll make sure Spread Co know about them. Oh and don’t forget you can review Spread Co on my reviews pages.

Spread Betting Action

I’ve made one new spread bet today. I sold Aegis group at 134.78 with a stop set at 147.5. Yet again this breaks my 1% risk rule however, I should be buying out of the position before the stop gets hit so it should be fine. This is a Vince Stanzione sell. I checked for any super trend trades but they were all too rich for my blood. They would’ve seen me smash my 1% rule by way more than the 0.27% I’ve broken it by on this trade.

I’ve placed the trade in my CMC Markets account as my IG index account has too many open positions and I don’t have sufficient funds to make the trade. It actually worked out better as I’ve placed the trade with a non guaranteed stop(which saved me money) and I think the spread was tighter. Obviously I didn’t need to place a guaranteed stop on the trade anyway but ever since I’ve opened an account with IG Index I’ve placed guaranteed stops on most, if not all, my orders. I don’t really know why I’ve always used guaranteed stops. I guess it was to eliminate slippage and obviously the safety they offer should the worst happen to the company in question. That said with most of my trades being on the top 300 UK companies you would think they would be less likely to go bust than some of the smaller AIM listed companies. Still I guess you never know. I think from now on I’ll try and take a quick look at the company in question and try to gauge if I think a guaranteed stop is necessary or not.

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

Exclusive reader offer from Capital Spreads

You lucky, lucky people. As you are probably aware I have been trying to strike up deals with spread betting firms, hence all the ads on the site for the various firms. I have just recently negotiated a deal with Capital Spreads and I have an exclusive offer for spread betting beginner readers. That’s right it’s for you lucky people only. It’s an offer that you will not find anywhere else.

Capital Spreads Offer

So what’s the offer. Well the first 5 readers to click the capital spreads offer link above, open an account fund with £250+ and make 5 opening non-Equity trades will qualify for a £100 top up. You can read the full terms and conditions here. Unfortunately this offer is only open to new accounts to Capital spreads, so if you already have an account with them, like me, you don’t qualify, Boo!

Once again you have to click the capital spreads offer link then open an account to qualify. If you just go to the capital spreads home page and open an account you will not receive the offer. Similarly if you open an account after clicking the terms and conditions link you will not qualify. You need to click the capital spreads offer link and open an account to qualify for the offer. Hopefully that’s clear enough.

If this offer goes well it could be the first of many. If you do have an account with capital spreads I’m also in talks with other firms so keep checking back to find out what latest offers I have for you over the coming weeks and months.

Todays Spread Betting Action

The day started so full of promise. Most of my trades were up or level and Persimmon was up to 447 at one point. That’s 36 points up. Sadly it’s dropped back a bit to the 430 level, which is still up around 19 points. Still if it continues like this for the foreseeable future I’ll be a happy spread better. I’ve had a quick look for new trades but nothing is jumping out at me so I’m happy to wait. My new position in Punch Taverns is still under water but hey I set my stop at 59 for a reason. If it stops out it stops out. Losses are a fact of life for a spread better. Doesn’t mean I like them but I’ve learnt to live with them as long as they are in a controlled manner.

Debenhams has dropped back today. The recent upwards movement that started back in August seems to have stalled and a potential trading range of around 69-77 has opened up. With my stop set at 69 I’m slightly nervous that I will be stopped out and price will rise back to 77. That said I am not adjusting my stop level. It’s set to 69 for a reason and if I get stopped out so be it. The price could bounce back upwards but it could also continue to fall and that’s what my stop is for to stop a loss before it gets out of hand.

Until next time,
“May the markets be with you!”
Spread betting beginner

Sorry for the short but sweet post yesterday. With Christmas fast approaching time is tight. Work is busy as well and I don’t see that changing for the near future. If the posts get a little shorter, or more boring (hopefully not) please bear with me. With the site being a hobby for me I can’t really justify spending time on it at the expense of something else in my life. Maybe that will change one day. Always the dreamer hey!

If you want to help me to get more time to spend on the site you can. All you need to do is, when you want to open a new spread betting account is check myspread betting offers first. If I have the company listed click the link and open an account, it’s that simple. I only have spreadEx, SpreadCo and paddy power so far but this will increase over the coming months so keep checking the spread betting offers page. There’s a link to it on the right hand site of the page.

On to todays spread betting action. With the FTSE rattling up around 40 points or so I’m asking the question “Will the FTSE pass 6000 before the end of the year?” Well as always I have no idea but if it can pass the most recent high of 5900ish I think it has a good chance. Will it be over 6000 at the end of the year? Again who knows. I suspect it will pass 6000 fall below 6000 before passing 6000 and continuing upwards. It always seems to do this around the big round numbers. Take a look at the price action back in may. It closed below 5000, before rising above 5000, before falling back below 5000. Ok so the price didn’t continue to fall but the same pattern seems to emerge around these large round numbers. Just so you know I’m not suggesting this a trading strategy or any kind of advice it’s merely an observation I’ve made over the past months/years that I’ve been spread betting.

Most of my positions fell back a little today with one big exception. Persimmon rattled up over 30pts to close the day at 416.79 (according to my spread betting firm). That puts me a whopping 76.79 points in profit. I have to say I had itchy fingers again today. I could quite easily take the profit and run, but I wont. I’ve made that mistake all too many times in the past. Exit the trade too early and miss out on big profits. My most recent occurrence of doing this was with ARM holdings. Although it’s not listed in my spread betting trades, I brought ARM back on 12/2/2010 at 201. They closed today just under 400. That would be nearly 200pts profit and if I’d pyramided along the way who knows where I would’ve ended up. Actually you can see my open positions on my old site. Scroll all the way to the bottom of the page.

ARM holdings the one that got away. I actually closed the position to free up funds in the account with a view to re-opening it again. Big mistake, as soon as I closed it the stock continued to rise and I missed the boat. Still it’s all been a valuable learning experience.

I’m hoping I’ll be moving stops tonight again. I’ve decided I will trail Persimmon at 1.5xATR until I have the target price of 410 locked in. After this I am going to let my stop widen to the super trend value to make the most of any further price move. If I get the opportunity to pyramid along the way I will but only according to my super trend strategy. Funny how this started as a support level buy and could end up following my super trend strategy rules. Oh the joy of spread betting.

Right that’s it for today. I still have some work to finish before the end of the day. How I said if you want to help me get more time to spend on the site, all you need to do is visit spread betting offers when you are thinking of opening a new spread betting account. If the company is listed click the link and open an account. I’m hoping to get some exclusive spread betting beginner reader offers for you. If I do get any I’ll let you know. If I start getting more visitors there is more chance of getting good deals for you so tell your friends, family and even the dog. Unless your a cat person of course.

Until next time,
“May the markets be with you!”
Spread betting beginner

I have a bit of a confession to make. I’ve kind of taken my eye off my trades this past few days. With updating the site, work family etc my spread betting has been neglected. Fortunately it’s turned out ok so far but it could’ve easily been much worse and still could get worse. It’s something that I need to sort out for myself. I think I need to give more time to my spread betting and update the site when I get the time. Don’t worry I’ll still be blogging regularly but adding more to the rest of the site might take a bit of a back seat for now.

So what has happened. I have a new position in Persimmon. I thought I’d posted previously that I placed a buy order at 340 with a stop at 330, but I can’t seem to find it. Anyway I placed the order and it executed on the 23rd of November. I checked the charts today and the super trend value is 337.06 so I’ve moved my stop to 336. So I currently have a £4 risk on this position. It’s a support buy, pretty much the same as I did previously. If I had been checking the charts properly recently I would’ve also seen that It came close to the super trend level which is also a buy signal for me. Anyway so far it’s turned out ok. I think it’s currently £17 in profit but I have an open risk of £4 and I will trail the stop based on the super trend value. Here’s hoping price recovers to its 2007 high of around 1500 a share. Not very likely but hey, you never know.

Other than that I think the rest are taking care of themselves. My pyramids are holding up so far and I’m hoping before too long I’ll be moving stops on them to start locking in profit.

I’m actually quite surprised that most of my positions have held up today considering the FTSE has tanked nearly 100 points so far today. Maybe I’ve spoken too soon. I hope not!

Oh and in case you were wondering if I’ve heard back from my spread betting firm (CMC markets) about the Northern foods merger question. You probably know the answer already. No! Not a great advert for their customer service I have to say. Still maybe there is a reason behind it. Maybe my e-mails are caught by their SPAM filter. I don’t know. When I know more I’ll let you know.

Have a great weekend everyone. I’ll catch you all Monday. Unless I see you in the forum before then. Thanks again to everyone joining in the new spread betting strategy topic. It’s certainly got people thinking.

Until next time,
“May the markets be with you!”
Spread betting beginner

Another fairly quiet day of trading, well for me anyway. Only really one thing to report and that is my F&C asset management position pyramided today. I’m now long £2 per point with both stops set at 69. The new position was set to buy in at 72 but again good old CMC markets suffered slippage. Still as long as it’s in my favour then I don’t mind it. They’re probably trying to compensate for the massive slippage I faced in EAGA a few weeks ago. Anyway, the new F&C position opened at 71.802. The position is currently sitting around a 10p loss. Hopefully the recent upswing will continue and present more pyramiding opportunities with it along the way. Only time will tell.

3i Infrastructure has finally started to move. It’s currently making new highs not seen since September 2008. Obviously the price has spent the last few months consolidating and is hopefully now gearing up for a new move. I just hope it’s an upward move. This buy was more of an experiment than anything else. The price was close to the super trend stop value and I thought I’d give it ago. The stock could be at the price it’s worth but who knows. Maybe the recent move is because of a take over rumour, I wish it was. Hey here’s an idea lets start a rumour that 3i Infrastructure is about to be the target for a take over bit at £10 per share. I wonder would that work? Doubtful, still would be nice if it did.

Thanks to everyone with their continued support via e-mail and over on the forum. I really do appreciate it. Offthelip thanks for the e-mail I will get to your request as soon as I get chance. If your wondering what the request was it’s for my super trend construction page. It’s not quite finished yet but it will be soon. When it’s done I’ll post a link on the blog to let you know.

One other thing before I go, I stumbled across spread betting forum . Net today. I’ve posted a request over on my own spread betting forum if anyone can help me let me know.

Until next time,
“May the markets be with you!”
Spread betting beginner