Finding a spread betting strategy that suits your own personal trading needs in no mean feat. Look at me for example. I’ve been actively spread betting for over two years now and I would say I have yet to settle into a spread betting strategy that I know and can trust in. When I say trust in I don’t mean it will give me a winner each and every time, but it will give me bigger winners than losers, thus giving the spread betting strategy a positive expectancy.

 

I think that each and every successful spread bettor will have their own way. Whether it’s an adaptation of someone elses strategy or whether its a strategy of their own creation. The important thing is to have a strategy whatever it may be. In my view trading without a strategy is just gambling, and believe me I’ve been there and done that.

 

The Most Successful Spread Betting Strategy is:

 

Well I wish I knew. The fact is I don’t and the important thing to remember is that just because a strategy works for one person doesn’t mean it will work for another. One things is for certain it will take a while for you to find a strategy and settle into it. I think the important thing is to give any strategy a fair chance. Don’t do what I’ve done ( and am still doing) which is chopping and changing your mind all the time. It’s very easy to become disheartened when you suffer a string of losses and start looking for the next spread betting strategy. Remember losses are a fact of spread betting. As long as your strategy gives you a positive expectancy you should be ok. (Just so were clear I’m not guaranteeing that. It’s certainly possible to trade a strategy with a positive expectancy and end up going bust.)

 

If you are in the market for a new strategy why not compare spread betting strategies using my new comparison table.

 

Spread Betting Action From The Last Few Days.

 

The more regular readers of this blog will know that I try to update on most trading days. Well the last few days I haven’t found the time so now I’m playing catch up. I made one new trade on Tuesday in Shanks. It’s a super trend cross buy at 116.6 with a stop set at 104.7. This is slightly over my 1% risk tolerance but not too much so I’m willing to let it slide. The reason it’s over is because I’ve used a guaranteed stop. I ended up placing the trade in my Capital Spreads account for a few reasons. One of the reasons is IG Index would only let me place a guaranteed stop 20% away from price. This would’ve meant that my stop level would’ve been too far away from my entry and smashed my 1%(ish) rule. Also I’d never really checked before but IG Index widen the spread on guaranteed stop trades, to pay for the guaranteed stop, but from what I could tell with Capital Spreads there wasn’t much of an extra charge. Don’t quote me on that, but from what I could tell Capital Spreads were cheaper than IG Index, in this case at least. I think it highlights the importance of having more than one spread betting firm. You need to check you are getting the best spreads available otherwise your just wasting money unnecessarily. I don’t know about you but I hate paying more for something than I need to.

 

If you are looking for a new spread betting firm, why not compare spread betting companies using my free comparison table. You can view all of them or just select a few using the tick box at the end of the row and hit the compare button at the bottom of the page. You can also read (or write) spread betting reviews of all the companies on my reviews pages.

 

So that’s it. You’re up to date for now. For the more regular readers I plan to make the format of the blog entries more like this from now on. I’ll have an article of some description at the top of the page, with my spread betting action below it. Hopefully You’ll enjoy this new format more. If you have any thoughts please feel free to leave me a comment, e-mail me or leave me a message on the spread betting forum.

 

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

April 7, 2011 by Harry
Category: Spread Betting Strategies