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

With the FTSE up again well over 100 pts I wanted to post a quick update on my spread betting positions. Persimmon have shot up around 25 points today 😉 It would seem that the rumour I started the other day might just have paid off. If only it was that simple hey! Most of my other positions are up as well so here’s hoping I’ll be moving stops tonight.

I hope you had a good day trading as well!

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

Well another trading day has been and gone. It’s been a bit of a better day with the FTSE rising 80 odd points. My position in Vodafone stopped out yesterday for a loss of £5. It actually closed out before the end of trading so my slippage concerns weren’t needed after all.

I’ve still had no reply from my spread betting firm (CMC markets) about the northern foods merger. I wonder will they respond tomorrow? It’s certainly not a great advert for their customer service. I’m still considering to move from them. I haven’t decided who too yet but when I do I’ll let you know.

I’ve also decided against purchasing one of Malcolm Pryors DVDs. It’s probably a bit too costly especially with it being Christmas. Maybe I’ll consider it again in the new year.

No new trades today. At the moment there is nothing that seems terribly appealing to me. I’m in no hurry to trade anyway, I know that an opportunity will come along soon.

I was thinking of trying to develop a new strategy, with help from you, if that’s ok. It will mainly be for a bit of fun, but who knows maybe we’ll create a profitable strategy together. I’ve started a new forum post and added the first, of many, criteria for a trade setup. I’ve stipulated that we will buy only when price is above the 200 day EMA (Exponential moving average) and sell only when the price is below the 200 day EMA. Now I’m throwing it open to the floor. Add what you want, It’s on a first come first served basis, so you cant add conflicting conditions. Hopefully it will be a bit of fun and useful for us all to learn a little more on what is required to develop a strategy. Thanks in advance for your participation.

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

Well with the FTSE down another 50 odd points (so far) it’s not looking too rosy. It would seem that the resistance level around 5875 has thus far held true. The question is will the FTSE gain enough momentum go get up past it or will it continue to fall. I suspect it may be the latter. Taking a look at the chart it looks like a potential head and shoulders pattern has emerged or is in the process of emerging. Not a good sign. I suspect we could see a the FTSE trading between the 5000 – 5900 range before it makes a move either way. All that said I really have no idea. I’m only guessing what I think might happen, I don’t know for sure. One person does know what the FTSE is going to do! You’re intrigued now aren’t you. Tony Loton correctly predicted “It will fluctuate. That’s all we know “. Spot on!

Not surprisingly since, the FTSE dropped, some of my positions have dropped as well. Most notably Vodafone. It’s currently very close to it’s stop level. Will it stop out today? Maybe tomorrow? Maybe not at all. I am slightly concerned with it getting so close to it’s stop level that I will suffer slippage yet again. I guess we’ll know tomorrow what happens.

No new trades today. There is nothing that is appealing to me at the moment. There are a few orders that I may look to place. I read Tony Lotons blog post earlier and saw he’s either established new positions or has orders on for the Irish banks. I already have an order for Bank or Ireland set to buy at 14 with a stop set at 4. There is also allied Irish and Irish life which I’m considering placing orders for. They are all close to their all time lows and could potentially bounce of these levels as support. I haven’t decided what to do yet when I have I’ll let you know.

I’ve still had no reply from CMC markets about the Northern foods merger. I have to say I’m suitably unimpressed with their customer service so far. So much so that I am considering to switch spread betting companies to SpreadEx or SpreadCo. Maybe I’ll give Gekko a go as they offer factional bets. I was going to write about CMCs new charting tools that they have just added. It’s a step in the right direction but I personally think they have a long way to go.

Well that’s enough of that rant. Is it really that hard for the spread betting company to e-mail me back. I’ve sent three e-mails so far and I’ve had nothing. I’m just going to keep e-mailing them everyday until I get a response. They can’t ignore me forever, then again maybe they can.

Oh one last thing, I am thinking of possibly treating myself to one of Malcolm Pryors DVDs for X-mas. Does anyone have either of them? If so is it any good? If you have both which one would you recommend? I’m going to start a new forum topic so if you could post a reply there that would great thanks.

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

I can’t believe another day has come and gone. The time today has just flew past. Yet again not too much to report from me trading wise. Debenhams pyramided today. I set a buy order for 70, which was filled at 69.901, slippage yet again. My stop on this trade is quite tight at 68. So far my F&C asset management trade is holding up. The spread bet has just moved into a slight profit, hopefully the current pullback has ended and is now ready for a leap upwards.

3i Infrastructure is up a bit again. I should be looking to move my stop on this position. This trade was a bit of a test, as they all are, of a strategy using the super trend indicator but not my super trend cross strategy. The price was close to the super trend stop price (within 3%) and it has been consolidating for a while. Hopefully the price will continue to rise. Maybe it’s the rumour that I started yesterday about a 3i take over bid? Who knows. Just so you know, I have no idea if there is a take over bid on the table etc. aor am I affiliated with 3i in anyway. The rumour is supposed to be taken in humour. Well would you look at that I’m a poet and I don’t know it.

Taking a look at the FTSE it’s not looking good for it getting past 6000 by the end of the year. I would assume all the EU bailout talk has rattled the markets which is why it’s taken a nose dive. Bad news for my pension, but hey! If I could predict where the FTSE was going to go and when then I’d be a rich man. The sad fact is I can’t and no one can.

I’ve just had a look for super trend cross stocks and there are 27 today. Quite a lot compared to the usual 5 or 6, yesterday there was only 1. Most of them are selling opportunities, hardly surprising considering the FTSE tanked today. I’ve yet to take on a short opportunity using my super trend strategy, maybe today will provide me with an opportunity. I’ll take a look later and let you know.

Personally I still think the FTSE will pass 6000, but before the new year? Well now I’m not so sure. The thing is this correction in the FTSE is long overdue. It hasn’t corrected itself much since the low of around 5100 back in august. I think things could be shaky for the next few days, after which I think things will start to settle down again. But hey what do I know! The FTSE could fall to 3000 tomorrow for all I know.

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