Again not a massive amount to report on the trading front today. I set a new buy order for yell at 10p with a stop set at 2p. I wanted to set no stop but CMC wouldn’t allow a stop set at 0p, so I opted for 2p instead. Why not 1p I hear you ask well I say to that why not 2p? There’s no real reason behind the stop level, although if it starts to move in my favour I will probably adjust the level to the super trend value.

I’ve also placed a new order for F&C. I’ve set a buy in at 72 with a stop set at 69. The stop level on my current open position is set to 69 currently locking in a potential profit of £15.71. With the new £3 risk on the table it reduces the potential profit to £12.71. There is no guarantee that this trade will even execute and the price could continue it’s recent rise, which hopefully it does. This is more of an experiment in pyramiding for me than anything else. I think the extra £3 risk is worth taking to make the most of any potential rise.

There really isn’t much else for me to report today. Thanks again to bigAl for posting his latest update, you can read it here. I know he’s probably feeling a little lonely over on the forum so please join him. It’s completely free and you can share your spread betting wisdom with others.

Spread betting DVDs

Oh and if your looking X-mas presents early you can always search amazon below to find them.

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

Sorry for no post yesterday. I was working late and by the time I’d finished I’d had enough. Not that much to report on the trading front. Persimmon was my star performer climbing around 25pts on the day. It closed at around 360 so currently around £21 in the black. I’ve moved my stop slightly to 335 just below the recent low around 336. This reduces my monetary risk on this trade to £4.25. I would love to move my stop in closer but I would risk stopping out too early, I want to stop in and make as much out of the trade as I can.

Moving stops has always been something the I have found to be tricky. Take this trade for example. Since it’s moved into a decent profit I’ve moved my stop to below the most recent low. This makes sense. If the trade continues to rise rapidly as it has yesterday, then where do I move my stop. Do I trail it below the low of the last few days? I know in Malcolm Pryors book winning spread betting strategies he suggests, “When the trade reaches the half way point(between support and resistance) trail the stop below the low of the last two weeks.” The thing is if the price continued to rocket the way it has the trade could peak and I could miss the boat.

Making these comments about stops has made me realise that this is something that I seriously need to work on. I’m clearly trading here without a fully defined strategy behind the trade. As we all know trading without a clearly defined strategy is a sure fire way to the poor house, “Failure to plan, is a plan to FAIL!” I think this weekend will I will be spending some time on getting the strategies that I trade clearly defined. If they are not clearly defined then I cannot trade them. Simple as that.

Moving on to other news in the world of financial spread betting. The FTSE 100 looks to me as if it’s all set to be touching or passing the 6000 mark before the year is out. I don’t know what other peoples thoughts are on this but looking at the chart I think the recent upward move is set to continue. I’d love to be able to trade the FTSE 100 but my spread betting funds just don’t justify the trade. I guess that I at least have one thing right in my trading. I think my money management is spot on. In fact I think if it wasn’t I would not be trading today.

Anyway back to the FTSE 100. I do have some money invested in the FTSE, although it’s the FTSE all share not the FTSE 100. I have a self invested pension. There are several funds which I can choose from one of which is a FTSE all share index tracker. I know it’s not exactly the same as the FTSE 100, but the charts tend to pan out roughly the same. It’s not an ideal trading solution. If I move the funds it takes a few days for the trade to execute, so I can’t go moving it in and out on a daily basis. What it does enable me to do is look for the longer term trends and move it in and out accordingly. I moved it out in April 2008 and back in in April 2009. I tried more recently to move it out in April and back in in Jun/July. I wasn’t as successful this time and I think I ended up losing more than if I had just left it alone but hey you can’t win them all. Hopefully if I can sit out most of the down swings and get most of the upward moves then this will grow my pension nicely. I think in 2009 I managed to grow it by around 25% if my memory serves correct. I would be nice if I could achieve this every year, but the reality will be somewhat different I’m sure.

I’ll possibly post again at the end of the day with a brief update on how my trades have progressed.

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

Not too much to report on the trading front. 888 stopped out yesterday for an £0.08 loss. My new position in EAGA is about £5 in profit so fingers crossed for that one. Debenhams has slipped back slightly from it’s high of around 77. It would seem that Debenhams is pulling back a little from it’s recent upward swing. I have placed an order to buy in another £1 per point if the price re-traces to 70p. I’ve set a stop for this new order at 69p so it would be risking £2 of the £7 I already have locked in.

This potential pyramid is a new addition to my super trend strategy. If the price retraces within 3% of the stop out price then as long as the position is enough in profit I can pyramid the position. I think I may need to think more about how much the position should be in profit before attempting the pyramid. Maybe I am being too keep to pyramid again here, but I think it’s worth a try. The trade may not even execute as the price needs to fall 5 points or so before it does. I’ll keep you posted with what happens.

Thanks to Alan for his comments again the other day, and for posting on the forum. I certainly would be interested in reading his trading journal. I think the more shared experience the better.

It’s a short post today as I’ve been busy with work and will not get much time this evening either. If I get time I’ll have a look for some new trades later, but the way it’s going at the moment I doubt I’ll get the time. If I move my stops you can check out my open positions and see them there.

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

Spread Betting Beginner