Now then, I know it’s been over two weeks since I last posted anything and I wonder if anyone will still be reading this blog but I will be resuming normal service again shortly, by that I mean I will be updating regularly again. It’s been a mad few weeks for me with the cat going missing and moving house and all the shenanigans that go along with it but things should be getting back to some state of normal soon and I should hopefully start to get some time to get back into spread betting and updating the blog.
If any one is interested the cat is still missing. I’ve been looking all over for her and I’ve been updating the page I created for her with latest news but for the last week or so the trail seems to have gone cold. I’m going back to Bracknell this weekend to search for her again but the problem is knowing where to look. I calculated that I printed around 1500 flyers in total each one going through someones door. We had a good response from the flyering initially but that seems to have gone quiet since I stopped. Maybe I should get more flyers printed off and do more houses. If anyone has any experience with missing cats and can offer me any advice please do leave a comment below or e-mail me. Anyway, she’ll turn up eventually. Just wish it was sooner rather than later.
With the house move now complete and me handing the keys to the old house back tomorrow I’ve learned some valuable lessons over the last few weeks. Firstly when the cat went missing I should’ve known I would be spending all my free time looking for her and therefore would have no time to trade. Second when moving house I also have no free time and should not trade. Therefore as soon as Kitty went missing I should’ve closed my positions and left the markets alone. I would say I have come through relatively unscathed but things could’ve easily turned out worse. Therefore if I don’t have the time to monitor my positions properly I should not be in the market at all. It’s something that should be in my trading plan, the problem is I don’t really have one written down. I think what I will do when I get back to regular blogging is start a feature for developing a trading plan and develop mine as I update the blog. This way we can all pitch in ideas etc as to what should be included in the plan and then create a template trading plan for future spread betters to use.
I don’t really have the time right now to update properly with my most recent trades so I’ll try and do that later if I get chance. I just wanted to let anyone who still reads this know that I have not gone away, I’ve just taken a short break so I could fully enjoy moving house.
Until next time,
“May the markets be with you!”
Harry,
The Spread Betting Beginner
Since I haven’t updated for a while I thought I should let you all know why and what’s going on.
After my last update one of our cats decided to go missing. I don’t know how many of you out there are pet people but I’m sure you can imagine how distressing it can be to lose pet. She (Kitty) went missing on Thursday 13th October. The last time we seen her was around lunch time. Normally she doesn’t venture to far out the back garden so we have no idea where she could’ve gone. So since shes been missing I’ve been spending all my time pushing leaflets through peoples doors and putting up posters. I even created a page for people to go and view more pictures of Kitty in the hope that it might help. So far we have pretty much had nothing, I’ve arranged it to be in the Bracknell midweek this week, (a free news paper in Bracknell) so hopefully we may get a better response from that. If anyone has any experience with finding a missing cat please do get in touch. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated. I think the worst thing of all is not knowing what has happened to her. If we new something bad had happened then at least we could make peace with it. It really is driving me crazy thinking about the infinite possibilities of where she could be or what could’ve happened.
Anyway enough about that . That’s not really the reason why you read this blog now is it. The thing is with the cat going missing and moving house this coming weekend I’ve had no time for spread betting. I’ve been keeping my eye on the market and I see the FTSE is now above the 5400 resistance level it was struggling with. The question is can it now turn that old resistance level into support and continue upwards? I guess we’ll find out on that one. One of my positions has stopped out since last I wrote. DRAX rallied over 50 points in one day a few days ago taking out my stop loss. I’ve yet to check it out fully as my mind has been elsewhere but I think I made a bit of a loss on DRAX overall. If I recall I also had to pay the dividend as I held the position over the dividend date. Normally you would receive a dividend but since this was a short position I had to pay the 15 or so points drop,(or rather I didn’t see them as a profit). How I said I’ve taken my eye of the ball these past few weeks so I’ll have to look into it further as things start to settle down after the move at the weekend. I only hope the cat comes back before we move.
Until next time,
“May the markets be with you!”
Harry,
The Spread Betting Beginner
Well I’m back. I’ve actually been back for a few days but I have come straight back to a mountain of work so I have been beavering away to get on top of that. Plus the misses has got a new job so we are about to move house and to top it all off we have just brought a house in Spain so I have that to deal with as well. So it’s a busy time for me at the moment and therefore I will be updating the blog as and when I get the chance. Don’t worry though cause I’m not going anywhere I’ll always be right here should you need me. For all the people that e-mailed me while I was away I will respond to you as soon as I can so please do bare with me during this busier than normal period.
So why have we brought a house in Spain? Well we’ve actually brought it in conjunction with my parents. Myself and my father were discussing the house prices in Spain back in June 2010 and decided that we would look into it further. So 15 months or so later we have found a house that suits us and our budget and decided to go for it. The only issue I really have with buying a place out there is the exposure we now face in the GBP/EUR Forex market. The day before we agreed to buy the property the exchange rate was up around 1.17 then the BOE (Bank of England) decided to announce another round of QE (Quantitative Easing) which clearly sent the wrong message to the world and the rate has been gradually dropping ever since. Although we are concerned about the exchange rate we did all out budget calculations based on a rate of 1.13 so fingers crossed we will be ok. We have most of the money in place and I transferred some today at a rate of 1.1365 to reduce our exposure to the fluctuations. I’ve been keeping an eye on the rate for a while and it looked like there may be a potential up trend about to get under way but who can say for sure? I know I can’t. Hopefully between now and when we have to change the rest of the money the rate will improve and save us money on our original figures. I guess we’ll find out what will happen in due course.
I decided while I was away to leave my positions open. This didn’t really make much difference to be honest. Drax has fallen quite a bit so that’s good as I’m short but BWIN has also fallen which is bad news as I’m long. Drax fell further so overall I’m making a profit. My Henderson group trade was still open when I got back so I moved my stop according to my strategy and the position closed out the next day. I haven’t even looked for new trades since I’ve been back as I’ve been so busy with work, looking for a new house and taking care of buying a place in Spain I just haven’t had the chance. Still towards the middle of next month things should quiet down a bit so spread betting beginner service should return to normal around that time. I’ll still be updating the blog when I get chance but it won’t be back to my regular Wednesday/weekend updates until mid November.
I kept my eye on the FTSE while I was away and no real surprises there. The FTSE dropped to its support level around 4800 before rising back to 5400 before starting to fall back again. It’s currently trading around 5420 at time of writing so we’ll wait and see if the 4800-5400 trading range is about to be broken. I have to say I’m sceptical but we’ll wait and see.
Right I think that’s you lot up to date with my life and my spread betting. I’m going to try and get some time to look for new trades today and tomorrow so you never know I might have some new ones to report later in the week.
Until next time,
“May the markets be with you!”
Harry,
The Spread Betting Beginner
Sorry for not posting an update at the weekend as promised. I’m going away on Wednesday and time was eaten up getting things ready for then. Still here’s my update with the very latest events.
So what has happened since last Wednesday? Well Thursday saw the FTSE 100 fall 250 points in a day yet again confirming the 5400 is level as resistance, then on Friday it fell below 5000 only to recover and confirming 5000 as support. I have no idea which way we are going from here, it seems the sideways market will be continuing for a while yet.
After the massive falls of Thursday there were plenty of opportunities for Friday. I made one new short trade in Drax at 491.22 which fell initially but rose in sympathy with the FTSE 100. Today it has done the same do far hitting 500. Usually these round numbers can act as support and resistance so I’m hoping for a resistance level to hold true here. On checking the chart it seems there is potential for a resistance level at 507 ish. If this is to hold true then this would be in keeping with my theory on how prices tend to act at these round numbers. If y theory stands up the price should rise slightly above 500, then fall back below and continue to fall from there. Knowing my luck this will probably be one of the cases where this doesn’t happen but I guess we’ll find out.
As I mentioned at the start I’m going away for 10 days on Wednesday. It’s time for my well earned annual holiday which I am so looking forward to. It’s been a good year but with work, trading and updating the website it has sometimes felt that I’m constantly working. I wont have access to a PC or internet where I am going so I will not be able to update any blog posts etc. I have to say I am looking forward to the break and hopefully the weather will be nice too.
With not having access to PC for so long I am thinking to close out all my positions before I go. I have definitely decided on that yet but I think it would probably be for the best. Since I have no way to update stops or close out trades manually I will possibly be leaving my exposed to the markets. That said most of my positions are shorts and I only have a few open so if the markets were to tank again it could work out well. I’m undecided on this at the moment and I don’t know what to do for the best. I guess I’ll have a think and see what I want to do tomorrow. With all my trades being a medium term view I think I may leave them open. I mean you wouldn’t sell all your shares you bought as an investment just because you were going away for a week would you. That said I’m not really investing per se. It’s more trading/investing or travesting(new word I just made up). Anyway I’ll have a think and see what I want to do.
I was reading an article on BBC news today about automated trading and how it’s mathematicians that rule the markets these days. It’s interesting that banks and trading firms all want to employ qualified mathematicians with hindsight I wish I’d done a pure maths degree rather than the networking and communications one that I ended up doing. I’d love to go back and pay more attention to the statistics lessons that I did as part of my Maths A-level. The problem is we can’t go back we can only move forward. I think brushing up on my statistics could be on the cards in the near future. It will certainly help me with my understanding of all the technical analysis information there is out there.
Speaking of technical analysis Offthelip has very kindly helped me out with some information on RSI – Relative Strength Index in return for which I’m sending him a copy of Malcolm Pryors Second Edition of the Financial Spread Betting Handbook which is courtesy of Global Investor Bookshop – for all your financial book needs. The plan is to add a new section to the site dedicated to technical analysis, explaining construction of indicators and oscillators and how they can be used in trading. It’s going to be a little while before I can get it all up and running but I’ll add what I can when I can. For now you can read all about the Relative Strength Index.
Ok so that’s probably going to be my last update until I get back of Holiday if to you want to e-mail me you can but I will probably not be able to respond until I get back. Happy trading everyone and I hope the markets are kind to you while I’m away.
Until next time,
“May the markets be with you!”
Harry,
The Spread Betting Beginner
I had a message from my bank a few weeks ago that I have only just got around to reading. Since us Spread Bettors are in the business of investing/trading REAL money I thought the information might be useful to others so I decided to make a few minor modifications and share the information with everyone. The information is all about Boiler Room Scams and how we can try to avoid being suckered in by them.
It contained some useful information about potential Boiler Room Scams so I thought I’d share it with you all to highlight the threats around so-called Boiler Room Scams. There’s no need to worry but as the saying goes, forewarned is forearmed.
What is a Boiler Room?
Boiler Rooms are businesses that use high-pressure sales techniques to sell ‘sure thing’ investments with the promise of massive returns. In fact, what they’re selling is worthless stock in often unquoted companies that are either overvalued, or simply don’t exist at all.
How they work
Boiler Room operatives generally cold-call their targets, using phone numbers from publicly available shareholder lists. Because it’s against the law for investors to cold-call in the UK, they tend to be based abroad (often Spain, Switzerland, or the US) where they’re beyond the jurisdiction of the Financial Services Authority (FSA). They can approach anyone, anywhere.
Boiler Room techniques
A Boiler Room can look and sound legitimate. They may mention companies you’ve heard of, give themselves a UK address or phone number, and have a professional looking website. They’re notoriously persistent, and can hound a victim for months in the hope of a sale, catching out even seasoned investors. According to the FSA, Boiler Room Scam victims lose on average £20,000. Remember, as a general rule, if an opportunity sounds too good to be true, then it almost certainly is.
What to do if you’re called
If you think you’re being targeted by a Boiler Room, the FCA’s advice is not to worry about being polite, just hang up. You should then dial the FCA contact centre on 0845 606 1234 with as much detail as you can remember. You’ll find more information about Boiler Rooms on the FSA website www.fca.org.uk
