Well it’s mid week again and so it’s time for my Wednesday spread betting update. You may remember me saying I took a punt on ARM last week. Well the price did indeed fall back below 600p and so I tightened my stop to just above my entry of 578, and low and behold the price fell just below my entry before continuing to rise to 619p. The problem was with an absence of any strategy I was merely guessing where to put stops and when to move them etc. therefore the trade was probably exited prematurely. The important thing is I didn’t lose money. I didn’t really make any either but hey it’s better than a loss. From now on I’m going to try and stick to my strategy. If there are no trades for a while the so be it.
I pyramided an existing position the other day. I entered a new short trade on Henderson group so I’m now short £2 per point. My other long positions are still hanging in there. One is slightly in profit and the other is slightly in loss. I keep moving their associated stop levels in line with my strategy so we’ll see how they pan out.
Recently I haven’t been checking as often for new trades and I’m not really sure why. I seem to have lost my routine of checking everyday. It’s certainly something I need to address, I know I say there is no such thing as a missed opportunity but if you don’t even look for them then you will miss every opportunity. I think the best thing for me to do is run my stock screener at the start of each day and take a look through and potential trading opportunities.
The FTSE seems to be all over the place at the moment. I see it has closed down today. It seems that the recent 5400 resistance level has held up so far, but that really means nothing. Price could easily break through it, then there’s the question of it being a false break out etc. Man this is hard work sometimes. Just when you think you are starting to get the hang of things something can happen that makes you realise how little you actually know. I don’t think I’ll ever understand why the markets move how they do, let alone be able to try and predict where they might be headed. Still I’m not aiming to predict what is going to happen. I want to look at what is happening and trade accordingly. I think the absence of any kind of up or down trend is really starting to kick in with me. With not really having a sideways strategy not many trading opportunities are coming my way. Sill it’s all a learning curve and it only goes to highlight that I still have a long way to go in my spread betting education.
Right that’s you guys up to speed. I’ve noticed a few people have registered for the spread betting forum however if I don’t think the username or e-mail looks legitimate then I will not activate the account. If you have registered please contact me and I will get your account activated.
Let’s hope the next few days provide us all with plenty of trading opportunities. I’ll update you again at the weekend.
Until next time,
“May the markets be with you!”
Harry,
The Spread Betting Beginner
Well here we are, it’s Saturday the markets are closed so not much to talk about. Wrong! Plenty to talk about so we’ll start with a summary of my own trading since my last update in Wednesday. Well not much has happened on that front. So far my ‘punt’ on ARM seems to be paying off. It was well over 30 points in profit before slipping back slightly yesterday. I suspect the fall back is because it’s just broken back through the £6 barrier. What always seems to happen around these round numbers such as 100 or 1000 is price goes up through them, then falls back below them before rising back through them again and then continues to rise. I have no Idea why this always seems to happen but that is what I have observed in my few years that I’ve been trading. It’s not an absolute sure fire fact, if it was then I would just trade these and make a fortune, however more often than not that’s what seems to happen.
My other open positions are just ticking over. There hasn’t been much by way of trading opportunities that match my strategy criteria so I’m still waiting. I mentioned on Wednesday about trying to create a sideways trading strategy. I have a little time today and tomorrow so I think I’m going to look into that further. If you have any suggestions for me please do share them over in the spread betting forum. I’ve created a new topic in the spread betting strategies section, any help or suggestions are welcome. It would be nice to bounce ideas off each other. I’m a firm believer that if we share ideas and try to help each other out we can all become better traders. Please do joint the forum and take part. If you do register please e-mail me also as I will need to activate your account. This is a necessary step to keep the spammers out.
Moving on. What about the FTSE hey. Nearly back to 5400. Will it pass this level? I have no idea but I just don’t really see how it can. With all the doom and gloom of the Eurozone etc is a sustained rise really on the cards? In fact you may have noticed that Chris has been commenting on is post that he wrote a while ago. He thinks that the FTSE will spend the next few months trading in the range 5500-4800. I have to say I’m inclined to agree. I’ve also started a topic over on the forum to discuss the FTSE and where it might be heading. I would love to hear your thoughts on where you think the FTSE is heading. You can join the conversation at the topic What will the FTSE 100 do Tomorrow? It’s just me an MelSummer that are discussing the issue at the moment but the more the merrier in my view.
Ok so that’s about it for my end of week summary. It’s going to be an interesting week next week, with the FTSE almost at it’s resistance level where will it go? Will a break out occur? I guess we’ll all find out next week. See you back here Wednesday, and I hope to see you over on the forum in the mean time. If you would like to register you can do so here.
Until next time,
“May the markets be with you!”
Harry,
The Spread Betting Beginner
So here it is the eagerly awaited, first of many, Wednesday updates. It’s probably going to be fairly short and sweet as I only updated two days ago but there is some important stuff for regular and new readers.
Firstly I’m trying to get more of an interest in the spread betting forum going again. If you have been on the forum before or are already a member you may have noticed the registered users have dropped from over 400 to 17. This is because 383 members either hadn’t posted anything or were just there to try and spam the forum. I have remedied this by removing the automatic approval via e-mail and now I have to approve all new members. Therefore if you want to joint you need to register, then e-mail me to let me know your user name. I will then activate your account. I’m sorry this is such a palaver, but it’s the easiest solution to stop the spammers. They have been trying to register the last few days but I haven’t been approving them. How I said you will need to contact me for me to approve you. If you have registered in the last few days and would like to be approved contact me and I will sort it out for you.
Existing members may have noticed there are now a lot more forums than there was originally. I’m trying to diversify so that it’s more of a general trading forum, rather than just spread betting. You can now discuss, FOREX, CFDs, Indices & Shares. I’ve started a new topic discussing the FTSE 100 and where it might be heading. So please do feel free to join in the conversation. Everyone is welcome, except for the spammers of course.
Onto my own spread betting activity. Well since Monday there hasn’t been much. There haven’t been many trading opportunities according to my strategy so I’m waiting again. I’m thinking about adopting a new trading strategy. I currently only have the one and although I think it works well for me it’s mainly a trend following strategy and at times like this, when the overall market is going sideways, trading opportunities are few and far between. Therefore I need a sideways trading strategy. Something to see me through the non-trending times. I don’t really know where to start with this and I know the last time we developed a new trading strategy over on the forum it went quite well. Therefore I have started a new topic based on the same idea. The only thing this time is that it’s a strategy for sideways markets only. If you have any ideas or any strategies that you might like to share please do over on the forum topic entitled “A Spread Betting Strategy for Sideways Markets“.
I did make one new trade today. It was a punt based on a news article I read. I saw that Microsoft have unveiled their new Windows 8 operating system and it’s designed to run on products containing ARM chips. Therefore I would think ARM should do well based on this. It will be a while before Microsoft roll out Windows 8 but when they do ARM should be laughing, if they’re not already that is. So I decided to buy ARM at 578 with a stop set at 555. ARM seemed to top out at around 630 before all the recent market turmoil hit, which saw them drop back to lows of around 445. Since then they seem to have formed a new short term up trend which I think could head all the way back to 630. How I said this really is a punt but I thought I’d have a go and see. I won’t be making a habit of this, having a punt, hence the need for a new sideways strategy. I’d much prefer to know where I’m getting in and where I should be getting out. With ARM I know where I got in and I know where my initial stop is but I’m not sure how and when I will be moving it. I think I will probably trail it at the low of the last X days for now.
Anyway that’s it from me for this update. I wish you all the very best of luck with your own trading and I will be updating again at the weekend. I will be over on the forum throughout the week so I hope to see you there.
Until next time,
“May the markets be with you!”
Harry,
The Spread Betting Beginner
Well it’s been a while since I posted so I though I had better update you with proceedings. Firstly my spread bets are just ticking over. I’ve been adjusting stops where necessary and doing nothing otherwise. I’ve been checking for new trading opportunities but none that fit my strategy are coming along so I’m waiting yet again. That’s about it as far as trading goes, but there is more news.
If you tried to access the site on Friday night/ Saturday Morning you may have not seen what you would expect if you could access the site at all. I have switched my web hosting provider as my previous one was too slow. However the new one seems lightening quick to me, I hope you all notice the same difference. Hopefully this means no more waiting for ages for pages to load and a much quicker navigation of the entire site. If you do have an problems as always you can let me know and I will do my best to resolve them.
So with switching hosts it’s zapped all my time, however it’s done now and hopefully I should be able to get back to some sort of normality. I’m hoping to update at least twice a week on Wednesdays and at the weekend. It should be more hopefully but it depends.
So there you have it, you’re all upto date with what’s happening in the spread betting beginners world, hopefully more spread betting to come.
Until next time,
“May the markets be with you!”
Harry,
The Spread Betting Beginner
Just when you thought it was safe to go long, boom the FTSE100 falls by 190 points. I have to say that I obviously started to get nervous at the end of last week, hence the few long positions I placed. I thought maybe the recent down move was over but now I’m not so sure. It could still turn out to be the case of a sideways movement rather than a new down trend but we can’t say for sure yet.
Obviously my two new long positions have taken a hammering over the last two trading days. I am toying with the idea to ditch them but I know if I do that it will be sods law that the markets will turn around again. At the moment it’s looking like they will be a couple of whipsaw losses because of the recent bounce in price but it’s too early to say. My only saving grace is that I still have one short position open. Henderson Group fell slightly today making me a few pounds to balance out the losses from my long positions. It’s also sods law that Aberdeen Asset management closed out last week after the upturn only to drop around 8 points today. Still onwards and upwards, we have to take the rough with the smooth.
I’m going to try and get more of a routine going with these blog posts. At the moment there a bit hap hazard and don’t occur at regular times. I’m thinking to maybe blog twice a week on a Wednesday and then again at the weekend (probably Saturday). If you have any thoughts or preference on this so let me know. After all I do write these blog entries as much for you guys as for myself. With only blogging twice a week come what may I will be trying to spend more time expanding the site. I want to add some good educational material on technical analysis. It’s going to take me a while as these thing always do but if there is anyone out there that would like to help out you are more than welcome to do so. I can offer Malcolm Pryors Second edition of his financial spread betting hand book to anyone that helps. If you’re interested get in touch and I’ll give you more information.
Ok that’s all from me. I’ll try and post again on Wednesday if not it will be the weekend and then every Wednesday and weekend after that.
Until next time,
“May the markets be with you!”
Harry,
The Spread Betting Beginner
