imlach

Does anyone on here make money spread-betting on the financial markets?

Any hints/tips?

Realise this is a can of worms, but interested to hear if anyone is making money right now.

TelBoy

Generally, yes. My tips;

Only get involved if you have a strong feeling for a price, ie you think it represents good value. "Bored" trades are normally bad ones.

Give yourself, and *stick to* stop loss levels. Can't over-emphasise this. Don't become "married" to a position.

Never meet magin calls from the operator, it's their polite way of telling you you're wrong, and/or that your stop loss was too wide. Close the position.

Don't do "revenge" bets - the market has no sense of "sympathy". Sounds daft to even mention it, but trust me, most spread betters have been caught up in the emotion of it when they shouldn't.

And lastly, only do it with money you can afford to lose. It isn't a full time employment option in my opinion, as then the pressure to make money increases dramatically, and you'll do trades you shouldn't.

Hope this helps.

beemerboy

have a look here
http://www.igindex.co.uk

should give you some pointers.

won and lost on the footsie in the past.

do be careful though and only use money you are prepared to spunk

BB

NACRO

To give you an idea of the possible loss/profit. I took this up a short time ago and being a total amateur who doesn't really understand the markets decided to follow the roll of a die as a decision maker.
I decided 1K was all I was prepared to spend. This 1K is now worth £1470- at one point it was down to £670. Certainly beats gambling on track results in terms of returns.

imlach

Quick update - decided to "invest" £200 into Ig Index a week and a half ago.

I have been day-trading the DOW index over the last 9 days, and
my original £200 is now £2595.

Had a few losses along the way, but I don't think that's too bad!
Been going both short and long. The DOW seems to go +-200 points almoste every day, so not hard to find peaks and troughs.

1000% return?!! Nice.

Time to take some profit out, and start again.


[Edited by imlach - 8/22/2003 4:26:16 PM]

Butkus

I don't do financial spread betting, but I trade futures for a living. Futures are leveraged and I think spread betting is too, but I might be wrong.

It sounds like you've done OK over the past few days. My only advice is to only ever risk 3% of your money on any one trade. That way you have to have 30 losers in a row to wipe yourself out. Also, make sure your methodology is sound - you have to have the probability in your favour to profit over the long term. Check your percentage winners to losers, and the size of your winners to your losers. ALWAYS use stops, and always respect them. If it hits your stop, you're out, no questions. Move onto the next trade and forget it. In fact, at the same time as placing your order you should be placing your stop loss.

Best of luck.

imlach

Yep - spread betting is leveraged.
I have been comitted to ALL my stops.

I have probably been slightly lucky, but look at today on the DOW - it opened 100 points up at 9500 cos Intel gave revised good forecasts. Seemed easy to see it would fall - and it did - to 9400!!! I bet £10/point with stop at 9560 and made £600 as I closed out at 9440.

Sometimes it is too easy, but I'm sure I will have bad runs....

12LEE

Butkus is spot on. Money management is key.

My trading system only risks 2% of equity to any trade. It takes a very long time and several expensive mistakes to get into the disciplined mindset that's required to trade successfully. Set your rules and stick to them. Develop a trading system and style that works for you. Paper trade like mad until you are comfortable and confident with the rules.

I started out with IG and now use deal4free as I find that their trading software suits my trading style of using trailing buy stops and trailing sell stops to open positions (yep, I use stops, not limits to open positions as well of course as running stops to protect equity. My system/style waits for a breakout before entering a trade.)

Key reading:
* Reminiscences of a Stock Operator - Edwin Lefevre. I re-read this every couple of years.
* Trading for a Living: Psychology, Trading Tactics, Money Management - Alexander Elder. Great book for understanding your head and approach to trading.
* Bollinger on Bollinger Bands - John Bollinger. I've found this to be the most insightful title for developing some good systems.

Trading's much better than working

[Edited by 12LEE - 8/23/2003 10:07:23 AM]

Butkus

Also read 'Trading in the Zone' by Mark Douglas. This book deals solely with the mental side of things and is good for teaching you how to get the correct mindset.