cookstar

iTrader: (6)

Anyone here do it?

I have started a "practice" account, started with a balance of £2500, in the last 24 hours or so have made around £200.

I have been using a site called DEALBOOK, was basically just to play around with as no actual money was involved.

If I was to start a proper account with REAL money will it work in exactly the same way?

warrenm2

pretty much. I spreadbet all the time. The first and most important skill you need to master is to be unemotional about wins and losses. This is more difficult than it first seems. As a rule you must run winners and cut losses. Most people do it the other way around, and lose big time.

As for companies, I use CMC and IG Index, with the preference to be CMC, their spreads are tighter (which means they are charging you less fees)

cookstar

iTrader: (6)

What do you think the minimum capital would be ideally to get started?

SwissTony

iTrader: (19)

does anyone else bet that their missus will spread it later ????

cookstar

iTrader: (6)

warrenm2

That depends on a lot of factors. What market would you be looking at? Indexes, commodities, small cap, FTSE100, FX, the list is large! Pick an area that you know something about, otherwise you are just tossing a coin.

I would guess about £500 for a beginner though, anything less and the spreads will eat any profit

Jamo

iTrader: (23)

do you mean arbitage betting?

Deep Singh

Thanks to Warren and rmtypeR for some useful links. I'm thinking of starting aswell, with the country about to go into recession there must be some fairly good shorting opportunities?

How do guys manage the bet when you are at work? Do you just set a point where you will take a profit or stop a loss?

Also what sort of time scale do you use? ie do use daily signals for short term movements or do you sometimes short something now that you think may fall over the next few months?

Thanks

warrenm2

I have a medium term system that I look at once a month. Yes I do have stops, but you have to be a bit careful as sometimes spread companies can "spike" the price for 30 secs to trigger your stop, and then "correct" it leaving you out of pocket. Something to watch for.

As for looking at work, both companies I mentioned have web portals, so you can trade, alternatively you can phone them and do the deal over the phone

cookstar

iTrader: (6)

Thanks for the info so far guys, I have been betting over very short times, a few minutes sometimes, getting £15 or £20 here and there, probably the syste, I would stick to. As on a night shift I have 12 hours to sit and watch for the slightest movement.

jaytc2003

iTrader: (1)

i did it briefly in the 90s when euro 96 was on, I did it on the football and it was total points for cards in the game. I did alright out of it made a few hundred in total (only betting say a fiver a point), stopped after the torunament though as although you can win big, you can also lose big.

cookstar

iTrader: (6)

From what little I have read aleady, I gather that they take a large chunk off of a credit/debit card, then refund you if you win, or part refund if you have a slight loss.

So as long as you can afford to loose what they initially take then you shouldn't get any nasty suprises.

I may be wrong though.

warrenm2

you fund an account, either via debit/credit card or BACS. The account balance is then used to determine the size of bet you can have open. I use mid size equities where the margin reqirement is 10%. This means if I want the equivalent of 1000 shares at 2.50/share, I would normally need to stump up 1000 x 2.5 = £2500. The requirement says I need 10%, therefore I need to have £250 in my account to open the bet.

If I only had £250 in there to start with, then the moment the price falls, they will be on the phone to me asking for more money. Go to IG Index - Example: Daily FTSE for an example

spireite

do you have a link to the site