tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-84359677661943581252025-11-26T20:36:44.306+00:00Financial spread betting is a potentially tax-free way of buying and selling stocks, indices, commodities and currencies; more cost-effective than share dealing in a traditional stockbroker account, and not necessarily any more dangerous. Most spread bettors lose money, and many give up after only six months, but you don't have to be one of them if you practice "Better Spread Betting". Includes tips from spread betting industry experts as well as from popular financial authors and publishers.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger197125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8435967766194358125.post-82824523008108918482013-12-15T14:34:00.000+00:002013-12-15T14:34:37.440+00:00

Three Steps to Better Spread Betting: 1) Buy the Better Spread Betting Book or e-Book 2) Sign up with  IG, InterTrader, ETX Capital, or SpreadEx  3) Subscribe to Better Spread Betting by Email (I won't tell anyone else, and you can cancel anytime) or Follow on Twitter Disclaimer: this posting is for general education only; it is not trading advice.

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16263332800570017097noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8435967766194358125.post-66374320890047659602013-12-04T07:37:00.000+00:002013-12-15T14:36:02.680+00:00

For this week's trade-of-the-week posting (yes, I know they're monthly) I thought I'd bring you the next installment of the AGA Saga. Things have gone from strength to strength as the price of this stock has appreciated, as evidenced by the chart below: Sorry it's so small due to a technical hitch; but anyway the two horizontal lines show the original entry price at 60.6 (lower line) and

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8435967766194358125.post-14071091737866073742013-11-01T10:40:00.000+00:002013-12-15T14:37:42.801+00:00

Remember the last Trade of the Week on Albermarle and Bond? In the end it stopped out at a profit as per the position trading strategy. But the trade on its peer H&T Group that was placed around the same time is still open, and it looks like this: The solid blue line shows the entry price and the dashed red line shows the amount of profit currently locked-in by the guaranteed stop

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8435967766194358125.post-17527019412783054702013-10-15T09:36:00.001+01:002013-12-15T14:39:42.247+00:00

Because I last posted in mid-September, this one might be better titled "Trade of the Month". At the very end of September, shares in embattled pawnbroker Albemarle & Bond fell off a cliff, so I bought some at the 'bargain' price of 71p-per-share on the basis that I would make a killing (if they regained their former glory) or would not lose too much (if they didn't, because I had a modest

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8435967766194358125.post-53827520338212497652013-09-19T21:39:00.000+01:002013-12-15T14:40:02.811+00:00

Note that I have titled this post An Example Trailed Stop Order rather than An Example Trailing Stop Order. The distinction for me is that I like to trail my stop orders manually myself (by periodically adjusting them) rather than by utilising (automatic) trailing stop orders. I thought long and hard about how I could best demonstrate a stop order than had been trailed manually over time

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8435967766194358125.post-66542982565905633042013-09-18T08:06:00.000+01:002013-12-15T14:40:16.805+00:00

Like me, you might have received an email telling you that from 12 December 2013 your TradeFair account will no longer be accepting new trades. It's a shame, because this was one of my favourite spread betting accounts that showed stop order levels right alongside the trades (see below) and which -- along with other London Capital Group platform providers -- allowed you to apply guaranteed stop

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8435967766194358125.post-57747996795747860842013-08-29T09:25:00.000+01:002013-08-29T09:26:40.119+01:00

You've heard of multi-bagger stocks; those stocks that return many times your original stake. Well, here's one in the shape of Renewable Energy Holdings. The share price of this stock had fallen massively in recent years, before flat-lining. As per my position trading philosophy I was happy to establish a small exploratory position on the basis that the price would either multi-bag (returning

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8435967766194358125.post-75344379067004487132013-08-18T17:44:00.000+01:002013-08-18T17:44:19.326+01:00

You shouldn't try to catch a falling knife, right? So it would have been dumb to have bought into housebuilder Persimmon on Thursday last week when it suffered the price-drop shown at the end of this InterTrader chart: Except that this is what happened next (it bounced right back): It means that within a day you could have made a £100 profit for every £1-per-point staked, as

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8435967766194358125.post-12237622600908485822013-08-07T09:29:00.001+01:002013-08-07T09:29:09.307+01:00

Q: How do you know when the British economy is picking up? A: When people start buying AGA cookers again. And according to the AGA Rangemaster price chart (courtesy of InterTrader) shown below, they have! The nominal £1-per-point trade below shows how much money you could have made (so far) per £1-per-point stake if you had "invested" at the low point and held as a position trade.

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8435967766194358125.post-40441263758645329232013-07-10T07:26:00.000+01:002013-07-10T07:28:19.624+01:00

It's been some time since I posted a "Trade of The Week" feature-- sorry about that, but I've been busy with other things. Anyway, here is one that went right... but probably for the wrong reasons. A nominal £1-per-point exploratory trade on Tullett Prebon has performed nicely since it was opened as a potential position trade in a Capital Spreads account in April: I actually can't remember

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8435967766194358125.post-81317329648529635912013-06-26T19:15:00.000+01:002013-06-26T19:15:02.798+01:00

Today I was very lucky in the City (of London). But I don't mean I made a killing with a once-in-a-lifetime day trade. En route to a meeting to discuss a forthcoming forex project, while walking down a narrow street between two tall buildings, I fell foul ("foul" being the operative word) of a bird strike. "Splat!" to the left of my left shoe. "Splat!" to the right of my right shoe. And a

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8435967766194358125.post-69723249898564612102013-06-19T07:33:00.000+01:002013-06-19T07:33:15.268+01:00

I went into the City (of London) yesterday to meet up with one of my acquaintances who heads up a forex trading operation. As well as discussing some potential future projects in the forex publishing space (hopefully more to say soon), we also managed to squeeze in a visit to the local pub for a fish finger sandwich... which took me back to my childhood, tomato ketchup and

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8435967766194358125.post-46835864067548884992013-06-05T15:10:00.000+01:002013-06-05T15:10:10.851+01:00

As an aside from spread betting -- which for some of you may not have gone too well today, unless you were "short" -- I offer the following anecdote. While browsing in my local Currys / PC World store I overheard a helpless oldish woman ask one of the friendly "expert advisors" (i.e. "salespeople") for some advice. She asked, "What do I get when I pay for your computer set-up service?"

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8435967766194358125.post-61750479607741233212013-05-24T13:43:00.001+01:002013-05-24T13:43:40.537+01:00

Don't worry, I don't mean I'm shutting up shop. I mean that my much-documented pyramided position trade on Barratt has finally come to an end by stopping out. Here are the final scores in two spread betting accounts: By my reckoning, it's £866 profit, having taken nothing like that much risk along the way. And a good test-case for how many times a profitable position can be

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8435967766194358125.post-49205827941560647802013-05-15T13:42:00.000+01:002013-05-16T20:30:00.505+01:00

Regular readers will realise that no week would be complete without me having placed another bet on Barratt. So here it is, a new pyramided position that takes my total stake in my Capital Spreads reference account to £7-per-point: This is turning into a really nice example of a pyramided position trade, but you will notice something unusual about it: This week's position (dated

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8435967766194358125.post-34480531830244669042013-05-13T12:49:00.000+01:002013-05-13T12:49:00.873+01:00

I ask the question "Has London Capital Group (LCG) turned the corner?" because I have a couple of modest spread bet exploratory positions riding on the hope that it has: Both positions (blue lines) are now in profit, with my common guaranteed stop order (red dashed line) somewhere between the two entry prices... which means that I should now at least break even overall. And if

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8435967766194358125.post-68544760944672085162013-05-01T13:02:00.000+01:002013-05-01T13:02:21.954+01:00

An email from spread betting firm SpreadEx caught my eye yesterday when they announced that they're the first spread betting company to allow speculation on the price of Bitcoins. If you've been hiding in a hole so deep that you don't know what a Bitcoin actually is, I can help you by quoting from the SpreadEx press release: "Bitcoin is a decentralised digital currency that’s used as a

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8435967766194358125.post-54210150259785029652013-04-29T20:31:00.000+01:002013-04-29T20:31:33.024+01:00

I'm beginning to sound like a broken record with all my posts about the Barratt position trade, but here I go again. I've added yet another £1-per-point position in the Capital Spreads account, making six of the best pounds-per-point as shown here: A discussion on a forum elsewhere now prompts me to say something about this pyramiding.  Although my preferred position trading

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8435967766194358125.post-75462198990855145632013-04-23T22:47:00.001+01:002013-04-23T22:47:06.768+01:00

Anyone who has read my blog regularly will be well aware of the example (but real) Barratt position trade that I'm running in a Capital Spreads account. You will recall that this position trade began life as a single £1-per-point position with an initial risk of (about) £25 to my guaranteed stop order. By pyramiding this position as the price has been rising, you can see in the snapshot

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8435967766194358125.post-34563906600294490922013-04-19T09:09:00.001+01:002013-04-19T09:10:17.997+01:00

I was going to title this posting "Today's Biggest Gainers", but it seems more appropriate to title it "Today's Biggest Surprises". This is what I woke up to on a couple of trades that I opened in the past couple of days: They were surprises because mining stocks seem to have been on a perpetual down-slide for the past few days, weeks, months, or even years. Maybe this is the turnaround

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8435967766194358125.post-40629859697316939242013-04-11T09:02:00.001+01:002013-04-11T09:02:56.113+01:00

Sorry it's been a bit quiet around here in the past week, but we've been away: (it's not Switzerland, it's Scotland) Anyway, following on from the documented four-point pyramid of Barratt, I can tell you that this position trade is now up to five points as shown in the Capital Spreads snapshot below. Three Steps to Better Spread Betting: 1) Buy the Better Spread Betting Book

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8435967766194358125.post-3810799285558816892013-04-02T12:38:00.000+01:002013-04-02T12:38:57.003+01:00

After my little April Fool joke yesterday, I thought I'd post something rather more positive (and educational) today on the subject of pyramiding positions. My demonstration vehicle will of course (if you've been following me) be Barratt; but it could have been Sainsburys. The following chart shows the vastly increased profit potential resulting from having pyramided the Barratt position

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8435967766194358125.post-64607759085064991762013-04-01T00:30:00.000+01:002013-04-01T00:30:03.256+01:00

It is with great regret that I have to tell you that despite practicing Better Spread Betting according to my Position Trading philosophy that utilizes Stop Orders... it's all gone wrong and I have lost everything on one mad spin of the proverbial roulette wheel! Aside from documenting (in the coming days) how exactly it all went wrong, it looks like I will now have to shut up shop, and I

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8435967766194358125.post-50667090615465170332013-03-25T10:56:00.000+00:002013-03-25T10:57:08.883+00:00

Although I stopped writing for Spreadbet magazine a couple of months ago (don't ask!) a few of the articles in the latest edition caught my eye. In his interview, Vince Stanzione says that his main successes in the markets have come from longer-term position trading rather than from short-term day trading. In his trading diary update, John Walsh talks about how he lost a lot of money

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8435967766194358125.post-58390331117751116152013-03-22T17:35:00.001+00:002013-03-22T17:36:55.304+00:00

It seems a good time to show what a couple of position trades look like when they progress as expected. Those of you who follow my "trade of the week" features will not be surprised to see that the two stocks I have chosen are Sainsburys and Barratt. The following screenshot shows how the example (but real) Sainsburys pyramided position trade is looking: In the last pyramiding session I

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0