Hi all!

si1503

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Hello everyone, this is my first post on T2W and I just wanted to introduce myself to everyone here.

My name is Simon, I'm 23, I have been investing in Stocks & Shares for about a year now (through UTs and OEICs) making some very good returns on my investments and I would like to have a go at trading!

The research I have carried out thus far would sway me toward trading through Financial Spread Betting, due to the tax relief and absence of trading fees mostly, they seem to be the most profitable way to trade.

I am mostly interested in spread betting on UK Equities to begin with, as this is the market that I have the most knowledge over, however I may eventually look to expand into global equity markets and forex trading.

Really the first question I have is what do I need to get started as a trader.

I'm assuming I need a broker offering financial spread betting, a good data feed, and a decent pot of money to get me going. Anything else?

Which broker and data feed do you guys recommend? What are the pros and cons of each? And what would you advise for someone starting out?

Thanks for reading, I look forward to catching some of you around the forums.

Simon
 
Hi

Am a newbie, myself, but have been spreadbetting shares for a while. I use "Sharescape Gold" and trade on end of day prices using IG Index's service.

-Darren
 
Darren - Thanks for the reply. Sounds interesting I'll look into it.

How is IG Index for you? I have heard some problems from the reviews on this site, not sure if they would still apply to someone only using it for end of day trading, but I am currently working mornings, so would be free to trade intraday in the afternoons for a couple of hours before the FTSE close.

Any experience with Capital Spreads, seem quite good, just from what I have read on here.

Will look into sharescape, is that a free program or do you need to pay?

How is the trading going so far? Made much?

Simon
 
Simon,
If you have been 'making some very good returns on my investments " then why would you wish to come down to presumably wishing to trade short terms ? Do you want to fill your time ...enjoy paying more transactional costs ...wish to pay again to go through the learning process ???
Not being funny with you nor doubting your comments. At this point I take them at face value ....it's just if you really have something that can make you "very good returns" then why not just do more of it ?
 
The old IG Index system was heavily Java which meant I was forever having problems. Lost money because of the slow speed. The new system is much more reliable. And it looks pretty.

http://www.sharescope.co.uk/ has various prices depending on what you go for. There are probably better systems out there but you can download a free demo and play with it.

Trading-wise, I am still at loss overall but slowly getting back to breakeven. I decided to do proper accounts as I kept feeding in a couple of hundred here and there. Currently have 30% of my original pot and rising. Should reach breakeven within 2 weeks. We'll see!
 
:rolleyes: - you're not being honest with yourself...

I guess you didn't read my thread elsewhere. I am being completely honest with myself and anyone else who cares to listen to me. Besides, I didn't specify that it was the only way I've lost money; the OP asked a specific question.

Oh, I might have been under-estimating the time as I was writing the email quite quickly. 3-4 weeks, then. I am doing binaries, so things are a bit different to normal trading.
 
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Simon,
If you have been 'making some very good returns on my investments " then why would you wish to come down to presumably wishing to trade short terms ? Do you want to fill your time ...enjoy paying more transactional costs ...wish to pay again to go through the learning process ???
Not being funny with you nor doubting your comments. At this point I take them at face value ....it's just if you really have something that can make you "very good returns" then why not just do more of it ?
Okay. Good observation.

Really for a number of reasons. Firstly I am very interested in the markets, I started investing into managed funds not too long ago but I have always said I'd like to get more involved and start picking my own stocks, investing in individual shares. However, as metioned in my original post, spread trading/betting would seem a more profitable alternative to direct investment, and hence, more appealing for myself.

Secondly, I like the flexibility and dynamic nature of intra-day trading, being able to place trades in the active-market is something I can not currently do with investing, and there will often be a 1-2 day delay, from my instruction to making the buy/sell or switch, I like the thought of being able to react to things as they happen. I also like the thought of being able to hedge, and the ability of being able to profit from a falling prices as well as rising ones.

Thirdly, I am currently at University, having just finished studying a Financial Markets module, I hope to go into a Capital Markets/IB career upon my graduation, perhaps going in to hedge fund management (if I am good enough), so what better way to prepare me for managing a hedge fund, than doing it with my own money. If I can discover success at trading now, I feel it will certainly give me a clear head start for when I'm aiming to make it my career, and even if that career does not fall right for me, I will have hopefully adopted a nice little money making passtime.

Simon
 
I guess you didn't read my thread elsewhere. I am being completely honest with myself and anyone else who cares to listen to me. Besides, I didn't specify that it was the only way I've lost money; the OP asked a specific question.

Oh, I might have been under-estimating the time as I was writing the email quite quickly. 3-4 weeks, then. I am doing binaries, so things are a bit different to normal trading.

Oh 3-4 weeks - all is forgiven then! :eek::confused:

Seriously ninja - if you trade so aggressively you're going to lose another 70%.
I don't understand what you mean "things are a bit different to normal trading." In binaries - to pick a trade that is more likely to win - you have to risk losing more than the winnings. You also face far larger spreads and no opportunity to scalp due to the manual deal confirmation. Minimum bet sizes also mean you often need to commit a sizable proportion of your capital to the bet. Is this what you mean?
 
Hi Hoggums

As an example, if I am scalping and a binary heads down towards 0% early on in the session eg it's about 10%, and then it hovers at that point, I can check the graphs. If indicators suggest it is due to switch direction, because of the nature of binaries, even if it jumps a point or two, that equates to maybe 5-10 points which absorbs the spread easily. IG Index is pretty quick to sort the trade out. Also, you can trade towards the end of the period where it's 85% and likely to climb (checking indicators for confirmation), grabbing a few points that way.

Does that make sense? It seems to work for me.

If I am doing £2/pt and gain 20 points per day, with a keen eye on my stoploss (it's a mental stop for binaries), I think it is possible to gain my money back in that sort of timescale. What lets me down is my discipline sometimes being a bit wanting.

ETA: I use IG Index and Binarybet.com; you can bail out at any time unlike some others which force you to commit to a bet, so I am not risking my entire pot.

-Darren
 
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