There's no spread on NASDAQ!
Hope you're not day trading an 8pt spread? imho not good on anything less than 5000. City Index has Nasdaq at 2pts spread (about 6pts outside of market hours). Why not try DAX or FTSE? It's a hell of a ride though!
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I was considering it but 8 is too much for something that only moves 80points ATR a day, I mean even forex is better than that!
FTSE seems to be about 1pt, I'll try that. I can't understand why 8pts for Nasdaq though, pity as the moves looked pretty good.
Yeah, but if you're new to spreadbetting you could also try an active, high volume stock with reasonable ATR and spread to get a feel for mechanics of it. FTSE and DAX can make your account P/L resemble a pump at a filling station - in either direction
.Yeah, but if you're new to spreadbetting you could also try an active, high volume stock with reasonable ATR and spread to get a feel for mechanics of it. FTSE and DAX can make your account P/L resemble a pump at a filling station - in either direction
I'm not new to spreadbetting so much as new to stock trading, have mainly been doing FX.
Any suggestions on some stocks? Maybe concentrate on just a few to start with and get to know them.
Trading volume tends to change from day to day as you know, I'm sure (although most high volume stocks will have a high average volume). Just go to the Reuters, Yahoo UK, or other financial website and look for the last trading day's Volume Leaders/Most Actives. Then choose a few (perhaps 5 or so) of those that are affordably priced for you (remember that on the SB platform the price will be leveraged) and just check them out on the platform and see what your margin requirements are, what the charts look like, etc. Obviously the higher priced the stock is the better ATR you'll get compared to the spread but then your margin requirement will be higher and so will the cost of trading. Stocks that are cheap to trade will normally have a less attractive daily range compared to the spread and it won't move as much as an index.
Some of the financials that are cheap but still very high volume are a consideration - e.g. Barclays is normally on their popular markets list and was great when under 100 on the platform. It's now over 200. Rio Tinto is expensive and would cost you more to trade than an index like FTSE - your gains would be fantastic but so would you losses. I'd stay away from Rio T.
What I try to do is strike a balance between price, volume, cost of trading, spread vs daily range and the actual charts. I reckon you need enough volume to generate at least a 15-min chart for day trading (trades taking place that you can see every 15 min) but you can also do daily charts. You don't really want to be bothering with stocks that have only 5 large trades a day that are noticeable with 5 hourly bars. That may be better for a buy and hold approach for a quarter or so.
Basically you want anything that moves on volume - but they won't be exactly like the currencies because Forex is extremely high volume and highly leveraged as well, as of course you know. :smart:
Here are some I copied down the other day. Of course I'm not recommending anything to you (which is why I'm giving you the whole list). But you should really check for the latest performers because a stock that was going wild the other day could be dead flat Monday. NB: Actually, I wasn't looking to day trade these but rather hold for a few days to a week and I eventually wittled this lot down to four. You may want to find higher priced shares for day trading.
ARM Holdings
Aviva
BAE Systems
Barclays
Bodycote
British Airways
BT Group
Centrica
Compass Group
Debenhams
F&C Asset Management
Foreign and Col Investment Trust
GKN
Home Retail Group
Invensys
Kingfisher
Legal and General
Lloyds TSB
Man Group
Marks and Spencer
McBride
Morrison WM Supermarkets
Prudential
Punch Taverns
Rolls Royce Group
RSA Insurance Group
Sage Group
Sainsbury (J)
St Modwen Properties
Standard Life
Tesco
Tomkins
Vodafone
WPP Group
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Interesting.
What would you say is a good daily ATR to spread ratio?
To be honest, with my style, I would be looking to trade support and resistance only so might be more suited to daily charts rather than multiple trades a day on a 15min. WOuldn't most give live price feed anyway?
Now...the volume leaders on the Yahoo page don't seem to be sorted - I assume the volume is relative to that stock and is a ratio leader?
IMHO...
First question: It depends on your trading style and stake (bet per point). What I think is a good ATR for my trading style might be very different to what you consider 'good' (I take it when you consider ATR you are using it to estimate profit potential as well as calculate risk, and perhaps choose entry/exit levels?) I don't have an opinion on what a 'good' ATR is compared to the spread (just experience and common sense) but it's a personal choice. As with everything else to do with trading it's a bit like saying what is the correct speed to drive on a highway with no speed limit? Assuming you know HOW to drive, there's no right or wrong speed, only a safe speed, economical speed, high-risk performance speed, etc. And I think this applies to most strategies, indicators, portfolios, etc etc.
Question 2: I probably didn't explain what I meant properly but yes, if you have an account with an SB (not demo) then the prices are live (but you'll know this as you've been trading the currencies on an SB platform already?). SB charts don't show volume (as you know) so if volume is an important consideration in your stock picks, the best thing is to check a stock's volume on a financial web site (assuming you don't have access to other live streams). Alternatively, to get an idea, you can simply drill down to smaller time frames on it's SB chart. If you dont see much action on a 15 min (or 5 min) chart then chances are it's not a high volume stock. This doesn't mean it's not tradeable - that's obviously up to you - but you'd have to look at trading over longer time periods or otherwise be very familiar with the company you're planning to trade (fundamentals).
But that starts to take us into an area I'm not qualified to go. Stock trading/investing is a big subject (as I'm sure you know) and there are a lot of details to consider/sort through to find what suits your style and financial goals. I couldn't share everything I've learned without writing a book - and then I'd want you to buy it!
But to be honest, I'm not an expert and I don't pretend to be (I don't even know the half of it yet). I'm just passing on some of the things I've learned that I thought would be specifically helpful to you. What I've said about the spreadbetting is from my own experience but I also ask that you treat it as my opinion only until you can verify it for yourself.Question 3: I don't know how Yahoo! sort their stocks on that page but have noticed it's sometimes in volume order and at other times it's not. It's often simply alphabetical (based on the ticker). But they don't list that many volume leaders after the close every day so it's easy to go through them. Of course, you could consider stocks that trade on much smaller volume or you may even decide that volume isn't worth considering at all (although most educators place an importance on volume that is secondary only to price itself, so I wouldn't be too hasty to dismiss it). Reuters gives volume on some UK markets and on their site you can click to sort volume in asc/desc order (FTSE All Share Index is one I normally look at).
Anyway, hope this helps
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francisfinley
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anyone found a spreadbettor anywhere that offers a 1pt spread on NASDAQ?
all i have found is a 2pt spread so far...
all i have found is a 2pt spread so far...
