Worldspreads free bet

Hi everyone,

I happened to be given a free bet on the FTSE Feb with Worldspreads when contacted Alpesh Patel for his stock picks for 2006 (Patel is a shareholder of WS). Just put in an order to lock in some profit, though at one point I (actually Worldspreads) was down some 200 pounds. Attached is an email from WS in case this is of interest to anyone here. They say the offer is still on.

My question is if I need to have a second SB company as a back-up, which one should I choose. I still have an account with deal4free though never traded with them. So far I've been quite happy with WS but then most new companies can afford to take good care of a small customer base.

In terms of techniques, I am purely using Chris Manning's exponential moving averages (10/20/180) to gauge the market's sentiment and support and resistance for entry/stop-loss/exit. Anyone can shed light on any pitfalls of this way of playing the market please!.

Thanks a lot!

Hung

... and here is the email from WS

Win up to £250 by dipping your toe in the water with…


a ‘FREE BET’ from WorldSpreads – no risk for you!


We are offering you a £3 per point bet on where the FTSE closes on February 17th 2006

All you have to do is:


1. Log on to www.worldspreads.com and ‘Apply to open an account’

2. Fill out and submit the account registration form which will only take a couple of minutes

3. Once you have registered, call Caspar Hill to place your ‘FREE BET’ on 020 7291 9180

4. All you have to decide is to go High (Buy) or Low (Sell) the February FTSE future price we offer you

5. The offer is open until 3pm, Tuesday 31st January 2006

6. You can Lose NOTHING

7. You can Win up to £250*

* Terms and Conditions apply - for details of the bet, and how it works, please see the attachment



WorldSpreads Ltd is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority.



Please contact:

Caspar Hill WorldSpreads Ltd

020 7291 9180 Walmar House

[email protected] 296 Regent Street

www.worldspreads.com London W1B 3AW

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

WS's new offer is now in place http://www.worldspreads.com/pdfs/advfn promo 8 feb06.pdf

hi hungvir
the email you show says the offer ended

rodcar said:

hi hungvir
the email you show says the offer ended

Click to expand...

When I talked to them last, they say it is still on. Probably a new one is in place. Basically they give you a free bet on the FTSE futures with a 3 pound stake but they limit your winning to only 250 quids. Any winning above that would belong to them but of course they shoulder any loss as well.

In my case, the market has moved 27 points in my favour so I have 81 pounds unrealised profit as we speak. But I already put in an order to close the position if my gains drop below 45 pounds.

Cheers,

Hung

This is the first I am hearing of them. They have some experienced people behind them.

coolTrader said:

This is the first I am hearing of them. They have some experienced people behind them.

Click to expand...

It will be interesting to see how they will 'grow up'.

I think the trend now is pervasive and automated betting. People will use phone, internet and who knows, digital TV - the red button to place their trades.

And I myself would prefer my computer to learn my trading habits and become me in some ways and one day it will be able to trade on behalf of me

First profit

So I got my first profit in spread betting when I closed my FTSE Feb position at 5787. 45 quids is a small sum but I did not put in a penny of my own money. Could have exited at 100 plus profit earlier in the day though. I wish WS allow trailing stop buy/sell orders.

I also just asked WS if they would allow me to buy FTSE futures based on the level of the FTSE, says if it rises above 5810 this coming Monday. The answer is NO, or at least not at the moment. If you know any other firm is offering this, I'll buy you a beer. For the time being, I'll have to look at the screen like a hawk next Monday then. If I enter the trade, stop loss would be at 5795. There's a stronger support level at 5760-64 but my risk tolerance is not that high.

Also suffered a small loss of 10 pounds in another bet today because I placed the wrong order. Meant to buy the FTSE when it's above 5810, but told WS to buy when it's above 5800. Was stopped out at 5795. The FTSE then went down to as low as 5764.

At the moment I have a steep learning curve, an account balance of 235 plus a credit facility of 500 pounds.

I hope history won't be repeated and my experience losing money trading shares will at least enable me to break even in my first few months of spread betting.

By the way, I learn a lot from members of T2W so a big thank you to you all.

Have a good weekend!

Hung

Frugi just put up this excellent link to resources on T2W for spread betters. http://www.trade2win.com/boards/showthread.php?t=16064 . It's worth reading this article http://www.trade2win.com/knowledge/spreadbetting/guides/spread-betting-guide/ by Stu Whisson. I've heard some complaints about his sales tactics before but his article is completely free.

A quick walk around T2W shows that there're quite a number of new spread betters around. And I am sure there will be many joining the crowd very soon. As someone says on T2W majority of them will lose money in the first few months. Some will have beginner's luck but will soon lose all their winnings. Those who make money using their cool head and controlled greed will be there waiting for another lot of new comers full of gread and fear. Is the market cruel? I think it is until you get to know it a bit better.

I just discovered that WorldSpreads is not among the companies being polled on T2W for the best spread betting firm. I know they watch this space and wonder how they will differentiate themselves from the rest, why should people like me stick with them. From the poll results, T2W members tend to prefer CMC, CS or Fins.

And here's my wish list for any SB company.

- Accept stop buy/sell orders based on price level, i.e share/index price goes above/below certain resistance and support level. Even better if they can alert traders via email or phone when the move happens.

- Guarantee the execution of all stop loss orders and all orders for that matter

- Have the tightest possible spread

- Offer what you see is what you get price, no requote

- Accept trailing orders

- Have a reliable, user-friendly and smart web interface/trading platform

- Offer live data free of charge

This is not an exhausted list but just some of the things that I consider essential.

BAA as a short candidate?

I posted this one some where else...

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Is there any spread better here following BAA?. I just tried to load its chart up at ADVFN but historical data is not available there till 6PM

Also, I just saw on the Sunday Times that Alba's share was down nearly 45 per cent last week to about 290. It looks like this may be an interesting target for a up bet?!

Cheers,

Hung

.. 'I put my hands up and surrender'... I have no view whatsoever having looked at this chart. It may well form double top next week but this is an uneducated guess at the moment.

http://www.advfn.com/p.php?pid=chartscreenshotshow&u=4pfEzTVgDfxyEJgP2voCVJFyUThG/7gM

<a href='http://www.advfn.com' title='Free stock charts & share prices from ADVFN.COM'><img border='0' src='http://www.advfn.com/p.php?pid=chartscreenshot&u=kvy0lW%2BpTjMvgsoeIXPmxW%2BaT1hQskOv'><br><i>free</i> stock charts from ADVFN.COM</a><br>

I can't seem to get the screen shot from ADVFN to work properly. But ABA reached a low almost equal to the one in Sept, 05. A dead cat bounce will probably happen and it will be the chance to short the stock.

http://www.advfn.com/p.php?pid=chartscreenshotshow&u=o0LnLhaQ/Fg5oeuSX9/31/sUnMogcGmF

<a href='http://www.advfn.com' title='Free stock charts & share prices from ADVFN.COM'><img border='0' src='http://www.advfn.com/p.php?pid=chartscreenshot&u=CcwhCX8NVjPECYQhUxayBPrS2tiO7%2FaR'><br><i>free</i> stock charts from ADVFN.COM</a><br>

Companies sitting on a mountain of cash

The FT names O2, BP as the two companies returning tens of billions of pounds to shareholders. I don't know how this will affect share prices in the long run, but at the moment, BP's chart shows a clear trending up. If it pulls back to the 180 expo MA, I would be more than happy to go long with a stop just below the line.

Buying opportunities are abundant between now and then but a big pull back would promise big returns if the trend continues. A big IF of course, thus the stop loss.

The short range of daily prices of OOM since Nov 05 startled me. But I'll go with the flow whatever way the stock decides to go next - long if it move up, short if it goes down.

Swing trading

I am revisiting The Master Swing Trader by Alan Farley and find it very refreshing. It's very true when he says a trader is very vulnerable when hope and excitement crowd out judgement. And choosing to be a spectator till a trade set up pulling you in is not something every trader can do. I've been there before.

Another good book on swing trading is Marc Rivalland on Swing Trading. Marc is a lawyer and his reasoning and writing is superb. If one day you read this remark, Marc, pls refund my money!!!

Both of these are available here
http://www.trade2win.com/knowledge/books/the-master-swing-trader-gi-13473/
http://www.trade2win.com/knowledge/books/marc-rivalland-on-swing-trading-gi-14705/

Or if you can wait until my 'venture capital' evaporates, you can have them at half price

Farley's seminar

It turns out that Alan Farley will be one of the two speakers at a trading seminar late in March. I'll contact him to persuade him to let me come for free. I have nothing to lose, do I? And he might appreciate the chance to sign a copy of his book.

If he agrees it'll save me more than 600 quids. I don't even need a seat. I'll bring my daughter's push chair. :-0

http://www.trade2win.com/store/customer/product.php?productid=16238

Preparing for a market day FTSE week 13-17

I may be wrong but it looks like a double top has been formed in the FTSE daily chart. It failed in the effort to break new highs on both Feb 1 and Feb 9 at 5816 and 5808.9 respectively. But Feb 10's high was also 5808.7, so a lower high for today would probably confirm the double top.

I still think FTSE is in an up trend and it will test 5900 and 6000 levels next. But if it is to fall below 5681, I would sell it with stop loss at an arbitrarily set level of 5700 to capture a small reversal. I am willing to risk 50p per point only and a stop sell order initially set at 5625 then trail it every 20 points to 5420.

FTSE's recent big reversals were in April 05 and October 05. I would expect another one to be on its way before it can move to the next high. In the last two times, it fell between about 300-400 points each time.

If it actually falls as I predict in the next few weeks or months, I'll go long again when higher high is formed with stop loss below recent low.

The last time FTSE reached 6000 mark was in April and May 01 when it formed tripple top and fell to as low as 4219 in September 01.

Aba, Omm, Baa, Bp

ABA is a short play at the moment. I'll wait for it to bounce to initiate a position.

OOM is an interesting one to watch. It is in a what Alan Farley would call empty zone and has been there for too long. Recent high was 209.25.

BAA's chart may form a flag pattern. It still has 100 points to go till it reaches the 900p demanded by shareholders for the takeover. I woudn't bet on a whole 100 point move, but between 30-50 is possible.

Any other ones that you're watching?

BP looks like it's in a trading range. Buy at support (63) and sell at resistance (73) seems to be the way to go. Need to hold for a few weeks though.

Thanks Hungvir!

MarvinS said:

Thanks Hungvir!

Click to expand...

You're welcome. I am away from London, so trading is on hold.

i am looking for a good site for getting live feed on futures, especially FTSE DAX DOW and S&P big and mini. Can you suggest something?
Did you go to Alpesh's seminar? He seems very astute....
Speak soon, when do you get back?

MarvinS said:

i am looking for a good site for getting live feed on futures, especially FTSE DAX DOW and S&P big and mini. Can you suggest something?
Did you go to Alpesh's seminar? He seems very astute....
Speak soon, when do you get back?

Click to expand...

Hi Marvin,

I am only using ADVFN and stockcharts.com at the moment for my data.

I did not go to Alpesh's seminar. I've decided to spend my pennies on betting rather than courses at the moment. What I seem to need now is not so much knowledge but experience.

While away I missed an opportunity to buy the FTSE when it breaks the 5810 support. But then the stop loss level would have been too far away.

Later,

Hung