Spreadbetting: Anyone making money ?

ivorm

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Hi,

I'm pretty new to t2w, but having looked around it seems like there are a lot of experienced people here who are prepared to share their knowledge.

Excuse me for being presumptuous, then, but my questions are :

Is anyone out there actually making money spreadbetting ? If so, which markets are you dealing ? And, (I can understand people being reticent about this next one), how much money are u making (ball park figure ?) ?

It's just I've got really excited about trading after having read the blurb from the brokers. But I guess I just want to know if people are making a success at it before risking my hard earned wonga.

Any replies greatly appreciated.
 
Hi Ivor,

Came to the conclusion after 700+ trades that you can make money but it's much much harder do with SBs than it is with futures :)

If you make money with SBs you should make pots of it with futures.

We'll see won't we..............
 
Hi Ivorm

Is anyone out there actually making money spreadbetting
Finally - yes. It's taken me nearly 2 years of spreadbetting to finally start making money, and that's mainly due to the fact that I'm trading stocks and not indicies (anyone who's seen me trade the indicies will testify that I'm rubbish at it :D ).

The main thing is not to put too much into a spreadbetting account, as it takes a long time to get used to trading via spreadbets and it's not worth losing too much money learning.

HTH
 
Hi Ivor, I would say, start with finspreads. Use 1p per point until you can see a regular pattern build up. Don't get over confident, thats when you make mistakes. It should take you a while to actually learn a trading method that works for you and is better to lose 50p whilst learning than 50 quid..
My Tips are go to www.signalwatch.com and find the free seminar, try out the methods there and if you like them, start to narrow them down to ones which work the best.

You need to look for high volume/volatility as the moving ones are the money ones.

I feel comfortable with the DOW, but others like the NASDAQ. I suppose they are all much of a muchness.

Helen is talking about the futures, which is something I would love to know more about. It seems that a lot of people
start with SB, then move on. Helen if youd like to explain more, I'm all ears.
 
Hi Hogs,

I'm just about to go "live", probably tomorrow. If you want to see my reasoning and why I chose the Eurostoxx as a vehicle have a look at this board. My rationale and comments on the index are there as well as other general stuff relating to it.

www.eurostoxx50.co.uk

You'll need to register but it's free and you won't get spam from it. Sorry it's not on here but fate organised it otherwise :)


Cheers
 
Me again!

There are now two pages of topics on the board and some of the basic stuff, like why and how is on the earlier page so look back.
 
Hi Helen,

Good luck 'going live'.

Let us know how you're doing.

Regards,
 
“Is anyone out there actually making money spreadbetting ?”

Yes, everybody else except the traders!

:)
 
Hi Ivor,

I have been attempting to trade via spreadbetting for about a year. Up till now I have only lost money, however, this is down to my inexperience and impatience. I have been studying day trading and and technical analysis. It's my intention to still use spreadbetting as a trading vehicle (I have an account with Deal4Free as their spreads are tight). I'm currently trying to source some decent charting software so that I can make calculated decisions rather than the hit 'n' miss gambling approach.
I'm sorry I haven't been able to answer your question, but I do believe you can make money spread betting if you're disciplined.

Saul
 
Hi Saul,

Thanks for your reply.

You're right - I think the secret is to have a plan (or a system) and then have the discipline to stick to it.

Good luck - and let us know how you get on.

Regards,

Ivor
 
futures brokers

hello all
can anyone help out there. I wish to continue trading the dow via a futures broker will this be viable using the mini dow. Is there enough liquidity trading this contract. I do not want to change to trading mini s & p / nas due to familarity with dow. I have finally had my fill of d4f. Any thoughts and advice would be gratefully received. Best wishes Neil.
 
Hi everyone, I'm now 5 weeks into spreadbetting using real cash with CMC after a few months paper trading previously. I'm up 19% at present, but have had 5 losing trades on the trot - i was up 32% last weekend.

I enter all trades into a spreadsheet for analysing results. I seem to be torn between short term scalping ad longer term swinging and this seems to be where some of the trades go bad.

For instance, I sold the S&P on Thursday @ 854 after a suspected double top failure and got stopped out for a loss at 855.3. It barely got past this and has since hared down to the mid 20's. I am reassessing my present strategies to look for longer term moves and be prepared for larger swings against me, although this goes against the short term strategy of very tight stops.

I am looking more at the 15 minute chart to plan an actual strategy and then use the 5 and 1 min chart for fine tuning entries and exits. Too often , when a profit comes along I snatch it and miss out on subsequent larger moves. I realise a profit is only good when banked, but a lot of larger moves may often be missed. I'm thinking of switching off the one minute chart altogether for a few weeks.

How do other people get on with all this?
 
It's all in the mind and very hard to overcome. You are either a natural scalper or a natural longer time trader. Sure picking up the bigger moves can be very rewarding, but you have to have the mind set to ignore the shorter term going against you. It's a whole lot easier once you have a few points in the bag and a pullback still means you are in profit,making the descision to stay in a whole lot easier on the mind. The secret to this approach ( harder still) is to wait for the bigger move/breakout, thus ensuring a quick "in the money ". But you have to be prepared to sit on your hands. As always, now quick answer....One solution that I know one good trader that "plays" during the boring times using the minimum stakes.... and then enters the big move with a normal stake.
 
Hi Manorpark.
Have a look at IB. Interactive Brokers. They now have live links with Sierra charts and mytrack.
These would be viable for you at the moment.

Regards.

Options.
 
futures

Hi All

Thanks for replys i am mulling over which broker to go with after speeking to a couple this morning its clear that the mini dow 2&5$ is growing in popularity due to affordability [so the brokers say]. How good or bad are IB as a choice of broker?any comments out there on brokers?Any of you using D4F be carefull on friday i was stopped out of a position on dow when the stop was 30 pts from the action resulting in missing the complete down move .I clearly see the need to get myself a direct broker to advance ,not backpeddle all the time.
Best of luck
Neil
 
Hi

I just found this site - www.tradindex.com

Seems they let you open a player account - virtual money. WIth an option to upgrade to a trading account...they also insite upon setting a stop loss from what I have read in the faq

Anyone got any comments on them ?

Might go check them out tomorrow..getting tired now :)

Azile
 
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