Hi mj - If you're new to spreadbetting Caps is a good platform and a reputable company to start with. But the narrowness of spreads should maybe not the key factor for a beginner. In fact, your question suggests you're going to be trying to scalp FTSE350 stocks - this is an extreme sport.
Best Thread Capital Spreads
I promised I'd update my views on the platform as time goes on since the initial problems I'd encountered.
I have experienced both positive and negative slippage which have evened out overall.
Yes, my original issues surrounding the platform and the extremely spikey charts (Especially minor FX pairs) still remain.
There are times where the ticket "dulls/greys out" when I've wanted to open or close a position. This usually lasts 30 seconds or so and then it comes back to life. No idea why. It does seem to occur at critical moments though.
But, the very odd thing is, On a percentage basis I've been much more profitable trading with Capital Spreads since opening the account 5 - 6 weeks ago than I have been over the same period in my IG account.
Why is this?
I don't honestly know. Maybe it's the clarity of P/L shown in the "All account transactions" tab that keeps an individual focused. Whatever it is, I like it.
I don't have charts to hand right now to show my trading performance in my IG accounts, but this is the chart of my trading performance since opening the Capital Spreads account.
How it can be related to the SB company I don't know, maybe it's a psychological thing, but if it lasts then I'm happy.
"W" denotes withdrawals as I've not had chance to smooth them out of the data yet. No funds have been added to the account since opening it and I have now withdrawn more funds than I originally deposited.
I have experienced both positive and negative slippage which have evened out overall.
Yes, my original issues surrounding the platform and the extremely spikey charts (Especially minor FX pairs) still remain.
There are times where the ticket "dulls/greys out" when I've wanted to open or close a position. This usually lasts 30 seconds or so and then it comes back to life. No idea why. It does seem to occur at critical moments though.
But, the very odd thing is, On a percentage basis I've been much more profitable trading with Capital Spreads since opening the account 5 - 6 weeks ago than I have been over the same period in my IG account.
Why is this?
I don't honestly know. Maybe it's the clarity of P/L shown in the "All account transactions" tab that keeps an individual focused. Whatever it is, I like it.
I don't have charts to hand right now to show my trading performance in my IG accounts, but this is the chart of my trading performance since opening the Capital Spreads account.
How it can be related to the SB company I don't know, maybe it's a psychological thing, but if it lasts then I'm happy.
"W" denotes withdrawals as I've not had chance to smooth them out of the data yet. No funds have been added to the account since opening it and I have now withdrawn more funds than I originally deposited.
Most swing trades are duplicated in both accounts. The IG has the bigger Pot size as I've not committed to transferring it all over to Caps yet. Then I'll duplicate the same position in smaller size in the Caps account as I'm still "testing" it.
I'll take day trades in whichever account I have open at the time. The Caps day trades have been performing much better than my IG ones. No conclusive reason as to why. The Caps day trades are usually smaller stakes, so could be a risk thing, i.e not getting frightened out of trades so easily with the smaller stakes.
However, the ability to clearly define profit/loss in the Caps account does help I think. With IG, it's much more complex to go through statements to calculate the day's P+L on a trade by trade basis.
I'll take day trades in whichever account I have open at the time. The Caps day trades have been performing much better than my IG ones. No conclusive reason as to why. The Caps day trades are usually smaller stakes, so could be a risk thing, i.e not getting frightened out of trades so easily with the smaller stakes.
However, the ability to clearly define profit/loss in the Caps account does help I think. With IG, it's much more complex to go through statements to calculate the day's P+L on a trade by trade basis.
capitalspreads
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RS2000
this probably reflects a variety of reasons .. smaller stakes generally makes clients more comfortable (and therefore more rational!).. tighter spreads and better financing costs
blind luck?!
as a point
Capital Spreads prefers small to medium clients as in general we want 'the market' to be our risk and not 'our client'. the big disasters that many have read about in the retail derivative market space have seldom been as a result of a company having a bad position they have nearly all been because of client bad debt.
Capital Spreads/cfds (LCG) has no professional clients at this time. Every single one of our clients is retail and has their funds totally segregated which makes us rather safer for our clients than the 'premium provider' (no matter how they might like to present it in their various statements/adverts). In fact LCG has a much of its own money as retail client funds so there is double protection even if you ignore the FSCS €100k/client insurance. We have no intention of offering 'credit' or 'waived margin' to anyone (even if this does impact our attractiveness to the 'big whales')
Simon
this probably reflects a variety of reasons .. smaller stakes generally makes clients more comfortable (and therefore more rational!).. tighter spreads and better financing costs
blind luck?!
as a point
Capital Spreads prefers small to medium clients as in general we want 'the market' to be our risk and not 'our client'. the big disasters that many have read about in the retail derivative market space have seldom been as a result of a company having a bad position they have nearly all been because of client bad debt.
Capital Spreads/cfds (LCG) has no professional clients at this time. Every single one of our clients is retail and has their funds totally segregated which makes us rather safer for our clients than the 'premium provider' (no matter how they might like to present it in their various statements/adverts). In fact LCG has a much of its own money as retail client funds so there is double protection even if you ignore the FSCS €100k/client insurance. We have no intention of offering 'credit' or 'waived margin' to anyone (even if this does impact our attractiveness to the 'big whales')
Simon
isalingebruik
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capitalspreads
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isalingebruik
every single one of their cfd/spread bet clients is classified as retail and therefore has their funds segregated? i think not.
Simon
every single one of their cfd/spread bet clients is classified as retail and therefore has their funds segregated? i think not.
Simon
capitalspreads
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clients seem to be increasingly bearish . position taking would usually oppose market direction as traders look for a bounce but the latest move has seen minimal 'bottom picking' .
does not bode well for sentiment going into the year end.
does not bode well for sentiment going into the year end.
On the other hand, if 90% of traders lose then this has to be a cast-iron 'buy' signal!
capitalspreads
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yes i was wondering if someone would point this out ! actually the number is (just) under 80%
... what is curious is that whilst clients are not buying neither are they selling.. so our positions in indices have been much lower than is normally the case. Caution seems to be finally winning over the reckless
simon
... what is curious is that whilst clients are not buying neither are they selling.. so our positions in indices have been much lower than is normally the case. Caution seems to be finally winning over the reckless
simon
Under 80% We must be improving! Possibly too many SB-ers have been burned and retired hurt, leaving only the Captain Sensibles? Certainly been quiet on these boards recently.
capitalspreads
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couldnt agree more
seeing increasing volumes but fewer comments on trade 2 win. I would say that most of the long term commentators have recognised the improvements over time on all the SB providers platforms, with the odd exception, and there is little now to complain/request about above what is already offered. (but then i would say that woulnt i?)
hope you are steering clear of the flak
simon
seeing increasing volumes but fewer comments on trade 2 win. I would say that most of the long term commentators have recognised the improvements over time on all the SB providers platforms, with the odd exception, and there is little now to complain/request about above what is already offered. (but then i would say that woulnt i?)
hope you are steering clear of the flak
simon
I would say there are certainly issues still remaining with the platform, but it hasn't been enough to stop me trading with you.
Specifically I have been using your platform over others for trading DOW intraday, mainly because your spread remains tight during after hours which is great if I want to run a position beyond U.S closing, however, the ticket freezes and then greys out quite regularly during the day and it tends to do so at major supports or resistances on lower chart time frames - I guess your volume picks up at those levels, however, this has cost me a fair few points at times where I'm waiting for the ticket to come back to life so I can exit a position, sitting there helpless whilst price is reversing hard from my desired exit.
From a longer term swing trading point of view, I've still not had any issues with those huge random spikes you get on your minor FX charts actually taking out or affecting any of my positions.
I opened an account with City Index just to have someone else who's new to me to compare against your platform, but I've been trying to pay money into that account for over a Week now and they wont accept any of my payment details for some reason, eventually blaming my bank/card provider. If I can't pay money into the account, I dread to think what problems I may have when it comes to making withdrawals!
I am looking for another spread bet company and had almost settled on Capital Spreads but a freezing or greying out ticket would for sure drop them completely out of the equation.
It is totally unacceptable that if due to processing demand that a spread brokers servers either cannot keep up with prices or stall through trades demand. I can see little point in working an intra day trade just to find that at a point of exit, the system fails (temporarily) and potentially robs the better of any of much of potential profit.
Looking at the demo proves nothing as I believe it is outsourced and is almost certainly not indicative of anything compared to the live set up.
I normally trade DMA but choose to currently try a different approach and spread betting appears to fit the bill albeit not that well. It is a path I wish to explore but as trading platform problems are almost an unknown to me I certainly would be very intolerant of any. My mode of trading is to wait for high activity times to both enter and exit which is in keeping with limit orders (DMA) in the expectation of a run through but from your post it looks as though they are likely the times that the server stalls.
Could you give me some idea of greying out. Is it fairly rare, daily or frequently per day?.
I would appreciate a response because I anticipate opening an account within the next couple of days but do not wish to waste my time with any company who cannot be bothered to have either hardware or feeds to keep up with data feeds or user demand.
Thanks in anticipation.
Give it a try and you will soon find out the difference. Trading with market makers is not the same thing, this mostly due to the fixed spread. But it is usually not so bad as many claims. If that would be the case they would not continue trading with Spread Betting companies.
____________
"Take control with Risk & Money Management"
I am aware of the drawbacks in using Spread bet companies. I have had accounts with one or more for decades solely for the purpose of hedging DMA trades if I ever get stuck in trades. Never had to use them for that purpose so spread betting accounts usually just sit funded just in case. The consequence is that I do not really know which ones are good, bad or indifferent.
There are some markets where I consider it ill advised to even consider spread betting and others where DMA is not overly wise. The e-mini is the former and FTSE is the latter.
My question remains the same. Does Capital Spreads live server grey out prices and lock out traders\betters. I asked a representative yesterday and although an e-mail was promised I do not expect to ever receive one.
If a user of a live account can quantify greying out that's one company off the search list. I do not particularly want to try and see when others can see what I would like to know.
What I can say after live trading many years with CS, that they can put you on referral to a dealer during important figures. But this applies to all clients at the same time as I experienced it. There have been some instances during recent times of "greying out prices". I have also seen this happen to the demo account as well. If this is of a technical issues I honestly don't know, maybe Simon could answer if they have had technical problems lately. Anyway I personally find CS to be among the best SB companies and I hope that this "greying out" of prices is of a temporary nature.
____________
"Take control with Risk & Money Management"
That is exactly what I wanted to know, Thank you.
Demo trading platforms and accounts are frequently not indicative of live accounts with many brokers or spread betters. They are often outsourced to completely different companies or if not then are on separate servers from live and through lighter use do not reflect the problems that customer dealing pressure can have on processing.
In the past I have often run a spread bet account on a non trading computer to see how it kept up and I remember one company from about three years ago where the trade ticket used to turn to "phone to trade" during volatile times. I called them twice to complain and stated that a third call would be account closure. Probably by coincidence and pressure from others they changed the servers for far more powerful ones and that problem was history.
Spread betters who use use prices derived from an underlying futures contract invariably use a top quality feed but if they do not marry the data speed with servers with enough horsepower then they will not get any of my business and to be honest do not deserve any custom beyond long range position traders.
Perhaps the CS chap will respond and in a positive way because dealer referrals and grey outs are the stuff of nightmares. Thanks again.
cableloonie
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Aimed at small - medium retailers what kind of £pp would I have trouble getting through cs?
