The Daily Index Trader

[SteveBanks]

Hi Baldeaglebloke, do you or anyone else know of a good platform with tight spreads? Ive shut my account with Gekko today. Same problems as most people on here today, ive been stopped out when i shouldnt. Normally i would take this on the chin but it has happened with Gekko on a few occasions when i have been trading currencies. IG Index seems an obvious choice, anyone had any experience with Capital Spreads or could suggest another platform? Im not too bothered about any gimmicks or bonuses, just something that works. Any help would be appreciated.

When all's said and done I don't think you can go far wrong with IG Index. That's who I will be using tomorrow morning.

Also they have a multiple ticket feature (you need to go to settings and change it) so you can bring up a dealing ticket for DAX and another for CAC. Enter your stops and limits prior to entering the market and there's no fiddling about changing stops and limits after entering the trade like Gekko's platform requires.

And to add to that they have a very competent customer service department. I entered a forex trade once and there was a 3 point slippage at £8 a point. I emailed them and they apologised and credited my account with £24.

S

 

[GlynJ]

Hi Steve,
Surely the points distance from your entry price to your exit price would be the same no matter which platform you use!

Glyn.

 

[stephenag]

hi src, i dont think that capital spreads would be suitable for DIT, but anyone had a look at short spreads ? i know there stakes start at 25p

 

[Giriram99]

hi src, i dont think that capital spreads would be suitable for DIT, but anyone had a look at short spreads ? i know there stakes start at 25p

Short Spreads is actually Gekko so be careful!

 

[Colin2]

Hi Baldeaglebloke, do you or anyone else know of a good platform with tight spreads? Ive shut my account with Gekko today. Same problems as most people on here today, ive been stopped out when i shouldnt. Normally i would take this on the chin but it has happened with Gekko on a few occasions when i have been trading currencies. IG Index seems an obvious choice, anyone had any experience with Capital Spreads or could suggest another platform? Im not too bothered about any gimmicks or bonuses, just something that works. Any help would be appreciated.

Hi SRC

Last time I looked Capital Spreads only allowed round pound stakes, which means we could not balance the two trades. Their spread is just 1.

I have been using Worldspreads who do allow stakes in pence, but their spread is not so good at 2. If you can afford to deposit £5000 I believe they are offering a zero spread, but I have not tried this. Stops are not guaranteed, but this has not been a problem so far.

I have read about the problems with Gekko and kept clear, but will need to do something about the spread if I am going to continue this over the longer term.

 

[SRC]

hi src, i dont think that capital spreads would be suitable for DIT, but anyone had a look at short spreads ? i know there stakes start at 25p

Short Spreads looks exactly like Gekko, in fact i have just checked and read the 'About Us' quote....

...About Us
ShortSpreads.com is a joint venture website between Agora Lifestyles Ltd and Gekko Global Markets Ltd.

Thanks anyway

 

[SteveBanks]

Short Spreads is actually Gekko so be careful!

Thanks for that girl. I didn't know that and so it's vital that we all do. Leave Short Spreads well alone.

 

[SteveBanks]

Steve sorry I'm being slow here - don't different SB firms have different feeds and therefore a variation in their prices? or is the price the price but which graph do we take it from - as I mentioned Gekko showed 3779.75 but to buy would be 1pt higher at 3780.75. If you start using IG then presumably you would need to amend your figures to compensate for the larger spread? Thanks

The bottom line is that if we had been with IG we would still have two positions open and so twice the chance of making a profit.

S

 

[SRC]

Thank you all for your information, so Gekko is out of the picture now including Short Spreads. I will stick with IG i think. My only concern is for those who are using Gekko for the smaller stake sizes.

 

[Astarte3141]

Short Spreads looks exactly like Gekko, in fact i have just checked and read the 'About Us' quote....

...About Us
ShortSpreads.com is a joint venture website between Agora Lifestyles Ltd and Gekko Global Markets Ltd.

Thanks anyway

So they're all in it together.

 

[Splitlink]

Hi SRC

Last time I looked Capital Spreads only allowed round pound stakes, which means we could not balance the two trades. Their spread is just 1.

I have been using Worldspreads who do allow stakes in pence, but their spread is not so good at 2. If you can afford to deposit £5000 I believe they are offering a zero spread, but I have not tried this. Stops are not guaranteed, but this has not been a problem so far.

I have read about the problems with Gekko and kept clear, but will need to do something about the spread if I am going to continue this over the longer term.

No-one has mentioned Fins. I have traded with them for longer than I can count. I don't know what spreads you want. 1 point on the main indices and 0.50 per point?

Check them out, anyway, you can open an account for 100 pounds. With the money you guys seem to have, that should not break the bank, for an experiment.

 

[GlynJ]

As someone else has mentioned a while ago, there's a way of putting on exactly the same trade as DIT on a single index ie. DAX.
My question is...........Is this more beneficial than using two closely corrolated indices?

I'd be grateful for a reply from any knowledgeable member!

I'll probably end up trying it for a week on the Demo a/c. anyway.

 

[SteveBanks]

So they're all in it together.

Yes. That is very disturbing. Especially as Richard Hill (Agora) recommended Short Spreads in his newsletter last week.

Have they no shame?

S

 

[SteveBanks]

No-one has mentioned Fins. I have traded with them for longer than I can count. I don't know what spreads you want. 1 point on the main indices and 0.50 per point?

Check them out, anyway, you can open an account for 100 pounds. With the money you guys seem to have, that should not break the bank, for an experiment.

Many thanks Splitlink,

that's worth checking out.

S

 

[Astarte3141]

Sorry Steve B, but I now believe fully that we have been suckered. I now believe there is no easy way to do this trading business and if I do it any more it will be after I have done some serious learning of Dante's methods mentioned on this thread or similar.

Of course, I'd love to be wrong and will keep an eye on things, but that is my present state of mind.

 

[SteveBanks]

Sorry Steve B, but I now believe fully that we have been suckered. I now believe there is no easy way to do this trading business and if I do it any more it will be after I have done some serious learning of Dante's methods mentioned on this thread or similar.

Of course, I'd love to be wrong and will keep an eye on things, but that is my present state of mind.

I can understand that Astarte,

keep in touch.

S

 

[annicx]

Steve sorry I'm being slow here - don't different SB firms have different feeds and therefore a variation in their prices? or is the price the price but which graph do we take it from - as I mentioned Gekko showed 3779.75 but to buy would be 1pt higher at 3780.75. If you start using IG then presumably you would need to amend your figures to compensate for the larger spread? Thanks

Quite so Baldeagle- also don't forget that if Gekko quoted 2pts lower in line with IG then your stop would also have been two points lower, so you would still have been taken out. You are effectively asking Gekko to 'give' you 2pts Don't get me wrong, I've had problems with Gekko's platform and I'm not a big fan of theirs, but nobody moves prices in search of stops quite like IG! I prefer Capital Spreads, but their minimum £1/pt stake stops a poor soul such as I from trading forex or using DIT, (not that I'm using it much at the minute!). Onthe subject of introducers fees, surely all SB companies have arrangemets with someone? It seems standard business practice to me and no one has to use them. I think we're getting a bit paranoid here!

 

[george0]

I too am using Finspreads (and you can indeed trade in pounds and pence).

P.S. SteveB can you check I'm on the private forum list.

 

[Astarte3141]

Many thanks Splitlink,

that's worth checking out.

S

I have used fins as well when I opened an account with them and with IG during my first foray into this world a couple of years ago. I found them very good as well but I just seem to remember it was slightly easier to manage deposits and withdrawals with the IG account.

Since we are on associations between companies at the moment as well I believe that IG are the same as City Index.

 

[Baldeaglebloke]

As someone else has mentioned a while ago, there's a way of putting on exactly the same trade as DIT on a single index ie. DAX.
My question is...........Is this more beneficial than using two closely corrolated indices?

I'd be grateful for a reply from any knowledgeable member!

I'll probably end up trying it for a week on the Demo a/c. anyway.

In theory yes as the correlation is 100% but I'm not sure why you'd put two trades in opposite directions any longer (am questioning DIT in my mind at present). So if for example you pick the FTSE and decide a TP of 20 and SL of 10 I'd be more inclined to wait for the theoretical SL postion to be reached and then just put on a trade to continue the momentum to go for a TP of 10. Now in theory this is easy (and is what DIT should be doing) but as we've seen the last few weeks whip sawing is killing off both positions. I'm thinking go with the trend (as in the trend is your friend until it comes to the end) but enter on a retracement. Studying longer term charts for trends and then entering off shorter term charts is one way but I'm not experienced enough yet to give any suggestions. Cheers