Market advice

[nje]

Is there anybody who could help to point me in the right direction, i am extremely keen to start trading after studying TA. The problem is i dont know which is the best market for a beginner or what type of trading i should concentrate on.
Day trading seems ideal because i have few days a week spare, but many articles seem to say this is for experts only, i also like the idea of spread betting and CFD's because of the tax issue, but am i out of my depth :?:
Most of the advice i read relates to the US markets, spread betting and furures, but should i concentrate on the UK :?:
I am eager to start testing my TA before i invest my hard earned cash, but there are so many questions, should i start in one area and then move on to another when i get experience, or is it better to concetrate on one. :?:
Then there is the choice of brokers and charting software.

I would eventually hope to make a living out of trading, so with this in mind i would be very gratefull for any sensible advice or pointers.

nje

 

[roguetrader]

Day trading seems ideal because i have few days a week spare, but many articles seem to say this is for experts only,
nje

Expertsaren't born, they are made, everybody starts somewhere so I would not avoid a trading style because of that, as long as you are careful and rake it slowly there is nothing wrong with starting by daytrading. Though I have heard trading is easier to learn if you start with longer timeframes.

i also like the idea of spread betting and CFD's because of the tax issue, but am i out of my depth :?:
nje

Don't know anything about spreadbetting but hear this a lot. As far as tax goes you would need to be earning more than 8K a year form your activities before you need to worry about it

Most of the advice i read relates to the US markets, spread betting and furures, but should i concentrate on the UK :?: nje

Many people, including myself, trade US stocks because they feel it gives more variety, oppertunity, and better moves. Whether this is true or not I do not know since I have never traded any other markets.


I

am eager to start testing my TA before i invest my hard earned cash, but there are so many questions, should i start in one area and then move on to another when i get experience, or is it better to concetrate on one. :?:
nje

Better left until you have decided on the first questions.
I

Then there is the choice of brokers and charting software.
nje

Again I would decide on the first questions first,little point in picking a broker 'till you knowwhat you are going to trade

 

[gene]

Word of experience: You'll make money a lot faster if you don't try to make money real fast. And better to take small losses than to watch those losing trades turn into big losses.

 

[JumpOff]

I'd get a simulator like
http://www.tradingsimulation.com/ (free)
and weblinks to free charts of indexes and currencies

http://www.oanda.com/ Free FXgame currency simulator
(this one is really cool because it records your trades right on the chart so you can
see how much you know - or thought you knew!)

http://www.neoticker.com/
a stock trading simulator with historical tick data server that you can rent for about $50 month.

If you can make your paper account go up consisently for several months in a row, then you can figure out the stuff about a broker and what instrument to trade.
JO

 

[Edster]

Don't know anything about spreadbetting but hear this a lot. As far as tax goes you would need to be earning more than 8K a year form your activities before you need to worry about it

Just out of interest, where does the 8k figure come from? Let's say (hypothetically of course ) that I am in full time employment and make more than 8k on the side via spread betting. Does this interest the tax-man? I was under the impression that it didn't as it wouldn't be my only income.

Cheers,

Edster

 

[Roberto]

Just out of interest, where does the 8k figure come from?

roguetrader may have been referring to the amount you can make in a year as a capital gain before you have to pay CGT, perhaps? I believe that you're also allowed to carry this amount of CGT-exempt allowance forward for _one_ year (that was certainly the position the last time I looked, but that was a while ago).

Let's say (hypothetically of course ) that I am in full time employment and make more than 8k on the side via spread betting. Does this interest the tax-man?

Not at all. You can even make many times your full-time income on the side, as long as it's via spread-betting, without a penny of it being taxable. At the moment. As far as I'm aware, nobody has ever seriously suggested that CGT could be applicable to spread-betting profits anyway, even if there's a change in the law. It's income tax that might theoretically turn out to be relevant at some future point, but that would require the Revenue contending that SB profits were your sole (not your "main") income. IMHO.

 

[sidinuk]

It's a shameless plug, but my website, online futures trading, provides some information you might find useful on the advantages and disadvantages of different trading instuments.

 

[nje]

sidinuk
Some good useful advise on your site.
I am still looking for some advice from you or anybody else out there, on trading futures and spreadbetting.
Any recconmendations on a broker and charting package ?
I have been looking at Prorealtime which seems reasonably priced for real time data and Capitalspreads etc, any advice?
Everybody seems to prefer the US markets compared to Uk, is this just down to cost.
What kind of Uk time do you need to trade US markets?

 

[sidinuk]

nje, If you are going to daytrade then ignore spreadbetting and concentrate on futures. The wide spreads and slow fills with spreadbetting will offset the small profit per trade you can expect from daytrading. Spreadbetting is only suitable for medium term trading in shares.

What do you intend to trade? Indexes, currencies, stocks?

The US markets are open from 2.30pm to 9.00pm GMT.

 

[roguetrader]

Just out of interest, where does the 8k figure come from? Let's say (hypothetically of course ) that I am in full time employment and make more than 8k on the side via spread betting. Does this interest the tax-man? I was under the impression that it didn't as it wouldn't be my only income.

Cheers,

Edster

The current yearly tax free allowance for capital gains stands at £8200 in the UK if I am not mistaken. The point I was makeing is that nje referred to the advantages of spreadbetting being tax free, which as I understand it from this board is true, however for all intents and purposes so is all other forms of trading up to £8200 of profit. . So until his success reaches above that figure there is no tax advantage.

 

[nje]

nje, If you are going to daytrade then ignore spreadbetting and concentrate on futures. The wide spreads and slow fills with spreadbetting will offset the small profit per trade you can expect from daytrading. Spreadbetting is only suitable for medium term trading in shares.

What do you intend to trade? Indexes, currencies, stocks?

The US markets are open from 2.30pm to 9.00pm GMT.

Indexes seem a good place to start, but uncertain of which market, US or UK, but need to decide before committing to charting package and broker.
UK hours are better but the cost of real time data seems to be a downside.
I would apprettiate any advice either way.

 

[roguetrader]

I use eSignal for US data, cost is about £45 ish a month, they also do UK data, I'm pretty sure there are cheaper data sources out there, but I like this one. In truth data supplier is a late decision imho. You first need to decide what you want to trade, where you want to trade, and over what timeframe you want to trade, then you can start to find the best brokers/data feed to fill your needs.

 

[smiley]

Indexes seem a good place to start, but uncertain of which market, US or UK, but need to decide before committing to charting package and broker.
UK hours are better but the cost of real time data seems to be a downside.
I would apprettiate any advice either way.

I, like a lot of others on these boards use SierraChart which is very cheap. An alternative would be MyTrack. As for brokers, I find IB to be very good but as already pointed out, you need to first decide what you're going to trade.

Best of luck.