Newbie- spread vs market and speed?

cimalt

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As a 'computer geek' I have played around with a few bits and pieces and come up with a system which does the following for same day trading on the Dow.
Use previous days' data it tells me 2 figures: to enter a trade long if it reaches one figure and short if it hits the other figure (either up or down). I will then leave the trade until the end of the day when that 'daily' bet ends.

These are my 'stupid' questions:-

Does the spread on a daily always surround the market price/value? If not what is the point of being able to place an order to execute when it hits a figure (and I'm at work) if you don't know that the market and spread are aligned?

If my target price is only hit for a minute will my automatic order still get placed or will there be so much delay on the spread updating that while the market may hit a point the spread will never reach it?

Can anyone help please?

On paper I am able to predict ~75% trades correctly as follows for last 12 months:

Result- pts up or down ( have adjusted results by ~10 pts each trade out of my favour to account for BAD spread)

-40 20 10 50 20 -40 20 30 0 20 -40 40 30 5 -50 0 40 50 30 0 -40 30 60 70 0 60 50 -40 60 -50 -30 70 50 70 -30 -100 5 10 50 20 -20 -20 0 30 80 30 20 80 0 80 60 40 30 30 40 -40 20 0 20 20 60 -20 100 0 -110 0 -10 -30 0 10 50 40 50 -40 80 -20 40 20 40 90 0 -40 120 0 10 -30 120 70 40 10 -40 -10 80 60 110 -30 -90 90 60 10 -80 60 40 10 20 10 30 20 -20 30 160 140 80 90 50 90 -110 -90 -60 -40 90 -40 140 -130 10 10 20 0 120 10 120 20 20 0 10 10 120 -40 20 120 -40 120 -60 -40 140 -100 40 80 80 10 30
 
Don't day trade with spread betting, spread much wider and moves in a much more erratic way compared to futures
 
Racer,

Thanks for the advice, which I shall take on board, but it doesn't cover the questions. Anyone help me?

Thanks
 
Hello cimalt,

The SB price will be broadly in line with the futures prices. Have you tested your system based on the index, or the futures data? - this may well kill it, but might not.

If it doesn't, then you might be OK with spread betting. I trade the FTSE, EOD, using a contrarian approach and usually find the price I get is 2 to 3 pts worse (though ocassionally better) than the index itself - one of these pts being half of the spread.

If you've allowed 10 pts slippage and you still get good results then on paper this is a great system. Most people will tell you to use direct access to day trade.

Cheers,
UTB
 
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