Sid,
having sat and done little more than watch prices for the past week (ie the difference between the SB price and the actual price)whilst I get my funding in place, I have no doubt that my bottom line will increase immeasurably once the IB account is up and running.
To put it bluntly, SB companies are robbing b*****ds and imo they are only useful for one thing - losing money. However, even this is useful in the early days of trading because it
should teach you not only discipline, but how easy it can be to lose money when someone is constantly moving the goalposts when you're in a trade.
My style, I've learned, is more scalping than anything else...and so many moves on the major indices lately have given opportunity for little else, and if you're using SB, basically you haven't got a snowballs' chance in hell.
So what I'd say to anyone looking at starting trading is this: Put aside about £3000. Stick a grand of it in a SB account, and leave the other £2k sitting in another account somewhere. Then, when your SB account is down to less than half what you started with (and believe me, it will be), take your balance and the other £2k, open up a proper trading account, and use what you've learned over the past 6 or 8 months. Do not, under any circumstances, try and "win" back your losses from the SB company. Because you won't.
But, like the Murphy's, I'm not bitter.
Anyway, goodbye SB. And in the words of Mel Gibson@Braveheart....."FREEDOM!!"
