Hi,
Just signed up as i found my way here after trying to find a broken down guide on spreads.

Ill give you the low down, and greatly appreciate any advice.
So i figure I'm a relatively intelligent guy, and have self taught skills in the past, so how hard can spread betting be?

I opened up a demo account on IGindex, and proceeded to trade with my own money, i ignorantly traded primarily on FTSE and ended up loosing a few times, which kinda pu the off. However my persistence made me bet more and still i lost.
I understand the risks, and although I was gutted to lose money (pretty quickly i might add) i wasn't betting with anything i was PREPARED to lose.

So i find myself trying to understand it all again, Any kinda beginners guides i find seem pretty complex still, and I understand why people are reserved about direct advice on any form of trading as it can lead to losses. That said maybe someone can help break down a few of my questions?

1. If not FTSE for a year, then what?

2.Fact is yes i am hoping to make a decent income form spread betting eventually even £100 a week would benefit my mortgage savings, how difficult is this?

3.I understand that if anyone directly knew what makes and index or commodity drop or increase in value then they would be millionaires, but what am i looking out for? where should i read and on what as a new starter?

4. Because of my full time employment, sometimes I may only be able to trade after 9-5 hours, how does the FTSE and other indexes still trade when they are closed? i understand the foreign markets due to different time zones etc..

Any advice on these questions would be greatly welcomed

Thanks

Dave

I suggest you read some books about spreadbetting. As it happens Tony Loton , currently has a project going where he is writing a book on spreadbetting online, so you can read the drafts for free and if you want anything added to it you can suggest it to him. He is a writer who explains things in a very clear way so he is very helpful. He has posted on this forum on a number of occasions. See http://www.betterspreadbetting.com/p/book.html
Another author who explains things very well is Malcolm Pryor m and I would recommend his "Financial Spread betting handbook" once again it explains the difficulties and risks very well. I am sure there are lots of other good authors and books out there, but I can only recommend the ones which I know and have read.
Best of luck and remember if it was easy we would all be millionaires.

Dave,

The main reason I suggest to stay away from the FTSE for your first year or so is just because it moves so quick you can lose a lot in a short space of time. Obviously the converse is true and you can make a lot very quickly as well. Since I only have a small bank I tend to stay away from the indices and only trade UK Equities. They tend not to move as quick and move at a much more subtle pace. This suits my style of trading at the moment.

The best tip I can offer to you as a newbie is to get your emotions in check. Don't get too excited and happy if you have a big win and try not to beat yourself up to much when you have a small loss. As a trader you will win and lose and it's important to keep your emotions in check when either occur. It's easier said than done because whenever money is involved people change and become emotional involved. This is why I stress you should only trade with money you can afford to lose.

The other thing it's important to focus on is money management. Keep you risk small, especially to start with. 1% of your total bank or less. So if you're trading with £10,000 that's a maximum risk of £100 per trade. If you only trade with £1,000 then it's £10 per trade. Trading with a small bank is hard, (trust me it's what I currently do) but not impossible. You can find trades that will allow you to risk only 10 points at £1 per point or you can use fractional bets that some spread betting companies offer.

Always use a stop loss and know where you intend to get out of your trade before you get in. Never adjust your stop against you only ever adjust your stop in your favour to either reduce risk or lock in profits.

Well I guess I had more to say on this than I thought.
Hope it's helped. If you have any more questions feel free to ask.

_________________
May the markets be with you!

Harry,
The Spread betting beginner

Dave, I too am a relative newbie to Spread Betting. I have fallen into all the traps even though I had read about them before:

Don't trade when you are bored
Don't hold a falling price (sell short/hold long)
Trade with a plan - know your entry and exit points
Dont trade to try and make up a previous loss.

I played around with a few Demo accounts when I started and had a go at trading Apple. The moment I hit the sell button, I was £125 down. This was my introduction to the 'spread' (difference between the buy and sell price). This needs to be as small as possible.

I have now settled on a strategy which involves using stop orders and watching economic announcements. Harry has an economic calander on this site here - http://spreadbettingbeginner.com/news/economic-calander/, which shows the upcoming events and the degree of impact on the markets. I look for a 'three red bull' event and then trade on the index it relates to. I use a OCO (one cancels the other) order and place a trade order just below and just above the current price. Then, if the market 'spikes' because of an unexpected announcement, the appropriate order will be filled and the opposite order will be cancelled.

This doesn't come without risk though, a number of times I have watched as a price slowly comes down towards my buy order, just touches it to activate it and then rebounds back up quickly, mounting up the losses. I used to swear that there was a programme on the spread betting company platform that tests people's stop orders. This does happen, but its the market that does it, not the spread betting companies

You might also want to look at the forum posting titled 'Demo Trading'. The user 'aster2' uses a scalping technique which he gets quite a bit of success with.

Good luck with your trading Dave.

I am new to all ths too. I have read a few books and had a play around a demo account where I lost £1000! I have only just signed up for IGindex where they allow you to trade for a few weeks at reduced rates, however I find technology scary and it has taken me ages to find my way around the website to find the tutorials! Once I opened the account they phoned and talked me through the platform but it wash"t ideal as I was in the office. So now I need to find companies that have a low share price as like most people my stake is small I have £500 however I only moved £25 into the account and on my first walk through lst £1! I now need to work out how to read charts! When you read the books it all sounds perfectly reasonable till you try and then realise this s scary. I intend to read Harry"s guides as I really like this site and hope to be ble to place a bet in the not to distant future. I will keep you informed.
Amw

City Index allow a minimum stake of 50p per point on most instruments and this is not just for a trial period it is permanently. ( or at least it has been for the last three years!!) . This allows you to minimise your risk .