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 Post subject: The Beginning: part 31
 Post Posted: Fri Dec 17, 2010 11:34 pm 
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Joined: Sat Nov 06, 2010 4:24 pm
Posts: 176
Location: Derby
Hi

well, despite another mediocre day on the FTSE (down 9 points at 5870), my portfolio did fairly well and ended up around £90. For the first time in a while I had more greens than reds proving again that there is not always a direct correlation between what the FTSE does and where my positions end up...

No really outstanding gains or losses in the portfolio although one of my favourite shares, PETRONEFT RESOURCES PLC, managed a sterling gain of 3.5 points; my 3 x contracts are now over £200 in profit!

I did have a 2 x contract stop out today, ENQUEST PLC; however, for once, I actually gained a modest £11 or so which is fine. One new position executed: ARIAN SILVER CORPORATION at SP 41.4 (stop 35.4) @ £5/point. I am very keen to have positions in precious metals as I really believe these will do very well in the coming years...

Account funds now £1340 to give a profit of £540 since April - this is my highest so far so hoping I can maintain or improve this into the new year.

Regards, Big Al


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 Post subject: Re: The Beginning: part 31
 Post Posted: Sat Dec 18, 2010 2:50 pm 
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Joined: Fri Nov 19, 2010 7:24 pm
Posts: 91
Congrats on the large ROI! Always nice to read about success stories for a change.
You seem to have had more opportunities to pyramid into winning positions than I have over the last couple of months. Obviously part of that is picking the right shares in the first place! Thats the real way to decent returns, back your winners and cut off the deadwood losers.
Have a good Xmas and good luck for next weeks trades.

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http://spreadbettingtrader.blogspot.com/


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 Post subject: Re: The Beginning: part 31
 Post Posted: Sat Dec 18, 2010 3:40 pm 
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Joined: Sat Nov 06, 2010 4:24 pm
Posts: 176
Location: Derby
Hi SBT

funnily enough I was just looking at your Saturday write up when I 'popped' over here and found your comments on 'part 31'. I appreciate your comments and agree completely about dumping the rubbish positions - well they usually dump themselves courtesy of a sensible stop loss!

You probably know but I base some of my 'strategy' on Vince Stanzioni's teachings. I bought his package for a discount quite a while ago, and I've found it quite useful. Basically I combine his charting philosophies with a combination of other techniques I've picked up over the last 8 months or so. Some of my selection protocol is based on 'gut' feeling as well as anything else; so not very scientific really!

I'm not getting carried away with my very moderate success so far because I know just how easily and quickly things can change - I've been there on numerous occasions! For the moment I'm happy to stay in the game for as long as I can. If I'm still here this time next year, and preferably with a reasonable profit, then I'll consider myself fairly lucky...

By the by I've had a position in FRENCH CONNECTION GROUP PLC for quite a while. I bought in at around 51 @ £1/point. Although I'm £22 in profit I notice that my stop loss is under threat at the moment, this being set at 70 and the current SP is 73. I'm not too bothered because, as you can see, I've managed to lock in £19. I never did pyramid this share because it just never warranted it (having sat in my portfolio virtually unnoticed since the beginning).

I work full time at the moment so one of my biggest problems is finding the opportunity to raise stops. Since most of my positions have guaranteed stops in place IG Index will only allow stop raising when the market is live...

Anyway better get some work done before the 'boss' returns from Xmas shopping. All the best for next week, Regards Big Al


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 Post subject: Re: The Beginning: part 31
 Post Posted: Sat Dec 18, 2010 6:54 pm 
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Joined: Fri Nov 19, 2010 7:24 pm
Posts: 91
Yes I know what you mean about IG Index, I find not being able to move stops out of market hours very frustrating, especially if a share has spiked and moved up my trailing stop only to move back down fast and be very near my stop just as markets close! I'm not always at my keyboard around 4:30 so cant always check on them. Even worse for you I guess if you dont have access at all. Mind you, takes the emotion out of it all for you!
Another thing I dont like with IG is the way they consolidate your account daily and close all your positions and reopen them again. This way its very hard to keep an eye on the best performing positions as they all start every day at £0. All other platforms I've used tend to roll them properly and show you the full return on each position. On the plus side they do cover alot more markets and shares than most others.

You've managed a hell of a return based on gut feeling, must be nice! If I remember correctly French Connection was also tipped so may account for some of its recent movements, but I already had a position established in that share so dont think I purchased it again for my share tip account.
I'm happy how my spread betting is going at the moment, its not mega monies but my combined accounts are doing better than some of my real shares!

Good luck for next week although I think the market may remain pretty flat.

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http://spreadbettingtrader.blogspot.com/


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 Post subject: Re: The Beginning: part 31
 Post Posted: Sun Dec 19, 2010 11:02 pm 
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Joined: Fri Nov 05, 2010 8:31 am
Posts: 72
If you have trouble sorting out where you are with the IG index accounts, I have written an EXCEL macro to assist with this, I posted it on Malcolm Prior's public forum under trade history analysis, see :
http://www.spreadbettingcentral.co.uk/f ... ?f=1&t=367

I agree with the commnets about how difficult it is to see where you are with IG , but it is the same with CMC, and City index.
I have only found one company that gives you the price from entry, that is Gekko. However they average out the price for pyramids so that doesn't really work. I have found the only way is to record every trade in a spread sheet, it all takes time.


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 Post subject: Re: The Beginning: part 31
 Post Posted: Mon Dec 20, 2010 12:37 pm 
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Joined: Thu Nov 25, 2010 1:39 pm
Posts: 15
Trade Fair give you the price and profit from entry; both combined and separated out (if you expand an entry) for your pyramided positions.

Many other SB companies show your profit since entry including World Spreads, SpreadEx (if I remember correctly) and Paddy Power.

It's much easier to run my strategy, and probably Vince's too, on a platform that provides this information rather than on the platforms that reset your score every day.

cheers,

Tony Loton


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 Post subject: Re: The Beginning: part 31
 Post Posted: Mon Dec 20, 2010 4:52 pm 
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Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2010 9:10 pm
Posts: 147
I don't really have much to add here except to say that Capital Spreads also show your profit since entry.

One good thing with Capital Spreads, Tradefair and I assume Paddy Power(since they are all under the London Capital Group LCG Brand) is you can down load a list of your trade history and account status in .csv format. For those that are unfamiliar with .csv format you basically can view it in excel. This way you can download your trades every month and you have a complete of all your trade history. This can be handy rather than logging trades manually.

I personally log my trades in Excel anyway. I usually put a brief reason for the trade and sometimes do some analysis on the trade after it's over. This then gives me a trade diary for all my trades. I may look to tidy this up and offer it as a free download from the site somewhere but this will not be before the new year if I get round to doing it.

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May the markets be with you!

Harry,
The Spread betting beginner


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