Trading Tips

There are quite a few spread betting tips that you should bear in mind when spread betting and many of these can be put down to basic common sense but should be mentioned all the same.

Education

Make sure that you understand the whole concept of spread betting. There is lots of information available from books and on the internet and the education materials that some of the spread betting companies provide really is second to none.

Size Of Stakes

Don’t be tempted to start off with high stakes. If you are betting out of your comfort zone you will find that you will close out of trades far too soon when they start to move against you and more often than not, if you stayed in a little longer you would have gone on to make a profit. Look at it this way, if you were to lose £10 would it affect you? Would it ruin your day? What about £100 or £1000. Different people have different comfort zones regarding money so make sure that you keep within yours.

Know When To Close The Trade

Before you enter a trade make sure that you know when you will get out, either to make a profit or loss. By doing this you will live to fight another day if the market goes against you. It is a common occurrence for someone to have a trade that is showing a loss of say £200 and hanging on in there without a get out figure in mind. Before they know it that £200 loss has turned in a loss of £500. This can be avoided with some advance planning.

Frame Of Mind

Make sure that you are in the right frame of mind before placing a trade. If the children are arguing in the background or you are stressed after a hard day at work, the last thing that you want to do is to start trading. Also, don’t be tempted to trade after a liquid lunch, alcohol and trading most definitely don’t mix.

Don’t Listen To Gossip

Just as you hear people down the pub talking about the latest sure fire tip you will also hear people talk about some kind of insider information regarding a stock that is about to rise because someone on the inside of a company has supposedly been talking. Take these spread betting tips with a pinch of salt because if you don’t you will soon be broke.

Keep Records

It is important that you keep detailed records of your trading. All of the spread betting companies have detailed accounts of all of the bets that you place with them so print them out and keep them in a folder. Also keep all of your user names and passwords together and if possible you should keep notes of the reason for your trading decisions.

Trade of the week

It might not be exactly every week, it might sometimes be more frequent and sometimes less so, but this page will always detail one of my latest trades that was notable for some reason: good or bad. Keep in mind that this will always be for general education only, and will never be a recommendation for you to trade.

For this week’s trade-of-the-week posting (yes, I know they’re monthly) I thought I’d bring you the next installment of the AGA Saga. Things have gone from strength to strength as the price of this stock has appreciated, as evidenced by the chart below:

Sorry it’s so small due to a technical hitch; but anyway the two horizontal lines show the original entry price at 60.6 (lower line) and the current guaranteed stop order level at 118.2 (upper line). The market price is 146.5.

Here is the real-life nominal £1-per-point trade, which you can scale up to suit your budget (i.e. £100-per-point would mean a £8,500 profit):

This is what a position trade should look like: stretching as far back as August of last year, the price steadily increasing and the profit-securing stop order trailing in step.

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Two Steps to Better Spread Betting:
1) Buy the Better Spread Betting Book
2) Sign up with Ayondo or InterTrader

Disclaimer: this posting is for general education only; it is not trading advice.