My Personal Spread Betting Guide
At the beginning of 2009 I decided I needed a new challenge. I was reading a magazine when I became aware of a whole new world called Financial Spread Betting. I decided to delve a little deeper and wondered how hard could it be? Shares could only go up, down or sideways and it seemed appealing that you could make money in whichever direction the market was heading. It took a little getting used to that you could make money when a share was falling (going short) as well as when it was rising (going long) but everything I read assured me that this was the case. Time had come to find a spread betting guide so that I could investigate the system more fully!
Like all new pursuits or hobbies I knew that you need to learn from a professional. You don’t jump into a car and expect to be able to drive so I assumed this would be the same. So where to find a suitable teacher? I looked at many advertised courses but most were far too expensive for me as I didn’t want to spend thousands of pounds until I knew it would be something that really interested me.
In this respect I was very lucky as time would tell. In one of my magazines was a leaflet from a trader called Ian Williams who advertised a guide to spread betting tips course called “Trading The Easy Way”. You could have this on trial and if not completely satisfied could return it for a full refund of the £247 (this was the cost in January 2009). The course included a very comprehensive manual but more importantly the offer of a free mentoring service by e-mail for 12 months if you had any problems or questions. I must say at this point that Ian must have endless patience if all his subscribers ask as many questions as I did in the beginning! For £19 per month you could also subscribe to a twice weekly e-mail from Ian called WICS (What Ian Can See!) detailing his thoughts on the current market conditions and including both written examples and video clips of what he was looking at in terms of possible spread betting trades.
Ian’s financial spread betting guide explained that there were several things I would need before I could start spread betting or trading:
- A computer with a broadband connection if possible
- An account with a spread betting firm
- A charting package that would give me “end of day” results for everything being traded on the various stock markets around the world. This was not essential but would certainly be extremely beneficial.
The computer and broadband I already had so I then decided to check out the spread betting firms Ian had recommended. (Ian made a point of emphasing that he did not benefit in any sort of monetary way from recommending any particular firm.)
I decided to explore Finspreads as a possible spread betting firm as this offered something they called “A Trading Academy”. You could open an account for a minimum of £200. For the first six weeks you could then trade for as little as 10p per point. Perhaps I should explain here that with shares every penny the share price moves equates to 1 point. With indices and commodities this can vary quite drastically but for the moment I will just concentrate on shares. I felt that if the share price rose from £1.65 to say £1.84 then at 10p per point I stood to make the grand sum of £1.90. Conversely if it fell from £1.84 to £1.65 then I would only lose £1.90. These amounts meant I could try various spread betting strategies without losing my entire trading bank before I had even started. Some statistics show that 90% of new traders make a loss and most go bust within the first nine months. Another saying is that experienced traders will look at what the amateurs are doing and then do the exact opposite. This was obviously not going to be as easy as I had thought but it was certainly worth a try with a limited amount at risk.
The other thing I needed was a charting package and again I took Ian’s recommendation and bought Sharescope Gold. This cost me a one-off fee of £79.95 and £16 per month thereafter and gives me “end of day” results for all shares, commodities etc than can be traded via financial spread betting. They also offer a more expensive package which includes intra day prices.
I was now ready to go and all I had to do was read the “Trading The Easy Way” manual (and then read it again!) and try to understand what all these strange words like daily moving averages, channels, wedges, triangles, pennants, dead cat bounce and whipsaws actually meant. If there’s one thing for certain, if you are new to this game, you certainly need a beginners guide to spread betting to get you going in the right direction and you should also consider joining a spread betting forum to share experiences with other new and more seasoned members.
Original content from Gr8 Free Articles.
Related posts:
- Beginners Spread Betting Strategies
- Spread Betting Tips For Beginners
- CFD vs Spread Betting: The Debate
- Learn From Others In A Spread Betting Forum
- Spread Betting Strategies
Filed under: Investment
Discussion Area - Leave a Comment