Spread Betting

[_V_]

Well yesterday I made £200 profit on a financial spread betting site. Sadly it was only "virtual" money as I was testing out the site and learning how to trade.

Today I have used real money (spurred on by my great overall success yesterday).

So far I'm £100 down. Watch this space.

[ChimpMaster]

2 days ago I bought a listed CFD to short Royal Bank of Scotland for a £300 profit in about 60 minutes. I usually lose money but just couldn't resist this set up.

I'm still holding a short on AZN which was in profit by £1k after being in loss by £4k. Now its in a small loss again seeing as the stupid Dow decided to go up.

[n5gooner]

which sites do you guys use? Have you used the FX trade site www.fxtrade.com which also has a 'game' version

[oraclesmith]

Just changing the subject slightly - what's to stop an on-line gambling site from being completely fixed ? eg. anyone with a bit of technical skill could create a site which plays, say, blackjack with an on-line punter and maybe some other fake players, and only ever allows the punter to win back a fraction of what they've gambled. At least with real gambling you can see the cards being shuffled and dealt so it's hard (but not impossible) to fix, but with virtual gambling it's so temptingly easy-peasy that it's hard not to assume that all these sites are fixed.

[ChimpMaster]

which sites do you guys use? Have you used the FX trade site www.fxtrade.com which also has a 'game' version

I use ADVFN for real-time quotes and charts etc. For execution I use a popular broker (who I won't advertise here), with whom trades are £7.50 each way for frequent trades (my previous quarter trades are something like 500 in number)

[_V_]

which sites do you guys use? Have you used the FX trade site www.fxtrade.com which also has a 'game' version

I am using https://www.tradindex.com/index.asp

You can trade for real or use pretend money (they give you £20,000 in pretend money to lose)

I am now in trading with real money. It's something to do whilst working.

For anyone that does not know what Financial Spread Betting is:

Financial Spread Betting is a tax-free (free of UK Capital Gains Tax) alternative to conventional trading.
No commission, brokerage or stamp duty
Ability to bet on markets going down as well as up
Instant execution and clear documentation
Fully Interactive On-line Dealing
Daily and monthly contracts available
Limited risk bets available on certain markets
Small stake sizes
All bets can be made in Sterling

Financial spread betting lets you back your trading judgement without having to buy the underlying instrument or product you want to trade. How? Basically, like any other bet, a spread bet is a bet on an unknown outcome made at odds set by someone else - in this case, a spread betting company. The spread betting company takes an instrument and quotes two prices; let's say, 101 - 103. These two prices, which they call a spread, are effectively a bid and offer price. The offer price (103) is the price you can buy at, the bid price (101) is the price you can sell at. The spread represents a prediction of a future outcome. And because spread bets have an expiry date, it's a prediction of a future outcome within a set time frame (although you can close out your position at any time before expiry). What you need to decide is whether to buy or sell the spread betting company's prediction of the future outcome.

[AtW]

For anyone that does not know what Financial Spread Betting is:

Financial Spread Betting is a tax-free (free of UK Capital Gains Tax) alternative to conventional trading.
No commission, brokerage or stamp duty
Ability to bet on markets going down as well as up
Instant execution and clear documentation
Fully Interactive On-line Dealing
Daily and monthly contracts available
Limited risk bets available on certain markets
Small stake sizes
All bets can be made in Sterling

You forgot the most important one:

Lose a lot of money very quickly

There was a saying among share traders - if you want to lose lots of money quick, then deal with futures: spread betting is even worse, especially because it is accessible to so many people. IMO should be made illegal just like almost all gambling (fruit machines, very tightlyu controlled small casinos, ruffles and national lottery are okay - they all have limits as to how much you can get into debt).

Stay away from gambling in general, and anything that includes leverage in particular. Don't forget what Archimedes said - "give me a lever long enough and a place to stand and I will move the earth", as same leverage can kill you.

[oraclesmith]

Sounds interesting. I might give it a go.

[_V_]

AtW is right (in a very pessimistic way) about Financial Spread Betting.

You can start with a pound and lose £1000.

By the same token you can start with a pound and make £1000.

The site I mention has mandatory stop levels that pretty much limit what you can lose but do not limit what you can make.

[AtW]

The site I mention has mandatory stop levels that pretty much limit what you can lose but do not limit what you can make.

That must be a lie - it should be a zero sum game and if the losers execute stops when they lose (and this is when you win), then their stop limit is pretty much your win limit. Of course they would prefer to make you believe that your wins are unlimited where as losses are limited. Yet another reason why it should be banned, good job that USA is doing the right thing about those pesky gambling companies.