Anyone thinking of getting into spread betting

[DimPrawn]

I've found Smart Live Markets have a deal on at the moment where they will refund up to £300 in losses

Smart Live Markets


Might be worth it if you are starting out in spread betting.

Good luck.

[BlasterBates]

The trouble I have with this spread betting is that it seems to be a bit like betting on a roulette wheel.

Anyone have a "strategy" that actually makes money?

[AtW]

I've found Smart Live Markets have a deal on at the moment where they will refund up to £300 in losses

But you are so clever that you won't any losses right?

[AtW]

Anyone have a "strategy" that actually makes money?

Yes - don't bet as money saved are money earned only more tax efficiently.

HTH

[Moscow Mule]

The trouble I have with this spread betting is that it seems to be a bit like betting on a roulette wheel.

Anyone have a "strategy" that actually makes money?

"Buy" shares you've done your research on.

Don't short (sell) individual shares.

[doodab]

The trouble I have with this spread betting is that it seems to be a bit like betting on a roulette wheel.

Anyone have a "strategy" that actually makes money?

It's the same as any other leveraged investment. You need to understand the underlying asset, decide what you think it's going to do then place your bet and make sure you have enough capital to cover any margin calls / interim losses.

For example, you think the FTSE will go up, so place a bet at £100 a point, it will almost certainly close higher than when you bought in at some point, so you ride out any intermediate bumps until you are in the the money. If it falls 600 points then you have £60k tied up in it until the situation reverses. If it goes up a thousand points then you've made £100k.

The thing that makes it attractive to a lot of people is that the initial investment can be relatively small for the level of exposure to the market, e.g. in the above example you might only need to deposit £30k, to get the same exposure via an index tracker you would need to invest around £600k. The downside is that you lose everything if you can't make your margin call.

The obvious thing for you to do, as you are so convinced the eco-loons are going to bring Germany to her knees, is short the Euro.

[DimPrawn]

You can limit your exposure with stops and trailing stops and also look at binary bets.

[suityou01]

It's the same as any other leveraged investment. You need to understand the underlying asset, decide what you think it's going to do then place your bet and make sure you have enough capital to cover any margin calls / interim losses.

For example, you think the FTSE will go up, so place a bet at £100 a point, it will almost certainly close higher than when you bought in at some point, so you ride out any intermediate bumps until you are in the the money. If it falls 600 points then you have £60k tied up in it until the situation reverses. If it goes up a thousand points then you've made £100k.

The thing that makes it attractive to a lot of people is that the initial investment can be relatively small for the level of exposure to the market, e.g. in the above example you might only need to deposit £30k, to get the same exposure via an index tracker you would need to invest around £600k. The downside is that you lose everything if you can't make your margin call.

The obvious thing for you to do, as you are so convinced the eco-loons are going to bring Germany to her knees, is short the Euro.

Does a spreadbet not have a time span? So at the end of trading you are 60K down.

[DimPrawn]

Does a spreadbet not have a time span? So at the end of trading you are 60K down.

Yes watch out, as the trade will be closed, they all have an expiry date and time.

[suityou01]

Yes watch out, as the trade will be closed, they all have an expiry date and time.

So Doodab's point about having 60K tied up in it until the situation reverses makes it sound like a stock, but it isn't, it's a bet without a ceiling, unless you use stop losses of course.

In Doodab's FTSE example you just lost 60K down the tulipter in one day.

Just saying like.