Spread Betting

Wednesday 25th March

I had a go at setting the stops and limit’s to the candle opening price today although on the first trade I forgot to tick the limit box so had to close the trade manually. I got 12.7 pips though so I made an extra seven quid. The second trade I must have made slightly less because I ended up 24.2 pips up on the day.

Day 12

Daily Profit: £240
Total Profit: £1290

Filed under FTSE 100,Spread Betting by Graham

Tuesday 24th March

A winner followed by two losers today.

Day 11

Daily Profit:-£180
Total Profit: £1050

Filed under FTSE 100,Spread Betting by Graham

Monday 23rd March

Just to remind those that asked, I didn’t trade last Friday as it’s one of the system rules. Instead I spent the time familiarising myself with Capital Spreads. I will use the system with Capital Spreads from now on as their spread is smaller on the FTSE100 which makes a difference when you are only scalping 12 pips (£10 a trade if betting at £10 a pip!). I also have to use CS with another trading program that I will be blogging shortly. It’s certainly not as easy to use as IG, and seems a bit clunky in comparison, but it doesn’t take long to get the hang of it.

One thing I did notice as I re-read the manual is that I’m not actually doing anything different to what I was doing in IG. In IG, when you open a trade ticket, you can input that you want a 15 pip stop and a 12 pip limit and how much you want per pip and then click the buy or sell button and you will enter the trade and the stop and limit will be automatically set. With Capital Spreads all you can do is enter the trade without setting the stops and limit’s, then you have to set the stops and limit’s whilst in the trade, but you are still setting the stops and limit’s at 15 pips and 12 pips away from your actual entry point, the same as with IG index. This isn’t a problem for the FTSE100 as it moves a lot slower than the currency markets but I can imagine it would be a lot trickier trading currencies with Capital Spreads.

Anyway, I went back over the FAQ’s in the members website and it advises that the stops and limit’s are set based on the entry price of the candlestick we are entering on, not the entry price you get. This will mean that if you get in slightly late, you could win less than the 12 pips if it’s already moved in the right direction, but it could also mean you get slightly more if the market has retraced slightly before you got in.

Monday took ages to get a qualifying trade, and it wasn’t until after midday that the first opportunity arose but it was a winner followed quickly by another so I was still finished by lunch time.

Day 9

Daily Profit: £240
Total Profit: £1230

Filed under FTSE 100,Spread Betting by Graham

Thursday 19th March

A winner followed by a loser and then another winner. I kept a close eye on the chart today.

So +9 pips for me but Neil reported a 24 pip winning day. I checked the chart and I can see why I didn’t get this. Basically I have been keeping it simple by just setting a 12 pip limit and a 15 pip stop in IG Index. On Capital Spreads you don’t enter the amount of pips away you want the stops and limit’s, instead you enter the market price at which you want the stops and limit’s. So really what I should be doing is entering the trades then adjusting the stops and limit’s once in to the correct market price which is exactly 12 pips from the open price of the Candlestick we enter on, or 15 pips the other side for the stop loss. I haven’t actually been doing this because I figured I would be losing out on pips after the spread and the fact that you rarely get in at exactly the open price of the candle. Neil says that on some trades you win slightly less, on others if the market retraces slightly before you enter, you make slightly more pips. This does actually make sense but I guess I was being a bit lazy and thought a few pips don’t make that much difference.

With Thursdays trades however, I would have had two winning trades in a row if I had followed this method exactly. The reason I didn’t was because on the first trade I didn’t reach my limit until after Neil had entered his second trade already.

This is the first time this situation has occurred though since I’ve been testing it.

There is no trading on Friday as this is one of the system rules … not every Friday, just a particular Friday.

Day 9

Daily Profit: £90
Total Profit: £990

Filed under FTSE 100,Spread Betting by Graham