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Public Forum Full time worker spreadbetting.

Hello, I am 21 years old and new to spreadbetting. I work full time, so cannot keep on eye on my trades during the day. I've gone over my trades and spotted obvious mistake, some so obvious it gets to me!

They go from buying on a down trend expecting it to go up and vice versa. My big loss came when buying wolseley, it was on an up trend for months, now as you can see on their charts it has gone down. Just my luck I buy on this down turn!

With no obvious news on why either.

Spread Betting with Finspreads | Trade Financial Markets

What I'm after is a few tips from other people that work full time aswell as make money spreadbetting. As that'll pay a mortgage for me. What should I be doing when I get home from work, I know I should be looking on company news but not too sure on what websites to use really.

I've now read The Naked Trader and Malcoms 2nd edition, but I dont think technical analysis is the way for me to go. Could just do with other peoples views and how a person like me goes about spreadbetting. Only a small handful of spread bettors win, and I tried to highlight the difference between the winners and the losers in the Handbook.

There will be people who promise that making money will be easy, my approach is different, I believe that skills are required and that they take time to acquire. It is a tough game and the first question to ask is what is the edge that one has in the market.

Can I make a career of spread betting? | cozosen.web.fc2.com

If one cant define it it probably doesnt exist. So an early task is to try to find a systematic approach that over time can be expected to have positive expectancy. My preferred route is via technical analysis, but many other methods can be used.

One skill is to balance risk and reward. Getting bet size wrong is one of the ten most common rookie mistakes. This may not be what you are hoping for but the first year is about not losing money, rather than making money. There are some good advisors and seminars out there, but not I think any realistic simple solutions.

Hi Toby You mentioned wanting to know where to find company news.

I'd suggest you take a look at a site called Investegate. Robbin Burns put me on to it. Each day practically every piece of breaking company news is released there. I'd also suggest you check out Stockmarketwire.

Thanks for the advice Malcom and Matman.

That did boost my confidence a bit Malcom, you saying that only a handful break even after a year let alone make money! I'll check out those websites in the evening probably, leave work at 7am so not much time in the morning! Suppose I could get up earlier though!

Learning from that mistake I think lower bets should be taking. Another company that allows permanent 50p bets is City Index, they cover far more shares than Gekko, and sometimes the minimum is lower than Gekko. Another thought is to try using one of the dummy accounts for a while. If you have lost two thirds of your account in possibly a short period of time this is some powerful feedback that new skills need to be acquired, and it might be better to do that without real money on the line.

Using a dummy account doesnt have the same psychological requirements as trading with real money, but it does enable the trader to practice a new strategy until a the new strategy is proven to have an edge b the trader can execute the strategy without mistakes. And here is a challenge for anyone who is trading with real money: If not, then the dummy account is a place where you can develop these without losing money.

I was against a dummy account as you say doesnt have the same psychological efftect, but I'll take a look and try to come up with a strategy, coming up with this strategy seems to be the hardest part! Yes, of the early stage pitfalls which the new spread bettor comes up against the three most damaging tend to be 1 not having a strategy which works 2 betting too much 3 betting against the trend ie trying to short in a bull market or trying to go long in a bear market Some strategies work for a while and then degrade, or only work in certain types of market, so the search for new strategies never stops, however the trader only needs one that works initially to get going.