Spread Betting.. Has anyone returned made a profit?
Discussion
I have not, shall we say. Briefly ended up 35% up after only one day with various safe bets and chucked it all away. Including my entire deposit! Mostly, ok entirely, due to me being a greedy moron.
Can it be considered an investment, or is it pure gambling; you win some, you lose the lot?
Can it be considered an investment, or is it pure gambling; you win some, you lose the lot?
clarksonisawilly said:
I have not, shall we say. Briefly ended up 35% up after only one day with various safe bets and chucked it all away. Including my entire deposit! Mostly, ok entirely, due to me being a greedy moron.
Can it be considered an investment, or is it pure gambling; you win some, you lose the lot?
Depends on the logic behind each trade. If there isn't any real logic or reasoning behind a trade then you are just gambling and like all punters you'll bankroll the house.Can it be considered an investment, or is it pure gambling; you win some, you lose the lot?
If you can write down on here very clear and specific reasons to justify each trade and more importantly each trade size and then the market specifics of how and why the trade went against you then you have a series of investments that sadly didn't work out.
If you can't then you are just gambling.
DonkeyApple said:
Depends on the logic behind each trade. If there isn't any real logic or reasoning behind a trade then you are just gambling and like all punters you'll bankroll the house.
If you can write down on here very clear and specific reasons to justify each trade and more importantly each trade size and then the market specifics of how and why the trade went against you then you have a series of investments that sadly didn't work out.
If you can't then you are just gambling.
Sums up what I'd have said.If you can write down on here very clear and specific reasons to justify each trade and more importantly each trade size and then the market specifics of how and why the trade went against you then you have a series of investments that sadly didn't work out.
If you can't then you are just gambling.
ShadownINja said:
DonkeyApple said:
Depends on the logic behind each trade. If there isn't any real logic or reasoning behind a trade then you are just gambling and like all punters you'll bankroll the house.
If you can write down on here very clear and specific reasons to justify each trade and more importantly each trade size and then the market specifics of how and why the trade went against you then you have a series of investments that sadly didn't work out.
If you can't then you are just gambling.
Sums up what I'd have said.If you can write down on here very clear and specific reasons to justify each trade and more importantly each trade size and then the market specifics of how and why the trade went against you then you have a series of investments that sadly didn't work out.
If you can't then you are just gambling.
To start, I have very, very little knowledge about markets
Here was my logic for the profitable positions - Looking at recent history for the FTSE, I saw it tended to bounce up and down quite frequently by anything up to 50 points, before making any larger general shift. I set a stop at 100 points one way, and a limit at 10 the other. £1 a point I think. It worked, three times in a row.
The losing f
k up, I'm too embarrassed to go into. It was a spectacular cock up.Looks mostly like gambling now!
I have a mate who works for IG Index and he says that over 90% of people loose money. If you want to make money then you need to go long term (3-9 months) and trade shares, not so easy when you have all those pretty flashing lights in front of you and the temptation to take on too much leverage.
Discipline is sooo important
Discipline is sooo important
Edited by turbotongue on Wednesday 14th April 22:54
clarksonisawilly said:
ShadownINja said:
So you were looking to risk 100 to make 10?
Yes. I had the large stop to allow the price to fluctuate downwards without prematurely closing the ticket. A low limit was used to be a safe, small profit.turbotongue said:
I have a mate who works for IG Index and he says that over 90% of people loose money. If you want to make money then you need to go long term (3-9 months) and trade shares, not so easy when you have all those pretty flashing lights in front of you and the temptation to take on too much leverage.
Discipline is sooo important
I like flashy lights Discipline is sooo important
Edited by turbotongue on Wednesday 14th April 22:54
Out of interest, does IG make money purely on the 90 per cent of losers?
Mattt said:
Well it doesn't make it on the 10% of winners
It is a misconception that spread betting companies rely on losers to provide the company's profits.Depending on the degree of hedging that is put in place which may vary from company to company, what they want is activity to make money off the bid/offer spread.
Mattt said:
Well it doesn't make it on the 10% of winners
I'm afraid that is a common missunderstanding.Once you have a large enough book of business it is all about managing the flow profitably and not about taking the other side of the client as much smaller firms have to.
A very clear example of this is that last year saw an unpressedented continual rise in the market which for nearly 8 months favoured clients and went against the brokers. Clear prrof of what I said above lies in the fact that IG increased revenue over this period whereas the smaller brokers suffered huge losses as they had to pay out to clients.
If IG can increase revenues during a period when clients are making money it becomes clear that running a large enough book is about risk and flow management and not about betting against the client.
Re the original posters statement of risking 100 to make 10, you are not alone. This is what most people do but at the very basic level you need to reverse this and risk 10 to make 100. Personal risk management is key.
Somewhatfoolish said:
What kills most people is over leverage. Simple as that.
Yep, I've read some horror stories on here and elsewhere. Usually starts of with a few minor punts, you think you have something, then you go all in and get seriously hammered by one loss. Or variations of this.limpsfield said:
Depending on the degree of hedging that is put in place which may vary from company to company, what they want is activity to make money off the bid/offer spread.
Just wondering: if you're always paying out to winners, how do you make the money then? Say the spread is 2 pips and someone is always making 50 pips, aren't you making a loss of 48 pips?Edited by ShadownINja on Thursday 15th April 10:31
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