Spread Betting In Real Life
Oct 31, 2011 at 6:49 pm in Trading Diary by
With a new month just beginning I thought it would be rather fun to resurrect an idea that proved popular on another blog that I ran in 2010; the idea being to start a brand new spread betting account with an initial deposit of £1000 and to trade this real-life account over the coming months… updating on progress regularly as I go.
You see, theory is all very well, but there’s nothing like the real thing for demonstrating what to do, or — in my warts ‘n’ all style — what not to do.
It might go spectacularly well and allow me to demonstrate the kind of stellar return I enjoyed in 2009…
Note that in two simultaneous ‘demonstration’ (but real) accounts I took a modest £300 up to £9000, so that in total I took combined deposits of a modest £600 up to £18,000.
Mr. Market might not be so kind to me, and it could go the way of 2010 when I took an initial deposit of £1500* up to £2000 withing three months, see below — and even cashed in perfectly at the peak — before losing the greater part of it by the middle of this year after switching to a different platform.
* It wasn’t quite this simple because I introduced some of the money midway, but it illustrates my point.
Whichever way my new public experiment goes, I aim to keep you entertained and educated, even if the ‘education’ component takes the form of teaching you ‘what not to do’. And either way, it won’t cost you a penny to stay tuned!
Although I reserve the right to trade whatever and whenever I like — it is my account and my money, after all — I intend to base my trading on my preferred Position Trading style outlined in this article about position trading and the subsequent ones. In part this is because the trading frequency will be just about right for keeping you updated on a daily or weekly basis. In part it’s because I can run it as an ongoing ‘portfolio’ rather than a series of entirely separate ‘day trades’. In part it’s because… I think it will work!!!
I intend each update to make an educational point as well as to provide some kind of ‘snapshot’ of progress, and on days or weeks when there are no specific trades to discuss I’ll still try to post something educational or entertaining to keep you engaged.
Disclaimer: I’m sure there is a general disclaimer around here somewhere that this web site as a whole is for general education only, and should not be used as a source of specific trading advice. The same thing goes for my forthcoming real-life spread betting endeavour. The trades that I make are in no way recommendations for you to do the same; I’m merely documenting what I’m doing — and why. If I lose money, I’m on my own, and so are you!
Are you sitting comfortably? Then let’s begin… (more soon)
Tony Loton is a private trader, and author of the book “Position Trading” (Second Edition) published by LOTONtech.
Thanks “G”, for tuning in again. I’m sure you’ll have some interesting things to say.
Good luck Tony, ill be following with great interest, TSM(spreadbettingcentral)