ETX’s battle of wits
November 30, 2008admin No Comments »FTSE 100 daily swings of 5%-plus, oil dipping below $50, a barrel for the first time since 2005 and sterling’s continued slide created a rich hunting ground for private traders taking part in
ETX Capital’s ‘Beat the broker’ competition.
Battling for a chance to scoop a £20,000 top prize, spread bettors and contract for difference (CFD) traders from across the UK last week pitted their skills against ETX Capital’s seasoned City professional Mic Mills.
Mills, a trader of 30 years’ experience, was beaten 113 times in five daily trading sessions run between Monday and Friday. He says: ‘The best strategy was to bet big, and then double and treble your position if the trend was in your favour.’ All the 113 winners were entered in to a prize draw with lucky 60-year-old trader and Shares reader Alan Heywood from Lancashire scooping the £20,000 top prize. The retired operations director competed in three out of five days, beating Mills on all three occasions for a total £250,000 return with a strategy of trading the main indices.
On two occasions the daily winner banked more than £400,000, a 2,000%- plus return on the £20,000 contestants started the day with. By employing the leverage available with spread bets and CFDs, traders capitalised on volatility seen in the equity, commodity and foreign exchange markets. On the Friday, for instance, the FTSE 100 recorded an intra-day low of 3,734.5 and high of 3,946.7 creating an opportunity for the switched-on trader to make 5.7% despite the index closing down 1.6%.
Mills, who on his best day finished in position 19, was impressed by the quality of entrants: ‘It was a lot tougher and more time consuming than I thought and some of the results have amazed me – to return £400,000 in one day is an incredible bit of trading.’
Tags: ETX Capital, etxcapital
Join the discussion