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Another one for you, Financial Spreads are offering clients tickets to see England v South Africa at Lord’s on Saturday 12 July.

(if you don’t have an account, you still have time to open an account with Financial Spreads and qualify).

Answer a cricket related question and place two non-equity spread bets to enter the draw.

We’ve listed the full details here >> Financial Spread Cricket Offer.

Don’t forget: Spread bets carry a high level of risk so you should only speculate with money you can afford to lose. You can lose more than your initial deposit and stake. Before you open an account, please ensure that spread betting matches your investment objectives, familiarise yourself with the risks involved and if necessary seek independent advice.

Good Luck!

DB

Clearly a very large topic. So for now we are just looking at this from the point of view of the less experienced spread trader.

Tip 79. Those new to spread betting can often benefit from avoiding Day Trading or, at most, trading with minimal stakes. One big problem is that the short period of time available is likely to make you more emotional and cloud your judgment. Many retail investors don’t react well to this sort of pressure and make irrational decisions they would not normally make.

80. Day Trading often goes hand-in-hand with greed. Ask yourself, ‘why am I Day Trading?’ Are you so impatient that you need to open and close a position on the same day? If so, financial spread betting may not be right for you. There’s certainly nothing wrong with opening a position in the morning and aiming to close out in the afternoon for a profit. But doing this day-in day-out can leave you open to all sorts of problems. If you want to make a large number bets within a short period of time it is unlikely that you will have carried out sufficient research.

81. Day Trading is also very difficult if you have a fulltime job that is not looking at the markets all day. If you are unable to keep an eye on the prices then no doubt your normal job will suffer and again…you could be making poor, rushed trading decisions.

82 If Day Trading is for you then be very careful with wide spreads and/or markets will little volatility. You can easily lose out to the spread itself. Eg the spread on a smaller AIM stock could be 20 to 23p ie a spread of around 15%. That market will have to move a lot before you make any money. Assuming it has a normal variation of 5% on a given day then the shares will probably close around 21 to 22p. If you bought at 23p you are likely to make a 1 or 2 point loss even the shares move in the right direction.

Are there any positives? Yes

83. If you do decide to trade over short periods of time then you may be better off spread betting than share trading. With equities you have to pay Stamp Duty which isn’t applicable to spread bets. With Stamp Duty currently at 0.5% in the UK that soon adds up over a large number of trades.

84. Although the width of the spread can be a problem, with the markets as they are at the moment, ie where you have the FTSE 100, Crude Oil, Gold etc all moving around rapidly the width of the spread is less of an issue. It should only play a small part in your trading decision. If the width of the spread for Crude Oil is 5¢ and crude is regularly trading 300-400¢ ranges (or more) on a given day…the spread is less significant.

85. Competition. These days there are a good number of spread betting companies offering good quality services. That has led to narrower spreads, particularly on the daily spot and daily rolling markets. For example, most of the companies featured on this site offer a 1 or 2 point spread on their daily FTSE 100 markets.

It’s not all bad news

Next time a few thoughts on managing your cash…so it doesn’t just disappear.

Good Luck!

DB

And another interesting offer.

I thought you might like a quick look at the latest offer from WorldSpreads (see below).

Good Luck!

DB

You can receive up to £250 Cashback against realised net losses; during the first 8 weeks of your new spread betting account being opened; as long as you open your account with a minimum deposit of £500 (or currency equivalent).

Effectively, this means that should you lose up to £250 during the promotional period, WorldSpreads Ltd. will credit your trading account up to this amount.

Accounts are subject to status. See site for full Terms & Conditions.

Click here to apply for an account.

Risk Warning: Remember that spread betting is a leveraged product and can result in losses that exceed your initial deposit. It may not be suitable for everyone, so please make sure you understand the risks involved. If you do not fully understand the risk involved, please participate using the WorldSpreads demo trading platform and then seek financial advice if necessary.

WorldSpreads Limited is authorised and regulated in the UK by the Financial Services Authority.

After the first round of games Germany are still the tournament favourites. However they are closely followed by the, so far, impressive trio of Spain, Portugal and Holland.

The biggest losers at the moment are the Italians who were 36-39 on the Sporting Index Tournament Index. After a lacklustre loss to the Dutch the bookies haven’t written them off but their spread is now 20-23 points.

On the other hand the bookies look like they have seen enough of Greece and Austria. Both countries are sitting at the bottom of the tournament table on just 2-4 points.

The latest Euro prices can be found at >> Euro 2008 spread betting.

Good Luck!

DB

Yes the tournament will be missing a little something for many of us this summer.

However we will still be keeping you up-to-date with the latest Euro2008 Spread Betting news, including:

1. Where to get £100 if Germany Win PLUS a Free £200 per goal Total Goals Bet >> more
2. The Classic Sporting Index Tournament Specials. Eg Total Tournament Penalties spread: 18 to 19.5 goals. Includes penalty shootouts >> more
3. How to bet on teams to do well >> more
4. How to bet on teams to do badly >> more
5. Player Goal Minutes. A highly popular and volatile market >> more
6. How to spread bet on Total Goals >> more

And if we get any news from the bookies we’ll be posting that here and on our Euro 2008 pages above.

The overall tournament prices are looking quite settled and haven’t changed for a few days. The Germans are still the favourites.

The last big price move was on 23 May when Man U were looking fairly handy and that Ronaldo lad was in good form. Sporting Index were forced to move Scolari’s Portugal up two points to 33-36 on their Euro 2008 Outright Index.

Good Luck!

DB