Posts from — March 2011

The FTSE is in positive territory so far, lifted slightly by advancing commodity stocks on a quiet morning.

London’s blue-chip index is a touch firmer this morning, but appears to be struggling for direction, as investors pause for breath on a quiet day on the economic calendar.

Encouragingly, there has been no mass sell-off following a six-session winning streak that has taken the FTSE spread betting market to the brink of 6000 once more.

Despite all the doom and gloom surrounding the markets, the FTSE looks like it will finish the quarter the same way it started it, on the up and gunning for a post-GFC high.

Pick of the UK stocks this morning is Vedanta Resources, up 2.2% due to a rebound in copper prices.

TUI Travel is also performing well, advancing 1.7%, after reporting a surprising rise in summer holiday bookings.

Looking ahead to the US open, and the latest initial jobless claims are due at 1.30pm (London time), providing further clues as to health of the US labour market ahead of the key Non Farm payrolls tomorrow.

March Chicago PMI figures at 2.45pm and February factory orders at 3.00pm (both London time) should also provide some excitement on Wall Street.

Spread betting carries a high level of risk to your capital. You may lose more than your initial investment. It may not be suitable for all investors. Only speculate with money that you can afford to lose. Please ensure you fully understand the risks involved and seek independent financial advice where necessary.

Financial Market Comments from Will Hedden, Sales Trader, IG Index.

The above comments do not constitute investment advice and Clean Financial accepts no responsibility for any use that may be made of them.

Content provided by IG Index which is Authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority. FSA Register number 114059.

After a strong finish on Wall Street, the FTSE 100 is up around 25 points in mid-morning trading.

Despite worrying numbers from the retail sector and Eurozone debt concerns, London’s leading shares got off to a promising start this morning.

M&A news from Rio Tinto (+2.13%) pushed resource stocks up the leader board, with fellow miners Vedanta Resources (+4.07%) and BHP Billiton (+2.80%) the main beneficiaries.

In the wider FTSE 250, Dixons Retail has slumped more than 18% after issuing a profit warning, blaming the VAT rise and government cuts for a sharp drop in UK sales.

Coming hot on the heels of ONS figures showing that annual household incomes have fallen for the first time in thirty years, the bad news pushed blue-chip retailers down, with M&S (-2.9%) and Next (-1.9%) the worst hit.

Later on in the financial spread betting markets, the positive sentiment is expected to spill across to Wall Street where Dow futures are pointing to a higher open.

However, the Challenger job-cut report due out at 12.30pm (London time) will be monitored closely, with traders looking for any insights to be had ahead of Friday’s all-important Non Farm payrolls.

Unless there are any massive surprises in the data, it’s expected that the upward momentum we’re seeing will continue at least for the rest of the session.

Spread betting carries a high level of risk to your capital. You may lose more than your initial investment. It may not be suitable for all investors. Only speculate with money that you can afford to lose. Please ensure you fully understand the risks involved and seek independent financial advice where necessary.

Financial Market Comments from Will Hedden, Sales Trader, IG Index.

The above comments do not constitute investment advice and Clean Financial accepts no responsibility for any use that may be made of them.

Content provided by IG Index which is Authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority. FSA Register number 114059.

Mid-morning and it’s been another scrappy start to trading in London.

After yesterday’s lacklustre session, the resumption of some economic and corporate data has helped add a little momentum to the FTSE spreads. However, trade is still depressed as we approach the month and quarter end.

Wolseley’s return to profit and its resumption of dividend payments have helped push the stock to the top of the FTSE leader board.

On the other hand, Kazakhmys, the other high profile report this morning, failed to make much of an impression, despite soaring metals prices leading to a bumper 55% increase in annual profits.

Sticking to home, the final revision to the UK’s Q4 GDP reading was also released this morning, with a fractional improvement to -0.5%.

Although this is undoubtedly a modest change that serves to underline the weakness of the economy in general, it seems to have helped the FTSE draw a line under earlier losses.

Further afield, the situation in Japan clearly remains critical, so traders will be keeping a watchful eye on further developments here.

While over in energies, oil spreads are easing on news that the rebels in Libya are making further progress.

Across the Atlantic, the US consumer confidence reading that’s due just after the start of trade on Wall Street may be able to provide a degree of direction for US stocks, which have recently been struggling to make an impression.

At the moments we’re currently forecasting the Dow to recover some of yesterday’s late sell-off and open around the 12,215 level.

Spread betting carries a high level of risk to your capital. You may lose more than your initial investment. It may not be suitable for all investors. Only speculate with money that you can afford to lose. Please ensure you fully understand the risks involved and seek independent financial advice where necessary.

Financial Market Comments from Will Hedden, Sales Trader, IG Index.

The above comments do not constitute investment advice and Clean Financial accepts no responsibility for any use that may be made of them.

Content provided by IG Index which is Authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority. FSA Register number 114059.

In mid-morning trading we have seen a positive but still cautious start to the week for shares in London.

Investors managed to shrug off some of the overnight-weakness in Asian markets on the open this morning with the FTSE spread betting market registering positive gains, but much of these have been given back so far.

Miner, Kazakhmys is the biggest loser so far, down around 2% ahead of tomorrow’s full year results.

Despite the continued strength in the commodity spread betting markets, the shine has definitely gone off the mining companies in recent months.

Investors seem to be a little concerned that the two-year rise in mining share prices has got ahead of the still-stuttering-global recovery.

Looking ahead to the US open, at the moment we are expecting the Dow Jones to start off around 20 points higher than Friday’s close.

It is a busy week for economic data, culminating in the latest US Non Farm payrolls on Friday.

With this in mind, and considering the strong rally seen for much of last week in equities, the FTSE may well struggle to make any decent progress in the days ahead.

It would not be surprising to see some choppy but ultimately directionless sessions.

Spread betting carries a high level of risk to your capital. You may lose more than your initial investment. It may not be suitable for all investors. Only speculate with money that you can afford to lose. Please ensure you fully understand the risks involved and seek independent financial advice where necessary.

Financial Market Comments from Will Hedden, Sales Trader, IG Index.

The above comments do not constitute investment advice and Clean Financial accepts no responsibility for any use that may be made of them.

Content provided by IG Index which is Authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority. FSA Register number 114059.

Where to Spread Bet on Vodafone?

You can spread bet on Vodafone with any of the following companies:

• Financial Spread
• Tradefair
• IG Index

Although note that you can also spread bet with other Spread Betting Companies.

Spread Betting on Vodafone

If an investor wants to invest in companies like Vodafone then one possibility is to spread bet on the Vodafone share price.

If you were to look at the Tradefair trading site, as of Friday, they were showing the Vodafone Rolling Daily market at 177.4p – 177.8p. Therefore, you can spread bet on the Vodafone share price:

• Going higher than 177.8p, or
• Going lower than 177.4p

Whilst making a spread bet on FTSE 350 equities you trade in £x per penny. So, if you choose to invest £10 per penny and the Vodafone share price changes by 5p then that would change your P&L by £50. £10 per penny x 5p = £50.

Rolling Daily Equities Markets

It is important to note that this is a Rolling Daily Market and so it does not have a settlement date. If your trade is still open at the end of the trading day, it just rolls over into the next session.

If you do let your trade roll over into the next day and are spread betting on the market to:

• Rise – then you will usually be charged a small overnight financing fee, or
• Fall – then you will usually receive a small credit to your account

You can learn more in our feature Rolling Daily Spread Betting.

Vodafone Rolling Daily Equities Spread Trading Example

If you think about the spread of 177.4p – 177.8p and assume:

• you have done your market analysis, and
• you think that the Vodafone shares are likely to rise higher than 177.8p

then you could choose to buy a spread bet at 177.8p and risk, for example, £15 per penny.

This means that you make a profit of £15 for every penny that the Vodafone shares increase and go above 177.8p. On the other hand, such a bet also means you will lose £15 for every penny that the Vodafone market decreases lower than 177.8p.

Looked at another way, if you were to ‘Buy’ a spread bet then your profits (or losses) are found by taking the difference between the closing price of the market and the price you bought the spread at. You then multiply that price difference by your stake.

As a result, if the shares started to move upwards then you could choose to close your position to secure your profit.

Therefore, if the market moved up then the spread, determined by the spread betting firm, could change to 184.9p – 185.3p. In order to close/settle your position you would sell at 184.9p. Therefore, with the same £15 stake you would make a profit of:

Profit = (Final Price – Opening Price) x stake
Profit = (184.9p – 177.8p) x £15 per penny stake
Profit = 7.1p x £15 per penny stake
Profit = £106.50 profit

Trading equities, by spread betting or otherwise, is not easy. In the above example, you had bet that the share price would increase. However, the share price can also fall.

If the Vodafone stock decreased, contrary to your expectations, then you might decide to close/settle your spread bet to stop any further losses.

If the spread fell to 171.6p – 172.0p you would settle your position by selling at 171.6p. So your loss would be calculated as:

Loss = (Final Price – Opening Price) x stake
Loss = (171.6p – 177.8p) x £15 per penny stake
Loss = -6.2p x £15 per penny stake
Loss = -£93.00 loss

Note: Vodafone Rolling Daily market correct as of 25-Mar-11.

Vodafone Spread Betting – More Details

For more information on trading Vodafone, also see Vodafone Spread Betting.

Spread betting carries a high level of risk to your capital. You may lose more than your initial investment. It may not be suitable for all investors. Only speculate with money that you can afford to lose. Please ensure you fully understand the risks involved and seek independent financial advice where necessary.