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The Spread Betting Comparison Chart gives insight into the various providers according to the value added services they bring their clients.
Be it market updates, iPhone App's, customers support, technical tools - they judge the providers according to the effort they have put into their offerings. |
| The iPhone spread betting app: The case against |
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| Written by The Virgin Spreader | |
| Friday, 24 September 2010 14:31 | |
The very idea behind the app is to offer around the clock access to your trading. You can place a trade on the run - a highly stupid move.
The first big spread betting provider to release an app for spread betting was City Index. According to the FT the percentage of trades placed through a mobile device went up from 3 per cent to 15 per cent in just 10 months at City Index. Mobile trading via iPhone apps has also been popular at IG Index, which released its PureDeal app for the iPhone at the end of July. By the end of August, it had been downloaded 12,000 times, making it the company’s most popular mobile device. IG Index processes over 100,000 mobile trades a month – about 10 per cent of total trades. So, spread betting via the iPhone is indeed popular, but is it wise? As someone who has traded via an app, I would say this is a bad idea. The very idea behind the app is to offer the user around the clock access to your trading platform. You can place a trade on the run - a highly stupid move. This blog has been preoccupied one golden rule of spread betting: Sticking to your strategy. A typically good strategy is in turn founded on discipline. Having found myself lying in front of the telly, iPhone in hand, pondering my positions I made a trade on AUS USD. For no particular reason at all but that 'the charts looked good.' This rash act incorporates 2 of the central tenants that make up poor spread betting practice: 1) Acting on emotion (I was bored, and thought I would have a go on the markets on the iPhone). 2) No research (How can you possibly put any good deal of charting into such a decision on such a small screen?). Essentially, I have found that the iPhone allows me to think outside of my strategy, it is a temptation to break down those boundaries that are so hard to set up when it comes to spread betting. I would argue that the iPhone app is useful to check up on positions for the sake of checking up on them. Don't enter the market though. And, if you do check up on your position and your position is looking rather healthy, or rather poorly, DON'T act. You have your stop loss and take profit targets already set, so no need to close out on your positions. |
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| Last Updated on Friday, 08 October 2010 10:56 |
Spread Betting Lessons - Cut out the emotion!
Oh, and also a lesson why the Stop Loss is your Friend !
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Spread betting at a glance
- Spread betting is a financial product that allows retail and professional investors access to the widest possible number and types of exchange traded instruments.
- The spread betting company that you trade through is the market maker, the trader does not actually take ownership of any underlying product. Hence, most jurisdictions do not charge stamp duty on any gains.
- The notion that you don't actually own the product ensures spread betting platforms are able to almost instantaneously execute orders on behalf of their client.
- Spread betting is a leverage product, your money is able to realise you impressive gains as your earnings come in multiples of the actual change in the underlying product that you are trading.
- This is of course where spread betting can also go spectacularly wrong. Losses can be huge, therefore we advise those that are spread betting, or are looking to go into spread betting, to enter each trade with a well thought out strategy. This also means setting a pre-determined stop loss so that losses are cut at a manageable level.
- This website is here to offer more insight into this fascinating trading instrument.