Spreadbetting The Forex

Thanks for the info Fxwise, i dont like the sound of that at all, i have opened the account but i havent funded it yet. i think i might stay with etrade a little longer, shame though as i like the sound of their mobile facility and its handy to be able to bet 50p per pip as it makes money management more flexible.

A few people have said good things about GFT but as yet i know nothing about them. My information "To Do" list is growing about twice as fast as my "Things Learned" list at the moment.

Lyndon

Okay, this is just me thinking out loud and theres proberbly no such thing but i am going to throw this idea out anyway just in case someone has any experience of it.

Is there anyway you can autotrade a spreadbetting account in the same way you can autotrade a forex account.

I know of a company called Goldline but i beleive that is more of a managed account.

What i want to do is to be able to nominate a particular system and to have it autotraded in much the same way that autoFX or C2 work.

This is going to be one of my next little projects to find out about (if anything like it exists) so any ideas, pointers or anything you consider usefull would be appreciated.

Oh yes, and if you have already looked into this and found that it doesnt exist i would appreciate info on that too.

One last thing, if it doesnt exsist and there is someone out there with the appropriate resourses who wants to create or invent such a company then ill definitly sign up. We can call it "Financial Autospread Betting" which would be FAB.

Lyndon

I hope i am not breaking any rules by posting this thread link but if you are interested in spread-betting its well worth checking out

Lyndon

http://www.forexfactory.com/forexfor...spread+betting

I know there are reports about Forex Brokers' platforms crashing and not being able to get filled and crazy slippage.

Well spread-betting is no different, I was trying to trade the Trade Balance this afternoon and i thought i would share my experiencies.

The plan was simple (well to a newbie like me anyway) i was going to straddle the cable with 15 pips either side with a "One Cancels Other" order.

I've tried this on demo quite a few times and it worked very well so i tried it live to see if the results were the same.

Two minutes before the announcement Cable went off line so I couldn't trade it, incidently it came back on about 10 minutes after the announcement.

I know this might seem to be just one more gripe at a Broker but what i am trying to emphasise is the difference between demo and live trading.

Demo orders are filled instantly and efficiently and there is little or no slippage, none of my demo platforms have ever closed or crashed during news but there again it isnt real money is it ?????

Has anyone any inputs or experience with any of the British spread betting companies?(the UK alternative to to FX Brokers)

I have yet to see any mention of this option which I realise is not available to US residents.

Also as a UK resident I'd like to know where to find a download of Metatrader4 in GMT/BST timescale.

Thanks

i have got a thread going and its a bit further down on broker discussions, its called Ye olde bucket shoppe. i am a uk spreadbetter, why dont you take a look at whats already on there and see if it helps and if you feel like contributing that would be great, im trying to get more people on to it but its hard work. Anyway i am more that willing to share my (limited) experiencies and when i get things wrong people are ready to correct me which is also great.

Here's the link

http://www.forexfactory.com/forexfor...ead.php?t=6548

Hope to see you there

Lyndon

rorieu

Meta Trader uses the time zone of the broker that provides it and if you are only using it on a demo account , most accounts will expire after a month. i use FXDD (3 month demo) which is on CET which is +2 for us, thats the closest ive got. There is a broker that offers a demo that doesnt expire, i cant for the life of me remember who it is but it is here on Forex Factory somewhere.

Lyndon

Well

reference my last post on this thread, i thought rather than just whinge about it, why not find out why it happens. if you understand why it happens then it just may be easier to overcome or work around. i found a thread here on the forum that is proberbly the one best explanations.

I know that spread-betting does not rely on getting fills but the spread-bet prices will always (or should that be mostly) follow real time prices so in my opinion this thread is very relevant.

http://www.forexfactory.com/forexfor...ead.php?t=7484

Lyndon

There were two threads on this topic, so I combined them together.

Thanks Scott

IG Index are offering mobile trading, its an application that you put on your cell phone which gives you a trading screen and real time prices. This sounds to me to be a fantastic idea for anyone who has to spend long periods of time away from their PC. I have attached a screenshot if any one wants to see it.

Has anyone used this application and if so is it as good as it sounds, any feedback would be as always greatly appreciated.

Lyndon

Well thats it!! Ive used the mobile software in anger and it works absolutely fine.

I was miles from anywhere, recieved an entry signal via the cell phone. Twenty seconds later I was short in the GBPUSD.

"Jobsaguddun" and not a chart, PC or even a Bollinger Band for miles.

Lyndon

Hi.
I thought I'd start this new thread off so that dsinclair999 and I can swap info regarding spread-betting periodically without hijacking any other thread.

We're both resident in the UK, so spread-betting is legal over here, but not, it seems, in a lot of other countries.

Anyway, it goes without saying that anybody's welcome to the thread with any relevant info or for a chat about spread-betting in general.

Cheers for now.

Hi,

Which companies do you spread bet with and are they secure financially ?

I have read about Betonmarket but they are registered in Hong Kong, bit of a worry.

I am in Australia so a bit of a hassle to set up an account, but some of the options are interesting.

Hi eyevoltage,

Just wondering how you manage to cope with the large spreads (especially for longer-term trades)? When I was researching spread betting, it looked like you got charged the spread for each night you rolled over the trade. The alternative was to use a 'forward currency bet' but the spreads then went up to 10-25 pips. Am I missing something?

Cheers,
Innes.

Hi All,
I have been using IG Index for spread betting for the last four years. I use a limited risk account (slightly bigger spreads but my stops are ALWAYS guaranteed). I only trade the GBP/USD pair, 6pips opening spread on spot trades and 18pips opening spread on forward contracts. On position trades where I collect anything between 100-500 pips over the course of days or weeks, the 18 pip opening spread is negligible.

I've read a little bit on spread betting and to be honest I haven't really grassped the concept. Anybody out there with a simple definition of what it actually is?

Hi Paul,


Good to see ya here, nice work in setting up this thread
For everyone else's info, I'm posting what's been said between myself and eyevoltage in RED, might be helpful to someone else.

The AMA is called an Adaptive Moving Average, I came across it in some magazine and it looks pretty good. See the attached PDF file for further info.

Unfortunately my maths isn’t great and my programming is as bad so can’t explain it to you, but the formulas are all in the PDF file.

I’m relatively new to the Forex market (6 months) but learned so much in that time, thanx to forums like this excellent one. I started out using spread betting and haven’t had any problems with it, there are lots of SB brokers out there so it’s a matter of personal preference, but I use the following:

CMC Markets – VERY competitive spreads, 2-3 pips on the majors – Huge selection of currencies etc – Not web based unfortunately, you install their platform onto your PC and it’s not the most user friendly, but OK when you get the hang of it – I use them for any trades that have to be rolled over as they do it automatically and cheaply too.

Finspreads – Almost as competitive with their spreads as CMC – A more limited selection of currencies etc – Web based and good simple interface – I use them for intraday trades only as they are kind of expensive for rolling over trades into the next business day.

Capital Spreads – Very similar to Finspreads, except that they double their spread overnight!!! Don’t use them now because of this but otherwise very good.

I’m based in the <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><st1:country-region><st1lace>UK</st1lace></st1:country-region> and the tax free thing is a big bonus with SB as its regarded as betting, you don’t need as much money either, so it’s easy to start off with a lower bank and you only really use the money itself if you lose a trade. I prefer trading with a real account (you can trade with as little as 50p per pip) as it’s the emotions which are the difficult thing to control, you don’t have this with the demo accounts so it’s a very different experience!

I use MT4 to set up my trades as none of the brokers have decent charts and then just place my trade with my chosen broker. The only thing you don't have with SB is trailing stops, which is a pain.

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As regards the AMA I think I’ve found one in the Metaquotes site, never looked there properly before, follow this link http://codebase.mql4.com/indicators?p=8 and its on P9.

Yup, it’s a great site this, one of my main research points before I started trading, this and the Andy X – Insider Signal course.

I don’t know why more people don’t spread bet, I see nothing but advantages using it.
Maybe it’s the stigma associated with betting!

I only use CMC if I’m either sitting at my home PC OR putting on a trade that will last for more than one day. As I work full-time I can’t monitor the trade 9-5, that’s why I like a web based platform one like Finspreads or Capital, I can keep an eye on things from work.

There is a small difference in prices between MT4 and the SB platforms, varies by broker, but around 2-3 pips, but you can’t get away from that anyway and I haven’t found it to be a problem.

There usually isn’t a big rush to get the trades on unless I’m trading the news releases, in which case I have MT4 open and the SB platform open at the same time. If I’m at work when the news is released I use the basic charts from Finspreads, I get everything set up ready to trade a few minutes before the news release, and when I see the candlestick chart start to move at the appointed time I quickly switch screens and hit the buy or sell button, works pretty well, but you have to move fast before the market reverses as it sometimes does. I’ve found that mechanically straddling the market is pointless in these cases as your order gets filled too late and you end up losing pips. The Non-farm payroll report on the last Friday of the month is a nice easy 100 odd pips for about 15-30 mins work.

With regard to your PC, shouldn’t be a problem having MT4 and your SB platform open at the same time, main thing is that it doesn’t crash when having both open, a fast Broadband connection is probably more important.

My PC spec is a P4 3GHz, 1GB RAM, 260GB HDD running Win XP with a crappy 512KB BB connection (too far from the exchange etc) and I have no problems.

Don’t know about older PC’s, but I don’t think these applications are particularly CPU intensive, best to try it and see how you get on. <?xml:namespace prefix = v ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" /><v:shapetype id=_x0000_t75 stroked="f" filled="f" path="m@4@5l@4@11@9@11@9@5xe" oreferrelative="t" o:spt="75" coordsize="21600,21600"><v:stroke joinstyle="miter"></v:stroke><v:formulas><v:f eqn="if lineDrawn pixelLineWidth 0"></v:f><v:f eqn="sum @0 1 0"></v:f><v:f eqn="sum 0 0 @1"></v:f><v:f eqn="prod @2 1 2"></v:f><v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelWidth"></v:f><v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelHeight"></v:f><v:f eqn="sum @0 0 1"></v:f><v:f eqn="prod @6 1 2"></v:f><v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelWidth"></v:f><v:f eqn="sum @8 21600 0"></v:f><v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelHeight"></v:f><v:f eqn="sum @10 21600 0"></v:f></v:formulas><vath o:connecttype="rect" gradientshapeok="t" o:extrusionok="f"></vath><o:lock aspectratio="t" v:ext="edit"></o:lock></v:shapetype><v:shape id=_x0000_i1025 style="WIDTH: 11.25pt; HEIGHT: 11.25pt" alt="" type="#_x0000_t75"><v:imagedata o:href="http://www.forexfactory.com/forexforum/images/smilies/smile.gif" src="file:///D:\DOCUME~1\sincdav\LOCALS~1\Temp\msohtml1\01\clip_image001.gif"></v:imagedata></v:shape>

I had a look at e-trade, their spreads seem a bit large, EUR/USD and GBP/USD 6 pips, personally I would be looking for 2-3 pips spread for those two pairs.
To be honest their order fill time of 3-6 seconds is the same as Capital, Finspreads and CMC.
You got it right with the trailing stop, none of the brokers for SB I've seen appear to cater for it which is a real bummer. It does make it more inconvenient as you have to keep changing your stop manually, but no choice there!!
I haven't a clue how the 'proper' trading works involving the lots, mini, standard accounts etc. As far as I can see with SB you don't actually buy or sell anything, unlike the other form of trading, all you are doing is betting on which way the market is going to go, basically the same principle there. For example, if you had £1000 in your SB account, the money is never actually used unless you lose your trade, an amount is usually reserved as margin (deposit) and if you win your trade this margin is made available to you again as well as what you have won. If you had lost your trade the margin is still returned and the amount you had lost would be deducted from your account. It's kinda difficult to explain, sorry.
I think starting our own SB thread would be a great idea, just not sure whereabouts it would go in the forum!! Don't want to hijack this thread!!
Would be nice to get further input from any other spread betters here, if any!
I still haven't had a chance to test the AMA in MT4 but hopefully soon, like you I've been preoccupied with other matters :-(


Regards


DS


PS Paul, my name is David.
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Hi all

Its great to see more spread betters around, i started a thread a few months ago called "Ye olde bucket shoppe", it got moved into the Broker Discussion forum in a recent reshuffle. I have found loads of browsers but not many contributers, proberbly as it isnt widely known about, many traders proberbly think its just a passing fancy.

How do fancy joining forces and perhaps merging threads, keep it all in one place. Your thread to mine or mine to yours, makes no odds to me.

By the way I have been trading (betting) E*Trade for some time now but I have moved over to IG index as they seem to suit forex better. I noticed you were quoting spreads on EURUSD and GBPUSD at 6 pips, the spreads are 2 and 3 respectively although the do double after 2100.

Please feel free to check out my thread and let me know what you think.

http://www.forexfactory.com/forexfor...ead.php?t=6548

Lyndon

Hi,

I live in the UK and i'm using CMC for forex.
Jeeezzzz!!!!!!!! - sounds like an AA meeting!!.
Anyway, i,m still on the learning curve, although
it's been getting shallower the last few weeks.

Cheers.

Hey everyone,

I'm also in the UK, and have been toying with Spread Betting for a while. Can I ask a silly question or two...

You have to use their own 'engines' don't you, so trades need to be placed manually? Do any offer a pending order function?