Trade of The Week: Ocado

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Unusually for me, this week's trade of the week is a short trade. I took inspiration to engage in a little more short trading from "Evil Knievel's Guide to successfully shorting stocks" in Issue 03 of Spreadbet Magazine. Not that he recommended this particular trade, but the article did remind me how my preferred position trading spread betting strategy can be

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And another thing...

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It didn't make the deadline for the first publication of my Better Spread Betting book, but here's what Ajay Pabari, Founder and CEO of Spread Co said in response to my question "If you could give just one piece of advice to a spread bettor, what would it be?”:
Be smart in the use of leverage. Margin can be a very good thing. We all recognise a spread bet is a

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"Talk with Tony" (about Guaranteed Stops)

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Over on my "Talk with Tony" page, Martin asked a question that I think deserves a fuller answer here in the form of a blog post. Unless I'm mistaken, this is the same Martin who just reviewed my Better Spread Betting and Position Trading books over on Amazon.co.uk. Thanks, Martin, but unfortunately your cheque is not in the post.

Anyway, his question was:

I

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Balance-Affecting Transactions in Spread Betting

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There are various events that affect the cash balance in your spread betting account, including:


the profit or loss from closing a position
an adjustment for a dividend
the debiting of overnight financing (rolling) charges


To show what these balance-affecting transactions look like, I took a 24-hour snapshot from an IG Index account (although it could have

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Profitable Pyramiding

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Readers of my Better Spread Betting, Position Trading and Stop Orders books will know that I am inclined to try and pyramid profitable positions to higher stakes. For me, a necessary (but not sufficient) condition for pyramiding is that the potential loss on my second position is less than the profit accrued on my original position -- so that I am assured to exit

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"Better Spread Betting" (the book) now in print!

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I know some people still like print books that they can read in the bath, and truthfully so do I, so I have some...

Great news! The print edition of my Better Spread Betting book is now available from Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com.


Disclaimer: this posting is for general education only; it is not trading advice.

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Why so long?

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Readers of my Better Spread Betting, Position Trading and Stop Orders books will know that I am predominantly a long trader; and some of you might be wondering why. It's not for any moral reasons (e.g. "short selling is bad") but for the following reasons:


In the long run, stock markets generally rise, but I wouldn't read too much into this.
In the long run,

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Selling the Spread Betting Sausage (not the Sizzle)

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There's a well known saying in sales and marketing circles, which is...

"Sell the sizzle, not the sausage!"

The temptation when writing and marketing any book is to make outrageous claims that will have potential readers chomping at the bit to get their hands on the book.

"Want to make millions in minutes by spread betting? Then read this book..."

Well, in my

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Making A Little Money Go A Long Way

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Sometimes people ask me how much money they need in order to begin financial trading.

In a regular stockbroker share dealing account it's quite a lot, because you probably need to "invest" at least £1000 in any one share in order to overcome the fixed buying and selling fees of (let's say) £10 each way. Those round-trip fees would account for a massive 8% loss

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New Spread Betting Platforms from SpreadEx and Spread Co

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Both SpreadEx and SpreadCo announced new spread betting platforms recently, so now might be a good time to take a look at them again if you haven't for some time. I like the look of the new SpreadEx  platform, and the new SpreadCo  platform which launches on 30 June 2012 will (among other things) allow guaranteed stop orders to be adjusted -- which is an absolute

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One more thing...

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In the course of constructing my new Better Spread Betting book I posed a question to spread betting industry experts and other respected spread betting author-publishers. The question was:

“If there was one more thing... (just one) that you could advise spread bettors, what would it be?”

In case you’re wondering, the “one more thing” idea was inspired by

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Better Spread Betting (the book) Available Now!

The bad news is that the draft Better Spread Betting book is no longer free.



The good news is that the first edition has now been published and is still excellent value considering how much money it might help you make (or not lose). Buy the e-book PDF or Kindle Edition (from Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com).



Financial spread betting offers a potentially tax-free way of buying and selling (

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Retrospective Guaranteed Stop Orders

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In the Better Spread Betting book I talk about how some spread betting brands such as Capital Spreads and InterTrader allow you to guarantee your stops orders retrospectively, whereas other spread betting companies don't. Here is a concrete example:

On 14 June 2012 I opened a long spread bet on Supergroup at a price of 270.9 with a non-guaranteed stop order at

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Waiting for World Spreads

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Yesterday I heard from the administrators of the collapsed spread betting firm World Spreads that a payout from the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) is likely to occur before the proposed “interim distribution to creditors” that is estimated to take place in September.

At the time of writing, I am confident that the FSCS will make good my (and maybe

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I know it's not what you want to hear!

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Not so long ago I had a one-to-one session with a friend of a friend who wanted to get into financial spread betting. Although he was more than happy with what he paid for the "education" I provided, I could tell in his eyes and in his voice that he wanted something else, something that I didn't give him. That something was "excitement".

Ah, I remember it well -

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Stop to read the 5-star reviews of my Stop Orders book.

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Now that I have taken up permanent residence here on the Better Spread Betting blog, I'll be starting to post interesting updates on my favourite topics of Stop Orders and Position Trading as well as Better Spread Betting. Let me kick off the more comprehensive (and regular) blogging by marvelling at the fact that my Stop Orders book has now notched up fourteen

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As advertised in The Sunday Times

Financial spread betting offers a potentially tax-free way of buying and selling (including short-selling) stocks, stock indices, commodities and currencies. It can be more cost-effective than share dealing in a traditional stockbroker account, and it need not be any more dangerous.

Most spread bettors lose money, and many of them give up after only six months. You don't need to be one

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Last chance to read the "Better Spread Betting" book for free!

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I've uploaded the latest (and last) free version of the "Better Spread Betting" book here. This is your last chance to read it for free before it is completed and published. Enjoy!

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The "Better Spread Betting" book is now much much better!

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I've been away on a family boating holiday this week but when not above decks piloting the boat, I've been below decks working on the Better Spread Betting book. Some holiday, huh?

In the latest version I have corrected some spelling and grammar issues, added some new content, and included more responses to my "one more thing" question in Chapter 8. Enjoy it

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