Has Santa Claus come early?

You have no doubt heard of the Santa Claus rally; the tendency for shares to rise in the second half of December in anticipation of new money coming into the markets in January. Well, I'm wondering if Santa Claus has come early.



After trading sideways for a couple of months, then dipping downwards, the FTSE 100 has appreciated by about 6% over the course of the month from mid-November to

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My 2012 Christmas Wish: Trailing Guaranteed Stop Orders

You know how sometimes the spread betting companies ask for feedback on what features you would like to see introduced? Well, here is the suggestion that would be top of my Christmas 2012 wish list:



Guaranteed Trailing Stop Orders



After something of a love-hate relationship with them, I have once again become a fan of guaranteed stop orders. Top marks to the spread betting companies such

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"SOUND FX : The SOUND Approach to Foreign Exchange Trading" featured in TRADERS' Magazine

I only just got round to reading the latest issue of TRADERS' Magazine, so I only just noticed that they were kind enough to feature my book SOUND FX : The SOUND Approach to Foreign Exchange Trading on page 23 in their New Products section. Check it out, and hey -- you might as well read the rest of the magazine while you're there.


If you're looking for a foreign exchange trading provider that

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Trade of The Week: Two-Bagging Thomas Cook

Do you remember that a couple of months ago I talked about the "flatliners" -- those stocks that have fallen a long way over a long period of time and whose price is just bumping along the bottom now that all the sellers have sold and no-one (for the moment) wants to buy?



One such flatliner that I identified on 15 November was Thomas Cook. I took a punt at 20.9p-per-share, and I was pleased

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If someone is discouraging you from doing something, you should probably be doing it!

I received emails from the various London Capital Group spread betting brands (including Capital Spreads and InterTrader) to say that they will no longer be offering UK ex-350 shares except on a subscription basis. I like these spread betting brands, I really do, but it presents me with a bit of a problem in my preferred position trading strategy. So thank goodness that IG (and possibly SpreadEx

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Trade of The Week: Tesco

What was the most important news story today (5 December)? Was it something in George Osborne's autumn statement? No, it was the news that Tesco is thinking about pulling the plug on its loss-making Fresh & Easy chain in the USA.


This was good news because it caused the Tesco share price to "gap up" this morning, thereby allowing me to raise my guaranteed stop order to a level that guarantees

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Introducing Direct Market Access (DMA) Spread Betting

Recently I've been trialling Direct Market Access (DMA) spread betting, of the kind offered by ISE Spreads and a few other providers.



DMA spread betting has the same benefits as conventional spread betting: the ability to go long and short with equal ease, access to numerous international markets, the advantage (and risk) of leveraged trading, and tax-free* profits.



* At least in the UK,

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