does anyone do any spread betting?

[peggyundercrackers]

ive been in and out of the market for a few years now just trading bits here and there and have done quite well but recently ive been reading more and more about spread betting. I quite fancy a go at it but im just a little unsure for some reason. does anyone do any spread betting here they can give me some advice i.e. do you target specific markets? or whats your strategy? do you use a stop loss, if so how much?. also any examples of spread bets you have made and done well out of? or done really badly out of and thought im getting out?

I think whats putting me off as I used to trade quite a lot and made a lot of money but got carried away with lots of open positions and when the market nose dived I lost a lot of money too - it was so bad most days I was sick because of the amount of open positions I had but although I lost a lot I was still up by a huge amount from my initial outlay. once bitten twice shy comes to mind...

[crumpet]

I can't help, but I am curious to know what kind of initial outlay is needed to make anything of it?

[peggyundercrackers]

crumpet I started out with £1500 when I started trading - when I was trading daily my biggest turnover was £4million in a single year. I was being sick most days because of the amount of money I was playing with and I think my biggest open position was about 300k - I didn't have that amount of cash to pay for it nor most of my other positions so I was a little nervousscared to death at the time but as I said it didn't turn out too badly in the end - the way I looked at it was easy come - easy go - some you win, some you loose - if you don't you will end up bitter about the losses or what could have been. my problem at the time was I got greedy and didn't believe I could loose - BIG MISTAKE - set stop losses/gains and get out and be happy with what you have unless you have a long term strategy

At that time most of my trades were T25 which means I didn't have to pay for my trade for 25 days. Normally I would buy on a T25 trade then sell the stock before the 25 days were up but the sale/buy would go through on the same day so theoretically I didn't have to pay for the buy - the sale cancelled the buy - I just had to pay for any losses on the day or I got a cheque for my profits.

the broker I use(d) allowed you to buy stock up to x times the amount you held in cash/bought shares with them - so if you had 5k in the bank or paid in full shares with them they would let you buy up to 3 times(I think it was 3 times but that figure may be different, I cant really remember) that amount in stock on a T25 trade so you could buy stock for 15k - I think they have changed the rules now though but you would need to check.

I guess the reason I asked the question is I am also interested in shorting. there is money to be made in a downturned market and i have not really been involved in that though I knew people who were doing that and making good money from it.

[Moomoomie]

I don't know much about it at all, but my brother makes a fairly decent living out of it and has done for a few years.

[Financeprincess]

I considered it seriously, since I'm a keen investor, but decided that I simply didn't have the cojones for it! Don't know how you did it...

[tabbytolst]

I worked for the largest spread betting company for more than 10 years, and I'd say steer clear. Very few people will make money - the vast majority will lose steadily like all gamblers. There's not necessarily anything scammy or dodgy, it's just that most people tend to snatch small profits and let losses grow, so you end up a net loser. There are always those seduced by the lure of quick profits, and they tend to blow themselves up pretty spectacularly.

[peggyundercrackers]

tabbytolst I recognised the behaviour you mention in myself hence the reason ive probably stayed away from spread betting buy my interest has piqued for some reason.. ive got a little bit of money put aside I could use to see how it goes but if I lost it I would call it a day with sb.

[Spongeymum]

I can weigh in on this because I was spread betting for 10 years. All I did was play the FTSE 100 every day. I spent months understanding how it moved and played that, so when it was high I'd put a position on that it would go down, when it was low I'd bet it would go up. To me it never felt like gambling because I understood it so well.

I turned £3000 into £60,000 in a year, and the spread betting company started taking me out for meals, offering me tickets to big sold-out events. I thought I was an anomaly that couldn't lose. For 2 years straight I didn't have a losing position, my account just kept piling up. I earned way more in this than in my day job.

But..... all it takes is for a big-scale event or a black swan event as it's known. Something hugely unexpected that will change the market and you're absolutely done for, in this case it was covid, something pretty unpredictable. I lost about £75,000 overnight. the Russia/Ukraine war did the same thing.

No one knows when these kinds of things could happen and the markets can dramatically turn in seconds and you can't get out.

You can have stops in place, but I assure you you'll move them. And your losers will get bigger and bigger and bigger.

It's dangerous, the leverage is dangerous, you'll get very addicted to seeing the money pile up, but you'll start to lose sleep when things get bad.

It's hard not to look back and think of what I could have done with £75,000 but it taught me a very valuable life lesson. Keep your investments in the smart places that make 5-10% a year. Spreadbetting is as good as going into a casino and betting your life savings on red or black.