When I started spread betting I thought I would scale down my stock market trades for trying it out, but I'd gotten an eye for certain numbers in my regular stockbroking accounts and could not relate to what I saw. So the only solution was to trade on an equal scale....
When I started financial spread betting I thought I would scale down my operations for trying it out,
but I'd gotten an eye for certain numbers in my regular stock broking accounts and could not relate to what I saw. So the only solution was to spreadbet on an equal scale....
I was also in the mindset of risking just 2% of the overall pot per trade but to do so, I still need more cash into my IG Index account. I really opened it with a small amount (the only cash available at the present time), I guess tiny/ridiculous amounts for many account holders, so even if I use a 1% rule, my current spread betting account would only cover me for a single transaction :) That's also part of the problem, I tried to have 3 open positions at the same time on a too small account.
Perhaps I was just starting too much at the screen looking at my money going up and down. I am fine when I see it going up but never like to see it going down...hehe
So my first spread bet was a small FTSE one, which went into a nice profit (10% of the account size) so I closed it... It should still be open as we speak as the target is not reached and I would be a LOT up... From this moment onwards, it went badly ;) I tried to catch up the FTSE but I did the typo and opened a 14.7GBP per point on the FTSE (instead of 1.47GBP). As soon as it was validated, my stop loss got triggered as the FTSE dropped over 25pts in a matter of seconds but that did write off all my gains and a large chunk of my spread betting account... The stop-loss was way too close for trading the FTSE, it was bound to happen.
Anyway, just a few minutes later, I would have been in profit but it was close and I was still there with a large chunk of my spread betting account gone... I also had open a FPM spread bet that saved my day and recovered my loss as it was a share that I know quite well (into my non-ISA account). Then re-opened another FTSE one, which was not too large, not too small... Gave me one day of profit.
Next day, while shopping I checked my IG account with their mobile trader interface. They have the sell button on a key, which is used as back on many of my applications so as a reflex hit the sell key, closed a FPM position in profit and realized as it was happening but could not stop it. I was so angry at myself that I reopened straight away the position but I lost few points in the deal. When I re-opened the FPM position I had to put a way higher stop loss that set up initially as the deposit on my account was not large enough anymore. Next the inevitable happened - market maker tree shake oh my! My stop loss did not trigger when it should have but I manually close half of the position to stop the exposure (bad move again) as by Friday close, I would have been in profit again. I still have one opened on BOK, which was carefully planned both in terms of limit/target and $$ per points, so I am not planning to touch it, will see what happen in the coming days!
Anyway, it is all down to emotions and stupid mistakes by ME :) I remember reading that one should not trade when not in a good mood (thinking too much about personal stuff, etc.) and I can confirm that it is the case for me! ;)
So I will, for the coming weeks, have only one spread bet position at a time in my spread betting account until I grow the pot. It is the same for sweet, girlfriend, and anything else of desire... once you have one, you always want a change or want a better one, so I got excited by two winning spread bets in a row and tried to have more than I could chew at the same time and it's where I messed up. So I need to quadruple my spread betting account size and then, I won't be bothered by an IG email asking for more money...
Curiously, I also discovered that I needed to update my mindset regarding my 2% amount! I still have in mind the amount I set up when I started to deal shares in Nov/Dec 08 and right now, this 2% amount went up by 416%... I lost a stupid amount being invested in funds during the crisis (25%) and selling too late but I have been very successful (at my small level and could have been way more successful without closing some spread betting positions too early...). When I think about it, it would have taken decades to my grandparents to get the same returns in their saving accounts...
