Anyone else spread betting UK shares? Join me here.

[barneydunn]

Hello, I'm spread betting UK shares using an mt4 broker, just because I'm so used to it, and I'd be interested in chatting with other people who are trying to do the same. I have attached my account as of the end of play today, Friday 7/5/21. If anyone wants to post their account here too and/or discuss trades, the reason for taking them and what's on the horizon for future trades then I'd be happy to hear from you.

I will post a bit about my approach, history, etc over the weekend.

 

[barneydunn]

Just to give you an idea, I lost a bit on this account trading DAX and forex but I am doing a lot better since I switched to shares. My deposit at the moment is £7600 (since I started trading shares about 2 months ago). The balance was higher but I've taken some losses over the last few days. Fortunately I've got some good trades open at the moment, some at break even or better.

 

[mpups]

Hi, if you are spread betting why does it show commission?

 

[barneydunn]

Hi, if you are spread betting why does it show commission?

I'm trading with what is primarily a forex broker. They charge commission on each trade but the spreads are the tightest I can find anywhere. It is definitely a spread betting account though so I will not pay tax on the gains.

 

[mpups]

I'm trading with what is primarily a forex broker. They charge commission on each trade but the spreads are the tightest I can find anywhere. It is definitely a spread betting account though so I will not pay tax on the gains.

Oh ok, if its the most cost effective for you, all good

 

[barneydunn]

Oh ok, if its the most cost effective for you, all good

Well you're going to pay in one way or another anyway so I'd rather have tighter spreads and pay a small commission. If you look at how much you are paying in relation to the position size it's tiny anyway. I tried Spreadex and a few others and the spreads are horrible.

 

[mpups]

Yeah and no stamp duty

 

[BigDeal]

Are you sure you've got this correct? Must admit I've never heard of a SB co charging commission; the whole concept behind SB is - that the spread is the charge. Are you sure you're not trading CFDs?

 

[barneydunn]

Are you sure you've got this correct? Must admit I've never heard of a SB co charging commission; the whole concept behind SB is - that the spread is the charge. Are you sure you're not trading CFDs?

I will double check, maybe the UK equities are CFD's? It's a spread betting account though so it should be tax free still. I'll ask the broker the question.

 

[barneydunn]

I will post some charts later but to give you an idea I am basically buying at support in up trends with reasonable stops and just holding on, adding on if possible. I like breakouts too, basically if I think it will go up then I'm interested. That is I suppose based on experience of trading forex for several years and would sometimes be hard to explain but that's what it is.

I've got an eye on the general environment so at the moment I see FTSE rising pretty steadily, a lot of shares are still not at pre covid levels despite their businesses either not being affected too badly or bouncing back strongly. For exits I will be moving the stops up as the trend progresses and once a low is taken out then I'll cash in.

I'm risking around £100 on each trade so the position size will vary depending on how big a stop loss is required and the price of the share. If I don't like the look of something that is going against me I'm not too shy to knock it off early and save a bit of loss. Of course that backfires sometimes.

That's a rough idea of my approach. Anyone else doing something similar?

 

[barneydunn]

Here is HSBC. I like the 10 and 100 sma together. This is a double bottom that coincided with the 100 sma. Of course the good news about bad loan write downs was useful!

 

[barneydunn]

Lloyds. I like a close above the 10 sma like that and also the news about HSBC had come out so I thought the other banks would follow. This one did. Then the 45 level looked like nice S/R so I added a few more with quite low risk.

By the way I am taking as many trades as my account margin will allow. Usually I can get 5 or 6 different shares on at a time before I run out of margin. That's still usually only risking around 10% of the account in total and remember some are at break even already.

 

[barneydunn]

I'll post a few more later.

 

[IceThor]

Which broker are you using?
In reply to an above question yes you still pay commission on spread betting...you just don't(in the UK) pay tax

 

[barneydunn]

Which broker are you using?
In reply to an above question yes you still pay commission on spread betting...you just don't(in the UK) pay tax

ADS Securities. They have very tight spreads on Forex (and everything it seems) but they are a bit more prone to slippage so it's swings and roundabouts.

I've looked into it and Pepperstone are offering spread betting on UK equities through MT5. Not wild about 5 over 4 as I can code for mt4 no problem but OOP on mt5 fries my head. They have some commodities too which I like.

 

[barneydunn]

Standard Chartered. S/R hold.

 

[barneydunn]

Vodafone. 138 has been S/R in the past.

 

[barneydunn]

The other trades all look similar. One thing stands out for now... any idiot can look good in a bull market! We'll see where these trades end and what else comes along after that. I want to get better at managing the trades and getting the most of out them. I'll post anything I am watching as it happens or if I take or change any trades I will update. It would be good to see what anyone else is currently in?

 

[barneydunn]

I've deposited £2400 into Pepperstone mt5, spread betting account. So my total investment since I started trading shares is now £10000, a nice round number. So I'm up around £2000 in open equity but we'll see where it all closes.

I'm doubtful I could use the Pepperstone mt5 full time for trade decisions as there is not a lot of trade history available and it just feels more clunky against mt4. Fortunately I can just use the ADS mt4 for the charting and then take the trades on the mt5. I tried getting a simple moving average in colour indicator and even that proved to be a nightmare. I've coded the mt4 version to have a lookback of 30 on the 100 sma. This smooths out the colour changes and it can be used for exits if you wait until the colour changes. You do give a lot back sometimes but equally it can keep you in trends for a lot longer against exiting say on a price cross below the ma. On balance I think I will stick with moving the stop up behind market structure but I like to have the 10 and 100 smas there as a visual trend guide.

 

[barneydunn]

Here are some charts I am watching amongst a few others. I will probably keep my trade sizes a bit smaller now until I get a few more trades at break even. I don't want a major market drop to take me out for a maximum loss. The total risk is still manageable in any event.