Quick questions for you guys

Upcomingstockmaster

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Im only 17 so be easy...
Would like a career as a stockbroker but i dont know much about it?!

Been reading these forums for the last 20 minutes and i couldnt resist registering because im already stuck..

1. Whats the difference between a stockbroker and a spread better?

2. Can you make a career out of being a spread better? How successful could you be? Anyone out there done it?

Thanks
 
Im only 17 so be easy...
Would like a career as a stockbroker but i dont know much about it?!

Been reading these forums for the last 20 minutes and i couldnt resist registering because im already stuck..
I'm surprised you haven't found the answer to your life career question after a whole 20 minutes.

1. Whats the difference between a stockbroker and a spread better?
One has money.

A stockbroker makes commissions whether his client make profits or losses regardless of them being discretionary or execution only. Bit like a bookie, but with an Eton accent. A spread better loses money whatever he does. Bit like a betting-shop mug punter, but with less style and massively less longevity.

2. Can you make a career out of being a spread better?
You can, but depends how long a period of time qualifies as a career.

How successful could you be?
Not quite as successful as the SB companies claim. Ever. Any of them. In fact, if history and weight of numbers is anything to go by, you'll lose all your money, quite quickly.

Anyone out there done it?
Some will claim to...trust me. Actually, some may well have - I've just never met anyone who has. You may have a response from someone who has in which case I urge you to listen to them, carefully.

You're welcome. I have been very easy with you. Ask anyone. Honest.

Spend a little more time (not on these boards) getting what you need to make an informed decision on all of the careers you are currently considering. If you want to be involved in the financial markets I can recommend stokbroking and owning a spreadbet comapny as excellent options.

Anything else carries a degree of risk.
 
I'm surprised you haven't found the answer to your life career question after a whole 20 minutes.

One has money.

A stockbroker makes commissions whether his client make profits or losses regardless of them being discretionary or execution only. Bit like a bookie, but with an Eton accent. A spread better loses money whatever he does. Bit like a betting-shop mug punter, but with less style and massively less longevity.
You can, but depends how long a period of time qualifies as a career.

Not quite as successful as the SB companies claim. Ever. Any of them. In fact, if history and weight of numbers is anything to go by, you'll lose all your money, quite quickly.

Some will claim to...trust me. Actually, some may well have - I've just never met anyone who has. You may have a response from someone who has in which case I urge you to listen to them, carefully.

You're welcome. I have been very easy with you. Ask anyone. Honest.

Spend a little more time (not on these boards) getting what you need to make an informed decision on all of the careers you are currently considering. If you want to be involved in the financial markets I can recommend stokbroking and owning a spreadbet comapny as excellent options.

Anything else carries a degree of risk.

Thanks Bramble for your response. You say a spread better always loses his money (bold), how can this be true? Ive been playing around with tradindex and i just made £450 in a minute.

Is a stockbroker, just a spreadbetter with clients?
 
To add one more thing to what TheBramble has already posted, a stock broker is basically a sales person. Their pay is based on how much transaction flow they produce. They are not traders or analysts or anything like that.
 
To add one more thing to what TheBramble has already posted, a stock broker is basically a sales person. Their pay is based on how much transaction flow they produce. They are not traders or analysts or anything like that.

Thanks, still confused why he slated spread betters, im confident i could make a wealthy career as one. It looks easy.
 
I am 19 and have been trading for almost a year now.

Trading is as easy as clicking buttons, but making a profit from trading is *insert French* difficult!

I am still learning, and I will still be learning in the next year, or the next 5 or 10 or 20 (ETC).

It can be boring, like any job, but can be rewarding, and offers all the benefits of being self-employed.

Good luck if you decide to follow this path,

Matt
 
Hi

I can answer these questions. :D

1) A stockbroker is paid to risk someone else's money. A spread better risks his own money.
2) Yes, if you have the patience and strength of character. The biggest enemy in spread betting or indeed private/retail trading is the trader/better... ie yourself. You have to over come your fear, greed, boredom, etc. This is very difficult. If you're disciplined, it can work. It may cause some contention here but if someone comes from a very unstable family background (eg father an alcoholic and regularly beats you) I'd say that person would stand a very limited chance of making a success of it. Such a person would have an addictive personality and probably take massive risks ("punts"), in other words, pure gambling (in the more commonly accepted meaning of the word) rather than trading/taking calculated risks. This is why I find it interesting; I run a business helping people with such issues plus teach people how to manage stress. For me, it's all interlinked; trading/spread betting is another aspect of what I do and requires a good understanding of the self. (Obviously, I'm sure there are hundreds of successful traders out there who do come from such backgrounds. I suspect they have resolved their demons.)
 
money is easy come easy go on the market (IMO)

i once made £480 one day, then lost £520 the next!

i learnt many lessons from that **** up

Matt
 
Ive been playing around with tradindex and i just made £450 in a minute.

If you can do this every day while betting just £10/pt, then you're on to something... if you made a fluke £100/pt bet then I'd say you need to play some more. In fact, if you're betting £100/pt you should be able to make about £2000 a day on average.
 
Thanks Bramble for your response. You say a spread better always loses his money (bold), how can this be true? Ive been playing around with tradindex and i just made £450 in a minute.
Having made £450 in a minute, do you suppose it's equally possible to lose it too? If you've just got your hands on a demo account I strongly recommend you continue to test drive the beastie. If you've still got funds on the account in 6 months, you may well be the exception. Or even 6 weeks actually.

Is a stockbroker, just a spreadbetter with clients?
I'm not totally convinced you're not completely trying to wind me up, but I'm up for some e-fun tonight.

If you don't know the difference then your research is rubbish and if that is indicative of your normal efforts you stand no chance at all in achieving useful grades in your GCSEs and A Levels - which means, you stand a fantastic chance of being a great trader...

Stockbroker - assists clients in executing stock buying and selling ranging from a fully discretionary service – (stockbroker utilises clients funds with varying degrees of authority and limit) - right through to execution only – (they take a bit of the spread and commissions and let you lose your money all by yourself). They are a service provider and generally know less than the biggest dork on these boards (yes, even him!) about the markets or trading.

A spreadbetter is someone who doesn't have much money and/or a crap credit rating and/or has no idea about what they're doing, but wants to get rich quickly starting with £500. There are exceptions I'm sure. Probability says you're not one of them. But let us know how the demo account works out. Genuinely interested.
 
Cheers Matt, much appreciated for your comments.

Out of pure interest, how much did you make/lose in your first year? And how long did you trade for per day?

Im great at Maths, but somehow i feel this is just betting and anyone could do it? (Well anyone who is self disciplined according to a previous post)
 
If you want to buy shares in BT, for example, you call up a broker and buy the shares through them. That is a stock broker. So, the stock buyer buys the stock through them.

If you want to bet on BT going down, you call up a spreadbet company and ask for a quote. They will give you a 'bid' price and an 'ask' price. since you think BT is going down, you sell at the 'bid' price and hang up the phone. You are the spread bettor.

That is all there is to it. These days, of course, it is all done on your PC but the idea is the same.

I give you BT as an example and have no idea whether one can make money trading it.

In the foreign excahnge market, which is what I trade, you can do your buying and selling through a spreadbet company or a direct access broker. Whether you can make money out of your trading will depend on your skills and experience. Being a spread bettor will not make you a loser because what you do with a spread bet compnay is exactly the same as what you do with your direct access broker. If you find the spread bet company is stopping you from making money, you just leave them and trade elsewhere.

It takes ages to become profitable in trading and you will need to understand what you are doing. Expect most of the advice to be completely pointless and probably even detrimental. Hardly anyone knows how to trade profitably. Can you make money trading? Yes, but it is extremely unlikely.
 
Having made £450 in a minute, do you suppose it's equally possible to lose it too? If you've just got your hands on a demo account I strongly recommend you continue to test drive the beastie. If you've still got funds on the account in 6 months, you may well be the exception. Or even 6 weeks actually.

I'm not totally convinced you're not completely trying to wind me up, but I'm up for some e-fun tonight.

If you don't know the difference then your research is rubbish and if that is indicative of your normal efforts you stand no chance at all in achieving useful grades in your GCSEs and A Levels - which means, you stand a fantastic chance of being a great trader...

Stockbroker - assists clients in executing stock buying and selling ranging from a fully discretionary service – (stockbroker utilises clients funds with varying degrees of authority and limit) - right through to execution only – (they take a bit of the spread and commissions and let you lose your money all by yourself). They are a service provider and generally know less than the biggest dork on these boards (yes, even him!) about the markets or trading.

A spreadbetter is someone who doesn't have much money and/or a crap credit rating and/or has no idea about what they're doing, but wants to get rich quickly starting with £500. There are exceptions I'm sure. Probability says you're not one of them. But let us know how the demo account works out. Genuinely interested.

Man, you are very critical of spread betters. :(
Thanks for the definitions anyway, its cleared things right up.

The £500 was a complete fluke. I just lost £1500.

This leads onto my next question...

I bought the shares or i dont know what its called, i invested money in buying shares in one of the markets (indices)...then the price falls and falls in the next 5 minutes so im loosing my money (£1500). But, with extreme patience say i waited for the price to go back up and eventually shoot past my opening price. Then is that not more money in the bank with just sheer patience?!

ps. I got excellent GCSEs and A Levels - top grades for most subjects inc maths.
 
Man, you are very critical of spread betters. :(
Not the spreadbetters really. Just the spreadbetting business model. And not critical - jealous. What a money machine!

I bought the shares or i dont know what its called, i invested money in buying shares in one of the markets (indices)...then the price falls and falls in the next 5 minutes so im loosing my money (£1500). But, with extreme patience say i waited for the price to go back up and eventually shoot past my opening price. Then is that not more money in the bank with just sheer patience?!
Extreme patience and infinite capital. Take a look at the FTSE 100 index. You went Short (bet on it going down) late 2003. You still hanging on? How much are you down? How much longer will you hold? Being patient is one thing, but you're going to die one day…

ps. I got excellent GCSEs and A Levels - top grades for most subjects inc maths.
Sorry to hear that. But you still have a chance as a trader….
 
when i started out, i did not trade for 2 months, instead, i sat for hours staring at the screen, learning how and what affects the share price. while i was doing this, i was reading books, to get some background on the stock market in general, but also technical analysis and fundamentals etc. but i knew i wouldn’t truly learn until i did it myself.

so nearing the end of the 2 month period, i started paper trading (basically writing down which way i thought the price would move, how much it would move, and roughly how long it would take) my 1st few estimates were close to the actual markets, but i was also making mistakes, thinking a price would go up when infact it would go down, i found it difficult to figure out what/why it did that. so i took a breather, and left it for 2 weeks. returned to it and got out the graphs, layered on everything that was going on at the time, and learnt why it did what it did.

after that i started trading with real money (when i started i traded ordanry shares).. i started real small. using tiny amounts of money, aiming for small profits (covering costs). i made £80 here and there, but lost more than i made- about £200 overall (which isnt too bad but its still a loss).

i then took a step back and decided on a basic strategy, and changed my investment type to CFDs, i was gonna go for it and see if i could do it.

My first CFD trade was on Tesco, it was operating in a nice range, and i bought in at the bottom, as it changed direction, i dont think the entrance to the trade could have been any better. the shares went up nice, to near the top of their trading range, i sold out just before it hit, as i suspected it would reverse before it hit its upper range. i made a tidy £500 on the trade. but the shares continued rising above their previous high, but not for long, and they soon fell sharply back down.

my next trade was on LLOY - it went up by £150 on the 1st day, but the next it just plummeted, and i lost 200 quid, Stoploss.


Overall though, although i started out a bit shakey, i have made back my money in the last 8 months or so. and have made £800 overall profit. i am very happy with that, esp given my small capital (a problem with being young) and i expect the next 12 months to be better. less and smaller losses, and more and bigger gains.

we will see.

i am currently setting myself up for this new year (im using the calendar year to gauge things on)
setting up a new and better account, with a modified trading plan, and stricter discipline.. that i learnt the hard way.

never be greedy, or hopeful. no good holding onto losses, and no good praying for the stock to rocket. it wont happen, you just loose more, while someone else (who obays the market) makes money.

i see it as the market is a large bolder, running down a hill, if you try and push it back up the hill, you and your capital will just get crushed, instead jump to the side, and live to trade another day,

Matt
 
Extreme patience and infinite capital. Take a look at the FTSE 100 index. You went Short (bet on it going down) late 2003. You still hanging on? How much are you down? How much longer will you hold? Being patient is one thing, but you're going to die one day…

:LOL:

So true. They say, "it's not a loser until you close the position". "They" were probably 900 year old elves.

Sorry to hear that. But you still have a chance as a trader….

:LOL:

Classic. Mark Douglas wrote that top entrepreneurs, medics, lawyers, accountants all go into trading thinking that if they're successful in their respective businesses they will be successful on the stockmarket. Sadly, many of them lose their savings.

Unfortunately, for me I went down the education route. I even have a post-grad qualification. Doesn't help one jot, though. It's back to the classroom.

One, thing, though, Mr Bramble... you have to give the OP credit. He might be 17 but he's typing using decent enough English! None of that text speak you often see spouted by the "yoot" of today.
 
if you dont know the difference between a stockbroker and a spreadbetter then what are you basing the fact that you would like a career as a stockbroker on ?
 
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