I apologise notouch,it was in fact hobby that said that.
It was part tongue in cheek...I've made money, lost it, made it, lost it...made it big time during the Feb/Mar early rout...lost it & then some.
This has caused me to take a step back & assess the situation, the conclusions I've come to are....
1. I need to be playing on an even playing field.
2. I really ought to avoid the DAX & Dow (though they still remain my favourites). My reasoning is that with so few constituents, you get too much indice skewing (& it's already hard enough trying to beat the SB'ers with theirs!). For example, in late March Caterpillar's share price went mental which dragged the Dow up even though most Dow constituents were falling. I guess there's a reason that most professionals trade the S&P!
3. I've got to drop the uber bear stance & start trading to the longside...however to do this I need a platform with more flexible stop loss failities.
4. Absolutely *NO* chasing losses.
My trading mentality/style doesn't lend itself to IG.....I have a live market price feed from one of the big vendors & it sends me absolutely spare when I see the disparity between the true DAX cash market price & IG's representation of it (it's not unusual to see the price some 5 points out of kilter on the DAX....which makes IG's seemingly small two point DAX spread a bit of a joke).
I have a thing that if a trade doesn't go my way in the first 10 mins, then in all likeliehood I was wrong to get into it in the 1st place. ...& would therefore like to get out - but even after years & years of trading, I still find losses a bit hard to take on the chin! The problem with IG & their spread + price skew is say with the DAX you can be nursing a 7 point loss pretty much instantly....then, if the market goes against you say 10 points you could be looking at 15-20 points in short order. It's then a fight as you watch in disbelief at the market approaching your break entry point only to have IG not replicating it in synchronicity...it really is exhausting. Then the market invariably takes off with me still in it (on the wrong side!)...simply because I wasn't really given the chance to get out with no loss (or a small loss)....cos of the spread/skew. This has cost me thousands over the years. I realise it's in part down to my pig headedness (ie I want my money back or close to), but hey, I know my weaknesses & I doubt I can change that easily so this is why I seek a different platform which doesn't skew & allows me to at least exit with minimum loss!
I can only assume that the reason there aren't more spread better up in arms on here, is *because* most have no live feed to compare ithe SB provider's price against!
My game plan...
1. Trade less.
2. Get a better platform with absolutely no price skewing! (lower spreads a bonus)
3. Trade the S&P *only* (perhaps the Nasdaq)
4. Start hitting single runs as opposed to trying to whack the ball out of the stadium.
5. Consider going long once in a while! (unthinkable on a **** platform wrt stop losses such as IG's)
I've reigned my trading in of late (had a tendency to over trade...mainly when I'm losing), so it's a little worrying to hear that TWF were kind of goading you into trading.
What would a good alternative be?
Thanks for the explanation - it is crystal clear. I'll probably check out futuresbetting seeing as they are now offering the same 4 point spread deal. I can't see any real benefit to TWF over futuresbetting.
Not understanding this bit? .....who is offering the same 4 point spread deal & what on? If you're talking about the Dow, then a 4 point spread is what the spreadbetters quote, so where's the benefit? (don't they sell themselves on better spreads than the spread betters...even for low volume traders?) Also can someone explain why TWF should be used vs futuresbetting.com or vice versa? (from my understanding TWF are agents for futuresbetting...so why not just straight to source?)
