Saturday 25 April 2009

Instruments

I will try and keep this post updated for the instruments that I use.

S&P USD 50 is the Standard and Poor 500 Equity Index at 50USD per point. Which means you make or lose 50USD for each point the index moves.

FTSE 100 £2 is the Top 100 UK Companies listed on the London Stock Exchange. Which means you make or lose GBP 2 for each point the index moves.

FTSE 100 Put 3550 May 2009 is an Put option giving the buyer the right to sell the FTSE 100 on May at 3550. The level of the sale could be variable for example 3600 / 3700 - there are a range of options available at those values.

Terminology Explained

My trading journal may be complicated for those of you that don't understand the terms, so here I will try and explain a little.

You can either buy or sell something and you can either open or close something. That something being an equity, index or forex position (I will refer to it as an instrument).

You can also sell something that you don't have and buy it back later for less money !

  • Buy to Open means that I have purchased an instrument and opened a risk position.
  • Sell to Close means that the instrument that I had bought earlier I sold for a profit (or a loss) !
  • Sell to Open means that I dont have the instrument but I have sold it and opened a risk position.
  • Buy to Close means that I sold the instrument earlier and now have bought it back.
These are the basic buy and sell signals that you will see in my trading journal

Opening an Account

There are lots of CFD and spread betting providers that will allow you to open an account with them. I prefer to use a UK company, they are better regulated and less likely to be taken for a ride. Just google them. I'm not entirely sure what rules apply to those of you that are not UK based.

If you have never done this before then I would suggest that you try and open some form of limited risk account. I think the charges are slightly higher, but at least your wont lose your home, wife/husband over it !

Remember investing is always risky business and the only people that normally make money from it are the fund managers, banks, investment houses. Joe public is not supposed to make any money from investing.........and this is the reason I think I can do a better job that these corporates who seem to get paid whether they make anything or not !

About Me

I try and work a broadly market neutral strategy and based purely on fundamentals and my gut feel.