Barefoot Spread Betting: Introduction

This is my very first post on this blog.

In fact, this is my very first post on any blog !

My reason for starting a blog I hear you ask?

Well, I am a wannabe ‘trade for a living’ trader. I have read countless books on the subject and work in a trading environment in the City of London (not as a trader) but I could honestly think of nothing worse than working 9 – 5, or even 8.30 – 6.30 in my case, for the rest of my life so I need to find something else to do to make enough money to live on. And, I know a bit about trading, I find it fascinating and I think there is great potential to succeed. I have always wanted to do my own thing, go at it alone so to speak. Whether it is starting a company of some sort, trading for a living, writing books or developing property - all of which are currently in consideration – and are being stress tested !

So getting back to why I started a blog, it is down to keeping an online journal of my trades, the successes, the failures and general ups and downs of trying to make money from trading, and hopefully one day, to make enough money to finally give up my day job. That’s the plan anyway – let’s see what happens. I will post an overall PNL on all my trades at the end of each day so you can all keep track on how I’m doing. So a bit of a background on me (for those who care – fell free to skip ahead).

As I said (or is it as I wrote!?) previously, I work in the City of London on a trading floor but not as a trader. Giving away more than that is probably not wise as I shouldn’t really be blogging from work, so let’s leave it at that. I have years of experience in working for trading institutions but precious little trading myself. I have probably read thirty books on the subject; have dabbled in some shares here and there, made some money, lost some money but never enough either way to make a difference to my life. So now after putting this off for years, I am taking the plunge. I am investing £30k of my own money and I am going to trade. And, best of all, I am going to keep track on this blog, of what I bought, when and for how much and we will see what happens.

So, £30k is not much to invest, I know. To be able to stop working and trade for a living, I would need a substantially larger fund to invest or I would have to probably triple my capital each year which would certainly be a feat! If that does happen and someone from a hedge fund reads this, don’t bother contacting me, I will be sitting on a beautiful beach somewhere, writing my next blog post and smiling to myself and to the heavens above for how lucky I am to be working for a hedge fund or any other institution in damp, grey and cold London!

My strategy for achieving mind blowing results you ask?

The answer - speadbetting !

Highly geared – yes.

Highly volatile – yes.

Highly risky – yes.

Huge potential – yes !

Tax – no !

I reckon with £30k at my disposal, spreadbetting is the only way really. I could invest in equities but with only £30k, I wouldn’t really earn enough annually to get through a month without working, never mind quitting my job. £30k is a lot of money, don’t get me wrong, I don’t have a lot of money. This is many, many years of saving for me but it’s just not enough to generate profits required to live on by trading stocks. I don’t know much at all about trading forex, futures, options or any kind of derivative so I am going to stick with what I know (limited as it may be) and spreadbet on equities. There might be some beginners (more so than me) that don’t know anything about spreadbetting and in future posts I will explain what it is all about, how it works, what costs are involved and why it’s tax free but for now I am going to state the rules I will stick to and which spreadbets I placed yesterday – yes the ball is already rolling – and for how much each bet is.

All trades will be made on stocks listed on the London Stock Exchange (well so long anyway, I might branch out into other markets at some stage but am keen to focus on one market in initially)

I have opened a few accounts with various spreadbetting companies in the UK. IG Index is probably the biggest and most well known and I have also opened an account with City Trading, Capital Spreads and Finspreads. Reason being - to get the best spread (more on this later). And now to the rules.

A trade must: