Day Trading Digest

As any serious investor knows, finding the right broker to handle your trading activities can be the difference between being a successful trader and throwing away your money on sure losers. For so-called “day traders”, this paradigm may sometimes seem outdated - particularly since so many independent investors now believe that the new technologies enable them to make trades without the assistance of a real day trading broker. The truth, however, is something else entirely.

The market today is one of the most volatile propositions anyone can get involved in. This is not being said to scare anyone off, quite the opposite. Today’s markets, regardless of the niche, present a wealth of opportunity for profit. The key is being able to develop the characteristics that all successful traders have developed over the years and sticking to them.

The growth in the number of spread betting firms has created a highly competitive industry and this is resulting in ever tighter spreads and a price war between the providers in a bid to remain at the forefront of customers’ minds. The spreads and margins at Capital Spreads are extremely competitive and most are found to be better value than some of their bigger competitors thus giving you more opportunity to profit.

Most books will talk about fear and greed and how they affect trading. To me there are five key areas to really focus on: The strength of mind to keep to the rules; The State of Mind to ensure a balanced approach; Accepting probabilities rule the day; Your personal belief system; and Maintaining the Ego.

All financial spread betting contracts work in basically the same way. There are stock market quotes for the price of a market at some date in the future, for example, the FTSE 100 Index, which are explained in the example below.