Spread Betting Update W/E 20/10/2006

During last week I had one position closed off and opened 2 new positions.

Trade reference 10004 was closed due to a sharp fall on Thursday which took out my stop loss. Total loss was 2.24% of the betting bank.

Still, these things happen. You have to be in it to win it as they say.

The two new positions were opened during Monday's trading day. Both had stop losses placed on them to make sure I didn't lose more than 2% of the total starting capital.

So, at the close of trading on Friday 20th October my positions look as follows:

Trade Ref	£ per Point	Long/Short	Entry Price	Current Price	Current P/L
10001	3.00	Long	138.80	130.90	-23.70
10002	0.46	Long	737.80	734.80	-1.38
10003	1.35	Long	247.50	261.80	+19.30
10005	0.08	Long	4024.90	4112.3	+6.99
10006	0.23	Long	1488.00	1443.6	-10.21
10007	0.67	Long	475.60	475.60	+0.00
10008	0.15	Long	2255.6	2190.8	-9.72
10009	1.00	Long	342.2	336.4	-5.80

The position which was stopped out (ref:10004) was a long bet on the price of Cypress Semiconductor - a US stock (US:CY).

I bought in at $20.03 with a stop loss at $16.65.

Unfortunately the stop was hit but Finspreads managed to get me out at exactly the right point, no slippage at all. I was quite glad about that.

Looking at the news at FT.com, it isn't clear why the price dropped over 11% during Thursday's trading but that's the stock market for you!

Running loss on open positions is: -£24.52
Total performance so far on closed trades: -2.24%