Spread Betting Results from 19/12/06

Altogether on Tuesday the 19th of December I had 10 trades expire.

Of the 10 there were 7 winners and 3 losers which is a very good result for my first "lot" of trades in this new spread betting experiment.

I was able to roll-over 6 positions, which included trade refs 10001, 10002, 10003, 10007, 10009 and 10012.

In total, these 6 trades made a profit of £228.38. I won't be revealing which equities I was betting on as I have rolled over these positions and don't wish to look like I am tipping any particular shares. Knowing my luck, I'd end up getting sued...

The other 4 trades were as follows:

Ref 10005 - Up bet on McDonalds. Bought £0.08 at 4024.9 - expired at 4395.5 for a profit of £29.65. I wanted to roll this over but couldn't meet the minimum bet size with the risk I was willing to take...

Ref 10006 - Up bet on Severn Trent. Bought £0.23 at 1488.0 - expired at 1454.0 for a loss of £7.82.

Ref 10008 - Up bet on Caledonia Invest. Bought £0.15 at 2255.6 - expired at 2077.3 for a loss of £26.75.

Ref 10011 - Up bet on Punch Taverns. Bought £0.29 at 1138.8 - expired at 1283.0 for a profit of £41.82. Again, I wanted to roll this position over but I wasn't allowed to as I didn't reach the minimum bet size of £0.50 per point.

I now have 5 open positions which will be reported weekly as per usual.

On all my closed trades I am currently up 8.44% on my starting capital since the 8th October 2006

Spread Betting Update w/e 15/12/06

These trades all expire tomorrow and so I will have to decide which to roll-over before 4.30pm

As I see it, there is little point just closing the winners and having done with it. They are still in upward trends and so I feel they are still valid positions.

Someone on one of the forums has made a point that the VIX is very low at the moment. As Vince Stanzione says - "when the VIX is low, we go". This means that when the VIX is a low value it can mean that there will be a fall in the markets.

Maybe I should keep those stop-losses and change them into guaranteed stops so I don't lose out in the event of a fall.

All of my positions so far in this little experiment have been long so it would be nice to have some short positions as part of the portfolio!

I'll be back later in the week to update you with the results after expiry tomorrow!

Open positions as per close of trading Friday 15th December 2006:

Trade Ref	£ per Point	Long/Short	Entry Price	Current Price	Current P/L
10001	3.00	Long	138.80	156.7	+53.70
10002	0.46	Long	737.80	882.9	+66.74
10003	1.35	Long	247.50	284.30	+49.68
10005	0.08	Long	4024.90	4330.4	+24.44
10006	0.23	Long	1488.00	1452.6	-8.14
10007	0.67	Long	475.60	530.0	+36.44
10008	0.15	Long	2255.6	2097.4	-23.73
10009	1.00	Long	342.2	388.6	+46.40
10011	0.29	Long	1138.8	1278.5	+40.51
10012	1.35	Long	286.8	284.3	-3.37

Current P/L = +£282.67

Spread Betting Update w/e 08/12/06

No new positions this week.

Adding a second "unit" to trade ref 10003 seems to have killed off its momentum somewhat but I am not overly worried.

Speculate to accumulate and all that!

Here are the results as at the close of trading on Friday the 8th December 2006:

Trade Ref	£ per Point	Long/Short	Entry Price	Current Price	Current P/L
10001	3.00	Long	138.80	156.6	+53.40
10002	0.46	Long	737.80	895.5	+72.54
10003	1.35	Long	247.50	272.0	+33.07
10005	0.08	Long	4024.90	4368.0	+27.44
10006	0.23	Long	1488.00	1428.8	-13.61
10007	0.67	Long	475.60	499.9	+16.28
10008	0.15	Long	2255.6	2104.8	-22.62
10009	1.00	Long	342.2	375.6	+33.40
10011	0.29	Long	1138.8	1188.0	+14.26
10012	1.35	Long	286.8	272.0	-19.98

Current P/L = +£194.18

All these trades expire on or before the 19th December so I cannot see many new trades being placed before the New Year.

My plan is to do some research over the Christmas week (when all of these trades have closed) and pick a load of new shares, commodities and indices to look at in 2007.

Hopefully, fingers crossed, I will be in profit by next week!

Thanks for reading,

Ben

Spread Betting Update w/e 01/12/06

No new positions this week although one trade did close with a reasonable gain.

My long trade in December Gold closed on Monday the 27th November, the closing price was $640.6 per ounce.

I had managed to enter the trade on the 6th November when the price was $627.5 so the net result was a gain of 131 points ($13.10).

However, I was not playing big on this trade and had opened a small position - £0.14 per point (yep, just 14p!).

So, my little Gold trade yielded £18.34.

So far in this little experiment I have had 3 trades closed out - 2 at a loss and this Gold trade which was a welcome winner.

The other two trades were:

(1) Long bet on US stock Cypress Semiconductor - bought at $20.03, stopped out at $16.65 for a loss of £57.46
(2) Long bet on December Gold - bought at $627.5 and sold at $626.5 for a £10.00 loss.

Overall, betting bank is down 1.92%.

Below are the current standings as at the end of play 1st December 2006:

Trade Ref	£ per Point	Long/Short	Entry Price	Current Price	Current P/L
10001	3.00	Long	138.80	147.8	+27.00
10002	0.46	Long	737.80	836.4	+45.35
10003	1.35	Long	247.50	274.8	+36.85
10005	0.08	Long	4024.90	4204.6	+14.37
10006	0.23	Long	1488.00	1432.5	-12.76
10007	0.67	Long	475.60	500.0	+16.34
10008	0.15	Long	2255.6	2080.7	-26.23
10009	1.00	Long	342.2	349.0	+6.80
10011	0.29	Long	1138.8	1175.4	+10.61
10012	1.35	Long	286.8	274.8	-16.20

Current P/L = +£102.13