by guest author Andy Richardson (http://www.financial-spread-betting.com)

I think one spread betting firm was telling me this figure is even nearer to 90%! This goes on to show what a difficult and very addictive game spread betting or even futures trading on indices can be. If you have any gambling genes this kind of trading finds you out and you ought to stop immediately. Spread betting firms love index traders and that’s where they make a lot of their profits. I think indexes should be played only as part of an overall balanced strategy. Such as perhaps a longer-term FTSE short during an obvious bear market like that of 2008.

I remember in my early days how I got sucked into index trading using spread betting and lost a load of capital in this adrenalin fuelled way of trading. At home, the laptop never left my side and I couldn’t think …

By Guest Author: Andy Richardson (http://www.financial-spread-betting.com)

Most traders who I spoke to about 12 months ago were forecasting a gloomy future ahead for the UK clothing retail giants such as Next Group PLC, Debenhams or Marks & Spencer.
Let’s take the case of Next Group PLC. Although the recession was not full blown at the time, fierce competition, poor stock (clothes), the inevitable Credit Crunch and decrease in profits added up to a bearish stock. At around £8 to £9 at the time many were predicting a sub £6 by Christmas.
Here we are now and they were correct except the share price of course which has risen more than 100% now. Anyone who has opened short spread betting positions on Next must be licking their wounds by now. So what has really changed?
For one the economic outlook still looks really bad, as well as unemployment there is …

By Guest Author: Andy Richardson

My sister went house hunting last week. She likes a Taylor Wimpey PLC new build development but the plot she would want has not been started. The site representative said that Taylor Wimpey would not start to build on that particular plot until the three existing houses have been sold. They are anticipating about 18 months. So much for green shoots in the housing market. An estate agent I spoke to the other day said how fast rents are falling in my area since so many repossessions are being rented out by the receivers instead of being sold at auction. The receiver gets paid, the mortgage company gets some income and the tenant gets a home with an affordable rent.

I had a hard look at some ‘Industrials’ over the past couple of days. CHTR is a very well managed company yet its last trading announcement was …