CFD trading - anyone playing?

turbobob

Yes I would be interested too. A friend of mine is currently using Galvan who also run an advisory CFD service. Personally, I'd rather do trades myself but they are not for everyone.. The trades so far have not been big winners but certainly any losses have not been on the scale you've posted!

I assume you are referring to 70% of your initial deposit. How big was the account? And how big were the trades in relation to this? Over how many trades did you incur a 70% loss? Where were the stops set?

cepheus

Did they advise you 'how much' rather than the stock and direction? This is almost as important. You should try to arrange it so the likely profit/loss will be similar in each stock by betting inversely in proportion to its volatility.

agsnu

The whole idea of advisory CFD trading sounds insane to me.

tradetime

Whoever they are it looks like they could do with some serious work on their risk management.

mrposhman

activeits wrote: »

They said the stocks was look for a good increase as for very postive news coming out about mortages etc and also a big increase in people booking holidays.

I'm not sure this is what you want to hear, but I think this was rather naive of you. It was not the best advice from them and from what you've said they seemed to just want to get money in the account so they could take it out from naive investors, but it sounds like you did very little research yourself and believed what they told you.

It sounds from your wording that they made it out to be guaranteed but this would be insider trading to be honest and therefore punishable in the criminal courts if this were true (I mean the info was true) because from the wording you have stated it sounds like

"Hey you over there. I've been told that the data on mortgages / holidays is going to be good. This hasn't yet been released to the market and therefore hasn't yet affected the SP so you will see the rise if you get in now."

sabretoothtigger

I dont know that much about covered warrants either, I think someone on here does trade them but I do think they'd be a fixed cost where as spreadbet or cfd is practically unlimited losses

So for trading in oil which really sounds risky I would avoid cfd or spreadbet. Maybe ETF or warrants but theres better people then me who could answer that.

I did place a spreadbet on oil in the summer, I made 15 pounds in about 30 seconds from just a 1 unit bet
But I never did it again because it was basically luck that I thought the chart looked nice and it went my way. Of course if I had shorted it and stuck with it, I would have made thousands by now I guess with the drop from $130 and below but I would have gone into the red plenty I think
If you were going to bet oil you have to be ready to lose thousands and never actually own a thing, which is sickening tbh.

Commodities in general seem to be like this, you dont own the product just bet on the price which makes them way off a private investors radar imo.
Probably the best advice would be to look up unit trusts for this sector or bp shares or something that gives a dividend even if the price stays low for years, it might take that long

I'd rate oil as risky but a better bet then gold because its actually used for something. a gold play relys on everything else collapsing but oil is cheap so it makes more sense to me

turbobob

I was looking at trading in covered warrants but haven't done so yet. You do know your potential losses in advance if you are buying them. On the other hand they are pretty complicated. Far more complex than CFD's. They are I think much like options. SG have some online training material which might either interest you or scare you off! http://uk.warrants.com/services/education/

sabretoothtigger

I managed to get a free book on the subject which is quite good

The price is a function of volatility apparently but I wouldnt trade them as a matter of course just as an alternative and would probably buy the more extreme prices like early march would have been good instead of the shares I did buy which werent that profitable because I wasnt able to buy in quantity.

Of course that attitude would mean I was betting again but at least the absolute cost is known at the start and I dont risk getting stopped out just before I see the price rise I was predicting which happens often with cfd or spreadbets.

tradetime

activeits wrote: »

What is peoples experience of other CFG Advisory service provided by other companies?

Thank you.

No disrespect meant, but if you are going to rely on a stranger to tell you what to buy and sell I would strongly suggest you avoid using a leveraged product to do it. When I buy and sell financial products with my money, I am very careful to be very sure about everything to do with my trade, because losing my money is a painful experience, which will result in hardship for me.
If I am buying and selling financial products with your money, the pain and hardship of losing is considerably less, for me anyway, and thus the care taken is likely considerably less also.

tradetime

mrposhman wrote: »

I don't know a great deal about warrants really.

What do you think the best platform for investing on any rise in the oil price.

Over the next 6-9 months I would expect it to rise to somewhere over $60 per barrel and therefore feel that its not a bad idea to go for something on this.

I feel the downside is fairly limited but the upside is quite large but being as I've never invested directly in commodities before I don't really know where to start. I was going to open a spreadbetting account to do this but do you think there is a better way to trade it?

Likewise, don't know much about warrants, rather like options contracts, though issued by a company rather than an individual, not a great product for the inexperienced.

As for oil, probably the easiest way for an individual to invest in the commodity would be to buy an ETF, there are quite a few around, if you have a broker and buy stocks, look at ETF Securities they have products that trade on the LSE. I'd avoid the leveraged products unless you are very sure on direction and timing.