DailyTrading

Since the last post, which was a while back – The Shire (SHP) bet went, surprisingly, according to plan and closed for the targeted profit of £62!

Accendo markets succeeded, after much effort on their part, to persuade me to run my spread betting account with IG Index through them. This involved opening a new account, though I was able to transfer the balance from my existing account, so there is no change to this project.

Why did I sign up? Firstly there is no cost involved, Accendo no doubt get some sort of cut from IG, but for me it all works and costs just the same. I get a daily dose of reports from Accendo, including technical analysis of the FTSE and a few interesting shares every day.

This has encouraged me to use their analysis for a few positions during November, with mixed success. I ran a short on M&S, which I would never have done without their analysis. This was successful, realising a small profit of £34, though as the share went ex dividend during the hold, I had to pay the dividend of £12.40 – (this happens when you run a short as a spread bet), so a net profit of £22. I closed this well short of the Acccendo target when the SP started to show a decided up trend again – a good decision!

£22 isn’t big money, but if you consider I opened the position on Nov 2 and closed it on the 23^rd – it’s 2.78% on the £790 risked in 21 days which gives an apr of 46%. Nice – though of course the same calculation works for the losses made in a blink of an eye.

Again, prompted by Accendo analysis I opened what I see as a longer term (March 2013) position in Petra Diamonds (PDL). I have followed this share for three years and have done well with it. So I bought at 365.28 at £3/pt, Stop at 347.28 and limit sell at 420.28 – within the target envisaged. So far it is in profit (£40 as I write).

Following, what I saw as, the logic of Accendo analysis on Gem Diamonds (GEM) didn’t work out and a big (relatively) loss of £59 ensued.

Off my own bat, I misread a fall in Red Rock Resources (RRR) SP as overselling and bought and lost out very quickly as the price continued to fall. A loss to add to the much bigger one on my ‘real’ share holdings. I also won and lost on Dialight (DIA)– my favourite share.

I have had some other successes – notably at last by shorting the FTSE several times – admittedly for very small amounts and have made a few pounds. Accendo technical analysis helped but essentially the current sideways movement of the index seems to indicate certain levels where movement up or down within a fairly clear range was pretty sure. Today’s position was opened at 5917, and went on to show a paper profit of £20+, but retreated to hit the stop that I had advanced and closed at a£7profit. I may reopen the position if the index hits 5922 again. Ditto with Barclays (BARC), though my first attempt hit the stop. Overall profitable though.

So the account now shows three open positions, all relatively ‘long term’ – Kentz, BG and Petra Diamonds. BG Group is hovering around break even, while KENZ and PDL seem comfortably in profit.

The account is still showing a loss since starting, so the initial target is to get back to break even. So far I haven’t grabbed the profits showing, though if the FTSE starts to fall seriously I’ll be sorely tempted no doubt.

Current profit/Loss £-154.72 (Open positions £+63.84)