rather than pick out individual stocks to trade, it can often be worthwhile to trade the indices themselves, especially in times of high volatility.

for those so inclined, i attach below charts for FTSE and FTSE 250, though one might equally be tempted to trade Dow or S&P, which is significantly broader in its coverage, or even NASDAQ

for ease of reading, i have attached 1 year and 3 month charts in each instance

Hi All,

I was thinking of looking at SB's or CFD's again as a way of shorting/longing the indices. Can anyone recommend a provider with low minimum stake sizes. Last time I looked they were mostly around 3. Ideally I'd like something lower, maybe 50p or 1. I know that's probably not very adventerous, but my investing style is generally to track the trend over a longish period, so I'd prefer to bet/risk small amounts to avoid being stopped out too quickly. If that makes sense.

Thanks.

Strawbs.

Strawbs,

Why bother with SB's or CFD's, have you considered using db X trackers FTSE Short ETF. (XUKS) as far as shorting is concerned?

Strawbs.

www.capitalspreads.com do 1 a point on Indices.

Thanks Keaydian.

Thanks Stan,

Yes I have some XUKS, but they seem to be 1 point moved for every 5 in the FTSE. Just thinking it might be more efficient to short via CFD/SB rather than an ETF.

Strawbs.

Agree XUKS doesn't quite work as well as ISF in terms of acuracy in reverse, volume no where near as ISF yet of course.

Strawbs gft do 1point spreads on ftse and 2 point on dow during trading hours min 1 stake

Stan,

Yeah. Handy for us "non leveraged" types as a way to make some kind of profit in a falling market. I've noticed the bid/ask can jump around wildly though, so probably not as accurate to exit/enter as I assume a SB/CFD is.



Thanks Falcothou.

I'll take a look.

Strawbs.

Interesting yesterday how rumours circulate, before Lehman released results yesterday, I kept reading reports suggesting they had secured funding from the far east. But I couldn't find out any more, then when results were released all they said was that they were still looking for investors. They now look dead in the water, and awaiting a asset sell off.

So still favouring the short side, but will wait to sell into strength today.

Strawbs, as regards to the spread on XUKS the lowest that I have seen is 8p between buy and sell.

Stan,

Yep. Sounds about right. Although I'm sure I've seen it as low as 2 points, and as high as 40 points (assuming stockwatch was working OK at the time of course :-) ).

Strawbs.

Spitfire have you read this one passes comment on yesterday's shennaigans

Falcothou

I'm not sure what you mean, should there be a link on your post.

Strawbs,
You may have seen some correspondence in Shares Mag. over the past 3 weeks in the letters page regarding XUKS's movements. Not seen 2p though..I will have to watch a bit closer -):

Stan,

No. Didn't see the article. I only buy a copy these days if I can see a few articles of interest. Did they have an explanation?

Strawbs.

Strawbs,
After a fashion, in a "management talk" sort of way -):

Ahhh. One of those explanations.... :-)

Strawbs.

Volume but not a lot of content -):

Sorry spitfire forgot the link
http://market-ticker.denninger.net/

These markets are soooo evil. I've never seen so many changes of direction!

Up down, up down, all we need now is to shake it all around...