Does anyone do this? If so, is it easy to do and who offers the service? I want to trade some stocks on margin but doesnt seem to be any mention of this in any of the major UK share dealing brokers.

I do ... in fact it is the only way I trade ... that is to say via CFDs .... I use IG Index

CFDs or spreadbetting are both on margin. I've been doing it for several years.

One word of advice. If you can't show a consistent profit trading real shares for a year or two, it's pointless going on margin. Be very careful.

Al

I've been trading shares for about 3 years and have always done well. Pretty confident in my ability to pick shares but I tried spread betting briefly and immediately lost money. That isnt my bag. I dont want to trade financial instruments on margin just actual shares. Is that possible?

Of course .... just find a broker to suit your needs ..... margin trading, by whatever medium, requires and ability to keep pretty much constant watch, for while gains are magnified, so of course are losses!

Any ideas what kind of chanrges they entail? I checked out an American site and they were charging a rate of like 10% on the value of the shares you had on margin. That aint cheap.

I use cmc cfd and spreadbetting with cmc markets,95% of my trading is done by s/betting,reason you can tell the taxman to go and whistle :-)when you where spreadbetting you stated you lost money,what did you change from your normal trading that affected you from a profit mode to a loss mode,i cant work that one out ???? since christmas i also trade Fixed Odds Trading with BetonMarkets,once again you dont pay tax :-)Thanks Gordon !!!

Mega...

mega,

I found it hard to duplicate my share trading with Spread betting.

I think the first problem is the spread, normally wide for the AIM stocks I normally trade.

Say you open a position with a spread of 38 - 42, and put a 10 point stop loss, the stop will be at either ten points from the bid, @ 28p, or 10 points from the offer, resulting in a possible 14 point loss, or 32p, a smaller loss, but will be hit if the price drops only 6p due to the wide spread..

If the price subsequently drops 3p, you are effectively 7 points down, and have a decision to make!

In my experience, I either held, and lost more, or closed, only for the price to rise as soon as I had done so!

With real shares, I have made much better decisions, probably due to not having to worry about contract periods.

To be fair, spreads are probably not suited to my way of investing, but I have had better success recently by refusing to make positions where the spread is too large.

Andy,gotcha :-)

captainmerton

Spreadbetting is margin of shares (or anything else). Maybe it's not your bag. Either that or your money management needs revising.

The one thing you really do need when margin trading is a good, disciplined risk/reward and money management strategy. If you don't forget it now.

I've traded share CFDs via GNI for several years and am still in the game. ;-))

Al

cynic

margin trading, by whatever medium, requires and ability to keep pretty much constant watch, for while gains are magnified, so of course are losses!

I'd naturally agree with the last comment, but trading on margin does not necessarily need constant watching if the stops are set and your money management is correct.

Al

When I buy shares I am buying thinking "these are gonna be worth more in 2-3 years time" but i find the short term movements hard to predict. The stop loss kicks in. Wanted to use say 5 grand of shares as collateral to buy another 5 grand of shares on margin and perhaps pay 7-8% apr on the shares I have bought on margin.

capt

You'll not find what you want I believe. Marging trading on shares is only cost-effective for a coupld of months or so, given the overnight borrow rates charged.

If you really want to do what you say, then you take a cheap bank loan. Having said that, nobody should borrow to trade/invest. The old saying is that you should only use what you can afford to lose, etc, etc.

Stick to the account size you have IMO. If you can pick 'em, your protfolio will be worth twice the size in 2-3 years anyway. ;-)))

Al,

Cheers for the advice. You're probably right.