Did You Know that as Many as 80% of Index Traders Lose?

I think one spread betting firm was telling me this figure is even nearer to 90%! There are many people who can be heard talking about this and 사설토토사이트. 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 of much else at work. Everything started to suffer. I was simply gambling and I think it was the closest I have ever come to an addiction.

Now I’ve never really gambled before but I was gambling then and got a real fright. My wife’s a psychologist and after she’d finished beating me to a pulp she helped me come up with some strategies to control my index trading. The most successful of which is that before I place any trade I imagine myself explaining to her the reasons why I’m placing it and think about her reaction, i.e. is she going to be upset or be pleased!? I found that every time I tried explaining the case for placing a rash index spread bet I’d feel guilty because she’d be upset. This realisation helped me to feel guilty about placing poorly thought out trades!

I think this is a form of conditioned aversion to placing trades which most traders don’t think through. I’ve only traded indices a handful of times since, when the market seemed very likely at a top or bottom and there was a genuine case for the trade.

Probably at the time I was trying to do too much too quickly so I stopped to just focus on learning and trading shares – developing a routine that suits the time I have available.

Also, I’ve found myself naturally being drawn back to trading small to mid-cap, good value shares as when I have to ‘pitch’ them to my wife (in my head) they seem to make the strongest cases (a bit of natural selection of trades going on I think). I can’t trade anything more exotic because if I don’t understand it, I can’t make a case for it.

So be careful if you are a beginner dabbling in index trading for it can be very dangerous in the hands of the unwary – if you really want to spread bet on indices at least do so with small stakes!