Short selling, a help or a hindrance? I am not talking about individual traders who enjoy the ability to short sell shares, I am referring to the existing shareholder. Whilst existing holders may not want anyone shorting their shares on a certain level, if the shares are shorted, and the shareholder has done their homework, then they should know when the shares have become good value and can buy more accordingly. Of course it is annoying when you want to sell the shares yourself and others are already forcing the price down.

It is interesting to see that the FSA are still hunting for someone to blame over the HBOS debacle. Perhaps they have not looked at the share price since the fateful 19 March. On that day the stock hit a low of around 400p but then a huge swathe of investors, small and large, bought in on the news that the Board was insisting that they had no problems. Even the Bank of England and the Financial Services Authority popped up to lend support. The price then rallied to 615p. Now, though, we know better. For the last 3 weeks or so that stock has been stuck in a 260p to 280p trading range. That is more than 55% down. Imagine if you were the trader buying at 615p. So who is the enemy of the investor, is it the short seller who in this case gave a very good early warning to anyone holding the stock or is the blame better attributed elsewhere.

Trying to force a share price lower via a bear attack can be a very dangerous activity for the participants as they can easily get caught the wrong way round. A badly conceived strategy can lead to a concerted move by Market Makers or a Stock Lending moratorium by major holders which can easily lead to a spike higher which forces the shorter to take a major hit.

Sudden takeover rumour also causes havoc for shorters.

Looking at the Alliance and Leicester / Satander deal there has been a slightly different reaction. No one felt sorry for traders shorting via borrowing stock, placing CFDs, spread betting or otherwise. There was a lesson for everyone on the Friday that the possibility of a deal was announced. Some £150m was probably lost in just a few minutes by funds betting on continued weaknes. Alliance and Leicester shares were one of the most heavily borrowed stocks on the block. The price opened some 40% higher from the close on the Friday and traders would not have had a chance to get out of their positions. The shares rallied to well above the Santander offer. Anyone shorting was forced to cover their position at any price.

Readers should always remember that anyone can take advantage of being short via a huge array of instruments. Buying Put options, Selling Calls, selling stock and borrowing, Selling CFDs or, most simple of all, just selling a market via Spread Betting through companies like Financial Spreads. It is not just the larger funds who can take advantage of an inflated share price.

Whilst it can be a profitable form of speculation in today’s bear market, selling a share or commodity does have its risks. Just like buying shares and commodities have their risks.

Financial spread betting carries a high level of risk and may not be suitable for all classes of investor. Only trade with money that you can afford to lose. Make sure you fully understand the risks involved. If necessary, seek independent financial advice.



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Whatever type of retirement fund you have, be it 401k 403b, Roth IRA or plain old IRA, you want to spread your risk.

Stocks go up and go down. Treasuries and government backed bonds are very safe, but they also go up and down in value, although you will always get a reasonable return. You can lose your shirt in futures and commodities. Gold is attractive, too. So what should you do?

Most people start off with investing in mutual funds, or they rely on a professional adviser – by the way professional means that he gets paid for doing that job, so don’t assume a professional adviser is an expert. Mutual funds generally invest in stocks, but it is certainly a good idea to have a proportion of your retirement fund invested in high-quality bonds – and the older you get the higher the quality you need.

Stocks can be risky

Recently, managers and investors alike have realised that markets do go up and go down, and so they have sought to diversify out of stocks, or in some cases out of the USA. Diversifying overseas is either risky – in new markets like China and Korea – or is a currency play. Why? because the leading markets in the USA, UK, Europe and Japan tend to move in the same cycles – and it is long term cycles that you need to watch for your retirement fund.

Hedging helps

An alternative is a hedge fund. But these are very risky. However, some of the leading mutual fund companies, like Fidelity and Vanguard, are now offering funds which has some hedging.

What is hedging? Hedging is betting with some of your money that the price will go down,and with some that the price will go up. Of course, you put more money where you think the market is going, and some against it. If the fund manager is right, the value goes up, and he is wrong it goes down a little. In the long run, a good manager, with good investment tools and research, can consistently make profits whatever the market does.

Therefore it is a good idea to have a small portion of your retirement fund in a fund that is involved in hedging in a conservative manner. This is a good way to get into commodities – any other way is far too risky unless you have money to throw away, and if you do, you won’t be putting it into a retirement fund. Investing in hedged funds and commodities is not something to undertake on your own – you need to seek the advice of a good financial adviser.

Disclaimer

The information on this web site does not constitute an offer in any way. It gives general information, but is not financial advice. The aim is to help you decide what to do about your retirement plan, and the importance of saving for retirement. You should consult a retirement planning adviser with a proven record before setting up a retirement plan.



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Online betting is a fast growing industry right now and there are a couple reasons for that. The first reason is that people who already partake of some betting are moving their activity to the online versions. Online punters can place bets at all hours of the day or night according to their own schedules and that has a huge advantage in this era of never-enough-time-in-a-day.

Betting via online gambling sites is easier now than it has ever been as well, while also being more secure than it has ever been. Financial information is not shared and privacy issues are better online than they have ever been offline.

The second reason that people are taking their action online is that the betting sites are making it worth their while to give them a try. Free bets are on offer all the time and are a truly inspired method of helping you try out online betting. Seriously, how many adventures do you get to try out for free before you decide to take part? The amusement park doesn’t let you take a ride on their dazzling new rollercoaster so that you can decide if you want to fork over some money for a ride ticket! Your local pub doesn’t give you a free pint so that you can decide if you want to buy one! No, the free bets you can get to try out online betting sites really are rather unique in this world of ‘nothing is free’.

Strategy and Free Bets

Some people choose a site they want to use, take advantage of the free bets and then stick to that site. Other people like to make use of all the free bets on offer from several sites in order to check out all their options for gaming online. There are certainly many ways to approach the free bets on offer and to take advantage of as many or as few as you want.

The first strategy that many subscribe to is to look through many of the offers on the directory site before doing anything. Selecting two or three offers for free bets, they then follow the links to the sites themselves and take a look around. They might get a feel for a site this way and be intrigued to come back to it to accept the free bets for a trial. This strategy has you looking at the sites you are most drawn to before determining which one or ones you return to for the free bets.

Another strategy that many online betters use is to try as they go. They check out the free bets listed on the directory site and select one to start with. They accept the free bets on offer and try the site out. They then return to the directory to find another betting site that has free bets on offer and follow that link.

If you choose to try out some free bets online, you can employ any sort of strategy you like or not at all. The point is that you can’t find this kind of arrangement in any other type of entertainment and that in itself is quite appealing.



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Back in the summer of 2008 Mervyn King gave the startling news that the average family’s standard of living would ‘stagnate’. This is hardly news as the same thing happened (pretty much) last year and the year before. The huge rise in personal debt is evidence that many people have been financing any increase in their living standards by increased levels of debt. One assumes by the word ‘stagnate’ that he actually means ‘get worse’.

Whilst many may not be feeling the pinch directly it must be remembered that our pensions were invested in many of the complex securities (read US Mortgage Market). Therefore until we get our next pension fund update we have little idea of how much we have lost. In fact even then we may not find out for some time.

Does that mean we should be managing our own funds and portfolios? Many people do. Many do not. Should you? That depends upon a lot of factors besides some commentators are suggesting that the best place for your cash…is cash. Looking at UK shares you can see their point, there is little potential for growth and a lot of risky stocks. Of course, now that interest rates are decreasing that may change.

One of the key problems with shares is that most corporates do not have the cash just lying around for any development projects, growth strategies, infrastructure improvements etc. They will generally tap the credit markets as a way to oil the wheels of growth. With the credit markets still in deep freeze and the bond markets becoming ever more illiquid the prospects for future growth becomes ever more terminal.

But if you believe there will be a long recession and things will get worse then one interesting option is spread betting through companies like FinancialSpreads.com and Spreadex. I do not believe that spread betting is the be-all-and-end-all however it can help balance an awkward portfolio.

Apart from the benefits of being able to bet on most markets to go down, the UK regulator, the Financial Service Authority, forces these companies to keep their client funds ring-fenced from operational resources. So even if one of these companies ran into problems your funds would remain safe. Not many places offer that.

Of course, in reality, financial spread betting is one the few industries that is thriving in the current market conditions. There may be a temporary ban on betting on Financial Stocks to go down but you can still bet on thousands of other shares, commodities like Crude Oil or Gold, Foreign Exchange rates and the major world indices like the FTSE 100 or Dow Jones to go down. If you think the markets will go down then spread betting lets you speculate on that.

Are there any drawbacks? Yes. Spread betting carries a high level of risk and you can lose more than your initial investment. You need to make sure you only trade with money that you can afford to lose.

Like the adverts say; spread betting may not be suitable for all classes of investor. Make sure you fully understand the risks involved. If necessary, seek independent financial advice.

On the plus side, whilst you need to appreciate that tax laws can and do change, at the moment, one of the other important positives with financial spread betting is that your profits are tax free if you live in UK.

So, as with all investments, caution is advised but there are some interesting benefits.

 



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Betting Exchanges

Betting exchanges are a interesting new phenomenon in risk markets which has turned the conventional bookmaking and gambling business on its head. Betting exchanges are gaining credibility and influence all the time and with each month that passes seemingly another country legalises the complete, and it would seem that it is only a matter of time before the large exchanges are completely legalised and recognized worldwide.

Another great attribute of a betting exchange is that if you don’t like a price you can post a price of your own on the and then see if anyone one else is ready to ‘match’ you and thereby take your bet on. Put very simply, betting exchanges are a safe place where members of the betting public can exchange bets with each other incognito, at odds that they specify themselves. It seems that as betting exchanges are the way of the future, many companies have jumped on the band-wagon and have started new betting exchanges.

The Odds

Odds offered by betting exchanges on average are about 20% better than those offered by traditional bookmakers. When you compare odds at betting exchanges to odds at bookmakers, you should take the commission into account as you don’t pay commission at the bookmakers. There will still be occasions when a normal bookmaker will offer more attractive odds than those that are available on the exchanges. The odds you offer obviously need to be sensible in order to be matched, but if you are not satisfied with the current price being requested by other punters you can simply leave an ‘order’ in the exchange at your odds and hope that somebody eventually takes your offer. The attractiveness of using exchanges is there is no bookmaker, which means there is no edge built into the prices, which often results in significantly better value prices. Pro-gamblers work on thin margins, there are some that enjoy greater margins but they are the few, generally speaking most pro’s work to small margins and so a 20% increase in odds despite the commission which can be as high as 5% is a huge boon.

Betfair – No.1 Player

Betfair is the dominant player in the betting exchange market, with an estimated +85% market share by value. Betfair’s exchange boasts a high degree of liquidity, across an extensive range of sports betting markets, alongside a professional customer service operation and a fully incorporated phone and internet betting facility. Unlike an established bookie, Betfair has no vested interest in the outcome of an event and therefore their interests are 100% in line with those who oversee sport.

In-running (betting while a sport is being played) is one of the features that really makes betting exchanges like Betfair come alive. The phenomenal success enjoyed by Betfair and others in the last 18 months is testament to the appeal of the product to the betting population.

Sports Betting

Sports betting is concerned with predicting sports results, while using the conclusion of a particular sporting event to make a bet. Horse racing and soccer are the largest volume markets but tennis, cricket and other popular sports also supply a significant amount as well. As sports bettors become more informed gamblers, an increasing number of players will move to the betting exchanges. For sports betting there are over fifty different sports on the exchanges covering events from 122 different countries.

Trading On The Betting Exchanges

Trading is like any other profession, it takes time to learn and there are hurdles to overcome. And as financial exchanges have proven to be efficient mechanisms for trading shares, options, and other kinds of securities, so have the betting exchanges proven successful in the world of online gambling. The numbers of people betting from home utilising the talents of the internet, continues to grow at breakneck pace and one of the largest areas of growth in Britain is online trading, both in sports and other markets. Exchanges are particularly good for dealing with in-running events, where using trading techniques similar to those used in financial trading, or by spread bettors, you can secure in a guaranteed profit before the conclusion of an event.



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Having started 2009 moving relatively serenely through the gears, financial markets are now seemingly stuck in reverse, with little optimism apparent in the immediate road ahead.

With renewed negative data sure to come, the FSTE 100 looks like it will be regularly testing the 4000 level.

In mid January the UK’s Financial Service Authority lifted the short-selling ban on financial stocks. Prior to the lifting of the ban, investors were selling everything they could, perhaps a slight overreaction.

Should all investors now be selling banking sector shares? Right now the real problem appears to be the worry over the state of the balance sheets. And this does not appear to be going away.

Although some retailers reported reasonable Christmas sales, many did not. It looks like shoppers tightened the purse strings earlier than expected, once again leading to worries that the slowdown this year could be much worse than first thought.

It should be remembered that the stock market rallies at the beginning of 2009 were on light trading volumes.

As Simon Denham of Financial Spreads said, “We’re still in a bear market whether anyone likes it or not and the bounce from the November 2008 lows lasted 30 days in total. That happens to be the average length of time that bear market rallies last

“Technically the bears are still in control and from a fundamental standpoint the hot air coming from our politicians seems to be just that. And the market doesn’t like it. Many of the packages that the government is throwing at the private sector are just increasing the mountains of debt. It’s all very well guaranteeing loans but the businesses that take them will have to repay them and most likely at unfavourable rates”.

Will these loans simply keep non-profitable small businesses limping on and delay the inevitable graveyard that awaits them? In this current climate that is most likely to be the case.

Unfortunately, the damage that has been done, and the speed with which it has unfolded, means that the recovery will take a great deal longer than normal. A test of the FTSE 100’s all time high that ran out of steam in 2007 could be confined to the history books for quite some time.

It is clear that fiscal actions on their own are not going to be able to get the economy moving any quicker so other courses of action need to be considered. The worrying thing is that our central banks and politicians seem to think that a capitalist system that has effectively been undermined by huge mountains of debt and borrowing can be saved by vast amounts of debt and borrowing.

There is little doubt that we will be paying for these stimulus packages for most of our working lives and possibly our children will too.

So what should investors be doing? I like the principle of sitting on my hands and watching the markets fluctuate from the sidelines. For now, market fundamentals look terrible and I can see little upside. To the downside, the FTSE 100 support level of 4000 seems to be holding. If you must trade, then perhaps a few small stakes, short-term spread bets to take advantage of the market volatility. Some range trading may be the order of the day.

Spread bets carry a high level of risk to your money and may not suit all forms of investor. You can lose more than your initial investment so make sure you only speculate with capital that you can afford to lose. Likewise make sure you understand the risks involved and seek independent financial advice where necessary.

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Spread trading is a way of trading the financial markets and profiting from ones that are falling. Once the exclusive playground of institutional fund managers and hedge funds, Worldspreads.com now offers individuals the opportunity to track the potential of commodity futures for online trading. We also offer short financial instruments, so that our investors can maximise their profits from volatile markets.

Spread trading offers possible profit that is free of Stamp Duty, Income tax and Capital gains Tax – a much more economic alternative as opposed to using the services of a regular stock broker.

Using Worldspreads.com means that you do not have to wait for your stockbroker to ‘get back to you’: we offer instant execution on your spread trading decisions either by telephone or online. As an additional benefit, we also offer extended dealing hours on most instruments. You can call us between 7am and 9.15pm GMT and check the exact trading times for each instrument using our interactive website. So if you decide that certain commodity futures are ripe for online trading, you can execute your decision at the most appropriate time.

Spread trading with Worldspreads.com also allows you trade from as little as ? (or its foreign currency equivalent) per point on all the markets. This is far lower than you would be able to trade with a stockbroker on the underlying markets.

The aim of the WorldSpreads Group is to provide high quality sports and financial betting services to a global audience. In order to ensure the highest standards of service, and to drive its expansion to an international audience, the Group has assembled a team with an envious track record in the industry. Its international expansion is geared around finding the best business partners in new territories who can ensure that the product offering is adapted for the needs of the local customer bases.

To find out how you can take advantage of our knowledge and expertise, or our spread trading tutorials and seminars, contact on of our helpful telephone advisors now.



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Sports’ gambling is the method of predicting the outcome or result of a sporting event by making a wager on its results. Betting on sports has become a worldwide phenomenon these days, however only some countries have recognised it and consider it legal while it has still been considered illegal in other places. In places where betting on sports is unlawful, gamblers make their bets with illegal bookmakers, known as bookies, or on the Internet, where betting has become popular. The first and the foremost point to be kept in mind while betting is money management. The first key to proper money management is to be sure not to bet more than you can afford to lose. It is important to set aside a sum of money and stick with it, whether you win or lose.

The next most important tip is to do a bit of betting research. Though betting on sports is all about making a bet on the outcome of a sporting event, it is safer to make some efforts to improve our information about the game. This means, studying each game or the progress of each team with a systematic approach.

The next thing to do is checking the sports wageringodds. It basically involves predicting if an outcome will occur or not. It is generally said that the lesser the sports betting odds, the more probable it is that the outcome will happen. The odd makers take into account every potential factor, which may have an effect on the result of a game. They then identify the odds by considering several factors such as the weather conditions, quality of the teams, match history, the desire to win and so on. All these issues are taken into account and they form a figure, which is satisfactory to both sides of the wager. Following the day to day progress of the game also predetermines the odds. This data is then used to regulate spreads as the season advances. The basic digits are then calculated and analysed. All these issues are then shared through a series of formulas to form what is called power rankings. These rankings change as the game progresses based on the overall performance. With the advent of online gambling came odds comparison sites that displayed the actual-time prices of a number of bookmakers alongside each other.

Gambling interests a large number of gamblers because they follow the sports and hence have the knowledge which they think is necessary to place bets on point spread or betting lines that will likely earn them double or more of their original stake. The general acceptance and legality of sports betting varies from country to country. In addition to the marketing that has made sports more captivating than ever before, the negative stigma associated with betting is not there, making sports betting more fine all around.

 

Winning at sport betting is not about luck .It has become an acquired skill as more people are beginning to take it up seriously. It has become a favourite pastime for various people and having a financial stake in the result makes it even more interesting.



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For many, investing in the stock market during 2008 was a year to forget and you hardly need reminding about what a mess the financial global economy is in. Shares continue to drop, sterling is falling, house prices are falling the only things going up are those that you would rather not, such as unemployment and heating costs.

So based on this backdrop how can one man be up well over 300% in the less than a year on his investments and more importantly how did he do it and how can learn same?

Vince Stanzione is a self –made millionaire, in fact he’s been his own boss since the age of 16! In this interview he talks about how he made a career and subsequent fortune from spread-betting, the development of his own, easy to operate financial trading system, and strategies on how you too can make millions of pounds working from home.

Vince Stanzione is 38 years old with millions in the bank, houses all over the world (although he spends most of his time in Mallorca), and the dream job…working in the comfort of his own home.  And we’re not talking, slaving away for hours, a few minutes each day monitoring and analyzing the worlds indices is enough to keep his profits ticking over.

So how did he profit?

Whilst many are conditioned into buying shares and wanting things to go up, Vince works on making money regardless of prices moving up, down or even staying in a range. His profits in 2008 mainly came from buying Inverse Exchange Traded Funds, Short selling and buying put options, all perfectly legal and for those in the know easily accessible online. You don’t need to be a multi millionaire to use these techniques; Vince shows how a modest £3,000 account can be used to access the same financial tools.

“When people find out that I am a professional trader/investor the next question tends to be, ‘what’s a good share to buy?’ nobody ever says ‘what’s a good share to SELL short’”

Millionaire Traders sell short. They make money in down markets. The best traders make money going up and going down. Selling short seems to always get bad press. To make money in a down market is supposedly unethical to many. Nonsense, the market rules say you can go long and go short. Why would you not want to use all the tools at your disposal?

Of course not all his money was made from trades going down; Vince invested heavily in Consumer Staples shares such as McDonalds, Walmart and Anheuser Bush better known for its Budweiser beer which was recently taken over by Inbev making him a profit of over £150,000. In 2009 he is looking for shares in McDonalds to hit all time highs as consumers trade down, he is also making investments in companies that produce products for home label brands. He remains negative on many retailers including Marks & Spencer which expects to announce a string of profit warnings in 2009. “M&S is a good times company that struggles to adapt in a weaker economy” he is looking for shares to make new lows in the first half of the year.

Whilst negative on most industral commodities for 2009 he does still like Gold and believes owning Gold is a must have in anyone’s portfolio.

Sharing his Spread Betting Secrets

Whilst the Internet is full of information on trading, most of it is out of date or simply does not work in the real world, this prompeted Vince to launch his workbook teaching people how to make money from spreadbetting. Vince’s workbooks have already helped hundreds of people to trade successfully and the testimonials speak for themselves.

 The workbook which consits of a 200 page folder with step by step instructions on how to start trading, also comes with 2 FREE DVD’s and a CD-ROM to assist you and provide you with an insight into his  live trading account and commentary on the markets.  To find out more about his workbook you can log on to www.fintrader.net



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