One of the reasons why we're not the greatest fans of short term betting or speculating on the financial markets is that the costs are too high, coupled with the fact that to make it a real success (over time) you've really got to follow the markets very closely. And for many people with jobs outside the industry this is just not possible.
However, one way to successfully make money with short term trading is to be very selective with your trades, perhaps waiting days or even weeks for things to setup to your liking. Another way to put the odds in your favour is to use all the tools available such as spread bets, options, CFDs, binary bets and the like. This is because each trade or idea is often best suited to a different product. For example, if we were looking for a quick $10 move on Gold over the next few days then spread bets would most probably be the best product to use. But then next week when we want a punt that stocks might gain or lose 10% by the end of the year perhaps options would be the better choice.
The key to all of this is knowing how all of these tools work and their associated advantages and disadvantages.
Ladbrokes Fixed Odds
Ladbrokes have recently opened up a fixed odds financial website which seems to be powered by the prices generated from the spread betting firm Cantor Fitzgerald. The markets offered are very limited, only on the FTSE 100 and only on 5 min, 1 hour and daily markets. But for those of you who are already using Binary Bets then it would make sense opening an account (or at least checking out their prices) because you're bound to find different prices and odds which can make all the difference.
For example, if you do on average 1 trade a week and can save 1 point (£10 stakes) then that's over £500 in savings over the year. This kind of thinking and practice is imperative in trading for long term success. It's really nothing more than focussing on your costs which is one of the pillars of successfully running a business in whatever industry.
GoToMyPC.com - Useful But Very Slow
Over the last month or so we've been on the road for much of the time and have been testing out and using a piece of software called www.gotomypc.com. It's simple to setup (takes a few minutes) and costs around £10 a month. The software enables you to connect to your home or office computer from any other computer in the world. And there are plenty of security options to make the running of it very safe.
However, although we have a 1MB broadband connection in our office and were using it through a 512mb connection it was painfully slow. But it was useful nonetheless. If you're therefore going on holiday or on the road for a few weeks and like access to your main computer you should definitely check it out. But just don't plan on doing too much work because if you're used to being online at broadband speed controlling your computer from another using the software is like surfing with an old 56k modem.
