Spread Betting Solutions

I thought I would share my short experience with investing and trading shares.

I thought until last year that funds were a quite safe heaven as they were managed by professionals with good ratings, etc. So over the last 2 years, I built up my ISA (I'm 28 btw) and invested all my money in great funds with lots of long-term potential (Africa, Agriculture, EE, ME, Energy, the lot...). I believed that being professional they could predict the market, take steps to prevent big falls...etc. but I discovered that they were not superheroes nor have super trading powers when they lost me 50-55% of my ISA in few months. Add to that that one of the funds I'm invested in is even going bust; New star Heart of Africa. It was looking like a winner on the long term but once they managed to liquidate the fund, I will get peanuts.

So following the above, I started to do some initial research/reading and it got me to the same thinking that, 'the only way to make money is to take control'.

So since end of November/early December, I started to sell some of my funds to get into shares via spread betting/CFDs. My 3 first share purchases were awful, one with 25% spread but the three were on a Monday morning with a too high limit prices placed on a Sunday afternoon...etc
.
Since then I read a lot more, slept a lot less and spent most of my free time researching/analysing and understanding my initial mistakes. I am also trying to understand how the "best" do to make money and to success. I am not saying that I won't make anymore but at least, I am trying to learn from them, that's already a good step ;)

So where do I stand right now?

Since December, I almost managed to make all my losses (within my ISA) back thanks to one share that had a lucky run and that still have some more gains in the bag (5-10% to go). I also managed to make almost 60% on new investments (outside of my ISA) but this profit is almost gone now, due to two poorly researched and rushed purchases coming back from holiday... I told you that I would still do mistakes!

Anyway, my three short term goals are simple:
- by April 5th, 09 to have made all my ISA losses back.
- by December 09, to double the value of my outside-ISA portfolio.
- by April 5th, 10 to have made at least 50% profit on my ISA.

In fact, I may have a fourth one:

- Find a second income source...

Erm, this article is longer than I expected and not exactly what I was expecting to write when I started it, so let's hope that I won't get kicked out of this forum or ignored for it as it is more a diary post than a pure trading one.

About the Author:

A well respected financial spread betting journalist. A seasoned writer he offers insight into strategic and tactical trading of stocks and shares, indices, forex and commodities