[LOCKED] New around here?

[Guest RobertR]

Hi  thanks for your post.

 

In regards to advising on particular markets to trade, I'm afraid we wouldn't be able to assist on that regard. You may however want to take a look at our Sectors markets which can be found under the 'Indices' section on the Classic Platform.

The way these markets are priced will be directly with an underlying selection of shares. For example, the banking index will track the aggregate value of a wide selection of banks. You'll notice that there are a couple of sectors that relate to the housing market. It's very important however to know that this would by no means be a perfect hedge as there's no way of accurately calculating the weighting of the market.

 

In regards to ETFs, similarly I couldn't point out any particulars. You'll be able to search through the wide range we offer via our ETF Screener to see if any suit your requirements, so please follow the link here to take a look.

 

Thanks,

 

Rob

[Guest kazi]

Hi every on I am Kazi here new on the trading platform i think i can learn from here.

[FFS_Daytrader]

Hi,

 

Been on IG for a while but not use the community much. Are you new to IG and trading? How is it going?

[Guest scrillaosprey]

Ola trading amigos. Beginning to appreciate how lonely the world of trading is (so many neigh sayers out there-All I say is 'Wright brothers'), so here I am in a community of like minded people. So glad IG have this community forum. Muchos Gracias IG!

 

I still see myself as new to trading though I have been interested in trading for many years now, actually started my education about 6 years ago with options education and started trading (Spread Bets) about 4 years ago, facing the usual pit falls of newbie traders-but I expected that from the beginning and had good, though incomplete, foundations. There are lots of warnings out there so ignorance is not an excuse. Especially love the IG/standard disclaimers. Keeps me grounded and in-fact has motivated me to seek deeper insight into how to become a successful, disciplined and consistently profitable trader.

 

Recently started a new course of education that has boosted my confidence in technical analysis of the markets.

 

I started trading Indicies because I'm sort of structure minded so broke it down to -Forex too fast, Equities too slow, Indicies JUST RIGHT! I'm now used to the tempo of the markets and trade Indicies, Forex, Commodities and occasionally Equities.

 

Structurally based, my future goals as regards trading (and financial management, development and discipline) is to build up the ladder as I see it:

Trading: Spread Bets and CFDs (I see these as entry level Investing)

Investing L1: ETFs

Investing L2: Options

Investing L3: Shares

 

Looking forward to participating in, learning from and interacting with the community. Hope I have something to offer as well.

[Guest scrillaosprey]

Hi ,

First off I don't think you are bad at trading. You are new to it and as such just going through the newbie motions. Everyone/Every great development starts from ground zero - errors, pitfalls, disappointments and all. Even Einstein notched a few failed theories, experiments and ideas under his belt. Good you identified you need a way to improve... Right track that not many follow.

 

If you are committed and disciplined, you can find your footing to avoid joining the statistic of unsuccessful traders.

Forgive the lecture. I started the same way and only found my motivation by first asking WHY.

 

For me knowledge/education, financial management, discipline, psychology and patience, as one comes to realise during the educational journey, are the beginnings of good foundation corner stones on the path to success in trading. I'm still on that journey myself.

 

As for education and reading material, there are so many and as I'm sure you can appreciate a reservedness to recommend as every individual is different and trading/trading knowledge, approach, goals and risk sensitivity require individual tailoring. People have a tendency to blame the messenger for information they themselves can not honestly admit they were not adequately able to grasp or did not suit them. So we walk these lonely roads of self realisation and development... Sorry about the tangent there!

 

That said, from a good foundation stand point IG provide excellent (in my opinion) basics of trading/spread betting material. They will open your eyes to terminologies, disciplines and principles. If they don't cover a particular topic in as much depth as you need , then you can look for other resources. You now have something to research off of. A good one I find is www.babypips.com. It's free and will take you through the A-Z s of trading Forex - which in my opinion can be applied to many other trading and investment vehicles with some intricacies tweaking (each market is unique and while some fundamental, technical and sentimental principles apply to all, they all have they're specific intricacies to adhere and adapt to)

 

From an active trading stand point, I'm naturally structure minded and analytical so on that basis, I found the training and trainers at www.tradeempowered.com to be my cup of tea. It's pretty much technical analysis education with focus on price action, structure, market analysis (technical/charts), strategy, planning, risk management, trading psychology and much more. They don't cover fundamental analysis but do not discount it entirely at least from a data release and impact stand point. They release free education videos and vlogs on Youtube as well as their website, and have subscription courses. What I like most about them is that while in my opinion they are very good at what they do, they don't just promote the good side of trading but also address the shortcomings and are very open about their successes and failures. Hope that didn't come off as a sales pitch. Not my intention. I'm just really happy I found good teachers. Hard to come by in a lot of aspects in life.

 

Reading material wise, for technical analysis, I would recommend "Getting started in Technical Analysis" by Jack D. Schwager. I bought the Kindle E book for £0.99p and while I'm still getting through it (a lot to cover and I'm a perfectionist so reading deep), I'm enjoying what I'm learning and the knowledge it imparts. I bought it because it's has been heralded as the technical traders bible (don't have a quote) and have a professional and skilled acquaintance that holds it in their trading knowledgebase arsenal.

I would also suggest "Three Dimensional Approach to Forex Trading" by Anna Coulling. This one just caught my attention.

 

Towards trading psychology and discipline I would suggest the following (these were recommendations I also received)

• "The Disciplined Trader" by Mark Douglas
• "Trading in the Zone" by Mark Douglas
• "Trade What You See: How to Profit from Pattern Recognition" by Larry Pesavento and Leslie Jouflas
• "One Good Trade" by Mike Bellafiore
• "Market Wizards" by Jack D. Schwager and
• "Reminiscences of a Stock Operator" by Edwin Lefevre

These are just my individual and personal choices and suggestions, so may not suit your disposition or demeanour (disclaimer ), but I hope you find them of some benefit on your journey. It is an awesome one in my opinion (I love to learn).

 

Have a good one and good-luck in your trading journey.

[Guest Rudolf178]

I am here as Rudolf. Mainly Indices trading on momentum and anomalies but will also look at equity arbitrage opportunities.

[Guest Hello]

Does IG charge any hidden fees apart from standard broker? fees

[JamesIG]

 Great to hear from you - such a good in-depth introduction, and of course welcome to the community! You've joined at a great time - we shall be looking at making a number of important changes over the next few months so you get to view the 'old' and 'new' layout and offering. 

 

The first small change we have is to change the 'Morning Call' to a 'Daily Discussion'. Hopefully a completely new feel with some more engaging content. From your intro-post I think you'd be interested in the Macro Wrap section at the top?

 

We'd love to hear your feedback as a comment on the above post, and I know both myself and the rest of the community are looking forward so some equally engaging and insightful posts as you've made above. See you around :manhappy:

[Guest scrillaosprey]

Hi 

 

I can only speak from the point of view of Spread Bets and my experience with IG in general but I am not an authority on this.

The simple and straight forward answer in my experience is NO.

 

One of the main reasons I joined IG was their transparency, long standing and reputability (as well as the low spreads and large number of markets available) and the variety of literature they make available enabled me to do some really in-depth due diligence-hence the transparency bit.

 

With Spread Bets there are no other fees than those stated - information can be obtained from the website for the particular instrument you are interested in (Forex, Indicies, Commodities...) on the "product details'' pages (e.g. www.ig.com/uk/welcome-page > Indicies > Indicies trading product details)-:

 

• The spread (IG's/most brokers commission as I understand it)
• Controlled Risk Premium on a position (if and only if your stop loss is hit)
• Overnight funding charges (this shows up on your statements as 'Daily FX', 'Long' or 'Short' Interest depending on the instrument you have rolled over open positions on) and
• Dividend Adjustments (which isn't a charge but part of the trading/market mechanism).

The last two can be mitigated by taking positions using forward contracts/charts (forwards/futures) as these (overnight funding charges and Dividend Adjustments) are priced in to expiration. That's why you will notice a difference in the prices on these charts as compared to Spot/DFB (Daily Funded Bets) charts.

 

These are at least all that I am familiar with and was made aware of in IG's documentations and communications (phone and literature) concerning charges/fees and products, and I have not experienced otherwise or had cause to address any thing related to hidden/unexpected fees.

 

I hope I was able to answer your question and wasn't too long winded about it. However I would advise that you seek more professional and experienced advise as well as contact IG (their customer services team are really very helpful and friendly I've found) and take the time to read in detail through related information/literature they provide.

 

Familiarise yourself on what they say on the matter and if you notice any discrepancies in your statements (sent daily on all open and/or recently closed positions or other account transactions and activities [withdrawals/deposits]-I get new statements around 21-22:00 UK Time  when ever there's activity on my account), do not hesitate to contact them.

 

Safe Trading.