[Reduce your margin by 70% - is this right?]

Maybe i could do a separate trade idea? Pick a market and it may explain it better? 

[Reduce your margin by 70% - is this right?]

19 hours ago, dmedin said:

So that totally goes against what I understand as the advantage of using an option, which is to give you not only a limited loss but to keep your position open long enough for the price to turn in your favour.  What you're proposing, I have no idea about - sounds like binary or knockout options and doesn't seem all that different from SB or CFD.  The major disadvantage of which is that once your stop is hit you're out, with no opportuntiy to wait for price to move back in your favour unless you enter a new trade (and pay a new commission, and potentially get stopped out again.)  Fking horrible situation.

But that's what I'm saying. I'm not saying "lets use options", im saying "look - you can use a daily option for intraday trading, and gear it specifically to act like a regular spread bet, but reduce your margin by 70%" or whatever. 

There are loads of reasons to use options for the benefits they offer, but if you're going to trade instraday on FX or indices then there is no reason what-so-ever to not use this. 

FTSE spread bet margin - £370

FTSE daily option margin - £190 (given the top example i said)

Also in regards to what you said about the market moving against you. On the option if the market tanked the option effective max loss DOESNT act as a stop. If the market was to come back then it would be profitable again. The regular spread bet however would be stopped out. Like it says here https://www.ig.com/uk/options-trading/daily-options

[Reduce your margin by 70% - is this right?]

22 hours ago, Bopperz said:

1) You would have to pay (half?) the spread every time you re-opened the position.

yes good spot. this isn't for the long trade, but would be great for 'intraday' trading. Or trading over announcements or key macro events. 

22 hours ago, Bopperz said:

2) You would miss out on any price action between the option expiring and opening a new daily option.

also true. there seems to be about 30 minutes on the FTSe trade i did when the Daily was closed and i couldn't get in and out. I guess this is to settle and set up the next day or something. 

20 hours ago, Kodiak said:

For "buy and hold" Barrier options maybe better?

(For those that have access to them)

I dont have these? How did you get? How do they work?

19 hours ago, dmedin said:

So as if options weren't complicated enough already now there's this ... hahaha ... remember the adage the brokers have in the City, 'The secret to big profit is to sell the most sophisticated products to the least sophisticated investors.'

well technically these are the easiest way to trade options right? It moves 1-for-1 with the market such as the FTSE, there is hardly any time value because of it being a daily expiry, there is less future implied volatility as well (likely), and there is no variable delta. So you can work out profit and loss very easily.

Of course you must understand what you're doing first of course. but i think that goes without saying. and of course the delta of the option is always going to be variable so that can change if there is a big move against you. 

[Reduce your margin by 70% - is this right?]

and this for those who need a reminder. there is a vid which is ok. nothing amazing but ok. think you'll have better on youtube for an intro. https://www.ig.com/uk/options-trading/what-are-options-how-do-you-trade-them

[Reduce your margin by 70% - is this right?]

So i was just reading the forum and saw that this post had been promoted. You can see it here.

The link which it directs too talks about an oil trade. As we all know margin on oil is 10%, so for a quid a point you'd be looking at about £550 to bet on oils move. But this link under where is says 'Oil daily options trade idea' talks about using a daily option which moves one for one with the change in the oil price, and there is an example of 167 points as a premium. That means that for £167 you can trade this option price rather than the regular spot market. 

As the article says "If the market were to rally, a long call option premium would likely increase. In the case of delta 1 options they’d move 1 for 1 with the underlying oil price, so a 40 point move (for example) in the underlying would cause that premium to go up (to 207.1) or down (to 127.1)."

I'm going to see how that works today on the FTSE. The 7210 has a premium of 190 at the moment and a spread of a point so should be exactly the same as trading the spread bet, but only needing £190 rather than £370 to open the trade....

thats right, right?

cheers

[New share dealing platform - what do you want]

Had an email on the new platform today for share dealing. Looks good and same as the spread betting one so that’s a good start. Good charts and whatever. 

but I thought it would’ve a good idea to see if we can create a wish list for the new platform for share dealing? 
 

ill start....

Automatic dividend reinvestments! DRIP functionality is a must. 

[IG offer Options over the phone on Shares]

and those down the pub with their mates who want to make it known they're calling their broker... #gekko

[IG offer Options over the phone on Shares]

they never really advertise it but think its worth noting

[Tesla short vs long]

12 hours ago, andysinclair said:

So TSLA up over 20% today.

I've just updated one of my spreadsheets, interesting to see how the "upstart" manufacturer is getting close to Toyota to gain the number 1 spot by market cap!

thanks for this. 70x earnings....

[US OIL]

22 hours ago, dmedin said:

Wait for a few days until you've got the benefit of hindsight first

what I meant by this was

• small position with an appropriate relatively close stop - no need for a guarantee stop unless going into the weekend.
• buy further OTM call options with a longer expiry date - maybe April which expire mid March.
• close any short position you have... or at least reduce the short and pull that stop right in

 

[US OIL]

solid support - i'd be a cautious buyer. 

[Tesla short vs long]

the definition of why you should let your winners run...

[Sirius Minerals could be handed Government lifeline for cashflow problems]

24 minutes ago, dmedin said:

 

From what I've seen such huge gaps are permanent and never get filled (most recently example was when Red Hat shares skyrocketed after the company got acquired by IBM), but retail traders never get to enjoy the big gains after the news is released.  Fortunate are those who were holding long positions overnight though

...unless AAL pull their offer

[Is Retail FX Trading Dead?]

to answer the question though, making money from trading is about the long term, and whilst implied volatility on a specific asset is low, that doesn't mean it's the case for everything. There are lots of opportunities out there.

look at oil yesterday.

just need to look at other volatility opportunities and run with it. Uping your trade size to capitalise on small moving markets I don't think is a great idea. when the vol comes you'll be stung.

[Is Retail FX Trading Dead?]

6 hours ago, dmedin said:

I agree, and I think the idea of trading for a 'living' is (and probably has always been) impossible for a 'retail' client.  Simply not losing your money puts you in the top 5 percent ...

isn't it 25%...

banner is telling me 75% of people lose money.

[Copper - A leading indicator on the economy?]

range trade until with market comes to its senses or trump/china make a proper call on whats going on.

[Brent Crude rally ends, time for the big Bear!]

22 minutes ago, Mercury said:

It's an open question rather than a call @dmedin, breakout is still on, just need to wait and see which way it jumps.

could be an idea here to trade this which I saw in the analysis on the dashboard

 

Oil Trading ahead of the OPEC event; long straddles and breakouts

Technicals hold less relevance in the face of fundamental events, and hence pivot points are at risk of easily being broken as market-makers will be holding less liquidity going into the event, enticing breakout strategies (to the upside or downside) over reversal strategies, and where fading strategies ought to be avoided as they are more prone to being stopped out.

However, another strategy to consider involves options, specifically a long straddle on the daily. A long straddle involves a combination of purchasing a call and a put simultaneously, with the intent to profit should the market produce a big move up or down, the likes of which has a tendency to occur with a fundamental announcement like that of an OPEC+ meeting."

 

if you did that you'd be looking at a 76 point move required in either direction to profit. could be possible given the volatility we've seen

[How to trade the UK election]

labour has a frustrating habit of honing in on important issues which need addressing, and then offering ludicrous and nonsensical proposals which shouldn't see the light of day, are based on some strange ideology, and have no basis in reality.

its a shame.

[Total IG account value is wrong]

you mean balances at the top of the screen, vs the individual positions when you add them up right?

[Posts from new Community members now require manual content approval]

13 hours ago, Domin said:

For me it's been a week for my approval so it isn't that quick...

it says your first post was 13 hours ago?

[Sort by Change & %Change]

agree! would be very useful.

[Daily Dashboard]

No election, no brexit until next scheduled election. GBP negative as market does not like this impasse and until EU grants extensions they will never reach any deal.

debate and motion from 15.30 today. Eyes on the prize with vote at 17.00 latest, or any time between these two times...

[Earnings Calendar]

also from another thread

"Beyond meat IPO lock up period ends 29th Oct (tomorrow) should be of interest. 9,625,000 at offer price of 25 USD coming back online. "

could be a volatile session and next 24 hours...

[Earnings Calendar]

love these infographics thanks. so much easier to see whats going on with 90 companies and pick out your interests.

[VIX at 3 month low]

With the VIX at three month low is now the time to hedge any potential position you have with long VIX position? I'm a buyer of VIX. Look at semi-historical moves where downside move of a point or so is off set by spike in upside potential.