Online Spread Trading

Retailers and Why They are Failing

admin — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 15:38:51 +0000

Just picked up this link which says it all really. The business model for all these retailer businesses is out dated and plain old fashioned. Their products are either more easily sold over the internet without the need for large overheads or just simply of poor quality as in Shabitat or others do it better like Ikea.

Habitat poor quality others better Ikea.
Oddbins outlets in high street no parking Majestic better see their sp growth.
TJ Hughes same as Habitat.
Thomas Cook prices not competitive with internet companies.
Thorntons business model all wrong should be in supermarkets and internet.
Jane Norman no knowledge
Borders does anyone buy books/CD’s in store anymore? Internet business.
Barratts very competitive market place.
HMV see Borders same bad business model.

The only business of these that you’d expect to have a chance is Barratts, in the end you have to try shoes on before you buy so I presume their stores were in poor locations and the business was badly managed.

The bottom line is if consumers can get it on the internet from the comfort of their armchair they will, rather than battle though the weather and “crowds” to shop in the high street.

I can only speak from personal experience and many of my friends are the same, i can’t remember the last time i bought either a book or a CD or organised a holiday in a retail shop. In essence the majority of these have bad business models.

Globalisation and Labour

admin — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 18:04:19 +0000

Why is that the manufacturing industry keeps suffering in the UK and Europe? It’s not government engineered but a fact of globalisation. Labour across the globe has to align to make countries competitive. We have no god given right to a higher standard of living than Africans, Chinese or Indians. The companies we invest in go where the resources are and where manufacturing costs are competitive. Putting up trade barriers or labour barriers only makes countries less competitive in being able to trade with others. If your mate can’t get a good wage here then the answer may be doing what our immigrants have done – move to where labour is well paid and where his skills are in short supply such as the emerging markets and the Middle East. It’s been going on for hundreds of years, the ambitious are flexible and improve their standards of living. Those resisting change get poorer. You’ve got to be flexible and go where the demand is.

Day Trading as a Trading Style

admin — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 23:48:14 +0000

I’m only slightly in profit day trading, it sure isn’t easy and requires lots of dedication and screen time and I’ve not made enough to live off after losing all my initial big gains in my rouge trade but I’m not underwater (yet) I’m being more selective in my trades but all this chart watching is boring as hell and I’ve missed lots of opportunities through being too selective and not watching the right chart at the right time. Perhaps sticking exclusively to one instrument is best? I missed 8:05am long on DOW and been sat here watching it going sideways all afternoon!

If a trader decided they preferred day trading then it might be a case of continually monitoring the win: lose ratio and increasing stake size as ATR falls. That way it should be possible to produce a similar income with increased stake from a smaller ranging market.

My trades are still very much discretionary so I’m easily talked into or out of good/bad trades. I haven’t used indicators such as bollinger, adx, cci etc I just use support/resistance levels and then look for a signal by the break of a candle, i.e. bullish engulfing, pin bar etc. I’m going to keep working on a system which helps to take away that discretion and help with the discipline. At present I’m doing a little better than treading water!

Spread betting encourages you to day trade, many day traders lose money. It is a more prudent strategy to work on longer time frames, exploit the fat tail probability of trading

I tend to struggle on longer timeframe trades because I find it hard to disconnect from my daytrading mindset, sometimes you just need to play to your strengths, but the market can be very cruel…