Wow. Little old paddypowertrader made the headlines today. Check a few of these out from the BBC, the Guardian, the Scotsman, Sharecast and even Reuters.

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OK, this post really has nothing to do with trading. Infact it is a shameless plug. But what the hell.

As dedicated poker fans will already know the Irish Open - the biggest Poker event in Europe - is kicking off tonight in the City West hotel. There’s €3 million

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Our fantabulous Six Nations Rugby comeptitions have come to an end.

For reasons of anonymity we aren’t actually listing people’s names. However the lucky ‘new customer’ winner is Jason from Hull. Jason gets tickets to England Vs Ireland on the 15th March along with the travel, hospitality and the works.

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OK, it’s not often I do this. But this primer on the sub-prime fiasco is too funny to not share.

Once you click on the link above you may need to click on ‘Open’ to run it, then use your mouse or space bar to move through the slides.

Mozilla Firefox users won’t be able to open the file but you can download a zip file from here. Make sure you save the file though before you try to open it.

Indices huh? What can I possibly tell you about them.

This is the third post in a triumvirate (now there’s a big word) aimed at newbies who want to spread bet on shares and share indices. The first post dealt with shares and how to value them (including Market Cap, EPS, P/E and pizza) while in the second I gave a discourse about dividends (including why there’s no such thing as a free lunch and what those “credit due to dividend adjustments” entries in your account summary mean). So in this last-but-by-no-means-least post I’ll be discussing stock markets indices. Or blathering about them. Depending on your point of view. And how long this caffeine kick I’m on lasts.

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THIS COMPETITION IS NOW CLOSED.

Fancy seeing England Vs Ireland in the Six Nations on St Patrick’s Day? Well read on…

Here at Paddy Power Towers we have a little theory – we reckon that there are certain ‘dumb’ trades that most newbies (and often the ‘not so newbies’) make time and time again. Also, as an Irish company with deeply religious convictions we’d like to give you all a chance to confess. So come one, use the comments box below and let it out.

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Having discussed Market Cap, EPS and PE and pizza in my last post, next on the menu is dividends.
Dividends are a fairly easy concept but people tend to overlook the obvious, namely there ain’t no such thing as a free lunch. No way, no how, no ma’am. But I’m told the best place to start is at the beginning, so…

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Let me set my stall out here. This blog is, hopefully, going to be the first of a set of three that covers the basics of stocks and shares. It’s gonna cover what a share is, how to measure the size of a company and what I reckon are the two most important ratios investors use to pick shares: EPS and P/E. Now I know that some of you guys who regularly read my blog will find this topic a bit too simple. But if you are new to that great big bowl of custard called the financial markets, read on!

So what is a share? In simple terms it is a small portion of a company, a slice of the pizza if you like. Bit too simple huh? Ok. In concept it is similar to, say, if you were to start up a gardening business with your brother-in-law.

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Rather than the usual in-depth opinion pieces, over the next few weeks I’m gonna be stepping back a bit and aim a few articles at newbies. This one ‘ere covers a miscellaneous set of lessons which I’ve learnt the hard way and that I wish someone had handed to me when I started out.

I’m kinda hoping that this will turn into a ‘living document.’ So if you have some experience of spread betting let us all know what your ‘golden rules’ are. Don’t be shy! If they aren’t covered here (and I know there are plenty missing) then stick them in the comments area below. If I get enough comments I’ll edit this post and stick it back up.

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Gadzooks, it’s been a long time since I blogged. What can I say – I didn’t mean to ignore you, it’s just that I’ve been busy. And the best part of breaking up is making up…

Anyway there’s lots of lip-smacking stuff in the paddypowertrader pipeline including a new look for the blog pages, a complete facelift for weekly wraps, new tutorials and a Trader Academy home page with all our fave websites, a blog roll and the rest. Only problem is how do I get that lot built, this blog written and trade at the same time?

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