About Trading

Whether you are new to trading or an old hand, we heartily recommend spending a few minutes on our 10 Golden Rules Of Spread Betting. After that you might also check out our posts on Risk Management, Limiting Losses and Stop Losses. And, if you are looking to develop healthy habits, you could practice Going Short.

The psychological factors of trading are crucial to success, so we have an article specifically for Controlling Emotions.

Markets can fall as easy as they can rise. Here's a little primer to help you Make Money from Melt-downs. If you feel like dipping your toes into bonds, commodities and foreign exchange, you should check out our Aggressive and Defensive Bets article.

Graphs And Technical Analysis

Don't those charts the 'professionals' use look great? To get your charts looking just as impressive, check out our Guide to Charting. Now you're ready to get into the world of technical analysis, so may we suggest a starter of Finding Trends, Candlesticks and Support and Resistance. Then feast on Moving Averages and Fibonacci Retracements. If you are still hungry after that, we have Pivot Points, Double Tops and Head and Shoulders for dessert.

Once you have found the technical indicators that you like, have a look at how to create a Mechanical Trading system and then check out an Example of a Mechanical System.

Shares And Shares Indices

If you are new to stocks and shares we have a few posts tailor-made for you. What is a Share covers the basics of share valuation, including market capitalisation and price / earnings. What is a Dividend talks about dividends and how dividends are handled by spread betting companies. The final member of this set, What is an Index discusses stock indices.

Once you get down to picking shares, we've more help on hand. First up is an article that gives a Basic Overview of Trading Equities. Other posts look at Understanding Financial Reports, Screening Stocks and Aggressive and Defensive Equities Bets. For a more complex strategy, check out our piece on Pairs Trading.

We have a topical blog on the Chinese 'Bubble' and explanation of contagion or the reasons why an implosion in China could hit all markets. Leveraged Buy-Outs, Rights Issues and Sovereign Wealth Funds are other hot topics that we have explained.

Currencies

For starters, check out our Overview of the Foreign Exchange (FX) market. The Effect of Interest Rates on FX is huge, so that could be worth a read. We also have a piece that examines the different Central Banks.

For more FX articles, check out Currency Pegs and the Carry Trade.

Oil And Gold

Let your inner J.R. Ewing come out with our handy Beginner's Guide to Oil and Guide to Trading Oil. The Middle East has a big say in this market, so we have taken a look at OPEC's Impact on Oil. We also have a blog on the Link Between Oil and USD.

If you fancy trading the yellow stuff, there's a Beginner's Guide to Gold and a more in depth look at the Gold Market.

Bonds

Ever wondered what governments use instead of a credit card? If trading bonds is your thing, we have an Introduction to the Bond Market and a more Detailed Look at Bonds.

Economics

Did you know that economists have forecasted 9 out of the last 5 recessions? Jokes aside, economic issues have a major impact on the markets. So for a beginners guide try this article on Interest Rates and this one about Central Banks. A quick recap on the Laws of Supply and Demand could be beneficial. Then you would be ready to tackle the Stagflation monster.

Sub-Prime And Credit Crunch

The whole sub-primey credit crunchy mess first kicked off in July 2007 and just doesn't want to go away. So if you want to swot up we've got articles explaining what a Sub-Prime Mortgage is, why a Credit Crunch hurts, whether cutting Interest Rates could fix things and how Northern Rock got caught in a hard place.

If you haven't seen them yet have a look at our video tutorials. Resident guru Chris P Cash will, in his own inimitable style, give you a brief introduction to spread betting. He'll also cover the basics of how to make a spread bet and walk you through taking short positions and different types of orders.

We've also jotted down some of our favourite sources of information, including Television stations, internet sites and blogs.

Finally don't forget: the best way to learn is to practice. The paddypowertrader demo account gives you £10,000 in virtual funds and lets you learn to spread bet without taking risks.