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 and Stop Losses. And, if you are looking to develop healthy habits, you could do a lot worse than practice going short

If you've ever felt like your need to have your head examined... you may be right. No need to shell out for an analyst though, this article will do the job for free.

Also every so often the markets will have a little melt-down. If it happens while you happen to be trading this primer might just help you make your millions.

Graphs And Technical Analysis

Don't those charts the 'professionals' use look great? If you want yours to look just as impressive (and hopefully improve your trading) may we suggest a starter of Support and Resistance. Then feast on Moving Averages and, if you're still hungry after that there's Fibonacci Retracements for dessert.

Shares And Shares Indices

If you are new to stocks and shares there's a set of Total Newbie posts tailor-made for you. The first covers the basics of share valuation, including Market Capitalisation and Price / Earnings while the second one talks about dividends and how dividends are handled by spread betting companies. The third and final member of this set discusses stock indices. There's also a great two-parter on selecting shares to trade. Part one deals with what to look for when trading equities while part two gives an example of screening stocks.

'Bubbles' are always a fun topic and a likely contender at the moment is China. Check out this post for an explanation of 'contagion' or the reasons why an implosion in China could hit all markets. Private Equity is another hot topic and leveraged buy-outs are explained here.

Currencies

In his first post regular blogger Mr FT introduced both himself and his chosen special subject: the Foreign Exchange (FX) markets. If Foreign Exchange is your thing the post on the effect of Interest Rates on FX would also be worth a read. Meanwhile central banks are examined here. Remember: if you want to trade FX it pays to know.

Oil And Gold

Let your inner J.R. Ewing come out with our handy beginner's guide to oil . There's also a more in depth view of the major factors hitting supply and demand. Or, if you fancy trading the yellow stuff, there's a beginner's guide for gold too.

Bonds

Ever wondered what governments use instead of a credit card? Bond Spaghetti parts one and two do their best to untangle the weird and wonderful world of, yes you guessed it, 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. Oh, and it wouldn't do any harm to have a quick recap on the laws of supply and demand would it?

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 a 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.