Thoughts on the start to the trading year
By Alastair McCaig | January 27, 2012
With the start of 2012 being broadly more optimistic than the end of 2011, it appears that the spread betting clients have benefited from the downturn in market volatility. With the old adage of “you can have too much of a good thing” looking true. Of course all spread bettors like to see market movements in whatever sector they trade but the wild swings we saw in the prices of equities, currencies and commodities meant that trying to gain any sense of real direction was difficult at best.
In January so far, clients have benefited from the upturn in precious metals and, along with the ever popular gold trading, we have noted that an increasing number of clients are also trading silver which has had an even more impressive rally since the turn of the year.
Individual equities have has also been an area where WorldSpreads clients have been able to make profits. WorldSpreads are one of the few spread betting providers to offer their clients trading on UK Sector ‘baskets’ and these are becoming increasingly popular.
This month, clients have profited on the Banking and Tobacco sectors. Trading in Crude Oil is also becoming more popular; we have one of the tightest spreads in the market and also offer a contract which does not expire. Interestingly, clients have profited on US Crude and have relatively equal losses on UK (Brent) crude, perhaps indicating that they are trading the differential.
Looking ahead to the year we anticipate several events that will shape the global investor sentiment and hopefully offer trading opportunities. In Europe we have the on-going complications of the European Sovereign debt situation and Greece once again needing the assistance of not just European but IMF bailout funds by March. We also have Nicholas Sarkozy trying to regain power in the French elections in April. Added to this the rating agencies have shown that they are willing to cut those nations they feel are not making sufficient progress in tackling their GDP debt ratios. When we look across the Atlantic later this year we will have US elections and historically this has proven to be beneficial to the US markets. All of these events will go some way to shaping the year we have.
With these changes in mind, WorldSpreads have decided to shake up those products that we offer on Zero Spreads. The core products that prove to be so popular with our clients last year are very similar but we have decided to expand the offer from 10 to 12 giving an even broader range of trades that our Platinum Account holders can trade with NO spread. Added to the mix are the S&P 500 (US SPX 500), Vodafone and RBS.