Fixed Odds Trading

Hello and welcome to another of my trading sites which I hope will help you understand the relatively new concept of fixed odds trading. My name is Anna Coulling and as well as being a full time trader in forex, commodities and equities, I also enjoy helping traders, both novice and experienced, understand how to improve their trading, by providing free resource sites such as this, which explain new trading concepts and methods. Fixed odds trading is one of these, and as you will see, it is ideally suited to new traders, as the risk of each trade is known before opening the trading position. I hope you find the site both informative and enjoyable, and as always I enjoy hearing from you so please do drop me a line in the Ask Anna link on the left hand sidebar. In addition to this site, I also run a sister site, which provides regular updates forecasts, market analysis and tips for fixed odds trading, and you can find it here by simply following the link.

So, what is fixed odds trading, and why do I believe it provides an excellent low risk introduction to the world of financial trading and investing? Well, put simply, it removes the greatest risk element from your trades, which is trading on margin ( often referred to as leverage), and which is effect allows you to magnify your profits, and more importantly your losses, using borrowed money. When this is combined with a lack of sufficient trading capital, then this provides a powerful and is a recipe for failure. Most traders fail because they are under funded and over leveraged – it is a simple fact. Entry to the forex market can be very easy – a quick sign up, fund your account with a credit card and you can be trading large lot sizes of most currency pairs in minutes with leveraged accounts of up to 400:1 allowing you to trade 400,000 USD with just 1,000 dollars in your account. Each pip movement in the currency pair would equate to a profit or loss of $40, and it would not be long before you received the dreaded margin call as a result, in effect asking for additional funds to maintain your position in the market.

In addition to the problems associated with trading on margin, many more complex instruments such as futures and options are simply avoided by traders altogether, firstly because they are complex to understand, and secondly because most require you to trade on margin, and as a result many traders never use the more sophisticated techniques associated with these instruments which provide a broad range of hedging and risk management techniques, particularly when markets are trading sideways or in consolidation. For many, the prospect of learning how to trade options and futures is far to complex, and in addition generally requires a specialist broker. So is there a solution to this problem? I believe there is, and the answer is fixed odds trading.

The concept of trading using fixed odds is very simple to understand and is based in trading using real cash, with no leverage. When you open a trade, your risk is always known beforehand, so you can only lose the amount specified in the trade, no more and no less. So if you open a trade with a £10 risk, then this is your maximum exposure on the trade. Equally your profit is also known in advance and fixed, and as you are trading using real cash, then your profits or losses are never leveraged and you only win or lose the amount specified before you opened the trading position. Now before you run away with the idea that seems a rather simple way to trade, let me give you another example of how to use fixed odds trading in a more sophisticated way rather than a simple up or down bet, which is when markets are moving sideways. In this case trying to trade using a simple buy or sell is almost impossible, and the  answer here is to use a no touch bet, which specifies that the price quoted will not be achieved with the life of the contract or bet. This is one of the many ways you can use fixed odds trading either as a free standing strategy or in tandem with other instruments and strategies.

To sum up, I believe that fixed odds trading is an innovative and low risk way to trade in the financial markets, providing all the advantages of more complex instruments and trading strategies, yet underpinned with a fixed risk reward profile and without the inherent dangers of trading on margin. So let’s get started and look at how the fixed odds market works and the strategies that you can use to trade  a variety of instruments and markets.

Click on the links at the top to browse around the site.

Icap to benefit from Eurozone break-up, says Numis
17 May 2012 at 6:33pm
Interdealer broker Icap finished in positive territory despite the blue-chip index closing at its lowest level in six months.

Barclays rises on UBS upgrade
16 May 2012 at 6:09pm
The blue-chip index fell for a third day in a row but Barlcays managed to dodge the weak market trend.

Numis says Man Group may not be worth more than "liquidation value"
15 May 2012 at 5:50pm
Man Group was one of the worst performers as City analysts argued the company is "worth no more than its liquidation value".

Google fears hit Moneysupermarket.com
14 May 2012 at 7:22pm
Who's afraid of Google? Investors in moneysupermarket.com certainly seemed to be today, as they heeded analysts' warnings that the internet giant could wipe out two-thirds of the price comparison site's profits.

Market Report: Reckitt falls as Reimanns sell 4.9pc stake
10 May 2012 at 6:11pm
The blue-chip index broke its losing streak but Reckitt Benckiser failed to benefit from the positive sentiment.

Fears over fracking shake Weir Group shares
9 May 2012 at 6:01pm
Fears over fracking shook Weir Group on Wednesday, as the equipment and engineering company reported faltering demand for shale gas pumps in North America.

Kenya gain offsets Ghana fall for Tullow
8 May 2012 at 6:39pm
Tullow Oil spurted to the top of the FTSE 100 leaderboard, as investors reacted to Monday's news that the explorer had discovered more oil in Kenya.

Betfair perks after its wins German licence
3 May 2012 at 6:21pm
Betfair was a strong performer on the mid-cap index after it won its first licence to operate its betting exchange platform outside of Britain.

BHP Billiton rumoured to be eyeing Walter
2 May 2012 at 10:30pm
BHP Billiton was in focus as the blue-chip index dropped by almost 1pc.

Upbeat Imperial Tobacco helps equities higher
2 May 2012 at 9:38am
Upmarket Cuban cigars and Snus - a moist tobacco powder, widely used in Sweden - proved popular with investors yesterday as Imperial Tobacco eased its way up the blue-chip leaderboard.