It's all still a bit haywire in the markets. Lost a little on BT today (didn't hit my stoploss though) and could only find a small short trade on Hochschild today.

Well the market seem to be going crazy. Up and down like a blooming yoyo.This has made finding decent trades very challenging with only a short trade this evening on Brixton.

 It's obvious that I'm having problems (if you ask my wife she'd probably agree but for very different reasons). 

Again very little in the way of decent trading opportunities this evening. Spotted a potential short trade on Johnson Matthey but calculated that it would have broken my 1% risk rule, so I gave it a miss because I can't afford it.Oh well, there's always tomorrow...

Well frustratingly, I couldn't find any decent trades this evening.

Not a power play or half-way workable pattern in sight.

Whoever said spread betting was all fun and games?

Just got back after a couple of holidays to find that the markets are still indecisive.

Many shares seem very undervalued when subjected to fundamental analysis but it's very difficult to see any near-term direction taking place, especially when so many people seem to be talking up recession.

Well it just goes to show that the best systems in tho world don't work all the time.

Over the last week or so I've lost about 5% of my fund because the FTSE insists on moving up against the trend (which has been downwards for about the last year).

So at the moment I'm playing ultra-cautious and only placing trades where I feel very confident that I'll, at least, not lose any money.

Now i'm not going to even try and suggest that markets are predictable but this last week has shown just how choppy they can be. There really seems to be little decisive direction and, as a result, spread betting can be very challenging.

I've lost a little bit of money this week so will have to examine potential trades more carefully and make sure my stop-loss is as right as possible.

Well my open symmetrical triangle sell trade on Tui Travel closed out for a loss. But, thanks to my risk-management approach to spread betting, I only lost 1% of my trading fund.

My power play trades on HBOS, M&S, Savills, Morrisons and Diageo didn't activate because the FTSE went up and almost everything on the UK market went with it.

Having started Spread Betting in February 2008 after reading Bets and the City: Sally Nicoll's Spread Betting Diary which was a very inspiring read.