For those of you that know me, you'll know that I trade using a spread betting company called Finspreads. I can't remember specifics but I opened my account around the summer of 2010 and filled it from around September to December of that year whilst I was demo trading. I've traded with them for all of 2011 and 2012. During that time I think I can remember one, maybe two instances of slippage on my orders. Over a two year period I rate that as a pretty good average considering the number of trades over a two year period. During this time I never once had to use a guaranteed order, stop or limit to get filled, stopped or take profit on a trade. Bar the one or two instances above if I set an order at a specified level it was activated at that level.

Unfortunately since December 2012 when Finspreads decided to redesign their website and web based platform they have made a complete fucking shambles of it. Every trade without fail since the start of the year has experienced slippage in all three areas. Every order to buy or sell the market has slipped. Every stop that has been hit has incurred slippage. Every limit order has slipped. I'm aware of the fact that i'm trading small amounts but this is costing me money.

Complain to Finspreads I hear you say. Well I have and the only recycled answer that I seem to be able to get is "you have to use guaranteed orders if you want orders to trigger at a specific number". Bullshit. For two years I haven't used a guaranteed order so what has suddenly changed? Why do I need to start using them now?

The reason for writing this post? I'm pissed off at being stopped out of a trade this morning that didn't actually hit my stop. I mentioned my long yesterday, I set the order to enter at 1.3480 and was taken in at 1.34812. Straight away i'm down 1.2 pips. Once the market pushed up I trailed my stop as it went and finally I had my stop at 1.3541 (this would have been 1.3540 if the entry hadn't slipped). Granted the market came close to this area but I got stopped at 1.35405 with the Finspreads charts recording a low of 1.35415. Even taking spread into account it doesn't equal 1.35405. I realise we're talking minute amounts here but this never used to be an issue.

Trading is difficult and work enough without being screwed over on a regular basis by money grabbing companies as well.

Can anyone recommend a good spread betting firm?

I'm reaching a bit of a mile stone in writing this post, 500 posts since the 20th August 2009! Here's to profitable trading over the next 500 posts.

EUR/USD 1hr PnF

I took a short position yesterday and it's a trade i'm not very happy with. I originally told myself that I wasn't going to take the trade because of the low of the volume zone at 3413. There was every chance that this would provide a bounce - which is exactly what it did. None the less, I convinced myself to take the trade and got caught at the very place I thought I would. I didn't wait to get stopped out and closed out for a loss on the way back up. I think I took the trade because I didn't want to miss out. That's an emotion that I need to put a stop to right away. Lesson learned from this one.

Not long after closing the sell position we completed a quad top break out so I took a long position with an entry at 1.3480. I let this trade run over night and woke up to a nice bit of profit this morning. The chart above isn't completely up to to date but i'd already annotated it earlier. Below is an up to date chart with the proposed target from the congestion zone before the break upwards.

EUR/USD 1hr PnF with target

Another chart which has been good for a couple of set ups is the USD/CHF chart, i've been watching it but seeing as i've been actively trading EUR/USD I haven't taken any positions. This chart is a prime example of volume zones being pretty much ignored as the market was too weak for the zone to act as significant support.

USD/CHF 1hr PnF

I didn't get a chance to write a follow up over the weekend so i'm getting to it now. In my last post I spoke about a long position that i'd taken and that I was hoping for a small reversal so that I could tighten my stop. I'm happy to report that this happened (almost!) perfectly. We got a four box reversal instead of the three box reversal I was looking for. But that's ok, the market was good enough to reverse on no selling pressure (NSP) right into the high of the volume zone.

This all happened over night, by the time I was up the next morning I was in a nice bit of profit and pretty much just watched it for the day and trailed my stop accordingly. From the last low at 3270 there was an upside target of 1.3480 and I also had an old upside target of 3490 from way back on the 9th December. I set my target for here. As we moved up we just missed 3480 with the market topping out at 1.34793. As it was Friday and i'm not a fan of letting things run over the weekend I closed the position at 3455ish as it retraced slightly. Just under 100 pips. All in all i'm happy with how the trade went and it gave me a third profitable week out of four. Something i've not been able to say in a long time.

EUR/USD 1hr PnF

Had a dose of the flu and was in bed for the past couple of days, hence the tumble weed around here. Monday was quiet with the bank holiday and we've been ranging quite a bit (on EU at least) for Tuesday and Wednesday.

Took a long earlier today, a staggered triple top with an entry at 3360, so far it has moved 30 pips in my favour to 3390 and we haven't printed a reversal to 3360 from this high. I took this long entry as a break of the shaded 1hr zone. There is some clear resistance to the left as well as a psych number at 3400. I'd like to see these breached tomorrow or over night. I also wouldn't mind a small three box reversal before the move up. That way I can tighten my stop a little from it's current position. But that's all looking ahead, we'll see how it goes!

EUR/USD 1hr PnF

Trin Café was good enough to drop me an email with some observations on my sell from yesterday's post, outlining a few things like the support right below the area I sold at.

The reply got fairly lengthy so i've decided to post my charts up here for everyone else to see as well.

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Just so it's clear, I look for the highest volume bars on the 1hr bar chart, put a fib covering the high, low and 50% of the bar and carry these fibs on to my 15min / 5min EU charts as well as carry them over to my 1hr Point and figure chart. I then look to trade within, into and out of these zones, treating them as S/R. On the chart I mentioned 2 shorts, one nearer the high and one right at the low which is the one you're referring to. I'm happy with the first short I took as it's a reaction to and sell away from the high of the zone. The zone is marked on the 1hr HLC chart below.

I mentioned in my post and as a follow up to your comment that It was a contentious area to be shorting. I should have known better really as there was considerable support as you had pointed out from your chart and from mine based on the volume zones.

I've annotated the charts so they're a bit easier to follow. Most people I speak to don't get PnF charts!

Before A I was already short with a target of .3250 based on a Point and Figure Target count, much like the pink areas you can see, just not marked on the chart.

EUR/USD 1hr HLC

EUR/USD 1hr PnF

A - Respected for the first time

B - Second time

C - I'd moved my stop above the column between A and B and got stopped on my first trade for a small profit.

D - Same formation as my first sell and I thought we were breaking the support. Entered as the lowest O filled, at 3260. Despite shorting at support, another error was shorting ten pips away from the target price that I had attained from the high. Initial stop above C.

E - Respected again.

F - Break upwards and through my stop which had been moved above the column after D, essentially the same price as the high at C. Another mistake was being in bed so I didn't see that this in fact formed a triple top (inverse of the two sells previous) and was a good buy, I should have been stopped and had an order to buy at the same time.

Basically, in a nut shell, I was aware of the support that was there before taking the trade but chose to go with it in anyway. Paid the price and it's another lesson to add to the pile.

Cheers,

Liam