DESPITE the market turmoil in the four weeks I have been updating you on my spread betting diary, I've managed to make a profit of 12.2% on the £2,000 CMC Markets placed in my account at the outset.
My venture into spread betting drew to a close on Friday when my account reached £2,224, all of which will be donated to Yorkhill Children's Foundation by CMC Markets, a global online trader.
In the final seven days, I decided not to take any ris
ks and kept my positions in Friends Provident, Thus and Marks & Spencer and my bet that the pound would weaken against the dollar.
Having never spread bet before, I started as a nervous investor but was helped by the free training I received from CMC Markets. This included an introductory seminar and a one-to-one session going into the mechanics of the trading platform.
I was also supplied with educational DVDs covering a range of topics, including the psychology of spread betting. This was interesting as a lot of investment decisions are driven by factors such as attitude to risk.
Also useful was its Trading IQ programme covering all the basics with accompanying DVDs presented by actor James Nesbitt. This programme includes a day's free trading on the FTSE 100 index at £2 per point. You get to keep your profits and CMC Markets will assume any losses.
I found that one of the main benefits of spread betting in the current unsettled economy is the ability to "go short". This gives you the opportunity to profit from a fall in a financial instrument's price by selling high and buying it back when it is cheaper.
Joan MacLeod, fundraising manager at Yorkhill Children's Foundation, said: "This is a first for Yorkhill Children's Foundation – breaking the mould of traditional fundraising – and we are amazed at how successful it has been.
"With the money raised, we will be able to provide the extra services and equipment at Yorkhill Hospital, from children's entertainers to state-of-the-art medical equipment. Every project we fund helps put a smile back on kids' faces."
Mike McCudden, general manager at CMC Markets in Edinburgh, said: "I thought this would be a fun way to raise some money for a very good cause and shows that anyone can quickly grasp the basics of spread betting over a short period of time."
cmcmarkets.co.uk/scotland
The basicsSpread betting is a way of trading on a financial market or product, such as a share or commodity, without physically owning it.
Investors 'bet' on whether the price of an instrument will go up or down in value. For every point it moves in their favour they win multiples of that stake and for every point it moves against them they lose multiples.
The profit or loss is the difference between the price at which they buy and the one at which they sell.
