Tag: financial markets

The big short

The big short

Went and watched the big short last night. I enjoyed it.

The film

I thought they dumbed down elements a bit, but that’s to be expected to broaden the appeal. I’d imagine it will go over the heads of a few people that are not interested in financial markets, but it was entertaining and enjoyable if you are into trading in any manner.

As a traditionally comedic actor, I thought Steve Carrel’s performance was particularly good.

Like most dramatisations there

24/01/2016 | By | Reply More
How to lose £30m in seconds

How to lose £30m in seconds

Over the last year I’ve been speaking to a lot of organisations, in sports and non sports markets, that hedge or don’t hedge their positions.

I think I can do a job for people who don’t hedge, but curiously, the general message that’s been coming back is that there is no need to hedge. Margin is lost by hedging and gained by decent management of positions. I think that the prevailing view, despite losing margin in the process, is that …

15/01/2015 | By | Reply More
Regulator gets tough on Spoofing

Regulator gets tough on Spoofing

It would be nice if this were a statement related to Betfair, but hey, such is life.

This actually is a statement from regulators in financial markets. Spoofing there is consider a form of market manipulation and therefore is illegal. The deal in financial markets is if you manipulate a market to profit it’s wrong. The rationale behind this is that you are tricking people out of their money. This doesn’t add any value to the market and is a …

22/12/2014 | By | Reply More
Millions by the minute

Millions by the minute

It seems every now and again a trading documentary pops up now and again on the TV. The most recent one aired last night, click on this link to watch it: –

Traders : Millions by the minute

I thought it was entertaining but quite lightweight in the scheme of things. It was curiously positioned as new and exciting but online trading in financial markets has been around for ages. I liked the way they focused on the psychological side …

16/09/2014 | By | Reply More
May Bank Holiday isn’t all about sports

May Bank Holiday isn’t all about sports

May bank holiday doesn’t actually scream trading on sports markets for me. It pulls me in a different direction….

Long before I started trading on sports markets I spent a lot of time and effort on financial markets and that eventually led me to the Berkshire Hathaway AGM in Omaha Nebraska.

Until I got too busy on sports markets; the first weekend in May, the Bank Holiday weekend, was traditionally the time I would hop over to the US to …

05/05/2014 | By | Reply More
A question of scale (part four)

A question of scale (part four)

I have finally completed my quartet of posts called ‘question of scale’.

Parts one, two and three have been looking at the question of scale in the exchange markets. Four looks at what this effectively means for me and it starts with a simple question.

OK, I’m going to give you £500,000 to invest. Where will you invest it and what return will you get?

Let’s put that in a savings account. Hmm, only 1-2% interest means we will …

05/01/2014 | By More
Betfair re-invigorate Tradefair platform

Betfair re-invigorate Tradefair platform

Visting the Tradefair site this morning I noticed at announcement on the home page: –

“We are excited to announce that we are now partnering with GFT Global Markets UK Ltd (GFT Markets) to bring you a new service with enhanced tools, features and first class customer service that we believe will make your trading experience even better. Switch by no later than the 12th December 2013, as your existing Tradefair service will become inactive for new trades from that

10/09/2013 | By | Reply More
Betfair’s LMAX up and running

Betfair’s LMAX up and running

It looks like Betfiar’s financial markets operation, LMAX, is up and running. I am on their mailing list but haven’t received anything yet. However, if you visit the following site you can read about LMAX and sign up for an account and browse the site.

https://www.lmaxtrader.co.uk/

The first thing I tried to find was charges. It appears Betfair are going to adopt a normal financial market model of charging for a buy and sell, there are some example trades here: …

24/10/2010 | By More
Are sports markets like financial markets?

Are sports markets like financial markets?

Yes and no. There are some similarities, most certainly in a number of aspects. Forex markets are pretty similar in their appearance.  But when it comes to trading certain types of markets, there are many differences.

When I first looked at the markets I thought there may be some commonalities, but I discovered that a number of popular technical indicators in financial markets just don’t wash as well in sports markets. Looking closer, there are some clear underlying reasons for …

10/02/2010 | By More
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