See the third candle from the right (where the red line is)? on this chart the high of Rio Tinto on the 4/8 was 3503 and it is outside bar of the candle before.

I am using a lot the inside & outside bar patterns so I would create an order to buy the next day at 3505 or so.

The problem is that this price is fake. Rio didn’t even came close to this price. You can see it on the chart from MoneyAM website:

The high of that day was 3440. Huge difference! So what is going on? From time to time IG and other spread betting providers have some problems with the data they get and the prices jump for a second much higher. This doesn’t affect your positions and orders but it does affect the chart you see.  So you can’t really trust them. It is like driving 80 MPH while your meter says you are only 70. Then try to explain it to the police officer.

It is a shame because their charting package is quite good and cheap (£30 a month free if you trade 4 times) but they don’t clean the data and it is a problem.

I am still looking for good package! Anyone?

If you think the trend has changed and the USD is going to be stronger or even if you think the opposite, you want to find the best spread out there.

for daily most of the companies offer 3 points spread but for September or December there is a difference. Again IG Index are not competitive and offer 12 points spread. City Index and Paddy Power trader offer better – only 8 points spread.

You may think that it is not a big difference but you will be surprised how much the spread is eating your profits. So shop around!

For example I opened a trade on Royal dutch shell for September when the share price was 1500 but I bought the future at 1479. When the ex-dividend was arrived the price has been balanced.

I was checking Astrazeneca maybe to open a short position on the stock. While I was checking (and decided not to) I found that Paddy power Trader offers 7 point spread for September while IG Index offers 21 points spread. This is 300% more!

It is not the first time that I found that IG Index is not competitive at all. My advice as always is to open several accounts and shop for the best spread.

Having said so I opened an account with ODL Market and got an iPod as gift. They do offer very good spread on indexes but not so good on shares.

I compared the spread between Paddy Power & IG Index and Paddy Power are winning by far.

S&P 500: Paddy: 0.5 IG: 0.7

Dax: Paddy 1 point IG: 2 points

Most of the shares are half price with Paddy Power. The only place that IG are winning is on the Dow. Paddy charges 5 points spread while IG only 4.

Shop around before you put a trade!

IG Index has a new website and from first impression it is a big improvement from the old one! There is a new section about market update so you can get the news in one place without searching for it on the net.

The design of the site is nicer. They didn’t change the platform deal though. As I always say it is one of the best platform out there but also the ugliest! I don’t know what about you but I really don’t like to sit in front of it more than 10 minutes.

Spread-betting firm IG Group saw group revenue for the three months to February rise 33% but said the overall growth of the business has been hit by tough comparatives. Group revenue for the quarter was approximately £62m compared to £46m. The shares crashed by 25%.

I’ve sent David Jones from IG Index 5 questions and here are his answers:

1) What is the difference between FTSE 100 daily and FTSE daily future? Isn’t it quite the same?

DJ: The FTSE 100 daily spread bet is the one that closely reflects where the FTSE 100 cash index is trading. If you run that position overnight a financing charge will be applied to take into account margin costs and any ex dividend days for FTSE stocks will be applied.

The FTSE 100 future is similar to the futures contracts that trade on LIFFE. The cost of financing and dividends is already taken into account so no adjustments will be made if the position is held overnight.

2) Do you get dividends using spread betting?

DJ: Yes, you will receive an adjustment to reflect dividends paid when spread betting – assuming you are using the daily contracts. For the quarterly contract this is already factored in usually but may need to be adjusted if a company’s dividend policy changes

3) Can you explain a bit more how your Bungee product works?

DJ: Read this page here

http://www.igindex.co.uk/spread-betting/bungee-bets.html

4) Why on Options you can’t set alerts, stop loss and orders?

DJ: Don’t know…

5) And last general question – Do you see more activities or less due to the credit crunch?

The credit crunch has made markets more volatile which has traditionally been good for our business.

Have a great weekend!

I was looking for a quote to buy some shares in Tesco and I was amazed to see the difference between IG Index and Paddypower. The spread for March at IG Index is 1.6 with Paddypower it is just 0.7! so you pay more than double with IG Index.

This is a real difference and it may sound pennies if you just put 1 pound but if you bet £100 per point you already give £90 more!

Always shop around to see who is offering the most competitive spread.