It’s better to miss the odd profit than take a big loss

When spread betting, there will be times when cautious trading means you miss a trade. But safety is paramount, and it's better to forego the odd profit than take a big loss, says John C Burford.

Before we start, my apologies - there was an error in my last email on my euro trade, which I'm sure many of you spotted. On my second chart and in the copy, I referred to the 1.4200 level as the 50% level, whereas it was the 61.8% retrace. Sorry if that was confusing.

Last time, I described a short-term trade in the EUR/USD which was a wash (ie it broke even).

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John is is a British-born lapsed PhD physicist, who previously worked for Nasa on the Mars exploration team. He is a former commodity trading advisor with the US Commodities Futures Trading Commission, and worked in a boutique futures house in California in the 1980s.

 

He was a partner in one of the first futures newsletter advisory services, based in Washington DC, specialising in pork bellies and currencies. John is primarily a chart-reading trader, having cut his trading teeth in the days before PCs.

 

As well as his work in the financial world, he has launched, run and sold several 'real' businesses producing 'real' products.