I’ve not posted an update on my Trading Trail demonstration position trading account lately, which is hardly surprising since I prefer to sing when I’m winning and things haven’t been going so well.

Well, as I write, volatility has returned big time to the markets and this volatility is actually what spread betters really need to make the quick money they are always after!

Web sites like Yahoo! Finance and Google Finance also provide some great free tools for obtaining up-to-the-minute information and for maintaining portfolios, shadow portfolios and watch lists.

Europe’s Right has been dealt a major blow since we last spoke with the electorate voting decisively against austerity both in the UK and France. While Cameron and Osborne lick their wounds on this side of the Channel, Francois Hollande faces a daunting task on the other.

Diversification is a familiar term to most investors. But one has to be careful. There’s nothing wrong with investing in a FTSE tracker or spread betting the UK 100 index, but don’t go thinking you’re diversifying. If the FTSE falls (on average) then you will lose money on your single bet, and if it rises (on average) you will make money on your single bet, and it’s as simple as that.

In this feature we cover Evil Knievil’s – perhaps the UK’s most prominent bear raider – piece on what to look for when shorting stocks, and the pitfalls that you should look to avoid when trading short.

There are many advantages to spreadbetting, but one of the best ones must remain bagging a quick profit with hardly any costs involved. When a share puts out some kind of warning, these days the knee-jerk reaction is to overdo it on the downside.

Reading through my previous articles should leave you in no doubt that IG Index is one of my favourite (if not my absolute favourite) spread betting account providers. But I’ve discovered something I don’t like, which is the way that working orders eat my cash. Let me explain.

Going into a position all gung-ho with a double initial position size may well generate more profit compared with pyramiding into the position gradually, but it won’t give you double the profit for the double initial risk you are taking!

You may have heard the term whipsaw loss but you may be at something of a loss as to what it means. It means a loss that you suffer when you’re trying to enter a position and your newly-opened position stops out at a loss because the price goes the wrong way.