Iron ore price, page-4085

Hahaha, TT it's not possible to short AGO as a retail punter. Through retail brokers like IG Markets, you can only short a stock where there are opportunities available (i.e. brokers willing to lend the stock to retail traders), and that's not likely for penny dreadfuls like AGO. However, here's an irony for you: I hold GXY through a Commsec account, aiming for a profit going long (if it ever starts to fly again ), but through IG Markets I have been shorting it! (But don't tell 'em that on the GXY thread )

And here's the thing about CFD: with buying/selling through Commsec I was never rigorous about putting in automated stop losses, and often I got caught out when I took my eye off the ball (like I did back in February when I moved house just when IO/AGO started to drop and then it wasn't worth selling; better to wait out the loss I figured - isn't it amazing how hopeful we become ...). However, with CFD, the setup prompts you to put in a stop loss when you open a deal ticket (I don't know if it is compulsory, but I don't want to know if it isn't because I am 100% rigorous about it).

See in the example below of a gold trade (XAUUSD) that I just entered into in a Demo account (i.e. simulated trading). You can see that I chose to trade 1 contract and my stop loss is 5 points (i.e. 5 dollars) as is my 'limit' (my exit point for profit). If I went long (i.e. buying), I'd click the blue box, and my profit point would be a rise of $5 from $1287.87 to $1292.87 and my stop loss would be a drop to $1282.87 (see the blue numbers). If I went short (i.e. borrowing and selling), I click on the red box and my profit points and stop loss would be the reverse (note the 'spread' of 30 cents between buy and sell which is the commission to the broker when you trade). To carry out the trade, I'd need at least AU$1141.13 in my bank account (borrowing at a ratio of 1:142). My profit would be US$633 and my maximum loss would be the same. This means that whenever I enter a trade, I know exactly what my risk is (i.e. potential loss) and it is fully automated unless you manually go back in an edit the deal ticket. By the way, one has to pass a test to be able to open a CFD account with IG Markets, but when you do, you get a Demo account to play with for two weeks for ASX stocks, and indefinitely with commodities and Forex. And also, BTW, trades last anything from a few minutes (if you get it right, to a few hours). On that particular trade, I'm currently up $260 after 20 minutes.

Cheers, GW