By Matthew Vincent
Thursday, November 08, 2007
Individual traders lost thousands of pounds in volatile equity markets in August, according to UK spread-betting firms – but many private clients could have protected themselves by using free stop-loss services.
Most of the big losses were incurred on Friday August 17, when the US Federal Reserve unexpectedly announced a cut in its discount rate of 50 basis points, causing global markets to rally sharply out of a downtrend. This caught out spreadbetters who still held short positions on the UK and US indices, and some of those trading heavily on margin – borrowing to increase their exposure – saw their funds wiped out.
“It was one hell of a day, extremely volatile,” recalls David Morris, head of trading at City Index. “With the moves we were seeing, with markets trading 40-50 points higher than the previous night, and it coming out of the blue, staying afloat was difficult.” Many clients of CMC Markets found themselves swimming against the tide. “There were a lot of people short at that time,” says James Hughes, CMC's market analyst. “A lot got their fingers burnt; there were quite heavy losses for people that side of the market.”
Simon Denham, managing director of Capital Spreads, estimates that individual losses were “a few grand here, a few grand there”, and says that, at other firms, there were some “big margin calls for the bigger players”.
However, most private-client spreadbetters could have avoided or limited these losses if they'd used the free stop-loss orders offered by the major firms. Stop-losses are orders to close out automatically a spreadbetting position – short or long – when the price reaches a specified level. So short sellers on August 17 could have placed stops to get them out of their downside bets as soon as the FTSE 100 or Dow rose by just a few per cent. Three quarters of City Index clients, though, failed to do this. ”It's probably in the region of 25-30 per cent of clients who use stop-losses,” says Morris.
For this reason, three firms now make the use of stop-losses mandatory: TradIndex, Capital Spreads and Global Trader. “You cannot have a position with Capital Spreads without having a stop- loss,” explains Denham. “They are automatically set at the extent of the client's funds – the stop is set at the level of money they've got – so they can only tighten it.”
Other firms encourage clients to manually set their own stop-losses – and then revise them as prices move. This proved an effective strategy in August. “What really shrewd traders were doing was trading with stop-losses and then moving them up,” says Morris of City Index. Capital Spreads is looking into automating this type of “trailing” stop-loss for clients.
But these stop-losses are not foolproof, as they will only close out positions if the price hits the exact level specified by clients. In volatile markets, spreadbetting firm's prices will often ”gap” – jumping past a stop-loss level.
The only way to limit losses with certainty is to use guaranteed stop-losses, which close a position at a specified level even if – in the market – the price gaps past that level. Consequently, there is a cost involved for the insurance, which spreadbetting firms pass on to clients by widening the spread on their prices.
Whether it's a price worth paying is open to question. “On our rolling Wall Street contract, it's a 3 point charge – and that's nothing in the current market,“ argues Morris. But Denham believes spreadbetting firms don't allow guaranteed stops to be set close enough to the opening trade price to offer meaningful protection. “They ask for points but you can't set a guaranteed stop closer than 10 per cent away,” he points out. “How many stocks move that much in a day?”
据英国从事价差交易的公司称，8月份，个人交易员在震荡的股市上损失了大量资金，但许多私人客户本可以运用免费的止损服务来保护自身的利益。
大量损失主要发生在8月17日这天。当天，美联储(Fed)出人意外地将其贴现利率下调50个基点，促使全球市场扭转跌势，强劲反弹。这导致仍然持有英美指数空头头寸的价差交易者被套牢，而那些主要依靠保证金交易（举债加仓）的部分人眼睁睁看着自己的资金蒸发掉了。
“那是地狱般的一天，市场极为震荡，”City Index的交易主管大卫"莫里斯(David Morris)回忆道。“看着这些走势，看着市场较上一交易日上涨40至50点，并且走出了下跌行情，保持不亏损非常困难。”CMC Markets的许多客户发现自己在逆水行舟。“当时许多人在做空，”CMC Markets分析师詹姆斯"休斯(James Hughes)表示。“多数都栽了跟头；做空市场的人损失相当惨重。”
Capital Spreads董事总经理西蒙"德纳姆(Simon Denham)估计，个人投资者是“这里损失一笔，那里损失一笔”。他表示，在其它公司，一些“大客户收到了巨额保证金追缴通知”。
不过，如果运用大公司提供的免费止损指令，多数从事价差交易的私人客户本可以避免或限制这些损失。止损指令是指价格达到指定水平时，自动对价差交易头寸（空头或多头）进行平仓。因此，在8月17日，空头投资者本可以设置止损指令，在富时100指数或道琼斯指数仅上涨几个百分点时就清空空头头寸。然而，City Index四分之三的客户都没有这样做。莫里斯表示：“可能有25%至30%的客户使用了止损服务。”
出于这一原因，目前有3家公司强制规定客户使用止损服务，它们是：TradIndex、Capital Spreads和 Global Trader。“如果没有止损指令，你无法在Capital Spreads建立头寸，”德纳姆解释道。“它们是根据客户资金规模自动设置的——根据它们的资金量来设置止损点——因此，客户只能缩小止损幅度。”
其它公司鼓励客户自主设置自己的止损点，然后根据价格走势进行改动。事实证明，在8月份，这是一个有效的策略。City Index的莫里斯表示：“真正精明交易员的做法，是在交易时设定止损点，然后逐步调高它们。”Capital Spreads正计划为客户自动设置这种“移动”止损点。
但这些止损服务并非十全十美，因为它们只在价格达到客户设定的特定水平时才会平仓。在震荡的市场上，价差交易公司的价格通常会“跳空”——跳过止损水平。
唯一肯定可以限制损失的方法，是使用保证止损，即便市场价格跳过止损点，也可以在指定价位平仓。当然，这种保证是有成本的，价差交易公司通过扩大其价差幅度，将这一成本转嫁给客户。
这项服务是否物有所值，仍然有待探讨。莫里斯辩称：“我们的滚动华尔街合约收费是3个点——这在目前市场上算不上什么。”但德纳姆认为，价差交易公司不会让保证止损点设定在非常接近市价的水平，以提供有意义的保护。“它们一方面要求对服务收费，但另一方面，你又不可以将保证止损点设定在小于10%的范围内，”他指出。“有多少股票一天的波幅有那么大？”
作者：英国《金融时报》
马修"加拉汉(Matthew Garrahan)
译者/刘彦
2007年11月8日 星期四