CFD Competition - Ideas on Making that Cheese

[AintNoSunshineWhenImGone]

Hey y'all,

First off I want to say hi, this is my first post on here. I'm not a day trader but I have some some (mostly equity) positions in a long-term portfolio (I guess you could call me a value investor). I'm actually a PhD student in Finance so this stuff naturally interests me. Any how, I've entered into this CFD competition with a CFD provider where the goal is to make the most return on initial capital in a month. It's all demo trading so there's room to have a little fun.

Because it's a demo I'm looking for some strategies to really make some nice gains. I started with 10k, went up to like 12k and now am below 8k. I know most of you (probably all) trade using your own capital so I'm wondering if you have any tips on how I can profit from this current environment, realising that I'm willing to bet big. So far I haven't had the balls to bet big but it's getting to the point where I'm going to have to take some huge positions if I want to catch the top guys.

Macro news is all over the place. So far I'm in the green on Brent, which I longed at 110/BBl but red on mostly everything else (US Crude and the US/MXN, which I should have closed out while it was up yesterday on that relatively good US data).

So I'm all in for any ideas you guys might have. I'm not going to hold a grudge if I lose on any suggestions here so all ideas are welcome. Maybe y'all have some strategies you've wanted to try out and I can be you guinea pig lol.

Cheers

[Lucky]

FTSE100 seems to be struggling with 5850 level and keeps bouncing off it.
If no more help from central banks come then markets will go south... it's crazy to go long now.

[bernard]

Completely agree with Lucky, UK100 has been struggling between 5700 and 5900 for ages now and it is really risky to try and buy stocks now, anything can go wrong in the current global climate (China slowing down, PIGS still getting slaughtered, the unsettled conditions in the middle eastern countries...). I am personally trading less in the last few months and I only dip my feet in the markets when the risk reward is satisfying

[Goner]

You did make good impression although it is all in a demo account. losing is part of the process mate...
There is one thing i want to advise you when trading the news, if it goes your direction make sure you collect all the profits and run away as it will go against the direction few hours after the announcement...