Financial Spread Betting – what is Spread Betting and how can you get involved?
Here at portfolio-magazine we aim to take a closer look at this type of investment trading.
Spread Betting
Spread betting is a highly-paced, exciting and ever-changing way to guess the financial markets. Essentially a form of betting or gambling, financial spread betting allows the investor to gain the direction the market will take on a chosen product. Spread Betting is essentially derivatives trading similar to CFDs trading. However, it is cheaper as there are no commission costs. Like CFDs trading there is no stamp duty. A financial spread betting position is usually closed at the end of each day which means no interest must be paid. When choosing a spread betting broker, look to see what spread they offer. Make sure they are regulated by the FSA in the UK – brokers must adhere by strict guidelines. While it is similar to gambling, financial spread betting is not a game – it is a financial derivative product. Financial spread betting is a cheap way to invest money but it is extremely high risk. If you lose on a position, you may be subject to substantial losses.
1. Capital Spreads – a Leading Financial Spread Betting Broker
Capital Spreads is a well-known spread betting broker based in the UK. It is officially listed as a Financial Services organisation and is one of the leading companies of its kind. Capital Spreads aim to make you aware of the risks in financial spread betting – when visiting their website, a pop-up window explains the level of risk and urges you to be aware of these before investing money in this area. Indeed, they are right to say that traders should only invest as much as they are able to afford to lose. There are plenty of markets offered by Capital Spreads and automatic stop-losses. You can open a demo account if you want to practise first, and there are free educational tools. The minimum account size is zero and minimum trade size is 100p per point. Overall the service here is good and it’s worth mentioning the team are friendly and easy to communicate with. They are also multilingual.
2. ETX Capital Spread Betting
ETX Capital is a spread betting company based in the City of London. ETX Capital offer CFDs and Spread Bets on thousands of markets covering the world’s major indices, equities (share prices), commodities, options and FX markets. ETX recently launched a spread betting trading platform which gives you access to the world's markets with minimum bet levels of 50 pence per point to maximum bet levels of £500 per point or more depending on the markets and type of service. ETX capital additionally offers free advanced charting packages, educational webinars and seminars.
With ETX Capital, you can spread bet on a wide range of instruments, giving you access to some of the most highly traded and liquid financial markets in the world.
Shares and indices are two of the most popular choices for spread betting, in part due to the large amount of information available to help traders make decisions about future market movements.
Foreign exchange - or Forex - markets are also favoured by spread betters, because the high volatility of certain currency pairs can result in substantial gains if fluctuations are gauged correctly and of course magnified losses should the market turn against you.
Having an account with ETX Capital gives you access to a wide range of instruments including bonds, interest rates, options, commodities and exchange traded funds (ETFs).
3. Gekko Global Spread Betting
Gekko Global Markets Ltd is a dedicated service provider for spread betting, CFD and FX trading. The company was founded in 2007 and has already established a presence throughout Europe. Gekko’s proprietary trading platform is designed by a team of experienced traders. The platform’s user-friendliness and execution speed have gained trust from both new and sophisticated traders and spread betting enthusiasts.
With Gekko there are no commissions and the only charge only charge is for their dealing spread. With Gekko you can go long or short easily and profit from both rising and falling markets. Gekko global markets offers versatility & flexibility and allows you to trade in fractions of a whole contract.
With Gekko you can trade a variety of products on one account, including indices, single equities, commodities, interest rates, bonds and FX.
4. City Index Spread Betting
City Index is one of the World's leading providers of financial spread betting services. With over 25 years in the market, they are committed to providing fair and transparent prices, innovative technology and great customer support.
You need a City Index account in order to start trading with them. The application process is simple and secure and you can apply for an online account at any time by filling in their online application form. Once they have successfully completed the verification process, they will send you the account number by email to confirm that your account is open and one of their account managers will contact you by phone shortly after to answer any additional questions that you may have. Once your City Index account is open, you will need to transfer funds into the account to start trading. Your initial deposit must be at least £100 and the minimum amount to deposit thereafter is £25.
You can access live price feeds, streaming charts and news instantly and trade 24 hours a day. Their range of trading platforms include online trading, our City Trading iPhone™ App and mobile trading. The Citi index range of trading platforms includes, online trading, iPhone and Android trading, along with all other mobile trading platforms.
