Financial Spread Betting

A user has asked: Do spread betting companies close your account if you win? This question comes up quite a lot, because financial spread betting contains the word betting people assume that like bookies brokers don’t want their clients to win. But it’s actually quite different. When you spread bet on the markets your trade […]

What is Financial Spread Betting? Spread betting products have been around in the UK since 1974. With a spread bet the customer attempts to take advantage of rising or falling markets by taking a bet with a spread betting company on the price movement of an underlying instrument, rather than buying or selling the underlying

There are more and more spread betting brokers offering options trading online these days. We’re not talking about evil binary options which are now thankfully banned by the FCA. We’re talking about real listed options on the DJIA(as an example in the image). Traditional options are generally used as a hedging and limited risk way

The factual reason spread betting is tax-free for profits is because the trades are structured as a bet. i.e. I bet you £10 for every point the FTSE goes up etc. Therefore it is structured as a bet and as with all gambling, exempt from capital gains tax. However, the actual reason (according to old

There are two types of spread betting firms.  The good and the bad.  The good spread betting brokers treat their customers as clients and aim to forge long-term relationships by providing excellent customer service and trading tools.  The cost of trading may be slightly higher as most of the client trades are hedged in the

One must be careful spread betting on the AIM market.  The Alternative Investment Market (AIM) is very different from the traditional markets attractive to spread betting customers i.e. Large cap stocks, FX, index and commodities. What is the AIM market? Here’s what the LSE has to say about it… AIM is the most successful growth market

We recently looked at the loss percentages of spread betting and CFD brokers. But why do so many traders lose money? I’ve been a broker for nearly 20 years and dealt for pretty much every client out there. From the absolute spread bet beginner to $100m hedge funds. In a nutshell it is because they

Spread betting is one of the greatest innovations in financial markets for the private investor and trader of the last two decades.  It has opened up markets and strategies that were previously reserved for professional and institutional investors. By betting on the movement of a share price instead of investing traders can leverage, go short

Never mind the ESMA rules. The markets are becoming more and more volatile and the major spread betting brokers have increased margin rates for retail clients. Here are 3 reasons why spread betting brokers put margin rates up. 1) They are based on volatility This is obviously going to upset a few traders, but the bottom