Financial Spread Betting News Information Tips

Adam Jepsen asked:




Financial spread betting is a relatively new form of investing. It allows you to bet on shares or markets without owning any stocks or products. Financial spread betting works on the basic principles of “Buying” or “Going long” and “Selling” or “Going short”. Buying or going long simply refers to betting on the value of a market going up. Selling or going short is betting on the value of a market going down. These two principles form the crux of financial spread betting which ultimately decide your profits or losses depending upon how much the markets move up or down.

Financial spread betting has become increasingly popular due to the variety of benefits that it offers. So for all those who want to know ‘ why spread bet? here are some of the answers.

First and foremost, financial spread betting is a tax free* investment. Unlike buying shares and other investments there is no income tax, no capital gains tax and no stamp duty deducted from your P&L.

Spread bets also give you the opportunity to stick to the market of your choice. There is little limitation with regards to the number of markets you can trade. You can take positions on a huge range of financial markets including shares, stock market indices, forex , commodities, interest rates, bonds etc. If your strength / knowledgebase is the NASDAQ, you can stick with trading the NASDAQ 100. If your strength is the Oil markets you can stick to spread trading the price of a barrel of Brent Crude Oil.

Financial spread betting also saves you from the headache of paying commission. Unlike many share dealing services, with spreads you do not pay a commission to the operator for every trade.

As mentioned above, you can bet on both upwards and downwards moving markets. If you think a market will go down, you can spread bet on the market going down.

Financial spread betting also lets you place your bets online or via the phone.

We understand the need to know about financial spread betting and therefore endeavour to provide a comprehensive guide to spreads. Just go to www.cleanfinancial.com whenever you are looking for a range of different opinions, tips and/or strategies on financial spread betting.

Ron

Adam Jepsen asked:




We compare these companies in the UK and show the different services on offer. To compare spread betting companies in the UK you need to understand the basics of spread betting.

About Financial Spread Betting

Clean Financial.com provides you free online information on the UK financial spread betting market. Financial spread betting allows you to bet on the key financial markets. Spread betting can give you an edge because the profits that you make from financial spread betting are tax free*

Spread Betting Companies in the UK

Cantor Index: Cantor Index is one of the leading companies; they offer online financial spread betting services, 24 hour online trading and a mobile phone spread betting platform. They also provide financial spread betting with a “competitive pricing strategy”.

Capital Spreads: Capital Spreads is the spread betting arm of the AIM listed company London Capital Group. They aim to provide tight spreads to their customers. They also have a stop-loss facility to help you minimize your risks on losing bets.

City Index: City Index also offer you a number of benefits if you open a financial spread betting account with them. A convenient, fast, flexible trading platform allows you to back a market or product, it also allows you to short (bet against) a market or product.
CMC Spread Betting: CMC Markets delves into the derivates trading market. It offers online financial spread betting services including quarterly future spread betting services. They let customers manage their risk by minimizing loses with a Controlled Risk Bet.

Financial Spreads: FinancialSpreads.com offer a wide range of markets with stop losses and those all important narrow / tight spreads. FinancialSpreads also provides simple free access to live data and charts.

Finspreads is a UK based spread betting company that offers interactive online trading for it’s customers. Some of the interesting features it offers are its Auto Rollover System and Advance Trade Closure.

IG Index: A UK spread betting company, IG Index provides online and mobile spread betting services, access to financial markets and competitive prices on financial spreads.
Trad Index: TradIndex also provides online trading combined with wide ranging market information. You only need a small deposit to open an account. They also offer stop loss facilities to customers.

www.cleanfinancial.com is a leading online financial spread betting website that gives extensive information and useful tips on the UK and Ireland spread betting markets.

Lois

S Dawkins asked:




As with trading with CFDs, financial spread betting offers the trader the ability to trade in large quantities of stocks as well as on the open stock market indexes. You should note that although the term betting is within this form of margined trading, there is no actual ‘bookie’ or ‘dealer’ that will keep your upfront bet if you lose. You are basically betting against someone else.

Spread betting works in this manner, you carefully watch the index, you then decide on what stock you wish to bet on – be it going up or going down. You then give your bet to someone whom is known as the spread bet dealer, whom is just a broker or intermediary. The dealer will then utilize a computer system and match your trade against someone with the opposite view, within the trading marketplace. This will go on all day for buy and sell.

In order to place these bets, the trader must first know and understand the NTR (Notional Trading Requirement), this is what the spread-dealer requests as a minimum deposit to open a new position. This could also be known as the margin for margined trading. Each margin is based upon the volatility of the particular market or industry.

Financial spread betting is more of a short term investment than something that one should use as long term. One can make a substantial amount of money utilizing this form of trading; however, the risk of loss is just as high. It is best to fully understand how spread betting works before investing your life savings. Be sure to always place your stop-loss limit to avoid waking up in the am to find all your money gone because the share price moved extensively while you were sleeping.

Due to the word bet within this form of trading, quite a few potential investors feel that this is too risky and even more unethical because it is gambling. However, it is not, think of it this way; it is the same as buying shares; you are buying shares with a ‘gamble’ they will rise in price. You are spread betting on a share for the same reason- you feel it will rise in price. You need far less cash to place your bet on the movement of a share than actually buying the share.

Spread betting has been around for over a quarter of a century if not longer, if you decide to take part in margined trading and financial spread betting, do your research first. Take the necessary precautions to protect your investments and do not be discouraged if your first tries are losses.

Jeanne

Nigel Howell asked:




It was budget day earlier this week in the UK and there were some tax increases for us all. This was not surprising given the state the current finances of the UK are in. One of the taxes to go up was the capital gains tax.

This is something that will hit a lot of traders hard. I am fortunate that I do financial spread betting as this means that I don’t have to worry about paying capital gains tax is it is currently exempt in the UK.

As the budget was being announced the markets were in decline. This is bad news for a lot of investors and they tend to have a buy and hold strategy leaving them with a ‘long bias’ in the market. With financial spread betting you could’ve taken advantage of the declines by taking a short position.

In another financial market, currencies, there was a different picture arising. While the stock market was falling the British pound was strengthening. With financial spread betting you can trade in different markets from the same account so you could switch your short position from the stock market to a long position in the pound in seconds.

It was obvious to me that I cannot rely on the state to support me in my old age. I need to do that myself. People know this but are put off from investing because they don’t enough starting capital. This isn’t a problem with financial spread betting as you don’t pay commissions on your trade so there is no advantage to trading large.

Before moving on I will say that there are risks involved. You trade on a margin which means leverage. This is beneficial when you win but you can lose everything if you don’t control the risks.

Yesterday was a prime example of how financial spread betting works for me. Think about all the risks and rewards before you decide if it will work for you too.

Mitchell