Financial Spread Betting News Information Tips

Andy Richardson asked:




WorldSpreads was founded in Ireland in 2000, but traded first as a spread better on sporting events and only entered the financial markets in 2005. Thus it is still one of the younger and smaller spread betting providers that are available for the financial trader. Having said that, it has FSA approval, including foreign exchange, options, and futures, and it is listed on the AIM, the alternative stock market for small companies.

WorldSpreads is now headquartered in London, and has offices in many other countries. The Irish connection was severed in 2009, realizing funds which have been used for development of a new trading interface, the XEQT, among other things. It has developed several strategic partnerships, including providing all financial spread betting services for Ladbrokes, the bookmaker.

The current financial incentive for signing up a new account at WorldSpreads is that it will cover your losses up to £250. This is for the period of the first eight weeks of your trading, and provided your account was opened with at least £500. This obviously doesn’t prevent you from losing money, particularly when you are trading a leveraged product like spread betting, but provides a useful cushion if you are just starting to trade, when you might expect to take a few weeks until you get the hang of it and start profiting.

WorldSpreads allows you to operate your account any of three currencies, pounds Sterling, Euros, or US dollars, thus avoiding currency exchange charges, and the minimum spread bet is £1, except for the S&P markets which require a £10 minimum bet. The maximum bet is £100 for the markets that have a one point spread, and larger bets attract a three point spread. Many markets have the one point spread, which makes WorldSpreads one of the more competitive spread betting providers. It allows dealing in more than 3000 markets, and also welcomes telephone dealing, which is good to have if only as a safeguard from your computer going down.

While WorldSpreads are not open 24 hours during the working week, they do offer extended hours as they answer their phone between 7 am and 9.15 pm London time. As with most brokers, you may find that the spreads increase when you are trading outside hours, and this is for the obvious reason that the broker must take on more risk without being able to unload it on to the market.

WorldSpreads offer instant execution of your trades via their online interface, or on the phone, and users report that this is normally works well; however, sometimes intended trades are referred to dealers for confirmation, and this does delay matters. Some users report that this does not seem to happen if they are placing losing trades, and only if they start winning, but this sort of reaction is found amongst some users for all brokers.

What we like about World Spreads

We like the small spreads (which are tighter than IG Index or City Index), and a good range of products available at WorldSpreads. World Spreads, while not having the record of some others, offers good value and is worth trying out.

Laura

Andy Richardson asked:




Capital Spreads is a division of the London Capital Group, and is regulated by the FSA and a member of the London Stock Exchange. It claims to offer better value spread betting, and this is borne out by the list of recently reduced spreads, which include just one point spread on the FTSE, DAX, and EUR/USD, and two points on Wall Street and the GBP/USD. Some other brokers offer the same spreads, but it’s hard to find a provider who betters these numbers, and many cost more. Capital Spread attributes the small spreads to using the latest technology and keeping overheads down.

Review of Capital Spreads

An account can be opened with as little as £250 which qualifies for the current promotion of £100 bonus once the qualifying five trades are made. The margins are competitive at 3% for the FTSE 100 and 5% for the FTSE 250 and US markets. Capital Spreads cater for the novice spread better, providing seminars and online training, as well as a free demo account to practice with. They even have an automatic stop loss order generated for you whenever you trade, which you are at liberty to edit if you don’t like their pre-programmed levels.

The trades can be placed in any of three currencies, sterling, euros, or US dollars. The range of markets that can be traded is extensive, with Capital Spreads claiming more than 2,500 different products. These include shares from the UK, US and European markets, indices, commodities, bonds, foreign currencies, and interest rates.

CapitalSpreads Trading Platform

The platform offered by Capital Spreads is modern and easy to use. You can either search for the market you want, or find it by the use of dropdown menus. You can add individual financial products to a personal portfolio so that they are easier to find. If you should get confused, there is an online help facility, and online tutorials. Any trading triggers an e-mail, which allows you to keep records easily, but of course a summary statement is always available at the website.

Although the platform appears and probably is robust, it is comforting to note that the spread betting markets can be accessed with telephone trading if you have any difficulties, and this would also cover you against any problems with your computer and Internet connection.

Capital Spreads has been around for some time, and is well established. It is one of the larger spread betting providers in the market and for the last reported year had over 50,000 active spread betting accounts. Trading revenue was more than £27 million, with half a million trades being placed every month. Therefore, if you choose to use Capital Spreads for your spread betting provider you not only have FSA regulation protecting your money, but also the capitalization of a large broker. As such, and in view of all the facilities offered, we rank Capital Spreads as very good value and worth putting on your short list.

Arnold