Financial Spread Betting News Information Tips

Rayner Chandler asked:




Financial spread betting is responsible for making some of the people very rich and it is also responsible for making some people bankrupt. When you want to undertake financial spread betting you have to take into consideration a lot of thing. There is a high amount of chance involved in these kinds of betting making it imperative for anyone undertaking it to put in only a small amount in it. You can come across so many companies offering these kind of betting services and also proffer stop loss accounts. In this way anyone can know the amount of money that has been put at stake to be at loss and secured the fresh money invested. If you are a novice in financial spread betting it is important for you to get training about how to plan strategies, how to invest money and such other factors under the guidance of a person who is having good experience in this field.

There are so many training programs offered by a lot of companies on financial spread betting. There are courses conducted by some of the companies for a period of 6 weeks to get hold of all the transactions related to commodities foreign exchange and equities. One more aspect that is needed in order to gain profits in this type of field is that you should know to gamble people. The main advantage of financial spread betting is that only the membership fee is paid by you and not other fees and taxes. It is mandatory to have browsers like internet explorer 7 Mozilla Firefox and Safari to be able to conduct this kind of a trade. The software programs like Java and adobe flash player will be needed to undertake the trade in any system to take the positions. Betting can be of two types namely fixed odd and bet placed. The topmost benefit that one has with a financial spread betting is to the ability to choose a bet at any point as per ones requirement effortlessly. There are so many markets in which one can take up the trades like currencies interest rates indices trading bonds commodities house prices.

With the help of financial spread betting there is no need of tax to be paid on the profits that you have earned and the money of stamp duty is also saved. The starting capital that is required in financial spread betting is not too high and can be starred with even 100 pounds. There is no commission or penalty charged to you in case you are doing small trading. Another major plus point is that in this kind of betting there is no loss of ones currency. Even the online medium can be used to earn huge amount of money in this.

Lillie

Andy Richardson asked:




Spreadex is a spread betting company that was founded just over ten years ago, in 1999. Sports betting is featured as much as financial spread betting, and the guiding principle for the operation is that spread betting should be user-friendly. Over 10% of the UK’s spread betters apparently agree that this has been achieved and use Spreadex by choice.

In 2006 the company provided online sports betting, and a year later followed up with online financial trading. It still provides excellent telephone trading. It is registered with and regulated by the Financial Service Authority (FSA). The quoted spreads are not the most competitive, but the margin requirements are good.

Spreadex is based out of St Albans, unlike the majority of UK companies which operate in the financial hub, London. This doesn’t affect their service, however, and most traders speak well of the company. Spreadex offers a sign on bonus at the moment which is worth up to £200. It simply covers any losses incurred during the first two weeks of trading, up to the value of £200, and this is automatically applied after fourteen days. This applies to open positions too, unlike some other bonuses which only cover completed trades and realized losses. The only requirement is that you place a minimum of five trades during that period.

Spreadex allows accounts to be Euro or US dollar based too, which avoids the uncertainty of currency manipulations. In this case, the bonus offer covers 200 units of the chosen currency. Incidentally, there is a parallel offer for sports betters, who get two £100 football bets as a bonus.

One minor grouse is that you cannot open a position and set a stop loss at the same time. You must first have the position open and then set your limit order or stop. There is no limit on buying the same contract repeatedly, but if you want to simultaneously go short, you must choose a differently dated contract, otherwise your order will be interpreted as closing the initial position. Incidentally, when your stop order closes the position it can take a few minutes to be cleared from the screen, making you wonder if the order has gone through.

Conclusion and Overall Summary of Spreadex’s Offering

In summary, it looks as if Spreadex is set to continue to grow and attract more of the spread betting market. The platform is available from any internet connected computer, and is user-friendly. There is a good range of financial products, including indices, shares, commodities, bonds, interest rates and Forex, and the spreads are acceptable. We rank Spreadex as good value and worth a look.



Eddie

Andy Richardson asked:




Trading (spread betting) shares for a living. There are many outcomes I wish to achieve in my life and there are many outcomes I have already achieved. What usually happens is the outcomes keep getting bigger the more I achieve. This is a great sign that I am doing something right in my world. Over the years I have heard a lot of people say, keep it real and keep your outcomes realistic and achievable. Yes make them achievable but if it’s achievable it’s not unrealistic. Let me share a story with you going back to 1998:

I was elated as I had achieved my dream of making over ?30,000, on paper, on the stock market. I hade been investing in shares since 1998 but I soon discovered I loved the thrill and started day trading. I lost a lot in the beginning, about ?4000. I set myself an outcome of making ?100,000 and focused on it for weeks. My balance started changing from being in the red to being in the black. I upped my trading game and started playing the markets using spread betting. Within the space of a few months I was getting closer to my outcome of ?100,000. However as soon as I started going from a deficit to making a profit I stopped concentrating on my outcomes. The tech market was really flying and I was feeling on top of the world. I was skipping university (one of my other goals was to get a degree in psychology) to stay at home and day trade.

I remember one day I had ?100,000 in shares, again on paper; I was trading on a 14 day contract. Then the tech market started falling. I panicked but thought it will turn again, this was just a blip. Pretty soon I couldn’t get rid of my shares as nobody was buying they were all selling. I wouldn’t sell for the ridiculous amount they were offering. Then the realisation of the market being in meltdown hit me.

Eventually I went bankrupt to the tune of ?65,000 and it was not a good feeling at all. I walked out with an education in money and a degree in psychology; I managed to get my degree in 2000. That was the year that changed my life forever.

So, in the last 4 years or so I have been reading trading books, watching seminar videos and DVDs and learning as much as I can about financial spread betting

I’ve seen loads of Vince Stanzione’s seminars – the 2000 and 2002 events from Milton Keynes, the “Seven Keys Seminar” from 2004, the Ed Downs and Martin Pring one day session from 2004, the huge two-day “Masters” workshop. I’ll admit, I got hooked on the learning process.

So, I’ve decided to start spread betting again but this time in a very boring, business-like and professional way.

Now I trade more or less full-time and I have made a site about trading which includes a commentary of my daily buys and sells to show others that it is possible to make a healthy profit from spread betting. One thing I don’t to is encourage people to blindly follow me especially as I use momentum which means prices could easily have risen before anything is published.

The idea is that I will update you on my progress via this site, and that way you can send me comments…etc and see how much money I (hopefully) make.

CEO Andy Richardson stated that “The aim and wish with this new website is to build an online community, where people could get advice, meet other traders, have a moan, or even tell lavish stories. It’s success will be dependent on the involvement of its users” The future is to form regional groups and promote the industry in a more economical way.

Spread betting is a tax free, cost effective alternative to traditional share trading. It allows you to speculate on the movement of stocks and shares without using a stockbroker, therefore you do not have to pay commission or fees. UK residents benefit further still because your profits do not incur Capital Gains and Income Tax. In this way you can sell or buy to maximise profits in volatile markets.



Herbert

Keith Driscoll asked:




Spread Betting is a tool that allows traders to make money from both up and down moves on a broad divergency of financial markets, whether stock indexes, exclusive shares, currencies, bonds, and commodities such as silver or minerals. Spread betting is a designation used to describe various types of wagering on the result of an event, where the pay-off is based on the precision of the wager, rather than a distinct binary result (win or loss).

Spread betting is free of tax, cost efficient alternative to standard percentage trading. One of the down sides of spread betting is that it is simple to misinterpret the risks and costs. While certainly not for the inept or comprehensively inexperienced, spread betting is an extremely flexible, cost competent and user-friendly way to gain entry to the biggest games in town. The other important feature of spread betting is that trades can be closed at any time, and never have to be left to expire. And because, as a margin product, traders could potentially lose a different of their initial stake, spread betting is really for use only by professionals, day traders and experienced investors. While funds can be made and can be substantial, spread betting is highly speculative and losses can be comprehensive.

Betting

Just like any other form of betting, however, spread betting is not for all, and spread betting should be played in moderation. One fascinating aspect to spread betting is that you can choose whether you want to look into the financial world of spread betting or whether you would rather bet on one of numerous renowned sports. Unlike fixed odds betting the amount won or lost can be very large, as there is no single stake to limit the maximum losses. Spread betting on politics and sport is gambling, pure and simple.

Financial

Financial spread betting can be very bewildering and players who usually bet in this way are quite prepared to lose large sums as well as win them. The “spread” in the phrase financial spread betting refers to the Sell (Bid) and Buy (Offer) price quoted by a financial spread betting firm. This price is worked out by adding additional points around the live (or the estimated impending) market price of a financial product. One of the most obvious advantages of financial spread betting is the exclusive chance to go short of (or sell) a stock or dividend. Competent investors use financial spread betting as an additional trading tool as the spreads offered rival the prices on hand in the valid market. Quite a few of the main Spread Betting sites offer guides and recourses to help players who may be slightly daunted by the world of financial trading.

Sports

Sports Spread Betting allows traders the chance to place bets on just about anything with the result of a sporting encounter merely being one of a number of betting opportunities. 15 years ago, make-up, supremacy and mid-point was a foreign language to most sports gamblers. If you already bet in a selected sport of your choice, spread betting can add an extra angle for you.

Conclusion

Spread betting is simply a matter of deciding whether the outcome of an event will be higher or lower than the spread firms quote and for how much per point you are prepared to stake. You can win and lose a lot more than your initial stake and for that reason spread betting is actually illegal in most countries. A important risk of spread betting is that if a spread bet position moves against you, the bettor, you can incur extra liabilities far in excess of your initial margin deposit. As a newcomer to trading, spread betting could appear to be a very attractive way of entering the markets; but before you leap in feet earliest, it’s authorized to understand what spread betting is and how it works or you might as well throw your funds straight down the toilet!



Brandon

Sergey Trishchev asked:




Financial Spread betting is a kind of financial speculation that enables global market traders to make profits regardless of whether the market prices move up or down. Those who trade in individual shares, bonds, stocks, crude oil, currencies as well as precious commodities like gold can use spread betting to increase their chances of getting profits.

There are many benefits associated with financial spread betting. One, the profits you get through this type of trading is completely tax free. Secondly, you do not have to pay any unnecessary commissions. However, you will be required to pay some money to the betting company based on the spread, that is, the difference between buying and selling price.

Another benefit is having access to most of the global markets 24 hours, 7 days a week. You can do your stock trading in multiple markets through only one account. You also get to choose the currency you think is most appropriate for you, thus you will be saved the trouble of having to pay for currency exchange. Financial betting allows you to bet on movement of the market prices. You can go long or short, but either way, you can make a lot of profit if the market prices move on the direction of your bet.

All investments that deal with shares, currency or stock trading have to have an element of risk, and financial betting is of course no exception. Loses in this type of investment occur when the market shifts in the direction opposite what you placed you placed your bet on. You can monitor your funds, and maybe control your loses through some of the stop loss mechanisms available to you.

One of the forms of betting that is similar to spread betting and equally popular among many people involved in stock trading is contacts for difference, or CFDs trading. However there are a number of differences between the two. There are no commissions, but in CFD trading you have to pay some commission. CFD trading is subjected to Capital Gains Tax while financial betting is not. There are no dividends in spread betting, but CFD traders do get dividends when possible.

Binary bet is yet another betting option that has more or less the same properties as financial betting. However, unlike spread betting where prices are based on the underlying instrument price, the price of a binary bet is based on the odds of the occurrence of an event. Binary betting is popular among stock traders since it offers a lot of flexibility.

Opening a spread betting account does not involve much. You can open one online or through the telephone. Spread betting offers a very simple way to gain when the stock trading market seems to be falling. Financial spread betting is not the best option for making a long term investment plan. However, this type of trading is appropriate for those who would like to make short term profits from stock trading.

Gerald

Nigel Howell asked:




We had an emergency budget in the UK this week. Our Chancellor had to increase tax and lower spending to bring our budget deficit under control. One the tax increase that traders would have noticed was capital gains tax.

There won’t be a lot of traders out there that will be too happy about that. They should consider closing their accounts and opening a financial spread betting account. If they did then they wouldn’t have to worry about tax increases as it is exempt in the UK.

I don’t know if you noticed but the stock markets were actually down yesterday. Now most investors will lose money in instances like this because they only buy and hold stocks. If you do financial spread betting you can go short and profit from declines in the markets.

Not all markets were in decline yesterday. There was one market that liked the budget and that was the market for British sterling. While the stock markets were falling the pound was rallying and this is something you could have taken advantage of via financial spread betting. You can trade in many markets from one account so changing the trade would be easy.

People want to invest for their futures. Looking at yesterday you would be surprised if there was any money left to support people in their old age. The problem is that people say they don’t have enough money to invest. That is not a problem with financial spread betting, a couple of hundred pounds is all you need.

Just before you disappear and open an account please be aware that there are risks involved. Investments can fall in value and trading this way involves leverage so you can lose a lot of money.

Yesterday confirmed to me something I already knew really. Not that the UK economy was in trouble but that financial spread betting is the best way for me to get the most out of my trading.

Karl

Stuart S Smith asked:




In this article we will look at the hardware and software requirements you will need for online financial spread betting.

Actually, if we take one step back, let’s be clear that you don’t actually need access to a computer at all to get in to financial spread betting. You can open a phone account and keep a manual record of all your trades if you really wanted to. But then you would be missing out on so many of the benefits that come with using a computer. If we examine those benefits briefly, they include:

o Instantaneous access – online means you don’t need a phone rep to become available to speak to you. It’s the ease of self serve.
o Access to market data – whether you pay for premium services or simply make do with the free information out there (and already provided by spread betting companies)
o Automatically updated and retained records of all your trades, both open and closed. Do you really want to keep a manual record?
o 24/7 access to your account

If we accept, then, that we want to go down the computerised route, what are we looking at? Well, the answer is surprisingly undemanding. By reading this article it’s assumed that you have both a computer and access to the internet. The reality is that you probably already have enough ‘computer power’ to run an account with most financial spread betting companies. You may want to check on the website of the firm you are considering, but it is widely accepted that you normally only need the following in terms of computing power:

o 0.8 Ghz processor
o 256k RAM
o 100 MB free disk space

As the spec of most computers made in the last 5 years significantly exceeds this, most homes will already have a computer that’s good enough.

In terms of software, you don’t need anything specific, but many people like to have a spreadsheet (such as Excel) for keeping track of ins and outs into their account, but you can get along very well without it.

Equally the best online experience is going to come if you have broadband. The UK has some of the best broadband coverage in the world, and the cost is coming down each month. Definitely a good investment for the online trader.

Jessie

Nigel Howell asked:




Are you frustrated with the financial events over the last number of years? Do you wish that you were in more control of your finances and investing? A lot of people are and they are starting to trade for themselves as they are less likely to trust other people. One of the ways they are trading is by using financial spread betting.

Before I explain more about what it is I want to tell you why it would’ve helped you recently. Possibly its biggest advantage is that you can go short. What I mean by this is if you feel that the market will decline then you can set up a trade that will profit if it does. Given how markets have performed this strategy probably would’ve done you quite well.

The reason that you can do this with financial spread betting is that you don’t actual own the asset. You make your profits and losses based upon the movement of the underlying asset after you initiate the trade. If you place a stake of £1 per point then you will either make or lose £1 for every point price movement.

Does that sound complicated?

Don’t worry it did to me too when I first started. Take your time learning and you will get there. Why not open a dummy account first? Many financial spread betting companies of this type of service. It is a great opportunity to learn.

A further advantage is the tax situation. Currently, in the UK, you don’t have to pay tax on capital gains. That is true for however much you make. Obviously you need to be making profits for this to be of benefit.

I hope that I have demonstrated some of the advantages of financial spread betting. There are others benefits as well as some negatives that you should understand before you start.

Charlene

Sharon Dawkins asked:




As with trading with CFDs, financial spread betting provides the investor the chance to trade in vast amounts of stocks as well as the open stock market indexes. You must note that although the term betting is within this particular type of margined trading, there is no actual ‘bookie’ or ‘dealer’ that will keep the upfront wager in the event you lose. You are essentially betting against someone else.

Spread betting performs in this way, you cautiously observe the index, afterward you determine just what stock you intend to bet on – be it going upwards or going down. After this you give your bet to someone which is termed the spread bet dealer, which is just a broker or intermediary. The dealer will likely then make use of a computer system and match the trade against someone with the opposite view, within the trading marketplace. This will go on all day for buy and sell.

To be able to place these bets, the trader should 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 may be known as the margin for margined trading. Each margin is reliant upon the volatility of the distinct market or industry.

Financial spread betting is much more of a short-term investment as compared to something which one should use as long term. One can possibly make a large amount of money making use of this form of trading; however, the risk of loss is just as high. It’s always best to completely understand exactly how spread betting works prior to investing your life savings. Make sure to always place your stop-loss limit to avoid waking up in the am to discover all of your money gone because the share price moved substantially while you were sleeping.

Because of the word bet in this form of trading, quite a few possible investors believe this really is too dangerous and even more unethical simply because it is gambling. However, it is not, think of it this way; it is the same as buying shares; you will be buying shares with a ‘gamble’ they will increase in price. You are spread betting on the share for exactly the same reason – you feel it will increase in price. You will need much less cash to place your bet on the movement of the share compared to actually buying the share.

Spread betting has existed for more than a quarter of a century if not longer, if you choose to take part in margined trading and financial spread betting, do your research first. Take the necessary safety measures to protect your investments and don’t be frustrated if your first tries are losses.



Leon

Alex Ola asked:




What is spread betting?

Simply put, financial spreadbetting is a tax free alternative to conventional trading.

Spread-betting is a very easy concept to understand. Indeed, if you already trade anything at all then you should have no trouble understanding the concept.

Do not get confused. For those of you out there who already trade derivatives, well, spreadbetting is just another derivative product. You do not actually buy the underlying stocks, you just speculate (bet) on where you think the prices will be at a point in the future. When you look at spread trading in this way, it becomes obvious that is basically the same as your regular trading in any other derivative instrument. When you close your position, your betting profit or loss is calculated as the difference between the opening price and closing price of the bet, multiplied your stake.

What are the attractive features of spreadbetting?

1. Spread betting is a derivative

As I explained above, spread-betting is just another derivative instrument. Like the typical derivative, spread trading gives you exposure to the movements of the underlying stocks, bonds, currency or commodity, without the need to actually own the financial security being traded.

2. Spreadbetting is a margin instrument

Typically, when you place a spread bet, you are only required to deposit about 10 percent of the total value of the trade.

This means that you get a bigger bang for your buck. Of course, you should be mindful that you can also lose more than your initial deposit if margin acts against you when a trade goes wrong. Whatever you do, always trade with discipline and never forget to use a stop loss.

3. It is capital gains TAX FREE!

The major advantage of financial spread-betting as it is currently structured is the fact that profits are tax free. Of course, as the spreadbet brokers are always quick to point out, tax laws are subject to change. But for now, the exemption from capital gains tax which can be as high as 40 per cent in the UK and Ireland makes this a potential lucrative and attractive vehicle for profitable short term traders.

Of course, it goes without saying that your ability to benefit from this particular feature of spreadbetting depends on the current legislation in your country. For those in the UK for instance, financial spread betting is classified as a bet rather than an investment or trade, and as such, is free from capital gains tax. So, you keep every profit you make. This tax-free attribute has meant that spread betting has enjoyed tremendous success and popularity in various jurisdictions including the UK and Australia.



Ella