Financial Spread Betting News Information Tips

Sergey Trishchev asked:




A spread can be termed as the difference the asking price (buying price) and the bid price (selling price). Financial spread betting is an investment option/vehicle that enables investors to invest in shares and stocks while at the same time making speculations on the probable changes in the financial markets. It’s a binary bet where the investor hopes to gain in the future for the present investment.

The foreign exchange (forex) market is a highly volatile market which means that investors need a hedge to shield them from making losses whenever the market is not favorable. Spread betting is a way of gaining maximum benefit from a forex market considering that it’s a very liquid market (turnover in the US has hit the trillion mark). The leverage is important because unlike the other markets like stock trading, the forex market is not subject to the bearish and bullish markets. Thus there may be a tendency of the brokers taking advantage of this to exploit clients. The spreads can be fixed or variable. The fixed spreads are safer as they cannot be manipulated by brokers. In order to gain from trading in forex market, the spreads should be as low as possible. Thus there is need to compare the spreads offered by different forex brokers.

Financial spread betting offers many benefits to the investors. Like most terminal incomes from trading in securities, the capital gains from spread betting are not liable to taxation. So if an investor sells shares at a price higher than he bought them, this amount will not be charged at all. However, capital losses cannot be offset against one’s tax liability. Being a derivative, no stamp duty is chargeable.

The financial spread betting offers investors with a wider range of markets where they can invest. The underlying asset can range from stocks, bonds as well as import and export products. The investor can also indulge in the forwards and futures market.

It also allows the investors to go long or short such that they can sell or buy the underlying asset in line with the market forces; i.e. sell when prices are high and buy when the prices are low. Thus if the underlying asset is stock, the price changes in the stock market will determine whether the investor goes long or short.

Operating a financial spread betting account requires lower levels of capital as the product is usually leveraged. Thus investors are able to trade shares of whichever the underlying asset is at margined prices because the spread betting is offered at a percentage margin thus the investor will only pay the margined price for the shares. For instance, if shares were trading at $50 and the margin rate is quoted at 10% then the investor will buy the shares at a reduced price of $5.

Financial spread betting enables the investor to predict on the movement of shares or stocks without the need of a broker thus eliminating the need to pay fees or commissions.

Kristen

Shashwith Uthappa asked:




Thursday 22nd October

Last night was going very smoothly indeed until Salomon Kalou found the net just before half-time against Atletico. I’d sold Chelsea’s supremacy at 1.5 for £100, so although this was a blow I wasn’t too disheartened with the hosts 1-0 up at the interval. My other bet – a £150 sell of goals at 2.4 in the CSKA Moscow v United game – was looking good thanks to a half-time stalemate on the joke plastic pitch. What on earth does CSKA stand for? I hope it’s not ‘crappy selling kills again.’

My wife called me into the kitchen for a late supper at around 8.40pm. She obviously didn’t get the message by the way I was hoofing down my lamb chops and giving one word answers, but it was 9.10pm before I got back to my computer and it wasn’t good news from Stamford Bridge. Kalou and Ballack had both scored and my £50 profit had now evaporated into a £150 loss. Fortunately, it was still goalless in the United game, but my desk got a good kick when Antonio Valencia scored his second goal in two games in the 86th minute. I definitely came off worse.

I ended up with a £210 profit, but thanks to some muppet called Perea (I’ve been assured he’s not a Spanish cousin of Sporting Index’s ex-PR man Wally Pyrah) who scored an own goal for Atletico, Chelsea’s 4-0 win cost me £250. What a load of effort for a £40 loss – should have just gone to the pub.

Friday 23rd October

I left the football alone last night and was very glad I did as I nearly got with Everton at Benfica. Their 5-0 defeat shows exactly what kind of form I’m in, but at least I didn’t play and could concentrate on the afternoon’s racing at Donny.

To be honest, I don’t really like punting on a Friday afternoon. I generally do my proverbials and it didn’t look at all easy at Town Moor. I had a meeting at lunchtime, so decided to just have a couple of bets before I left and hope that at least one of them kopped.

I was quite keen to buy winning distances, but the rain that had been promised all week hadn’t materialised so I left that and stuck to a couple of win index bets. Barry Hills’ team are hitting form and he loves to send runners up here, so I bought £10 of his Tamaathul in the first at 31. Never a moment’s danger and the stunning grey came home 1 ½ lengths clear. A nice start to the day and £190 in my back pocket.

The key race for me though was the 2.55pm Nursery Handicap. You may remember me slagging off the aforementioned Wally Pyrah last month for not being able to tip milk into his cereal bowl. He gave me Tim Easterby’s Antoniola at Ayr and he ran a decent race to finish third. However, today was the day in my eyes; he was slightly disappointing at Redcar last time, but he would surely relish this step up to a mile, with Graham Gibbons in the saddle for the first time. I’ve seen gibbons at the zoo before – they’re pretty strong.

Well, I couldn’t go overboard on a horse trading at 5-7 on the index, but I bought at 7 for £10. Gibbons lived up to his name and brought the promising two-year-old home in front to wild screams of delight from me in a betting shop in the City. After I calmed down I must admit I felt a bit like a wally for getting so carried away, but cue the call from Wally himself. Well done, Wal, you’re forgiven for that own goal at Stamford Bridge last night.

Saturday 24th October

Wow – what a Friday! And I didn’t even have a Crunchie. The key thing to do when you’ve had a great day though is to bring yourself back down to earth quickly or you’ll end up giving it all back. I travelled up to Doncaster for the Racing Post Trophy, so had plenty of time to consider all that, but was sure Villa could demolish Wolves in the early kick-off. O’Neill’s side have been impressive in recent weeks and surely they can win this one. I bought their supremacy at 0.5 for £200 and was feeling confident driving up the M1.

Things weren’t going great at Molineux after an hour – Wolves seemed to be holding their own and had had some decent chances. I don’t what it is about Mick McCarthy, but he really gets on my nerves. He sounds like he’s just left the Woolpack after about five pints every time he’s interviewed on TV and he’s quite simply not a very good Premier League manager. I’m nearing Doncaster when Agbonlahor scores and I was now looking at a respectable £100 profit from the game. That is, until Ebanks-Blake scored a penalty a few minutes later and I had to settle for a £100 loss.

I arrived at Doncaster not long before the first race. It never fails to amaze me how drunk these people get up here – just glad there’s no best dressed ladies competition. Some pretty ropey types. The key race of the day is obviously the RP Trophy, but I’m more interested in the 5 furlong sprint an hour before. I’ve followed Eric Alston’s Invincible Lad all season and am convinced he’s been laid out for this race following a pipe opener at Southwell last weekend. I buy him for a tenner at 16 on the index and although he runs okay, I’m left with a £160 loss. To the Racing Post Trophy and although I like St Nicholas Abbey, I can’t back him at the prices. He absolutely sluices up and I really should have got stuck in. It’s a long old drive back down south.

Sunday 25th October

It’s been something of a punting rollercoaster over the past couple of days, so I decide to have a quiet one on the Sabbath. The family and I travel up to Inverness for a couple of days relaxation in the Highlands. It’s the first time the three monkeys have got on a plane so it is certainly a journey to remember, probably not for the people sitting near us though.

The big betting event of the day is obviously the Liverpool v United game and I have one bet on the match – a £100 buy of United’s supremacy at 0.3. There was no reception when we got off the plane so I had to wait until we reached the hotel before finding out that I’d lost £230. I consider downgrading to a 2-star hotel down the road. What makes it even more annoying is that I was going to buy bookings down to the inexperienced referee. When it rains it pours – and it’s bloody pissing it down here.

Monday 26th October

The kids have a lovely day riding Shetland ponies and generally causing havoc. I rein in the punting on a quiet day – three days are a long time in the betting world and ‘Fantastic Friday’ was nothing but a distant memory. My misery was compounded when a colleague phoned up to say that Eliza Doolittle, a horse we’d both backed at Yarmouth last week, had just won at Kempton by a nose. My daughter Eliza said not long afterwards, “what’s wrong daddy?” Not easy to respond to that one.

Tuesday 27th October

There’s nothing worse than missing out on a winner when you’re away and there were a couple yesterday which were like daggers in my heart. I hear that John Gosden’s running a decent animal first time out in the maiden at Yarmouth. There are a couple of hotpots in the race, but I can’t resist having a £5 buy of Commissionaire in the 1.10pm at 14. I listened to the race on my phone (probably the only place in Scotland where you can get reception) and it didn’t sound good when he seemed to be tailed off after a furlong. Things had changed by the time they got to the furlong pole though and he rattled home to win going away. Yes! Should have bought for a tenner was the immediate reaction, but can’t be greedy.

I decide to sell United’s supremacy at 1.1 for £100 against Barnsley tonight. Mark Robins may have saved Fergie’s career at the City Ground, but I can see him dumping his former boss out. Spurs and Everton have been involved in some high scoring games recently so I also buy goals at 2.9 for another £100. I’m hoping these two games will pay for the hotel – if not, the kids may be doing the dishes.

Wednesday 28th October

“Michael Owen is a red…” sing the United fans. Well, I could replace the word ‘red’ with a number of four-letter words after he scored United’s second. That strike meant I made a £90 loss on the game and a £180 loss on the night thanks to just two goals in the Spurs v Everton match. Can you get marigolds for kids?

I’m going to win it all back by buying goals at 2.8 in tonight’s Arsenal v Liverpool game for £150. There have been eight, six and nine goals scored in games between these two in the last three seasons. It’s like buying money!



Steven

Andy Richardson asked:




About 8 years ago I started to notice that certain friends of mine had quit their jobs but continued to live very luxurious lifestyles – seemingly without doing very much. I thought they must just be using up their savings until I discovered they were all making a fantastic living by spending just a few hours a week doing something I had never heard of before – “financial spread betting”.

More and more people are now becoming familiar with the phrase “financial spread betting”. Once, the sole preserve of City Whiz kids or sophisticated gamblers, financial spread betting is now gaining in popularity as a great way to earn a very sizeable tax-free income without the risk of losing the shirt off your back!

So why is financial spread betting becoming so popular. Well, with a bit of understanding and practice, ordinary people, with no prior experience, can earn enormous sums whilst controlling their risks and limiting their losses. You do not even need a stockbroker or a city dealing account to do get involved. An on-line account is very simple to open and anyone with web access can do it.

Spread betting, aka futures trading, is easy to understand if you stick to a simple index like the FTSE 100 or the DOW JONES.

In basic terms, this is how it works:

When you buy a ‘future’ you take a position on what you think the index (e.g. the FTSE 100, or the DOW ) will be at some future date – e.g. June 2005. Let’s say the FTSE is currently at 5200 and you think it will rise over the next three months as ‘terrorist fever’ abates. You would buy the June FTSE at (say) GBP10 per point. For every point it rises, you make GBP10. If it goes up 100 points, you make GBP1000. Of course, if you get it wrong and the index falls by fifty points (say), you lose GBP500.00.

You need of course to be very aware of the risks before you get involved. As with any investment or business, you can lose money. If, by nature, you are a timid, cautious person, then it is definitely not for you. But if you have some money to play with, and aren’t risk adverse, then financial spread betting is the one of the best possible ways you can make a great deal of money completely tax free and there are clever ways of limiting your losses so you never lose more than you can afford.

Unlike most businesses, it is possible to get involved with an absolute minimal outlay and take a position without buying a single thing. You do have to ‘back’ your position with a certain amount of cash, but this is ‘insurance’ money, NOT stake money.

The best thing is you can try it for free without any risk at all. You can ‘dry trade’ with ‘monopoly’ money until you get a feel for how it works and are confident enough to start using real money.

Financial spread betting has become so popular primarily because of the relationship between risk and capital. It is highly leveraged and you can make huge profits with only a limited amount of capital and risk. The fact that there is (unlike with most investments) no stamp duty or tax also helps make it extremely attractive.

So if you are of the right temperament, spread betting can be a very lucrative way of making an amazing income in your spare time. But be warned, if used recklessly or without the correct knowledge it can result in large losses.



Carla

Jayant Patil asked:




You should be able to find several indispensable facts about financial spread betting in the following paragraphs. If there’s at least one fact you didn’t know before, imagine the difference it might make.

There was a time when financial spread betting was just a way to “punt” on the financial markets, purely a gambling product with wide spreads and odds firmly in the bookmaker’s favor.

What really shifted opinion was the introduction of more transparent pricing. The companies recognized that spread betting was a cheap, flexible way to play the financial markets, but the instruments remained bound by pricing associated with betting. The true evolution of spread betting occurred with the introduction of more transparent pricing, allowing retail investors to make judgments based on the cash market price in common with the physical trading of shares or contracts for difference (CFDs). This coupled with more competitive dealing spreads, means betting on the financial markets has become a serious way to trade.

Many people are using spread betting as their initiation to the financial markets. Many say such betting offers much more for much less. Of course it is best suited to short to medium- term trading strategies, but rolling cash and daily bets mean spread betting should be included as a weapon in the armory of any investor, whether for speculation or risk management.

Daily spread bets and rolling cash bets have been introduced by a number of the spread betting companies. Bets of these types offer a product based upon the underlying cash price rather than the traditional futures price, allowing traders to relate prices to the tangible cash market.

There are two good reasons why you should consider technical analysis.

1. ‘Buy and hold’ is dead

In the past you could go long of any shares and eventually, if you waited long enough, you would likely profit. That’s no longer the case.

How can you put a limit on learning more? The next section may contain that one little bit of wisdom that changes everything.

2. Brokers were simply following the trend

Brokers’ buy notes and tips in old times were correct, not because of their analysis, but because of the up trend of the market. Now the trend has changed and the shortcomings of fundamental research is being revealed. Chartists are now credited with predicting the bear market – and how long it will last.

The problem that has been highlighted in a bear market is that much of the financial world is geared to markets going up and has a vested interest in them doing so. There are only two main groups that are not bothered whether this is happening or not: chartists and spread betters. Chartists are only really concerned with being seen to predict the markets correcting and spread betters are happy as long as it moves enough for them to trade quickly and successfully.

Traders no longer use spread betting simply for speculation. Its flexibility makes it ideal for hedging and particularly useful with sophisticated strategies such as pairs trading. Traders with a significant share portfolio are turning to spread betting when market prices are going down to lock in profit. Having pricing closer to the underlying cash price and competitive spreads is vital to ensure hedging is effective in achieving a market neutral position.

Trading strategies that have become increasingly popular are pairs trades on both individual shares and indices. A pairs trade usually compares the performance of one share against another linked share. For example they are in the same industry.

Many people are using spreadbetting as their initiation to the financial markets. Many say spread betting offers much more for much less. Of course spread betting is best suited to short to medium- term trading strategies, but rolling cash and daily bets mean spread betting should be included as a weapon in the armory of any investor, whether for speculation or risk management.

This article’s coverage of the information is as complete as it can be today. But you should always leave open the possibility that future research could uncover new facts.

Crystal

Adam Jepsen asked:




This type of betting in the UK became increasingly popular in the late 1990′s due to some of the excellent new online features and wide ranging information that became available.

Technological advances and the increasing usage of the internet enabled the people to opt for the new online trading platforms. Not surprisingly the financial spread betting companies started offering online services to their customers. Convenience, flexibility and cost-effective trading worked for all concerned. Convenience and flexibility attracted more investors and low cost trading allowed the spread betting firms to be able to offer increasingly narrow spreads. That in turn attracted more investors.

Clean Financial provides detailed information about Online Financial Spread Betting Companies. It also gives users financial spread betting tips and financial spread betting strategies which could prove to be very useful for financial spread trading.

Types of spread betting

Financial spread betting companies in the UK offer a range of spread betting options to suit your financial spread trading needs.

5. Spread betting on shares: most financial spread betting companies offer you a convenient way of spread betting on shares. Financial spread betting on shares enables traders to profit from correctly predicting the future movement of share prices.

6. Spread betting on stock market indices: all of the best financial spread betting companies allow you to spread bet on stock market indices. The spread bets are based on the total value of the stock market index and therefore how much the index moves up or down. That is to say, rather than trade on individual shares you can spread trade on the performance of whole stock market indices like the FTSE 100, Dow Jones 30, S&P500 or Nikkei 225.

7. Spread betting on Forex: Many of the financial spread betting companies provide spread betting on the forex markets. Financial spread trading on the forex markets offers high liquidity with huge trading volumes and 24 hour markets, many investors prefer spread betting on Forex.

8. Spread betting on sports: Of course there’s also sport. Sports spread betting is useful for those who are looking for big bets on sports like football, horse racing, rugby and cricket. The most popular sport is football which accounts for 60% of the bets. Racing is the next most popular spread betting sport. After that there’s rugby and cricket which are both well suited to sports spread betting.

Companies offering spread betting services in the UK

Cantor Index, Capital Spreads, City Index, CMC Spreads, FinancialSpreads.com, Finspreads, IG Index , Trade Index are some of the financial spread betting companies in the UK that offer a variety of high quality services. They all provide financial spread betting accounts where you can trade on shares, stock markets, forex, commodities, bonds and interest rates.

www.cleanfinancial.com compares varying levels of customer service from around the financial spread betting industry including a price / spread comparison.

Andrea

Alexander Willington asked:




Investing is a fun and exciting way of earning and gaining profits. It is somehow considered as a professional way of playing. You invest for a particular financial tool and use it as your chip in playing with the market. There are several methods of investing which you can choose from depending on your abilities and likes. One of the most popular investment activity is the spread betting. As its name implies, it is somehow connected with gambling. Yes, gambling, where you will need to wager and win when your intuition is strong and lose when you are unfortunate enough. This kind of gambling is considered legal investment.

Spread Betting works with almost the same principle as gambling. A stockbroker quotes two prices. The difference between these two prices will be the spread which serves as the broker’s commission. The investor would then place a bid on whether the market will go up level or fall beyond the estimated price point. Even without taking the risk of acquiring the asset, traders would gain value on the ups and downs of the market. The number of points of moving beyond the set prices in any direction with the stake per point will be multiplied to see the earnings or losses of the trader. It is particularly thrilling to participate in this trading. However, you need to know and grasp the concept. With this, a financial spread betting guide would be particularly useful for you.

You can access on the price of the different financial markets. It allows you to trade all the range of financial markets like currencies, commodities, bonds, individual shares and equities. Many investors had been attracted since then. Traders would open several accounts and get 100% tax free. A financial guide is helpful for you to know the do’s and don’ts in spread betting and learn strategies at your advantage.

As part of your Financial Spread Betting Guide, it is appropriate to consider the associated risk in this activity. It is a leveraged product therefore, it can cause to high losses. The risks involved would also depend on your trading experience and depends on the amount. It is significant to perceive the chance and learn on how to create your investment portfolio effectively.

Although investing is available to all interested, there are certain investing tool that does not fit all persons. Spread betting will qualify for investors who have substantial knowledge of stock markets, have enormous self discipline and tolerate significant risks. Aside from knowing the risks, it is also necessary to see up to what extent you can devote time and effort in doing it. Time management is vastly needed in order to verify your success in this form of activity. As a trader, you need to determine how much time you can allocate opening several trades, observing and watching the market. Without tracking the market, you will end up losing all your spread accounts.

Spread Betting is compelling especially if you are always winning. That is why a Financial Spread Betting Guide is beneficial for you to avoid being dragged by your excitement and end up losing all your winnings.

Elsie